Faculty of Civil & Environmental Engineering

NATURE CONSERVATION
BFC 10202
Part 7 : Natural disaster : Learning to
manage (causes, impact, management)
 INTRODUCTION – Part 7

Disasters : Learning to manage

1. Natural disasters
2. Causes (plate tectonics : components,
processes & effects; climate, global changes)
3. Impacts (earthquakes, volcanic activities,
tsunamies, land slides, hurricane, tornadoes,
typhoons, floods)
4. Disaster management (physical, people)
DISASTER (NATURAL OR
MAN-MADE)
 DEFINITION

Incident that occurs in a sudden manner,

complex in nature, resulting in the loss of
lives, damages to properties or the
environment as well as affecting the daily
activities of local community
 Recent Natural Disasters

 Asian Tsunami December 2004

 Hurricane Katrina, August/Sept. 2005
 Samoa Tsunami Sept. 2009
 Haiti Earthquake January 2010
 Indonesian Flood October 2010
 Christchurch Earthq. Sept 2010, Feb,June 2011
 Philippines Volcanic Eruption, February 2011
 Japan Earthquake & Tsunami March 2011
 Thailand flood Oct, Nov. 2011
Cont

 2012
 2013
 2014 :Cameron highland mudflood
 Banjir Eastcoast of P. Malaysia
(Kelantan, Pahang, Terengganu)
 2015 :Earthquake in Ranau Sabah
 Mudflood in Mesilau, Kundasang, Sabah
2: CAUSES OF NATURAL
DISASTERS
a. Earth components
b. Earth Processes
c. Effects
a. Earth components

Earth (~4.6bill yrs old) is made of several

layers
 Core : inner and upper core
 Mantle : lower and outer mantle
 Lithosphere (thin crust) : + PLATES :
oceanic and continental plates
Crust

Mantle
(upper &
lower)

Core
(inner &
All components in dynamics
Theory of PLATE TECTONIC

 Lithosphere is cool enough to harden

and solidify to form plates
 Plates are in dynamics – moving,
emerging, submerging, converging,
melting, solidifying
 Movement due to energy from molten
core and semi hardened mantle
 16 (7 major) plates
Main plates - oceanic

Pacific plate
Cocos plate
Caribbean plate
Antarctic plate
Indian plate
Philippine plate
Main plates - continental

North American Plate

South American Plate
African plate
Arabian plate
Eurasian plate
b. Earth processes

 Movements of crustal plates is called

plate tectonics
 Any area where two plates meet – plate
boundary – is a site of intense geological
activity
 Earthquakes and volcanoes common
along these plate boundaries
At one time eastern S America
was attached to west Africa
Now it looks like this – with all
oceanic and continental plates
Along meeting points of plates
are active geological areas
Processes – meeting of two
continental plates – India &
Eurasian plate

 Two continental plates (with land

masses) on top meet and merge – Indian
plate and Eurasian plate - Himalaya
Once upon a time – India linked
to other continents
Then Indian
plate move
towards Eurasia
plate and
crashed and
formed Himalaya
range
Processes

 Sometimes when two plates meet and

grind against each other, one subdued
(usually more dense) – process called
subduction – subduction zone
 When two plates pull apart a ridge of
molten rocks from mantle wells up in
between – may solidify to form plate eg
Atlantic Ocean
Weak points along oceanic-continental
plate boundaries – subduction zone
 Lower density continental plates tend to
ride over more dense oceanic plate eg.
Pacific Ocean subduction zones
 Remelting of oceanic (subdued) plate
 Process of subduction leads to much
friction and fracturing of the crust – causing
earthquakes and volcanic activity in the
vicinity of the subduction zones eg Ring of
Fire in Pacific Ocean
Weak points along oceanic-continental
boundaris-spreading zone
 Some plate move away from one
another
 Eg. Pacific Plate moving northward
relative to N American Plate – spreading
causing new molten materials to spread
into transform zone – may also produce
earthquakes and volcanic activities
Plates separate apart, filled with
water and form oceanic plates
Atlantic
plate
formed
when
S. America
moved
away from
Africa
So plates can move away from one
another, move towards one another
or moves sideways
Moving apart eg
Atlantic plate

Crashed into one

another eg Himalaya

Moved sideways
Summary

 CONTINENTAL AND OCEANIC

PLATES ARE CONSTANTLY MOVING
ON EARTH ALL THE TIME

 AT ALL BOUNDARIES OF PLATES

THERE ARE ACTIVE GEOLOGICAL
ACTIVITIES ESPECIALLY
EARTHQUAKES
Today the world looks like this
50 million yrs to come the world
will look like this
c. Effects

 Earthquakes – earth movement

 Volcanic eruptions – earth movement
 Tsunami – earthquake under sea/ocean
 Cyclones – atmospheric temperature,
pressure
 Tornadoes – atm. Temp. pressure
 Hurricanes – atm. Temp. pressure
 Land slides – earth movement (high to low
areas)
 Mudflood – flood + soil movement
Earthquakes

 Forces inside earth push and stretch the

crust – some rock plasticity (absorbing
the energy)
 As energy accumulates, rock suddenly
shift or break – released seismic waves
– vibrations that spread among the rocks
rapidly in all direction – causes
earthquakes
Areas with active geologic
activities especially earthquakes
 Most earthquakes occur along faults,
fractures in the crust in which rocks
moves forward and backward up and
down from side to side
 Fault zones are often found at crust
boundaries
 Site where earthquake begins often
below surface is called FOCUS
 Directly above on earth surface –
EARTH EPICENTRE
 Cause earth to shake buildings and
bridges collapse, roads twisted
 Seismograph used to measure
earthquake - Richter scale
Richter scale

 2 – tremor or none
 4.3 ~ I Hiroshima atomic Bomb
(20kilotonne of TNT)
 8 - flatten a city (Lisbon 1755, Turkey
1999, Iran 2003)
 9.5 ~ 66,000,000 Hiroshima atomic
bomb
 12 will release energy sufficient to split
the earth!!!
Earthquakes

 Estimated 30,000 earthqukaes annually

– mostly minor and do not cause
damage – geological earth process to
stabilize and maintain earth equilibrium
 Define : vibration of earth produced by
rapid release of energy
 Energy radiates in all directions from
focus (epicenter)
If earthquakes causes tsunami it
will take time to travel
Volcanoes

 At faults (fractures or weak areas along a

line of oceanic-continental plates or
within) due to subsidences or collision or
spreading of plates
Formation of volcanoes

 Mostly when crustal plates move onto

the hot, soft rock of the outer mantle
 In places rock reaches melting point,
forming pockets of molten rocks –
magma.
 When one plate slides under or away
from an adjacent plate, magma may rise
to the surface, often forming volcanoes
 Magma reaching surface - lava
 i

Formation of
volcanoes
along weak
points
Volcanic eruption

 Volcanoes occur at three locations :

subduction zone, spreading centres, and
above hot spots
 Volcanic island : As plate move over a
hot spot (area where a rising magma
flowed out from opening of crust)
Events

 1991 Eruption of Mt Pinatubo

(Philippines) largest in 20th century
 Evacuation of 200,000 people – 338
deaths occur due to collapsed buildings
under the thick layer of wet ash.
 Volcanic cloud produced ~ 30km
 Significant reduction in temperature due
to sun – cos of thick ash and magma
Tsunami

 From Japanese word means “Harbour

waves”
 One of the side effect of mostly
earthquake when there is a lift or drop in
a segment of ocean floor
 A giant wave caused by an underwater
earthquake or volcanic eruption
 Can move >750km/hr
 Maybe 1m in ocean but wells up 30.5m
on approaching land
 May also be due to submarine landslides
or volcanic eruptions
Tsunami builds up as it approaches
shorelines
Events

 Asian Tsunami – Acheh, Malaysia, India,

Sri Lanka, Maldives, Thailand
 270,000 people died

 Japan 2011
 New Zealand (Christchurch) 2010
Land slides

Landslide mainly transfer of rock and soil

from higher to lower elevation as a part
of country to the sea
Landslide also due to slopes
oversteepened by erosion or by human
intervention
Also can be caused by liquifaction when
intense shaking of land mass turn water
saturated surface material into fluidlike
quicksand eg Anchoragege, Alaska 1964
Tornadoes

 Tornadoes :powerful rotating funnel of air

associated with severe thunderstorm
 Formed :mass of cool dry air collides with warm
humid air produce a strong updraft of spinning
air un the underside of a cloud
 May reach 480km/hr
 Range from 1m to 3.2km (width)
 Last from several seconds to as long as
7hrs, travel from several meters to
320km
 Tornadoes most destructive
 Destroy buildings, bridges, freight train,
blowing water out of river/lake, kill people
US prone to tornadoes in spring months
 Typically about 1000/yr
Cyclones, Typhoons or Hurricane

Tropical cyclones destructive as they hit

land due to strong wind and storm
surges (waves rise as much as 7.5m
above oceans)
Known as hurricane in Atlantic, typhoons
in Pacific and cyclones in Indian Ocean
Mainly in summer and autumn months
ocean warmest
Easy to recognize in satellite photos spiral
of clouds 800km diameter.
Floods

 When water overflow river/drainage

system due to rainfall
 May occur even when there is no rain
downstream but heavy rain upstream
 Flash-flood normally lasted few hours
 Normally related to rainfall pattern which
is associated with the monsoon periods
 Eg. SW monsoon affecting north and
eastern coast of peninsula Malaysia
Malaysia is outside ring of fire

 Major natural disasters are :

 Earth tremor, flood, land-slides, drought,
coastal erosion

 Many man-made disasters :

 Land-slides, oil spill, chemical accidents,
epidemics
3. IMPACTS

 Incident that occurs in a sudden manner,

complex in nature, resulting
in the
loss of lives, damages to
properties or the environment
as well as affecting the daily
activities of local community

Associated dangers during
natural disasters
 Fire breakout eg during earthquakes
when gas mains and water pipes rise to
surface and rupture
 Accidents on roads and highways
 When radioactive materials leaked out
 Oil spills
 Loss of properties and life
Impacts – structural damage

Houses and residences

Bridges, towers,
Transportation eg train/tram systems,
roads and highways, ports, airports
Public amenities – schools, hospitals,
churches, mosques, community centres
Impacts – environmental damages

Pollution to environment eg. Water, air, soil

Due to chemical/oil spill
Impacts – human welfare

Trauma management
Children welfare
Psychological matters (stress
management)
Enhancement of impact or
escalating phenomena
 When earthquake, volcanic eruption
enhances eg landslide
Summary

 Impacts of natural disasters can be on

structures, environment, people

 Associated disasters or dangers due to

main natural or man-made disasters
maybe even more damaging ef fire break
outs, radioactivity etc
4: DISASTER MANAGEMENT

 Two types of disasters ;

 NATURAL – flood, landslide (tsunami,

earthquake)
 MAN-MADE – fire, chemical/oil spill, land
slides
 (Enhancement of natural disaster due to
men’s activity)
 Definition : disaster management
(UNISDR, 2004)
It is the systematic process of using
administrative decisions, organizations,
operational skills & capacities to implement
policies, as well as the strategies & coping
capacities of the society & communities to
lessen the impacts of natural hazards & related
environmental & technological disasters. This
comprises all forms of activities, including
structural & non-structural measures to avoid or
limit the adverse effects of hazards.
Principles of disaster
management (Colin 2011)
 Know your hazards and their
consequences
 Reduce (mitigate) hazards
 Plan for responding to the consequences
 Respond to events
 Recover to be in abetter position to face
the hazards in the future
The 4 Rs

Reduction/
Mitigation

Recovery Preparedness
/Readiness

Response
R1 : REDUCTION/MITIGATION

Defn :
Identifying and analyzing long term risks to
human life and property from natural
and/or man-made disasters; taking steps
to eliminate these risks if practicable, an
if not, reducing the magnitude of their
impact and the likelihood of their
reccuring
 REDUCTION/MITIGATION,
PREVENTION
 Know your hazards and their potential impacts
(mapping out areas and analyzing potentials)
 Identify methods to reduce impacts
 Build “reduction” into long term planning
(infrastructure, build environment &
communities)
 Support research and work closely with the
science community (local and international)
RISK REDUCTION/MITIGATION

 Early warning signs or signal clearly

known and made aware to public
 Cear signage to evacuation centres
 Sensitive monitoring tools and systems
 Excellent rapid communication system
 SOP for equipment use clear and simple
RISK REDUCTION/MITIGATION

 Mitigation options :
 Physical (eg flood protection – bunds,
pumps)
 Legislation (approval process for
development in hazards areas, building,
health & safety)
 Community (onwership and responsibility)
Reducing impact – 1.earthquakes

 Sensitive and precise monitoring system,

early warning signs/signals/ good
communication system
 In Japan : Earthquake prone areas –
buildings with buffering system and
structure built on moveable system –
sideway rolling effect by ball bearings
Reducing effect – 2. land slide

 Strict legislation for building on slopes or hill

sides:<10o–ok; >20o-worry; 55-60o-risky
 Stringent monitoring system for slope
management eg tools for monitoring
signs/signal of slope faults
 Thorough EIAs
 Good monitoring systems, early warning
signs/signals and good communication
system
New guideline for slope
management
 Lowland : <150m Hills : 150-300m
 Highlands : 300-1000m Mountains : >1000m

 <15o – Class I slope

 15-25o – Class II slope
 25-35o – Class III slope
 >35o – Class IV slope (no earthwork is
allowed)
Reducing impact – 3. flood

 Well equipped and managed evacuation

centres with well trained team/volunteers
 Improve drainage systems eg SMART Tunnel
 Precise forecasting tools for signs of floods,
early warning systems and good
communicating system
 Proper town and urban planning for flood
prone areas
 Reduce deforestation
Reducing impact –
4. fire/chemical spill
 Trained personnels to deal with fires and
chemical spills
 SOP and rescue procedures clear
 Good management system of fire
fighting equipment (eg extinguishers, fire
hydrants)
Reducing effect – 5. tsunami

 Wave breakers – mangrove/beach forest

 Early warning signs/signals & good
communication system
 Time to reach a destination from
epicentre :
 Local cause tsunami – < 1h travel time
 Distant source tsunami - >3h risk
 Regional surce tsunami – 1-3h level
Reducing impact – 6. epidemics

 Early warning system and good

communicating system
 Rigorous and good monitoring system
 Well equipped and maintained evacuation
and isolation centres (Sg. Buluh Hospital
center for infectious diseases)
 Good supply and maintenance of medication
and vaccine
R2. PREPAREDNESS/READINESS

 How prepared/ready people are to face a

particular hazard, contains elements
such as Planning, Communicating,
Education, Training, Resource
acquisition and Testing (people, facility,
drillings)
 Planning and communication

 Involve all partners or stakeholders

 Clear roles and responsibilities
 Capable of responding to all hazards
 Information gathering and analysis process
 Define operation centers with supporting
resources
 Training and testing
Authorities & Ministries (egs)

 First responder (Fire, Police, JPAM,

RELA etc)
 Electric power
 Water sources
 Communication and IT (telephones, net)
 Resources, environment, meteorology
 Work, transport and infrastructure
R3. RESPONSE

Defn :

The act to address a disaster through a

coordinated effort and contains elements
such as Warning, Activation,
Communications, Situational awareness,
Reporting, Aid and Donations management
Warning

 Be decisive
 Better to warn than delay
 Ensure resources / facilities available for
evacuees
 Be quick – others may communicate eg
media
 Communicate when danger has pass
Activation

 Structure – procedure/organizational
structure eg ; Coordinated Incident
Management System (CIMS)
 Roles and responsibilities – first line
responder (eg police or fire brigade) to
Voluntary NGOs
 Communications
 Facilities – evacuation centre, fire
fighting eqipment etc
Clear command and control

 Authority
 Decision making capabiolity
 Must know the big picture
 Must know the full facts
 Set expectation : reporting, meetings
Communications

 Be emphathetic; embody sincere caring

 Coordinated and consistent, make sure
all responder are giving core message
 Be first : speedy communication
 Be right; accurate contend
 Be credible, be honest and build trust
Reporting

 Regular situation reports

 Updates fact and figures
 Actions completed and outstanding

 Any potential escalation

 Basis for communication

 Media message
 Public information

 Basis for future planning in multiagency

respond
Aids and donations management

 From many sources – local, regional,

international
 Clearly identify what is needed
 Search & rescue
 Money

 Specific resources

 One central point for coordination eg

Red Cross, Wisma Putra (Malaysia, int.)
 Transparency of aid distribution
R4: RECOVERY

 Assessment will be made of impact of a

disaster
 Structure, power/resources availability,
transportation/communication system,
health system, education system, properties
 Life, debilitating activity (man-hr, effort)

 Disruption of daily activities

 Disruption of economic activities

Elements

 Assessment of damage
 Enhancing community resilience to
disaster
Community resilience

 Defn :

The ability of that group of people to

“bounce back” from an adverse
experience (natural or man-made)

 Benefits :
 Faster : readiness, response, recovery
 Factors that enhance comm.
resilience
 Cohesiveness of community
 Sharing common belief; behaviour (norms); and
environment
 Self reliance and sustainability
 Viable and sustainable livelihoods from comm
and indiv perspective (higher quality of life, less
vulnerable)
 Self and community awareness – ability of local
organizations to make themselves aware
Response system in Malaysia

 The DIRECTIVE 20
 Police
 Fire and Rescue
 Volunteers (RELA, JPAM)
 NGOs
Readiness (Preparedness) –
personal level
 Trained and made aware of nature and
impact of disaster
 Protocol/SOP clear/training eg fire drill
(at home)
 Community participation – build
resilience
 Grab bag (individual level)
Multilateral framework and
declarations for disaster risk
reduction
 Disaster loss arises when hazards
interact with physical, social, economic
and environmental vulnerabilities
 Currently, international acknowledgment
that effort to reduce disaster risks must
be systematically integrated into policies,
plans and programme for sustainable
development and poverty reduction and
supported through bilateral, regional and
international cooperation (some already
Yokohama Strategy recognizes
gaps and challenges in 5 areas
 Governance: organizational, legal &
policy framework
 Risk identification, assessment,
monitoring and early warning
 Knowledge management and education
 Reducing underlying risk factors
 Preparedness for effctive response and
recovery
Expected outcome of World
Conference on DR (2005-2015)
 The substantial reduction of disaster
losses, in lives and in the social,
economic and environmental assets of
communities and countries

 Requires full commitment of all:

government, regional and internatinal
organizations, civil society incl.
volunteers, private sectors and scientific
communities
5 priorities for actions

 Ensure that disaster risk reduction is a national

and a local priority with a strong insitutional
basis for implementation
 Identify, assess and monitor disaster risks abd
enhance early warning
 Use knowledge, innovation and education to
build a culture of safety and resilience at all
levels
 Reduce the underlying risk factors
 Strengten disaster preparedness for effective
response at all levels
SENDAI FRAMEWORK FOR DISASTER
RISK REDUCTION 2015-2030

 ADOPTED AT Third UN World

Conference on Disaster Risk reduction in
Sendai, Japan on March 2015

 What we do – WE COORDINATE
Expected outcomes

 Substantial reduction of disaster risk and

losses in lives, livelihoods and health
and in the economic, physical, social,
cultural and environmental assets of
persons, bussinesses, communities and
countries
 Requires strong commitment and
involvement of political leadership
HYOGO FRAMEWORK FOR
ACTION 2005-2015
 Adopted at World Conference on
Disaster reduction, 18-22Jan 2005,
Kobe, Hyogo, Japan
 Building the resilience of nations and
communities to disasters
Summary

 Impact of disaster (natural, man-made)

can be reduced
 Disaster management cycle has 4
components :Reduction/mitigation;
Readiness; Response; Recovery
 Always be ready to face disaster : it can
happen anyway, anytime to anybody
Final note

 We hope this course NATURE

CONSERVATION has raised your
awareness on environmental issues
 We hope you have learnt some basic
principles and understand nature ways of
responding
 Able to practise conservation
professionally as engineers
We hope we have gain access to your
subconscious mind and implant a reminder

 THAT WE ALL ARE KHALIFAH/

STEWARTS OF GOD’S
CREATIONS AND IT IS OUR
RESPONSIBILITY TO TAKE
CARE OF WHAT IS THERE
BETWEEN THE SKY AND THE
SEA – WALLAHU ALAM
Terima kasih