scholarly journals Assessing Capacity and Implementation Status of the Disaster Risk Management Strategy for Health and Community Disaster Resilience in Malawi

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ozius Dewa ◽  
Donald Makoka ◽  
Olalekan A. Ayo-Yusuf
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Disaster Risk Management ◽  
Disaster Resilience ◽  
Human Resource Capacity ◽  
Implementation Status ◽  
Resource Capacity

AbstractFloods are among the most frequently occurring natural hazards in Malawi, often with public health implications. This mixed methods study assessed the capacity for and implementation status of the disaster risk management (DRM) strategy for the health sector in Malawi, using flooding in the Nsanje District as a case. Data were collected using desk review and a workshop methodology involving key officials from government ministries, national and international development partners, and the academia. The results show that Malawi had recently strengthened its DRM institutional frameworks, with a pronounced policy shift from reactive to proactive management of disasters. Health sector personnel and structures were key contributors in the design and implementation of DRM activities at all levels. Development partners played a significant role in strengthening DRM coordination and implementation capacity. Lack of funding and the limited availability, and often fragmented nature, of vulnerability and risk assessment data were identified as key challenges. Limited human resource capacity and inadequate planning processes at district level impeded full implementation of DRM policies. These findings call for community-level interventions for improved coordination, planning, and human resource capacity to strengthen community disaster resilience and improve public health. The approach used in this study can serve as a model framework for other districts in Malawi, as well as in other low- and middle-income countries in the context of Sendai Framework implementation.

scholarly journals DEVELOPMENT OF TIME-SERIES HUMAN SETTLEMENT MAPPING SYSTEM USING HISTORICAL LANDSAT ARCHIVE

2016 ◽  
Vol XLI-B8 ◽  
pp. 1385-1388
Author(s):  
H. Miyazaki ◽  
M. Nagai ◽  
R. Shibasaki
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Satellite Data ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Disaster Risk Management ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Series Data ◽  
Landsat Data ◽  
Human Settlement

Methodology of automated human settlement mapping is highly needed for utilization of historical satellite data archives for urgent issues of urban growth in global scale, such as disaster risk management, public health, food security, and urban management. As development of global data with spatial resolution of 10-100 m was achieved by some initiatives using ASTER, Landsat, and TerraSAR-X, next goal has targeted to development of time-series data which can contribute to studies urban development with background context of socioeconomy, disaster risk management, public health, transport and other development issues. We developed an automated algorithm to detect human settlement by classification of built-up and non-built-up in time-series Landsat images. A machine learning algorithm, Local and Global Consistency (LLGC), was applied with improvements for remote sensing data. The algorithm enables to use MCD12Q1, a MODIS-based global land cover map with 500-m resolution, as training data so that any manual process is not required for preparation of training data. In addition, we designed the method to composite multiple results of LLGC into a single output to reduce uncertainty. The LLGC results has a confidence value ranging 0.0 to 1.0 representing probability of built-up and non-built-up. The median value of the confidence for a certain period around a target time was expected to be a robust output of confidence to identify built-up or non-built-up areas against uncertainties in satellite data quality, such as cloud and haze contamination. Four scenes of Landsat data for each target years, 1990, 2000, 2005, and 2010, were chosen among the Landsat archive data with cloud contamination less than 20%.We developed a system with the algorithms on the Data Integration and Analysis System (DIAS) in the University of Tokyo and processed 5200 scenes of Landsat data for cities with more than one million people worldwide.

scholarly journals DEVELOPMENT OF TIME-SERIES HUMAN SETTLEMENT MAPPING SYSTEM USING HISTORICAL LANDSAT ARCHIVE

2016 ◽  
Vol XLI-B8 ◽  
pp. 1385-1388 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Miyazaki ◽  
M. Nagai ◽  
R. Shibasaki
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Satellite Data ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Disaster Risk Management ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Series Data ◽  
Landsat Data ◽  
Human Settlement

Methodology of automated human settlement mapping is highly needed for utilization of historical satellite data archives for urgent issues of urban growth in global scale, such as disaster risk management, public health, food security, and urban management. As development of global data with spatial resolution of 10-100 m was achieved by some initiatives using ASTER, Landsat, and TerraSAR-X, next goal has targeted to development of time-series data which can contribute to studies urban development with background context of socioeconomy, disaster risk management, public health, transport and other development issues. We developed an automated algorithm to detect human settlement by classification of built-up and non-built-up in time-series Landsat images. A machine learning algorithm, Local and Global Consistency (LLGC), was applied with improvements for remote sensing data. The algorithm enables to use MCD12Q1, a MODIS-based global land cover map with 500-m resolution, as training data so that any manual process is not required for preparation of training data. In addition, we designed the method to composite multiple results of LLGC into a single output to reduce uncertainty. The LLGC results has a confidence value ranging 0.0 to 1.0 representing probability of built-up and non-built-up. The median value of the confidence for a certain period around a target time was expected to be a robust output of confidence to identify built-up or non-built-up areas against uncertainties in satellite data quality, such as cloud and haze contamination. Four scenes of Landsat data for each target years, 1990, 2000, 2005, and 2010, were chosen among the Landsat archive data with cloud contamination less than 20%.We developed a system with the algorithms on the Data Integration and Analysis System (DIAS) in the University of Tokyo and processed 5200 scenes of Landsat data for cities with more than one million people worldwide.

scholarly journals Can Atmospheric Science Improve Global Disaster Resilience?

Eos ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamish Steptoe ◽  
Sarah Jones ◽  
Helen Fox
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Atmospheric Science ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Scientific Understanding ◽  
Disaster Risk Management ◽  
Disaster Resilience ◽  
International Policy

Scientific understanding of atmospheric hazards and their interconnectivity can contribute to international policy and disaster risk management.

scholarly journals Human resource capacity building initiatives for public health laboratories in India

2014 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjay Zodpey ◽  
Sunanda Shrikhande ◽  
Anjali Sharma ◽  
Anuja Pandey
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Capacity Building ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Human Resource Capacity ◽  
Resource Capacity

Challenges and Strategies for Climate Change Adaptation Among Pacific Island Nations

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-423
Author(s):  
Mollie J. Mahany ◽  
Mark E. Keim
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Disaster Risk Management ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Pacific Island ◽  
Small Island Developing States ◽  
The Pacific

ABSTRACTFew regions of the world are at higher risk for environmental disasters than the Pacific Island countries and territories. During 2004 and 2005, the top public health leadership from 19 of 22 Pacific Island countries and territories convened 2 health summits with the goal of developing the world's first comprehensive regional strategy for sustainable disaster risk management as applied to public health emergencies. These summits followed on the objectives of the 1994 Barbados Plan of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and those of the subsequent Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action for a Safer World. The outputs of the 2004 and 2005 Pacific Health Summits for Sustainable Disaster Risk Management provide a detailed description of challenges and accomplishments of the Pacific Island health ministries, establish a Pacific plan of action based upon the principles of disaster risk management, and provide a locally derived, evidence-based approach for many climate change adaptation measures related to extreme weather events in the Pacific region. The declaration and outputs from these summits are offered here as a guide for developmental and humanitarian assistance in the region (and for other small-island developing states) and as a means for reducing the risk of adverse health effects resulting from climate change.(Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2012;6:415-423)

Risk, resilience and response-able practice in Australia’s changing bushfire landscapes

2020 ◽  
pp. 026377582097657
Author(s):  
Ruth Beilin ◽  
Jana-Axinja Paschen
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Shared Responsibility ◽  
Disaster Risk Management ◽  
Policy Discourse ◽  
Disaster Resilience ◽  
Risk And Uncertainty ◽  
Community Based ◽  
The Status

This paper explores the policy concept and community enactments of ‘shared responsibility’ for disaster resilience in the context of wildfires in Victoria, Australia. Since the state-wide Black Saturday fires of 2009, we contend, first, the State’s decreasing ability to protect its citizens has shifted the responsibility for adapting to uncertainty to individuals, and second, this responsibility has been translated into compliance approaches to disaster risk management. We develop the concept of two distinct imaginaries at play: the reactive and the relational life. Policy discourse invokes a reactive life, a normative resilience maintaining the status quo, rather than a potentially transformative relational process enabling citizens to be ‘response-able’. Facing uncertainties, government legitimacy hinges on increasing citizen safety, with decentralised community resilience programs intended to manage and reduce disaster risk by emphasising shared responsibility. For citizens, however, ‘shared responsibility’ reveals an increasing tension in relation to the risk and uncertainty associated with life on the newly designated ‘fire-prone’ periphery, and within expectations of government. We conclude that the emphasis on responsibility as the work to be done in community-based resilience programs demands a more nuanced set of expectations that reflect citizens’ relational life as a starting place for rethinking safety and security.

scholarly journals From Science to Policy and Practice: A Critical Assessment of Knowledge Management Before, During, and After Environmental Public Health Disasters

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (s1) ◽  
pp. s73-s74
Author(s):  
Mélissa Généreux ◽  
Marc Lafontaine ◽  
Angela Eykelbosh
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Disaster Risk Management ◽  
World Health ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Environmental Public Health ◽  
Wide Range

Introduction:Canada, like many countries, increasingly faces environmental public health (EPH) disasters. Such disasters often require both short- and long-term responses, necessitate evacuation and relocation, cause major environmental impacts, and generate the need for specific knowledge and expertise (chemistry, epidemiology, risk assessment, mental health, etc.).Aim:Given the importance of evidence-based, risk-informed decision making, we aimed to critically assess the integration of EPH expertise and research into each phase of disaster risk management in several Canadian and other jurisdictions.Methods:In-depth interviews were conducted with 23 leaders in disaster risk management from Canada, United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, and were complemented by other methods (i.e. participant observation, information gathered from participation in scientific events, and document review). Three criteria were explored: governance, knowledge creation and translation, and related needs and barriers. An interview guide was developed based on a standardized toolkit from the World Health Organization. Data were analyzed through a four-step content analysis.Results:Six cross-cutting themes emerged from the analysis. These themes are identified as critical factors in successful disaster knowledge management: 1) blending the best of traditional and modern approaches, 2) fostering community engagement; 3) cultivating relationships, 4) investing in preparedness and recovery, 5) putting knowledge into practice, and 6) ensuring sufficient human and financial resources. A wide range of promising knowledge-to-action strategies was also identified, including mentorship programs, communities of practice, advisory groups, systematized learning, and comprehensive repositories of tools and resources.Discussion:There is no single roadmap to incorporate EPH knowledge and expertise into disaster risk management. Our findings suggest that beyond structures and plans, it is necessary to cultivate relationships and share responsibility for ensuring the safety, health, and wellbeing of affected communities while respecting the local culture, capacity, and autonomy. Any such considerations should be incorporated into disaster risk management planning.

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