The book presents a collection of 55 double blind peer reviewed chapters under the theme of multi-hazard early warning and disaster risks
A BOOK that provides contemporary insights into the challenges for developing and implementing a multi-hazard approach to early warning and wider efforts on disaster risk reduction has been published by the University of Huddersfield’s award-winning Global Disaster Resilience Centre (GDRC).
Titled ‘Multi Hazard Early Warning And Disaster Risks’ the book has been co-authored by the University’s Professor Dilanthi Amaratunga, Professor Richard Haigh & Dr Nuwan Dias, and is published by Springer in the Netherlands.
The book presents a collection of 55 double blind peer reviewed chapters under the theme of multi-hazard early warning and disaster risks. These chapters were selected from the presentations made at the International Symposium on Tsunami and Multi-Hazard Risks, Early Warning and Community Awareness in supporting implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, that was held in 2021.
The publication was a collaboration between the State Ministry of National Security, Home Affairs and Disaster Management, Disaster Management Centre, Sri Lanka, and Global Disaster Resilience Centre, the University of Huddersfield, the UK, Asian Disaster Preparedness centre (ADPC) with several other partner universities, partner UN agencies, JICA, and other partner agencies.
“Editing this book provided an important opportunity to reflect upon our progress to date in tackling disaster risk, but also to consider some of the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead of us,” said GDRC co-director Professor Amaratunga.
Moving towards a multi-hazard environment
A particular focus of the book is ‘Multi-Hazard Early Warning’. During the negotiations for the Sendai Framework, countries and partners highlighted the need to continue to invest in, develop, maintain and strengthen people-centred, end-to-end early warning systems; promote the application of simple and low cost early warning equipment and facilities and broaden the dissemination channels for early warning information to facilitate early action.
Countries also called for the further development of and investment in effective, nationally compatible, regional multi-hazard early warning mechanisms. To address these needs, global Target (g) of the Sendai Framework was adopted, namely to ‘substantially increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to the people by 2030’.
As illustrated by recent events in several countries, it is also vital to address the challenge of cascading hazards that pose a tsunami risk, and the importance of linking tsunami early warning to a multi-hazard environment. However, moving towards a multi-hazard environment is complex and poses many challenges but can bring significant benefits in terms of efficiencies and also in recognising the links between hazards, such as cascading threats.
“We very much hope that this book will provide an important platform to address these and other challenges in addressing disaster risk, as well as supporting implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction,” added GDRC co-director Professor Haigh.
The Global Disaster Resilience Centre released its Annual Report early February to showcase the success of the last twelve months and the activities carried out by the members as well as the obstacles they had to overcome. You can access the Annual Report by visiting: http://gdrc.buildresilience.org/gdrc-report-2021/.