DISASTER MANAGEMENT

21.07.25
• Disaster – A consequence of naturally occurring or man-made events or phenomena
that have an environmental and socioeconomic e ect on people in terms of loss of
life, property, and other signi cant losses.
• DMA (Disaster Management Authority) – 2005: De nes disaster as a catastrophic
mishap, calamity, or grave occurrence in any area arising from natural/manmade
causes or by accident/negligence, resul ng in substan al loss of life, human
su ering, or environmental damage, beyond the coping capacity of the a ected
community.
• UNISDR 2009: De nes disaster as “a serious disrup on of the func oning of a
community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or
environmental losses and impacts, which exceed the ability of the a ected
community or society to cope using its own resources.”
23.07.25
• Hazard (UNISDR 2009): A threat to nature or humans that has the poten al to cause
loss of life, injury, socio-economic destruc on, or environmental degrada on.
• Hazard (Smith K, 2013): A poten al threat to human welfare arising from a
dangerous phenomenon or the substance that may cause loss of life, injury ,
property damage and other community losses or damage.
Risk = Hazard × Vulnerability
Disaster = (Hazard × Vulnerability) × Exposure
Higher Vulnerability + High Hazard = Greater Risk
Vulnerability
Meaning: Suscep bility to any hazard.
UNISDR 2009 De ni on: Characteris cs and circumstances of the community, system, and
assets that make it suscep ble to the damaging e ects of a hazard.
Dependence: Adap ve capacity of humans and resources.
Types of Hazard
1. Rapid (Instantaneous) Hazard
2. Slow Hazard
Types of Seismic Waves
1. P Waves (Primary Waves) – Emerge from the epicentre (source).
2. S Waves – Rayleigh waves.
3. L Waves (Love Waves) – Larger area spread, usually in hilly areas.
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 only travel through solid surfaces.
• speed → slower than Body waves.
• e ect → causes horizontal shi ing of structures, highly damaging to founda ons.
Rayleigh Waves (R-waves)
• mo on → rolling, ellip cal mo on (like ocean waves)
• medium → travel through solid surfaces.
• e ect → cause both ver cal and horizontal ground movement, extremely destruc ve.
28.7.25
RISK - Risk is the combina on of the probability of occurrence of harm and the severity of
that harm
• exposure of anything to get hurt.
• It is de ned as probability of hazard event causing harmful consequences which results in
losses, death, injury
• It is the combina on of probability of hazardous event and to its nega ve consequence
and vulnerability of respec ve community
∴ Risk = Hazard × Vulnerability
Eg. Impact of earthquake is similar throughout the world but poor communi es and
developing countries are more vulnerable as compared to developed areas, because
developed communi es are well equipped with resources to cope up with the consequence
of earthquake.
→ SDMA
COLLECTOR
DMA
SDMA
NDMA

29/7/25
• DM is a essen al part of sustainable development. There is an irony exist in economic
development and disaster, both are responsible for global change. As popula on grows, they
are more exposed to hazards, more wealth is exposed to damaging event. As the agricultural
prac ces are intensi ed, organisa on spreads more and more expensive & complex
infrastructure is exposed to damaging event. Hence DM and sustainable development are
precondi oned to each other.
• As per UNISDR ‘A serious disrup on of func oning of a community or the society, if
exceeds above the ability of the community to cope up, involves a collec ve mechanism
referred as a management of both risk & consequences of disaster.
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 • DISASTER MANAGEMENT CYCLE - A collec ve term consists of all aspects for planning and
responding to the disaster including both pre disaster & post disaster. Pre-disaster involves
preven on, mi ga on and preparedness. Post disaster involves response, search and rescue,
relief, reconstruc on, rehabilita on.
• DISASTER RISK ASSESMENT - It is the par cipatory process to access the hazard which
threaten the community, its vulnerability & capacity

Features of Disaster :
1. Disrup on to the Normal pa ern of life i.e severe, sudden, unexpected and
widespread disrup on
2. E ect on Human - such as loss of life, injury, hardship, adverse e ect on health
3. Social structure ge ng disturbed such as destruc on, damage to government
system, building, communica on, essen al services.
4. The community needs shelter, food, clothing, medical assistance & social care

06.8.25

Natural
Event Parameter Site Parameter
Hazard
Area Flooded in Km² vol
1. Flood Depth of Flood water in m
of water in m³
2. amt of Energy Released Intensity of ground shaking i.e peak ground
Earthquake (magnitude) accelera on
Erup on size and A ected area amt of lava ash coverage in m³
3. Volcano
dura on (pumice) Dust fallout Debris ow
4. Strong wind speed velocity in
..
winds km/hr
Volume of materials Ground displacement in m³ Poten ality of
5. Landslide
dislodged. ground Failure
6. Tsunami Height of wave crest depth of ood water in m³
7. Drought Area a ected in Km² Rainfall de cit in mm
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 Shock waves
• Hazard can occur in uninhabited area.
• Disaster & risks occur in inhabitant area. eg. Volcanic erup on is a hazard for inhabitant
area i.e isolated area. But once lava ows and reaches out nearby villages and damage life &
life processes then volcanic erup on will cause disaster.
• Growth in Disaster.
Popula on
Urbanisa on
Altera on of natural environment due to various natural or manmade - human induced
ac vity
• Although a hazardous event can occur in an isolated region, the disaster associated with
that event exists only in area where people & the possessions are located.
Sequence of events:
1. Ini a on of event
2. Hazard threat
3. Community at risk level
4. Risk level
5. Vulnerable asset
6. Disaster strike

07.08.25
→ Di types of Hazard
1. Primary Hazard - can locate the source of hazard.
2. Secondary Hazard - due to Primary
• Hazard originated from interplay of physical, biological, social system, our planet Earth is
an ever dynamic, evolving system with complex interac on of internal & external
processes.

07/8/25
Internal hazards are - earthquake, volcanic ac vi es which have a energy source & may
contain radioac ve materials.
External hazards - ood, hurricanes, tornados, drought, with energy sources such as solar
energy, onset.
Broadly hazard is categorised as Rapid & slow hazard, natural hazard i.e primary hazard,
secondary hazard & chronic hazard
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 Primary Hazard - are hazards which have a primary source of cause, however secondary are
the result or consequences of primary hazard.
Earthquake is a primary hazard which results in Landslide (Secondary hazard) results in :
destruc on of building (disaster)
Contamina on of water sources results into water borne diseases
eg. 2010 earthquake Hai , causes cholera outbreak
Rapid hazards - volcanic erup ons, ood, earthquake, landslide, thunderstorm
Slow hazards - drought, diseases, epidemics

🌊 Flood
• A ood is nothing but over ow of water that submerges land that is usually dry.
• Flood can happen in at or low-lying areas when water is supplied by rainfall or snow
melt more rapidly than it can either in ltrate or run o .
• Flood occurs in all types of river and stream channels. Slow rising occurs in large
rivers with large catchment area.
• Rapid ooding event, also known as ash ood, occurs in small rivers, rivers with
steep valleys that contain intense thunderstorms, or water released from dams,
landslides, and glaciers.
• Coastal areas get ooded due to storm events at sea.
• Urban ooding i.e., inunda on of property or land in a built environment in densely
populated areas, caused by storm sewers.
• Catastrophic ooding is associated with major infrastructure failure such as collapse
of land, drainage channel modi ca on due to landsliding, earthquake, or volcanic
erup on.

🌀 Cyclone
• It is a large-scale air mass that rotates around a center of low atmospheric pressure.
• Examples:
o Cyclone Michaung
o Cyclone Jasper
o Cyclone Hamoon
o Cyclone Michiru
o Cyclone Nargis
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 🌪 Tornado
• It is nothing but rapidly rotating columns of air which is in both surface of earth and
cloud.
• It comes in different shapes and sizes and is visible in the form of condensation
funnel.
• Usually wind speed is 300–390 km/h.
• Usually accompanied with tropical Atlantic and tropical storms.
• Major hotspots of tornadoes are U.S.
• Tornado is more prevalent in spring and summer seasons.
• It is more often in afternoon, in a region where thunderstorms are common.
• These are classified as weak, strong, violent storms.
• People, car and even buildings hurled off or blown away.
• Most injuries or deaths are caused by flying debris.
• Tornado can be anticipated by the warning signs such as a form of dark greenish sky
and the powerful sound of train or like roar.
Tornado forecasting is done with the help of:
• Doppler radar
• Satellites
• Weather observations
• Computer-based forecast models

🌪 Hurricanes
• It is nothing but massive storm system that are formed over warm ocean water and
move towards land.
• Storm rota on occurs in a counter clockwise manner.
• As a result Coriolis e ect develops.
Factors:
• Di erence in the wind pressure.
• High and low pressure in storm water.
• Due to Coriolis moment of cloud circula on takes place.

🔥 Heat Waves
• Period of excessive hot weather that might be accompanied by high humidity.
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 • Heatwaves especially occur in oceanic climates when the atmospheric pressure is
high, air from upper atmosphere is pulled towards the ground.
• However, this air gets obstructed by the ground; as a result air gets compressed.
• This causes increase in the temperature of the ground.

Cool Waves
• A weather phenomenon where there is rapid fall in temperature within 24 hrs of
period.

🏔 Snow Avalanche
• It is also called as snow sliding.
• An event that occurs when a cohesive slab of the snow lies upon a weaker layer; as
snow fractures and slides down a steep slope.
• This usually accelerates rapidly and grows in mass and volume as they entrain more
snow, rock, trees, and other surface material.
• Most common in winter and spring.
• May occur due to increase load and melting, due to solar insulation.

🌨 Hailstorm
• Unusual weather phenomenon in which wall of ice i.e.
• hail falls from the sky. It is formed at high al tude within massive cloud when super cool
water droplets adheres to each other & form layers of ice.
• The avg velocity of hailstorm is 106 miles/hour, thereby causes damage to automobiles,
aircra s, sky lite, crops, glass roof structures, thereby causing structural damages.

🌨 Drought
• Drought is an event of prolonged shortage in water supply of surface water or ground water,
causes considerable hydrological imbalance leads to crop damage, stream ow, reduc on,
deple on of ground water & soil moisture.
• It is a creeping natural hazard that results from a de ciency of precipita on (runo , soil
moisture). It is calculated on a long term average cover of atleast 30 years which is referred
as normal value.

🌨 Thunder , Lightning
• Thunder is a loud noise that follows ash of ligh ng.
• Lightning is produced by discharge of electricity from cloud to cloud or from cloud to ground.
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 • Thunder cloud is formed due to large poten al di b/w posi ve & nega ve charges leading
to lightning.

🌨 Cloud Burst
• Cloud Burst is an extreme amount of precipita on in a short period of me, accompanied by
hail & thunder & capable of crea ng ood like situa on. It suddenly dumps large amt of
water e.g. 25 mm precipita on i.e. 25,000 MT (metric tons) in 1 km² area.
• This occurs when warm air mixes with a cooler air resul ng in sudden condensa on.
• There is a wrong no on (belief) that cloud begins water ballon and this w.b bursts, resul ng
in rapid precipita on.
• In C.B rate of rainfall is greater than 100 mm per hour. 26 July 2005, Mumbai experienced
1448 mm for 10 hours.
• IMD de nes CB as “anything more than 100 mm per hour precipita on over geographical
area of approx. 20–30 km².
• In India, CB mostly occurs in mountains where the low monsoon cloud are stopped by high
mountains.

🌨 Heat waves

WARNING IMPACT ACTION

NIL Avoid heat exposure
District Level 2 comfortable temp
moderate health concern for
vulnerable persons.
Severe Heat wave person heavy Person with heavy work will Avoid heat and dehydra on.
work for 2 days with severity su er lot due to health illess
for 4 days.

Severe Heat wave cond for Health illness and heatstroke Extreme care for vulnerable
more than 2 days and exceeds In all ages people ad appropriate ac n to
6 days. be taken by district regulatory
authority
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 Impact of Disaster:
• For Health: Injury, death, physical disability, burns, epidemics, weakness, uneasiness,
physical illness, sanita on, miscarriage, reproduc ve health, fa gue, loss of sleep, loss of
appe te.
• Economics – loss of lives, loss of livelihood, unemployment, loss of property & land &
household ar cles, crop damage, damage of public infrastructure.
• Demographic (in terms of segrega on) Aspect – includes social and psychological impact.
• Social impact – can in individual growth, disrup on of social fabric, isola on, change in
marital status, abuse & domes c violence, orphans, single parent children, family & social
disorganisa on, migra on, lifestyle changes, breakdown of broad social status.
• PTSD – distress, ashbacks, intrusions, avoidance, hatred, revenge, dependency, insecurity,
grief, withdrawal (isola on), lack of trust, helplessness, hopelessness.

Impacts:
1. Injury
2. Death
3. Burns
4. Epidemics
5. Weakness
6. Physical Illness
7. Sanitation
8. Miscarriage
9. Reproductive health
10. Loss of Sleep
11. Loss of Appetite
Impact on Economy
• Loss of livelihood
• Loss of property & land
• Loss of household articles
• Crop damage
• Damage to public infrastructure
• Unemployment
Impact for demographic aspect
• Social Impact
• Psychological Impact
• Change in Individual role
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Disruption of Social fabric
• Isolation
• Migration
• Change in Marital Status
• Family, Social disorganization
• Abuse in domestic violence
• Breakdown of Mental Status
Psychological Impact
• Distress
• Flashbacks / Intrusion
• Hatred
• PTSD
• Revenge
• Dependency
• Insecurity
• Grief
• Withdrawal
• Isolation
• Lack of Trust
• Helplessness
• Hopelessness

4 Levels of Planning
Level 0 – Developing phase of monitoring and preparedness
Level 1 – Disaster that can be handled at district level
Level 2 – Higher intensity disaster that has to be handled at state government level
Level 3 – Very severe disaster where intervention of Centre becomes imperative
Planning involves conceptualization of trigger mechanism of emergency quick response
which sets into motion that require prevention without any loss of time with the primary
objective of reducing to an extent possible the human misery and loss of resources.
Mandate of HPC
• To prepare comprehensive model plans for DM at national, state & district level
• To review the existing arrangement for prevention & mitigation of natural &
manmade disaster
• To make the recommendation for strengthening existing structures (organisational)
 Purpose of HPC
• In India about 85% area is vulnerable to one or more disaster
• 57% area comes under seismic zone including the capital of the country
United Nations declare 1990–2000 as IDNDR and the focus of the decade was that all the
countries should have disaster management plans at national, state, district level.
Accordingly India has prepared contingency action plan at national level, disaster relief
manual at state level and disaster plan at district level.
The main focus of the Govt. of India is on preparedness & mitigation.
DRR – Disaster Risk Reduc on
Disaster Management Act 2005 governs – National disaster management authority was
formed under Home Ministry of home affairs to manage economical, environmental &
developmental issues as a signatory to Sendai framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
India was one of the first country to devise a national disaster plan. It was drafted with an aim
to achieve substantial reduction of risk & reduction of disruption. It include guidelines for:
• Minimum standards of relief
• Management of earthquake, flood, urban flood, cyclone, drought, landslide, nuclear
emergency , Chemical disaster, Psychosocial health, Hospital safety.
This plan also include medical preparedness and mass casualty management.

Objec ve of NDM plan

• Disaster management shld receive highest priority in terms of prevention and
preparedness
• To ensure community as imp stakeholders in process
• To encourage mitigation measures based on state of art technology and environmental
susceptibility
• Developmental planning process
• Developing technolegl framework for regulating environmental and compliance

1. Cardiovascular
2. Respiratory
3. Metabolic
4. Carcinogenic
5. Mental
6. Non communicable
These diseases reflect the impact of air pollution, vector diseases, sanitation.
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 • The smart city mission should adapt retrofit program to mitigate the risk of any
hazard with respect to health, India comes under seismic vulnerability, only 1.6 lakh
public health facilities across India. This indicates that more the 54% area of India
falls in moderate to very high risk zone.
• Flood Kerala in 2018 damaged 125 yr old hospital that served 3,50,000 patients.
• Chennai flood of 2015 causes death of 18 patients because of power failure.
• So this necessitates the role of govt in public health system as per constitution of India
1956.
• Public health & sanitation hospitals, dispensaries are to be managed by the state govt.
• Large welfare items such as medical education, family welfare, quality control are to
be managed by central govt.
• Running development program establishing health policy are to be managed by
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
• National Health Mission 2013 publishes IPHS (Indian Public Health Standard) that
provides guidelines for facilities to be built to resist earthquake and different
emergencies.
Public Health in Tamil Nadu
• Efficient management of public health system
• Madras Health Act allows state to adopt macro view on public health and make
compulsory to address any situation that causes credible health threat which includes:
1. Maintenance of drains
2. Maintenance of poorly designed infrastructure
3. Managing the animals that are in unhealthy condition
4. Solid waste management
Method of governance allows the state to conduct annual anticipatory planning to prepare for
securing disaster like flood and public health emergencies.
Tamil Nadu’s highly organised response to the Indian Ocean tsunami was a result of well-
oiled public health machinery.

Disaster Management Act guidelines for hospital safety

• DMA requires state govt to formulate State Disaster Management Plans (SDMP) to
prepare, mitigate, respond and recover from disasters.
• Medical preparedness and mass casualty management are required to get addressed by
every hospital.
 • DMA prescribes every hospital to have an emergency plan that must be updated
regularly with periodic checks and mock drill.
• NDMA guidelines for selective seismic strength gain and retrofitting of lifeline
structures such as hospitals and health facilities are required in earthquake prone
areas.
Main objec ve of hospital safety:
• Awareness generation for hospital safety
• Hospital disaster preparedness
• Design and safety of hospitals
• Licensing and accreditation
Under DMA, State Disaster Management Plan is expected to cover:
• State vulnerability
• Measures for prevention and mitigation of disaster
• Capacity building
• Assignment of responsibility to relevant departments in case of casualty
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