DISASTER PREVENTION

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DISASTER PREVENTION MITIGATION COORDINATION
MEETING OF WMO PROGRAMMES AND CONSTITUENT
BODIES GENEVA, 4- 6 DECEMBER 2006 Regional
capacities, opportunities, gaps and needs RA
IV Dr Carlos Costa-Posada, Chairman of RA IV
Working Group on DPM
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Impacts of hazards in Central and North America
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Number of Disasters (1980-2005)
Source EM-DAT The OFDA/CRED International
Disaster Database - www.em-dat.net - Université
Catholique de Louvain - Brussels - Belgiumc
More than 85 of disasters are related to
hydro-meteorological factors.
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Loss of Human Life (1980-2005)
Source EM-DAT The OFDA/CRED International
Disaster Database - www.em-dat.net - Université
Catholique de Louvain - Brussels - Belgium
More than 65 of loss of life are related to
hydro-meteorological factors
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Economic Losses (1980-2005)
Source EM-DAT The OFDA/CRED International
Disaster Database - www.em-dat.net - Université
Catholique de Louvain - Brussels - Belgium
More than 75 of economic losses are related to
hydro-meteorological factors
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Preliminary results of the WMO country-level DPM
survey in RA IV (Central and North America)
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Responses to the WMO Country-Level DPM Survey in
Central and North America
18 out of 22 Members responded
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Ranking of the hazards from the country-level
survey
HIGH distribution
LOW distribution
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Number of countries keeping data archives
HIGH distribution
LOW distribution
Tropical cyclone Drought Flash flood Landslide or
mudslide Thunderstorm or lightning Earthquakes Riv
er flooding Coastal flooding Storm surge Strong
winds Forest or wild land fire Tornado Hazards to
aviation Heat wave Smoke, Dust or Haze Volcanic
events Avalanche Hailstorm Tsunami Cold
wave Waterborne hazards Airborne substances Dense
fog Desert locust swarm Heavy snow Marine
hazards Freezing rain Sandstorm

• Only one third of the countries maintain impact
  databases
• Need for strengthening national hazard data
  archiving

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Number of countries issuing warnings
HIGH distribution
LOW distribution
Tropical cyclone Drought Flash flood Landslide or
mudslide Thunderstorm or lightning Earthquakes Riv
er flooding Coastal flooding Storm surge Strong
winds Forest or wild land fire Tornado Hazards to
aviation Heat wave Smoke, Dust or Haze Volcanic
events Avalanche Hailstorm Tsunami Cold
wave Waterborne hazards Airborne substances Dense
fog Desert locust swarm Heavy snow Marine
hazards Freezing rain Sandstorm
Warnings could be significantly enhanced through
strengthening of National Meteorological and
Hydrological Services and through Supporting
interagency partnerships
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Contributions of NMHSs to key sectors relevant to
Disaster Risk Management
The contributions could be significantly enhanced
through strengthening of National Meteorological
and Hydrological Services' capacities This could
become a source of income
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Limiting factors of NMHSs in their contribution
to disaster risk management
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Areas in which WMO's global and regional efforts
could enhance NMHSs' contribution to disaster
risk management
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Institutions and partners

• SICA- Sistema de Integración Centroamericana
• CARICOM Caribbean Community
• AEC Asociación de Estados del Caribe
• CEPREDENAC- Centro de Coordinación para la
  Prevención de los Desastres Naturales en
  Centroamérica
• CDERA- Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Agency
• CRRH Comité regional de Recursos Hidráulicos
• Miami National Hurricane Center
• EIRD (ISDR) Estrategia Internacional para la
  reducción de los desastres
• OPS (PAHO) Organización Panamericana de la
  salud
• AECI- Agencia Española de Cooperación
  Internacional
• ACDI- Agencia de cooperación Canadience.
• NOAA Administración Atmosférica y Oceánica de
  los Estados Unidos
• WB-Banco Mundial
• IDB
• UNEP

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Recent initiatives in the region under HYOGO
framework for action (HFA)

• Central America subregion
• Countries updating institutional and legislative
  framework risk management and land use planning
• GEF project to include climate variability and
  change in policy making in Colombia, Mexico in
  preparation
• Pilot local early warning systems supported by
  Red Cross
• There are several initiatives already implemented
  by Met and hydrological services like real time
  regional information sharing on flash floods
  (CAFFS project), high resolution meteorological
  images (RAMSDIS project), hot spots and others.

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Recent initiatives in the region under HYOGO
framework for action (HFA)

• Central America subregion
• SERVIR Project CATALAC-NOAA-PHI UNEP
• Next year the CLIMA IBEROAMERICANO project will
  be updated. This project aims at strengthening
  and improvement of hydrometeorological
  observation network, data analysis and processing
  and capacity building
• GEOSS ?

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Recent initiatives in the region under HYOGO
framework for action (HFA)

• Caribbean subregion
• Capacity Building on DPM project for better
  monitoring (early warning), training, regional
  redundant database . This is an ongoing project,
  at its final phase, targeted at small island
  states.
• GEF project in adaptation to climate change to
  include climate variability and change in policy
  making and strengthen NMHSs as adaptation
  strategy

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Regional training centers in support of DRM in
the region

• There are two training centers in the region, one
  for each subregion one specialized center in
  Costa Rica and another one in Barbados
• These centers are not set to provide training in
  the specific field of disaster prevention and
  mitigation
• Recently, in the meeting of Iberoamerican
  Directors in Buenos Aires, the government of
  Spain offered an on line Masters on climate risks
  and environmental impacts
• To highlight, the training continually offered by
  the National Hurricane Center in the field of
  tropical cyclones
• Training on this issue should be looked outside
  the meteorological community Red Cross training
  centers and plenty universities

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Identification of gaps and needs for
strengthening NMSHs contributions to disaster
risk management

• Gaps
• Lack of autonomy of some services
• Observation networks very sparse for local
  phenomena detection and warning
• Very limited hazard mapping
• Reduced human resources for identifying risks
• low visibility of NMHS as the relation
  cost/benefit of the hydromteorological services
  is not known by the governments
• Restrictions on communications for data reporting

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Identification of gaps and needs for
strengthening NMSHs contributions to disaster
risk management

• Gaps
• lack of a regional common format for sharing
  hazards reports in real time
• no knowledge of local phenomena climatology
• weak coordination between disaster management
  authorities and NMHSs
• no feedback on false or true warnings
• Insufficient resources allocated to the NMHSs
• Lack of capacity to apply for cooperation
  resources

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Opportunities, for strengthening NMHSs
contributions to disaster risk management

• Current concern for the climate change and
  adaptation
• DRM has begun to be more visible through
  international organisms efforts
• More planning authorities more regional and
  local institutions are interested in working with
  the NMHSs
• Land-use planning is becoming common practice
  (hydrometeorological and hazard data needed)
• available support from international development
  agencies for risk management projects
• Specialized users thriving for meteorological
  products and no private competition

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Needs for strengthening NMHSs contributions to
disaster risk management

• Resources
• to move from large EWS to localized EWS
• high resolution meteorological models
• more expanded use of nowcasting technologies
• use of information technologies to distribute
  warnings
• to make more use of probabilistic forecasts
  ensemble prediction models

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Needs for strengthening NMHSs contributions to
disaster risk management

• NMHSs to adopt a more open position to work in a
  integrated way several disciplines and agencies
  to support multihazard observations and
  forecasting systems.
• Project design and running skills
• Methodologies to interact with users
• Information from ongoing projects and
  innitiatives