Disaster, Planning and Development: Managing Natural Hazards to Reduce Loss












Table of Contents

Department of Regional Development and Environment Executive Secretariat for Economic and Social Affairs Organization of American States

With support from the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance United States Agency for International Development

Washington, D.C.
December, 1990

A Contribution to the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction

Cover: Casma, Peru, following the May 31, 1970 earthquake

© All rights reserved
1990 by Organization of American States
Washington, D.C.

This report was produced by the Natural Hazards Project of the Department of Regional Development and Environment with support from the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance/U.S. Agency for International Development. AID does not necessarily share all the views expressed, but welcomes this publication as a means of encouraging further discussion of natural hazard issues in development planning.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Executive summary

Introduction

Part one: General considerations

What are natural hazards?

1. How natural are natural hazards?
2. The environment, natural hazards, and sustainable development

Reducing the impact of natural hazards

Part two: Guidelines for incorporating natural hazard considerations into development planning and project formulation

Susceptibility to vulnerability reduction

1. The nature of the hazard
2. The nature of the study area
3. The participants in the drama

Hazard mitigation strategies for development planning

1. Incorporating mitigation measures into an integrated development planning study
2. Advantages of integrated development planning for hazard management

Hazard mitigation strategies for project formulation

1. Incorporating mitigation measures into investment projects
2. Methods for evaluating natural hazard risk

Strategies for specific hazards

1. Hurricanes
2. Drought and desertification
3. Geologic hazards
4. Floods
5. Landslides

Strategies for selected economic sectors

1. Energy in Costa Rica
2. Tourism in Jamaica
3. Agriculture in Ecuador
4. Strategies derived from the case studies

Tools and techniques for natural hazard assessment

1. Geographic information systems
2. Remote sensing in natural hazard assessments
3. Special mapping techniques

Strategies for development assistance agencies10/

1. Technical cooperation agencies
2. Convincing financing agencies

Appendix A - Status of geologic hazards in Latin America and the Caribbean

Table A-1 - Geographic distribution of maximum earthquake intensities in South America

Table A-2 - Maximum seismic intensity and conditional probability of occurrence of a large or great earthquake for coastal locations in South America

Table A-3 - Geographic distribution of maximum earthquake intensities in Central America

Table A-4 - Maximum seismic intensity and conditional probability of occurrence of a large or great earthquake for selected locations in Central America

Table A-5 - Active volcanoes in Latin America and the Caribbean, associated volcanic hazards, and periodicity of eruptions during the last 10,000 years

Table A-6 - Tsunami hazards for population centers in South America

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