Call to Action: Disaster Risk Reduction and Post-Tsunami Reconstruction
PUBLICATION DATE:
Friday, July 01, 2005
PUBLICATION TYPE:
Magazines and Newsletters
STATUS:
Out of Print
DESCRIPTION:
This issue of the Tropical Coasts adds another layer to the vast and instructive documents and case studies that have since been published regarding natural hazard and disaster management. Albeit very limited in scope, this issue aims to target the coastal management practitioners, who may have inadvertently missed out on the relevance and importance of integrating 'natural hazard thinking' to integrated coastal management (ICM). The articles are grouped into four sections. Towards Integrated Disaster Risk Reduction Strategies showcases the articulation of the culture of prevention, safety and mitigation that underpin the goals of the overarching sustainable development principles. Such are envisioned to decrease vulnerabilities, hence increasing the communities' resilience, to disasters and to create a “safer world for all” (Kelman and Abramovitz). Narcise's article underscores the role of the ICM process and framework in integrating hazard management to development planning and coastal management. She opines that there is no need to reinvent the wheel as the "implementation arrangements, processes, tools and applications are already in place and could be expanded to support hazard management considerations." On Post-Tsunami Reconstruction articulates several dimensions of the process of instituting strategies that must encompass not only reconstructing infrastructure but also ensuring protection of biodiversity and rebuilding sustainable livelihoods as well. Datta and Adriaanse, Llewellyn, et al., and Manuta, et al. highlight the principles and the wide-ranging scope and breadth to reconstruct human dignity in the aftermath of the tsunami.
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