WCDRR day 1

World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai - day 1

Arriving in Sendai today, I only had time to visit two sessions after registration.The first session was held in the main conference building and concerned the Hyogo Framework for Action priority 2 where ICHARM member Sawano-san was a panel member; the second was a symposium held across town in the AEX tower where GRIPS students presented their finding. Below are the lessons learned from these sessions.

Outside the Sendai International Conference building:

 

 

Inside the main conference building:

Risk Identification and Assessment (Priority 2)
Schedule	2015-03-14	15:00-16:30
Venue	Sendai International Centre, Hagi Hall
Organizer	UNISDR, UNESCO, GFDRR, Gov of Japan (MLIT, ICHARM), Gov of New Zealand (MFAT, GNS), with advice from UNISDR STAG, RMS, IIHS, and NSET, Miyamoto International
Number of participants	500
Moderator, Panelist, Speaker, etc.	Chair: Dr. Florika Fink-Hooijer, Director of policy, strategy and international, EC ECHO Moderator: Mr. Francis Ghesquiere, Manager, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), The World Bank Panelists: Ms. Lianne Dalziel, the Mayor of Christchurch, New Zealand Dr. Juma Al’Maskari, Director General of Meteorology, Public Authority for Civil Aviation, Oman Mr. Muwembe Khalid, Principal Meteorologist, Uganda Meteorology Department under Ministry of Water, Lands, and Environment, Uganda Mr. Hisaya Sawano , Chief Researcher of International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM), PWRI, Japan Dr. Louis Gritzo, VP of research at FM Global, USA
Objective	The Working Session on Risk Identification and Assessment at WCDRR will draw on the successful risk identification cases presented on the panel to discuss the challenges and opportunities for national and international technical and governmental organizations to ensure future risk information is useful and used.
Contents	Francis Ghesquiere explained the difference between impact (1 hazard event) and risk (all hazards modeled together). Florika Fink-Hooijer: Until recently, risk identification only focused on engineering/modelling, not policy making. EU now has risk identification in plans and funding, such as the 2010 risk assessment guideline. Your neighbours will know your vulnerabilities; therefore it is not mandatory to share data that poses security issues. Risk assessment is required to be performed every 3 years for Member States to be eligible for DRM funds. INFORM risk assessment is a collaboration between the Joint Research Centre, WFP, and the World Bank with open source data. We encourage global usage to instil trust and ensure comparable data. Remaining problems are that we often don’t act on information. Political leaders don’t see risk fitting into their plans. Lianne Dalziel: 11,000 aftershocks after the Christchurch (New Zealand) earthquake, 50 were over magnitude 5, 10% GDP loss (twice the GDP of GEJET), 0.5m land subsidence, over 100,000 houses damaged. Post quake there were cross agency collaborations, data openly available. Science needs to be relevant and accessible to everyone. Communicating risks is the most difficult; we need to provide a trusted face to the public. Hisaya Sawano: In 1961 the Japanese government started collecting flood damage data which is open to the public. We need to provide tangible explanations to local people in developing countries, i.e. what happens in their daily life during floods. How can we connect the role of disaster information collection agencies and disaster preparedness agencies? Louis Gritzo: People say the world is a riskier place; I would say the risk is more global. The development of new data is not the most important. The most important is how to communicate it to people on the ground and make sure they use it in time to prepare/respond. Insurance alone is not enough; you cannot replace people, company reputations, etc. Not just clarify risks, also make solutions. Don’t talk science to people. Risk is not ‘ if’ but ‘when’ the hazard occurs. Gavin (UK) replacing Muwembe Khalid: The UK has a voluntary observation system with WMO, applied in Uganda. Fishers are receiving colored warnings on their phones to not go out during storms. Local people need to understand the decision makers, e.g. communicate with women who plant/harvest rather than the local village chiefs who remain unexposed. John Sneijder (Global Earthquake Model): How to apply GEM information to nations? If you build a system, you must introduce it to the world, e.g. international conference, build awareness locally, exchange information with partners/global community.

Disaster Management Policies – Preparedness against Large Tsunamis and Earthquakes etc.
Schedule	2015-03-14	18:00-20:00* (*Session started from 13:00)
Venue	Sendai City AER TKP Garden City Sendai, Hall D (30th floor)
Organizer	GRIPS
Number of participants	50
Moderator, Panelist, Speaker, etc.	Moderator: Michael C. Huang, Dr. student, GRIPS 1.       Japanese Master Students of GRIPS Yuya Kimura, Niigata City Govt. A Study on Resident Response to Evacuation Information in Areas without Prior Incidents of Sediment-related Disaster: The Case of Niigata City 2. Disater Management Policy (DMP) Program (Master Students/ BRI, PWRI) 18:50～19:25 Group 1B Mohd Faiz Syed 2005 India/Mumbai Flood Group 2B George Chilli Otieno 2010 Indonesia Mentawai Tsunami Group 3B Jorge Andres Gonzalez Rojas 2010 Columbia Flood 3. Diaster Management (DM) Program (Doctorate Students/ ICHARM of PWRI) 19:25～19:45 Nasif Ahsan How do people decide to evacuate or not? A case report from the cyclone Aila Robin Kumar Biswas Prediction tool to break the vicious cycle of disasters- case of river bank erosion in Bangladesh
Objective	The Japanese National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and UNESCO held an international symposium on effective disaster management policies against tsunamis, earthquakes etc. based on the research results of GRIPS’ professors and students and lessons learnt from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake/Tsunami and other huge disasters. In addition this event provides an opportunity to exchange views of Japanese and international students of GRIPS.
Contents	Yuya Kimura: Reasons for people not to evacuate: no previous experience with disaster, or people thought it would be okay to stay Mohd Faiz Syed: Most people died from a stampede due to a tsunami rumor George Chilli Otieno: communities owned search and rescue resources which led to few victims Robin Kumar Biswas: Bangladesh has extreme cases of flood where 70% of the country is flooded, where can people move?