Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
areas that could be affected get the information in time. Thirty years ago this was
a real problem. Today our new communication devices mean there is less excuse
for information not being dispensed quickly to the emergency centres in cities that
should have the ability to alert residents. But even in the past decade there have
been failures in communication. For example, the 2005 Indian Ocean tsunami that
had its origin in a large Sumatran earthquake just off the coast, devastated the near-
by shore lines and probably happened too quickly for advance knowledge of the
enormous sea wave to reach the nearby shores. But this tsunami took 90 minutes to
reach Sri Lanka. This should have allowed time to issue warnings on its shore lines.
This did not happen. The result was thousands of unnecessary deaths. The absence
of an international earthquake and tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean
did not help—something that is now being remedied—whereas the long standing
Pacific warning system has proved invaluable for decades.
These immediate or short term early warning systems are being complemented
by advanced alerts that come from new sophisticated modelling of natural hazards
that provide knowledge of the scale and incidence of possible future events. Com-
bined with the vulnerability data from assessment exercises, these methods provide
urban authorities and governments with information about the probable scale of
the increased intensity of natural hazards, which may lead far-sighted authorities
to revise their estimates of possible future risks based only on historic events. For
example, Copenhagen's Climate Plan has predicted that global warming will lead
to greater summer precipitation from more intense storms and these levels could be
50 % higher by 2050. It has led to the decision to allocate ᾬ 3 billion in procedures
to cope with the greater rain intensity and flood problems in a city that is close to
sea level. Despite this example of action to reduce anticipated problems, so far
relatively few urban governments and their residents have paid attention to these
warnings of future hazards—especially if they are seen as decades away—and do
not allocate sufficient resources to counteract such potential problems.
9732
Building Codes and Planning
The vulnerability of buildings and infrastructures can be reduced by appropriate
building codes and planning policies, which define the structural integrity of build-
ings and the places where people can build. One of the major problems seen in third
world cities devastated by natural disasters has been the absence of building codes
that enable structures to withstand local natural hazards. Although urban authorities
in these countries are improving their regulations, the lack of qualified engineers
and trained building inspectors and ineffective penalties for non-compliance, mean
that standards are often ignored. Indeed the problem is really a matter of political
will, not technological knowledge, in many countries. For example, failure to com-
ply with regulations specifying earthquake-proofing new buildings in Chile leads
to heavy fines and even the removal of licences to build, whereas in neighbouring
Peru the regulations are often ignored, with few penalties for non-compliance. Of
course, given the variety of different types of hazards in various locations, building
