Environmental Risk Management for Developing Countries

Disaster losses in the developing world have increased substantially over the past decade and are likely to accelerate in future years. This paper proposes an environmental risk management program for developing countries that consists of six modules. The pre-disaster phase includes risk identification, risk mitigation, risk transfer, and preparedness; the post-disaster phase is devoted to emergency response and rehabilitation and reconstruction. We illustrate the elements of each of these phases with a set of examples and then show how they have been applied in three countries: Fiji, India,and Turkey. The paper concludes with a set of suggestions for future research.

[1]  Charlotte Benson.  The economic impact of natural disasters in Fiji , 1997 .

[2]  Caroline Clarke,et al.  Facing the Challenge of Natural Disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean: An IDB Action Plan , 2000 .

[3]  Keith Smith.  Environmental Hazards: Assessing Risk and Reducing Disaster , 1991 .

[4]  Weimin Dong,et al.  Paying the Price: The Status and Role of Insurance against Natural Disasters in the United States , 1999 .

[5]  David Alexander,et al.  Review of "World Disasters Report 1994", by International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies , 1996 .

[6]  Margaret Arnold,et al.  Managing disaster risk in Mexico : market incentives for mitigation investment , 1999 .

[7]  Howard Kunreuther,et al.  Managing Environmental Risk Through Insurance , 1997 .

[8]  Theo Schilderman,et al.  Disasters and development. A case study from Peru , 1993 .

[9]  W. Carter,et al.  Disaster management: A disaster manager's handbook , 1991 .

[10]  Christopher M. Lewis,et al.  Alternative Means of Redistributing Catastrophic Risk in a National Risk-Management System , 1999 .

[11]  Todhunter Ballard,et al.  Disaster management : a disaster manager's handbook , 1992 .

[12]  A matter of development: how to reduce vulnerability in the face of natural disasters , 2000 .

[13]  Cities, disasters and livelihoods , 2000 .

[14]  A. Barka,et al.  Heightened odds of large earthquakes near istanbul: An interaction-based probability calculation , 2000, Science.

[15]  David Sanderson,et al.  Cities, Disasters and Livelihoods , 2000 .

[16]  Alcira Kreimer.  Managing disaster risk in emerging economies , 2000 .

[17]  T. Andersen.  Managing Economic Exposures of Natural Disasters: Exploring Alternative Financial Risk Management Opportunities and Instruments , 2001 .

[18]  H. Foster,et al.  Disaster Planning : The Preservation of Life and Property , 1980 .

[19]  D. Mileti.  Disasters by Design: A Reassessment of Natural Hazards in the United States , 1999 .

[20]  H. Kunreuther,et al.  National Systems and Institutional Mechanisms for the Comprehensive Management of Disaster Risk: Phase 1 , 2001 .