You might be interested in the REA (Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment in Disasters)project. While the REA tool is designed to be used during disasters, it may have some use as a scenario analysis tool in disaster planning exercises or, if appropriately adapted, as a community preparedness tool.
More details can be found at: http://www.benfieldhrc.org/SiteRoot/disa
ster_studies/rea/rea_index.htm.
Feel free to get back to me if you have any questions or need additional information.
C. Kelly
Benfield Hazard Research Centre
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Esteban Leon
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2004 3:26 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: "Collection of tools for vulnerability assessment"
Dear Sirs/Madams,
On behalf of the Secretariat for the United Nations-International Strategy
for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), UN-HABITAT are resepectfully requesting your
assistance in collecting functional tools you are willing to share, that
assist local communities, as well as municipal and national governments, in
reducing the impacts of disasters.
Some background...:
The ISDR Inter-Agency Task Force on Disaster Reduction has established a
number of working groups to follow up on the initiatives developed during
the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR).
Working Group three (WG3) of the ISDR-IATF, has as it's main objective "to
advance knowledge on the development and application of data and tools for
risk/vulnerability assessment and reduction." Its members consist of over
twenty representatives of UN Agencies, international NGOs and related
regional and national bodies world-wide. The work of the working group
focuses on understanding the needs for effective risk management,
particularly from the local and national level, on small and medium-scale
disasters and on the socio-economic impact and environmental risks and
associated impacts of disasters.
WG3 agreed to focus its work on three main activities:
The exchange of information on on-going activities for data gathering
and for the development of indicators and indexes for global risk
assessment;
The review of selected practices on the application of
risk-vulnerability-assessment tools at the local level;
The harmonisation of criteria for the development of a
risk-vulnerability index compatible with other indexes currently applied
on the social and economic development context.
UN-HABITAT in collaboration with UNDP has taken the lead in the development
of a programme of activities for a "Register" of tools and practices for
risk-vulnerability-assessment at national, sub-national and local level.
This will produce the following results:
A "compendium" of tools and practices for risk-vulnerability-assessment
at national, sub-national and local level.
Annotated comments, which accompany the register assisting the user with
identifying appropriate tools by describing their purpose, the
situations they have been applied in, and the decision-making processes
they can support.
An enhanced accessibility for local decision-makers and "users" to
available tools.
An "on line" feedback mechanism for users and decision-makers to comment
directly to the tool owner/operator and the registry about constraints
and contexts that their tool must reflect.
A "Network and referral facility" of practitioners and institutions
active in the area of risk assessment.
The main objective is to promote the application of improved practices for
risk-vulnerability-assessment at the local, sub-national and national
level.
UN-HABITAT, in collaboration with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre
(ADPC) and the Organisation of American States (OAS) has begun the
execution of activities in order to reach this objective.
How you can assist:
A web-site for this collection of tools has been created:
http://hq.unhabitat.org/rdmu/isdr/default.asp
(It is in the UN-HABITAT website (www.unhabitat.org), under Programmes/Risk
and Disaster Management Unit (RDMU) section page and you will see a link on
your left entitled "Disaster Vulnerability Assessment Tools (IATF WG3)".
Click on that and you should get the WG3 site.)
The website is interactive, and there are instructions for both finding
tools, and adding them, as well as a web-dialogue function for commentary.
All material gathered will be appropriately credited to the
institution/expert of origin, and will be made available to others. In case
you do not have any material but you know other institutions or experts
that might be interested in contributing, please feel free to forward this
note.
We look forward to your co-operation in this endeavour and to our future
collaboration in activities of common interest.
Best regards,
Esteban León
Disaster, Post-conflict and Safety Section
Urban Development Branch - Global Division
United Nations Human Settlement Programmes (UN-HABITAT)
P.O. Box 30030, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: (254-2) 624191
Fax: (254-2) 624263/623685
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