Disaster Risk Reduction Programme

Risk assessment determines the nature and extent of existing and potential future risk and its components. It involves the identification, analysis and evaluation of hazards in terms of their location, intensity, frequency, duration and probability; of vulnerability in terms of its physical, social, economic and environmental dimensions; of the exposure of people and assets; and of the effectiveness of prevailing or alternative coping and adaptive capacities. On the other hand, post-disaster loss and damage data serves as input for estimating future impacts. Such data needs to be quality-assured, temporally and geographically referenced with the hazard event, consistently catalogued and properly archived. Hydrometeorological observations and forecasts by NMHSs are fundamental input for sound risk assessments.

Disaster prevention expresses the concept and intention to completely avoid the adverse impacts of hazards through actions taken, normally, in advance of a potentially disastrous event. Very often complete avoidance of losses is not feasible and efforts turn to mitigation. Meteorological, hydrological and climate information is essential to determine effective risk mitigation measures, for example, in the design of the levels of embankments that protect high-risk flood zones where settlement and economic activities are vulnerable. Structural and non-structural measures can also be taken during or after an event to prevent secondary hazards or their consequences, for example, air, soil or water contamination. 

Early warning systems (EWS) are critical life-saving tools when environmental hazards arise. Effective EWSs generate, disseminate and use timely, accurate, actionable and inclusive warning information to enable individuals, communities and organizations to prepare in advance and respond appropriately to a hazard  in order to reduce the possibility of harm or loss. Effective people-centred, end-to-end EWSs comprise four interrelated elements:

1. Risk assessments;
2. Hazard analysis and generation of warning messages;
3. Dissemination of warnings and communication of associated likelihood and impact information; and,
4. Activation of preparedness and response plans and capabilities.

Multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEWS) provide common capacities to prepare for and respond to several hazards, including those occurring simultaneously or cumulatively over time, and for their potential interrelated impacts. As such, MHEWSs increase efficiency and consistency of warnings.

In the past decade the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), since 1992 the primary mechanism for inter-agency coordination of humanitarian assistance involving the key United Nations (UN) and non-UN humanitarian partners, initiated a number of reforms to improve contingency planning for disasters, using the cluster approach for enhanced coordination among humanitarian agencies at international to national levels. As a result, such agencies have sought to use essential meteorological, hydrological and climatological information in their planning. To realize these opportunities, the Commission for Basic Systems (CBS) established an inter-commission task team on “Meteorological Services for Improved Humanitarian Planning and Response”, comprised of experts from a number of NMHSs. The DRR Programme is coordinating this work within the UN and other humanitarian agencies in order to demonstrate the benefits of weather and climate services when targeted to needs and requirements. 

Disasters affect human life and have profound impacts on local and national economies, sometimes setting back development gains by many years in countries with limited resources. Over the past decades, there has been a persistent increase in the number of disaster events, and hydrometeorological hazards accounting for the lion’s share of them. The DRR Programme, therefore, facilitates the development of weather, water and climate services for risk financing, insurance and other financial risk transfer mechanisms in order to cope with residual risks.