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IT Enabled Training for Disaster Management

The Indian sub continent is highly prone to natural disasters. Floods, droughts, cyclones and earthquakes are a recurrent phenomenon in India. There are five important phases of disaster management: disaster prevention, disaster mitigation, disaster preparedness, emergency management, and disaster recovery. Of these, disaster prevention, disaster mitigation, and disaster preparedness constitute the pre-disaster planning phase

Disaster management is essentially a development problem and thus any preparedness and mitigation planning will have to be taken up in tandem with environmental concerns that the country is facing today. Disaster management is deemed to be a ‘state subject' and different states have initiated it in their states.

The ability of a nation to manage emergencies, rather than react to crisis, is critically dependent on the availability and flow of real time and archived information from monitoring systems, thematic databases, and decision support systems that are linked through national networks. In various parts of the world many of the experts can be of great help to those directly dealing with a disaster situation. At the time of a disaster, the need for the hour is the timely exchange of information and expertise. The World Wide Web provides exactly this by providing an excellent platform for exchange of information on the most current research being carried on across the world.

Networks are powerful tools ,which are constantly being used in disaster management. Networks are increasing exchanges experience, research and technical knowledge. "A technical cooperation network is a voluntary cooperative arrangement involving institutions or individuals in two or more countries”.

Responsibilities and functions

Training should be a continuous process on disaster management Programme. The trained cadre will facilitate the process of contingency plan development at different levels.

Specialized training should be organized at different levels for the disaster management team members for enhancement of skills to effectively carry out their responsibilities such as warning dissemination, search and rescue operation, shelter management, fist aid, trauma counseling and damage assessment etc.

Regular studies, research and workshops should be conducted at state and national levels on the vulnerability analysis, existing coping mechanism, revision and modification of the existing administrative, legal, techno-legal and institutional systems, as per the suitability of different localities and need of the areas.

Resource Inventory data base

Support should be provided to each state to have a web enabled resource inventory for mobilization of resources and volunteers for emergency. IT trainers should support the state government for development of a resource database, which will update regularly by the nodal agency to know the status of the resource availability. Similarly, each state will have a list of volunteers with specific skill set- those who can be utilized by the state nodal agencies during emergencies.

Strengthening state and District Disaster Management Information Centers

Necessary training can be provided in terms of equipments like advance communication equipments such as computer with internet facilities, HAM equipments, FAX etc to the district control room and state control room and training to the functionaries to handle the equipments during emergency. Thus there will be well-equipped control room at state and district levels to disseminate accurate warning for advance action. These control rooms will also provide platform for the coordination during and post emergencies.

Based on the findings as above, these are the aspects in which IT training can play a role

Creation of awareness for disaster reduction is urgently needed amongst policy makers, decision makers, administrators, professionals (architects, engineers and others at various levels) financial institutions (banks, insurance, house financing institutions) and NGOs and voluntary organizations.

To create a suitable institutional mechanism at national/state level to advise and help the existing disaster relief set up in formulation and updating of short and long range action plans for the preparedness, mitigation and prevention of natural disasters.

To promote the study of natural disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness as subjects in architecture and engineering curriculum.

To create detailed database on hazard occurrences, damage caused to buildings and infrastructure and the economic losses suffered and ensure its accessibility to interested researchers for effective analysis of costs of disasters and benefits of mitigate actions.

Awareness generation campaign can be done using IT as a tool and a database on GIS platform will help several people to be aware.