Asian symphosium on disaster impact and assessment in Asia
Overview
Critical to effective response and recovery in the post disaster phase, scrupulous studies in the area of disasters have become an urgent demand. Asia remains the focus in the symposium, for it lies in an extremely hazardous zone of the earth. According to EM-DAT, between 2000-2009, 85 percent of fatalities due to disasters occurred in Asia. In the year 2009 itself, Asia accounted for 69 percent of disaster deaths as well as six of the top ten disasters in the world. Hence, allegiance to matters of disaster impact and its assessment have become indispensable. With this underlying motivation and concern for the disaster prone areas in Asia and the world, the symposium shall expedite accomplished pedagogic interchange in the field of disaster research.
Disasters in Asia have been severely affecting the local capacities. This requires multi-prong actions for prevention, mitigation, assessment, and management in an enabling environment - with the goal of sustainability. The multi-dimensional nature of disaster impact requires multi-disciplinary and multinational cooperation, which is the primary goal of the MICRODIS Project.
Therefore, the Asian symposium is aimed at:
- Bringing together multiple stakeholders – academics, bureaucrats, researchers, professionals, UN representatives, NGOs and others – to discuss current issues on disaster impact and assessment.
- Presenting multi-country, multi-discipline scenario on disaster impacts that emerged out of MICRODIS empirical studies.
- Sharing evidence-based knowledge and methodologies that facilitate the development of prompt operational strategies for the future.
Sessions
The academic sessions in the symposium are:
1. Disaster trends in Asian countries – Far East, South- east and South Asia.
2. Socio-Economic Impact of Disasters.
3. Impact of Disasters on Health and Health Care Systems.
4. Disaster Management Practice in Asian countries.
5. Disaster Preparedness and Disaster Mitigation.
6. Disaster Recovery in Asia.
7. Post-Disaster Rehabilitation – Disaster to Development
8. Assessment of Disaster Impacts – Methods and Tools.
9. International cooperation in generating knowledge and sharing experience.