China’s rapid urban growth over the last 40 years has increased its cities’ exposure to natural hazards, a trend exacerbated by environmental degradation and climate change.
Disaster resilient infrastructure key to risk reduction in loss of life and property May 24, 2021, 3:26 PM IST
Rajiv Tikoo is a journalist and editor with interest in sustainable development. Apart from writing, he has edited books and compendiums of case studies related to social sector, including ‘Forest Lanterns’ on tribal communities published by Penguin Random House. He has also produced radio programmes for All India Radio, and films. Besides, he explores the use of mobile Apps, IVRS-based helplines, info-kiosks and Community Radio stations for hyperlocal communication. A former Deputy Editor of ‘The Financial Express’ and Asia Editor of United Nations Millennium Campaign, he is a recipient of fellowship from the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership. Presently he heads ICT for development non-profits OneWorld Foundation India and OneWorld South Asia. LESS. MORE
Learning from Megadisasters: A Decade of Lessons from the Great East Japan Earthquake
Format
Authors: Shoko Takemoto, Naho Shibuya, and Keiko Sakoda
Today marks the ten-year anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE), a mega-disaster that marked Japan and the world with its unprecedented scale of destruction. This feature story commemorates the disaster by reflecting on what it has taught us over the past decade in regards to infrastructure resilience, risk identification, reduction, and preparedness, and disaster risk finance. Since GEJE, the World Bank in partnership with the Government of Japan, especially through the Japan-World Bank Program on Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management in Developing Countries has been working with Japanese and global partners to understand impact, response, and recovery from this megadisaster to identify larger lessons for disaster risk management (DRM).
Resilient water infrastructure design brief
Format
Objective: Resilience
A 2019 report by the World Bank, entitled “Lifelines: The Resilient Infrastructure Opportunity,” estimated that low- and middle-income countries lose $390 billion each year to disruptions of power, transportation, water, and telecommunications services caused by natural hazards (World Bank 2019). The disrupted services are typically delivered through large networks that are vulnerable to natural hazards over a large area. Improving the resilience of those networks would cost about 3 percent of their capital investment, but the avoided disruptions would save quadruple that amount. In other words, every dollar spent to improve resilience would avoid four dollars in costs owing to service disruptions. The cost reduction associated with spending on resilience is estimated to be $4.2 trillion over the useful life of new infrastructure (World Bank 2019).