Authors / CoAuthors
Simpson, A. | Cumminis, P. | Dhu, T. | Griffin, J. | Schneider, J.
Abstract
Natural disasters are a frequent occurrence in the Asia-Pacific region because of the combination of very dense population and very hazard-prone areas. Australia has recently been called upon to play a leadership role in responding to natural disasters, especially in recent years, with earthquakes in Pakistan and Indonesia, landslides in the Philippines, tsunami events in Indonesia and the Solomon Islands, cyclone related flooding in Papua New Guinea, and the regular occurrence of cyclones in the southwest Pacific and southeast Asia. Furthermore, there is an increasing trend in the number and size of disasters as the effects of climate change are felt and as rapid population growth and urbanisation results in increasingly large and vulnerable populations in areas exposed to natural hazards. The number and seriousness of natural disasters has been clearly demonstrated to disproportionately affect developing countries more than 90% of natural disaster deaths and 98% of people affected by natural disasters are from developing countries . This high risk of disasters in developing nations has considerable implications for international aid programs. First, natural disasters significantly compromise development progress and reduce the effectiveness of aid investments. Natural disasters may halt or slow progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and in particular, progress on MDG1 halving poverty and hunger by 2015 may be halted or reversed during a natural disaster. Second, natural disasters, particularly relatively infrequent, high-magnitude natural disasters (e.g., 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami) require a significant disaster relief and humanitarian response from aid agencies, which may shift resources away from other development objectives. For this reason the Australian Agency for International Development's (AusAID) strategic direction affirms that managing and responding to natural disasters should be central to development planning. A recent activity undertaken by Geoscience Australia for AusAID made a preliminary assessment of natural hazard risk across all Asia-Pacific partner countries . The objective was to gain a better understanding of disaster risks across the AusAID portfolio and support AusAID to better target disaster risk reduction and humanitarian response activities. This project sought to broadly identify the characteristics, frequency, location and potential consequences of rapid-onset natural hazards, including: earthquake, tsunami, landslide, flood, cyclone, flood, wildfire and volcanic eruptions.
Product Type
nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
65934
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Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
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Keywords
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- External Publication
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- risk assessment
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- earthquakes
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- volcanology
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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- Earth Sciences
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- Published_Internal
Publication Date
2008-05-16T00:00:00
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