Structures such as dikes play a crucial role in preventing disasters by controlling tsunamis, floods, debris flows, landslides, and other natural phenomena. However, structural measures alone cannot prevent all disasters because they cannot mitigate damages when the hazard exceeds the level that...

Warning systems can mitigate the damage caused by tsunamis and other natural events, and prevent the loss of human life and properties. Countermeasures, such as evacuations to higher ground and the stopping of trains, depend on getting the right information and disseminating it in a timely...

Reconstruction should include a range of measures to enhance safety: disaster prevention facilities, relocation of communities to higher ground, and evacuation facilities. A community should not, however, rely too heavily on any one of these as being sufficient, because the next tsunami could be...

A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) identifies the potential effects of disruptions to an organization's critical operations if a disaster were to occur, and specifies effective response actions and quick recovery measures. In the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE), BCPs served their purpose to...

Community evacuation measures should be the centerpiece of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) systems. Because the Sanriku region has suffered from frequent tsunamis, its local communities have passed their knowledge from generation to generation, mainly by constructing commemorative monuments and...

National governments are supposed to play a pivotal role in disaster risk management (DRM). This paper reviews trends and patterns in developing governance and institutions in DRM in the Asia and the Pacific region. The paper then derives recommendations on how to establish disaster risk...

To many, reducing water losses is seen as key to more sustainable water management. The arguments to reduce water losses are compelling, but reducing water losses has turned out to be challenging. This paper applies a panel data analysis with fixed effects to determine the major drivers of...

Aid is good for the poor. This paper uses detailed aid data spanning 60 developing countries over the past two decades to show that social aid significantly and directly benefits the poorest in society, while economic aid increases the income of the poor through growth. This new and unequivocal...