Understanding Extreme Geohazards: The Science of the Disaster Risk Management Cycle European Science Foundation Conference November 28 to December 1, 2011, Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR DISASTER AND DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION IN INDIA

Sunitha Kuppuswamy
Anna University, Chennai, India, sunithakuppuswamy@gmail.com

Disasters are the convergence of hazards and vulnerable conditions. Tropical cyclones are among the most destructive natural disasters of the world. There has been a two-fold increase in the tropical cyclone frequency over the Bay of Bengal during November in the past 122 years¹⁾. More cyclones form in the Bay of Bengal than the Arabian Sea; the ratio of their respective frequencies is about 4:1. Hazards occurring in inhabited areas or in areas where economic activities and settlement patterns are not vulnerable do not cause disasters. It is above all the growth of vulnerability that is responsible for the increasing impact of disasters on development, which in turn further increases vulnerability²⁾. Understanding what vulnerability is and how it arises is a key therefore to the disaster paradigm for effective disaster management.

Addressing the existing vulnerabilities is vital particularly in developing countries like India for marching towards disaster risk reduction. Community Radio has played a major role in disseminating disaster preparedness information in Nagapattinam, the worst affected district in Tamilnadu during Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004. A digital board has been placed in the Cuddalore district of Tamilnadu for disseminating information related to weather information, wave heights, potential fish finding zones, etc. Apart from these initiatives by NGOs, Village Information Centres (VICs) had been set up in all the tsunami affected coastal hamlets for disaster and development communication. The government had established VHF based early warning system in all the villages that fall under High Tide Line (HTL) category mainly for disseminating disaster warning for the extremely vulnerable community to be resilient. This study aims to find the effectiveness of such ICT based disaster risk reduction measures taken by the government and NGOs in Tamil Nadu using quantitative research methods.

1) http://academic.research.microsoft.com/Paper/10761252.aspx
2) Maskrey, A.’ Defining the community’s role in disaster mitigation’. Appropriate Technology Magazine, Volume 19, Number 3, December 1992.