Capacity for Managing Disasters

Abstract

Capacity for managing and preventing disasters depends upon how disasters are defi ned or understood. Until the nineteenth century, the capacity to manage disasters was limited to the ability to undertake relief and rescue operations. Beginning in the early 1900s, social scientists laid a foundation for understanding disasters as the product of natural and social forces. Based on this understanding, the capacity to manage "disaster risk" required the ability to develop good models of disaster risk, planning to mitigate known disaster risks, and transferring risk of economic losses from likely disasters along with the ability to be prepared for disasters. However, even with the new understanding and increased efforts associated with disaster response and mitigation, monetary losses from disasters are increased globally. Social scientists now believe that we live in a "risk society" where "industrial-technical-scientifi c projects" produce unintended risks that are incalculable, uninsurable, and uncontrollable. The capacity to manage disasters now requires an ability to learn, internalize and make change, manage information fl ow and exchange, ensure fl exibility and adaptability in the structure and functions of organizations, and coordinate work with multiple agencies and units to achieve a common purpose. This chapter provides a strong theoretical basis of what capacities are needed for managing disasters and who needs these capacities. This chapter is divided into four sections: (i) the need for capacity development in disaster risk management, (ii) key concepts, (iii) historical evolution of the fi eld and where it is heading, and (iv) what and whose capacity. Keywords Disaster risk • Disaster risk management • Resilience • Risk society • Disaster researchCapacity for managing and preventing disasters depends upon how disasters are defi ned or understood. Until the nineteenth century, the capacity to manage disasters was limited to the ability to undertake relief and rescue operations. Beginning in the early 1900s, social scientists, primarily from the sociology discipline, laid a foundation for understanding disasters as the product of natural and social forces (Cardona 2003 ;Wisner et al. 2004 ;Drabek 2005 ;Mileti and Gailus 2005 ;World Bank 2010 ). Based on this understanding, the capacity to manage "disaster risk" required the ability to develop good models of disaster risk, planning to mitigate known disaster risks, and transferring risk of economic losses from likely disasters 54 through insurance and other fi nancial mechanisms, along with the ability to be prepared for disasters through quick relief, rescue, and rehabilitation operations.However, even with the new understanding and increased efforts associated with disaster response and mitigation, monetary losses from disasters are increasing globally. Social scientists now believe that we live in a "risk society" where "industrial-technical-scientifi c projects" produce unintended risks that are incalculable, uninsurable, and uncontrollable ...