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External sources (not reviewed)

Droughts, floods, cyclones, landslides, earthquakes and tsunamis are the major types of disaster phenomena occurring in different regions of the world.

It’s important to prepare early for floods because just by taking some simple steps potential damage can be greatly reduced.

Storage of both kinds will be required in many regions to insure against droughts and flooding, as well as to provide regular multi-purpose benefits.

Priority will be given to particularly vulnerable developing countries, especially low-lying coastal, arid and semi-arid areas, LDC’s, SIDS and Africa, land-locked countries, and developing country parties with areas prone to floods, drought and desertification, with fragile ecosystems, and facing increased frequency of extreme and catastrophic events and trends linked to climate change.

It had put in place the Conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism (CEWARN) and the IGAD Capacity Building Programme against Terrorism (ICPAT); made progress towards the establishment of a subregional free-trade area; and established the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre, which dealt with extreme climate events such as droughts and floods and promoted sustainable development in the subregion.

The Office was also involved in the humanitarian inter-agency response to severe flooding in Rakhine State in Myanmar.

Furthermore, agriculture development has been suffering from adverse impacts of climate change, environmental degradation, desertification, land and soil degradation, extreme weather events, floods, droughts and cyclones, deforestation and loss of biodiversity, declining water availability and degrading water quality.

(n) Mainstream programmes to address desertification, land degradation, soil infertility, droughts, floods and salination into national development policy frameworks to encourage resilience.

As seen in different cases, however, these offices are not immune to interruptions, e.g., earthquake, storms and power outages in New York; power outage in Vienna; heavy rainfalls and floods in areas of Copenhagen, to name just a few.

Options include: maintaining or restoring wetlands capable of absorbing floods; restoration of flood plains on rivers; protection or restoration of forests on steep slopes (through legislation, purchase, incentives or agreement); protection; good management or if necessary, restoration of natural coastal defences including coastal marshes, coral reefs and mangroves; protective planting against soil erosion and desertification.

Flooding can be caused by a range of situations that include heavy rainfall, seawater, high tides, run-off from rivers and dams or urban drainage.

In some cases, the sites are located in gullies or flood-prone zones, adding to the vulnerability of those displaced.

The Centre will put particular emphasis on developing countries, in order to support sustainable utilization and management of the groundwater resources, to promote the role of groundwater in integrated water resources planning and to elucidate climate change adaptation measures, and drought and floods mitigation.

The moderator and theme presenters highlighted several impacts and consequences of climate change impacts on societies in the coastal zones, i.e. coastal flooding, sea-level rise, coral bleaching, ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity, changes to ecosystem services, coastal habitats and ultimately population migration in the coastal zone.

Drought is often followed by heavy rainfall, which causes serious flooding with harmful consequences on the environment, the population and the economy.

In response to floods and drought in this region, ESCAP continued its identification of capacity-building needs on various aspect of the water sectors including organizing training programs such as the overarching integrated water resources management, household water security, watershed management, river basin organization managements, flood management, conflict solutions, and integrated lake basin management.

Djibouti city is particularly threatened by flooding.

Paragraph 02110 – The International Flood Initiative (IFI) is a comprehensive long-term initiative with the overall objective of minimizing the loss of life and reducing property damage associated with flood disasters, thereby enabling maximization of the social, environmental and economic benefit of floods.

In Australia flood warnings are issued by radio, news and the Bureau of Meteorology to help individuals and communities be better informed and prepared should flooding occur.

Beyond the Organization’s coordinating role in establishing a global tsunami warning system, notably in the Indian Ocean, efforts will be carried out to promote an integrated and multi-hazard approach to disaster risk reduction, including the UNESCO-led International Flood Initiative and Programme, the open Alliance to support earthquake risk reduction and disaster management planning in mega-cities, as well as post-disaster investigations and environmental rehabilitation activities.

These can result from too much water (causing floods, erosion, land- and mud-slides, etc., in land-degraded areas) or too little (droughts, forest fires, loss of wetlands or other habitats, saline encroachment, etc.) and from the effects of chemical and biological pollution on water quality and in-stream ecosystems.

The International Hydrological Programme will continue assisting States in freshwater management, in drought situations such as in the Horn of Africa, and also in dealing with floods.

In addition, the United Nations, through labour-intensive projects, supported the cleaning of urban waterways prior to the cyclone season since garbage blockage routinely heightens flood risks.

Soil erosion, water logging and salinity all contribute to land degradation and desertification, leading to the over-exploitation of the land.

Faced with alternating floods and drought, Burkina Faso welcomed the implementation of the Africa Adaptation Programme, supported by Japan, and had launched an accelerated growth and sustainable development strategy as a reference framework for all development-related action.

Among those countries reporting the benefits of contingency planning were Burkina Faso and Nepal, both in facilitating responses to floods in 2009.

The Conference of the Parties also adopted a decision whereby it invited the parties to strengthen sustainable forest management and integrated water management in critical watershed areas in order to maintain ecosystem services in affected mountain areas, prevent soil erosion and flooding, to increase the size of atmospheric carbon sinks, and to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity (see ICCD/COP(8)/16/Add.1, decision 4/COP.8, para. 4).

Moreover, flooding of lowlying coastal areas, increased water scarcity, a decline in agricultural yields and fisheries resources and a loss of biological resources threaten the least developed countries in Africa and Asia.