Approach for national scale earthquake risk assessment: Case study from Nepal

The paper presents the approach for earthquake hazard, exposure, vulnerability and risk assessment for Nepal. The approach amalgamates various scientific streams, which are structured and integrated on GIS platform. The exposure, vulnerability and risk assessment are carried out for primary sectors including population, housing, education, hospital, industry, power and roadways. The risk assessment is carried out in two ways targeting emergency management agencies. One aspect of risk assessment represents expected number of sector units falling in specific grade of damage and the second aspect covers expected loss and impact on GDP due to large magnitude earthquake (i.e., Bihar-Nepal Earthquake 1934). The earthquake risk for the size of the 1934 event may mean losses exceeding 15 billion USD, can lead to large fiscal and economic impacts. Based on these findings the paper recommends DRR interventions at the national scale to tackle gaps in risk reduction, risk financing and risk governance

Natural rubber latex-clay nanocomposite: Use of montmorillonite clay as an alternative for conventional CaCo3

Regional landslide hazard prediction and warning are still difficult targets to be achieved and a hot topic in the research of landslide hazards. It is necessary to investigate the possibility of interpreting landslide events in terms of the rainfall patterns immediately preceding the slide event. This can be further enhanced by taking the lithological conditions in to account. Rainfall threshold values vary from region to region due to differences in exiting soil characteristics and climatological patterns in different areas. This paper addresses the needs mentioned above and it includes the data and methods for recommending threshold values adopted by countries, such as Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. A new approach is proposed considering normalized cumulative rainfall from 6 days beyond a certain landslide till the day of occurrence. Data from several countries such as Sri Lanka, India etc. have shown very promising outputs as per the application of the proposed methodology. However, it is clearly evident that the extreme rainfalls in a shorter duration could trigger disastrous landslides. This is confirmed by the data from countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh, etc. when the rainfall collected 3 days preceding the event till the landslide occurrences is considered

A Local Level Technology and Policy Intervention Approach to Restore Paddy Ecosystems in the Nilwala Downstream, Affected due to Nilwala Flood Protection Scheme, Southern Sri Lanka

AbstractPresent paper discusses the innovative approach and the strategies adapted for policy impact, by the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre along with stake holder institutions to restore paddy ecosystems affected due to the introduction of a flood protection scheme for the down-streams of the Nilwala river basin located in the Matara District, southern Sri Lanka.The project helped in studying the problems and addressing the policy issues while mainstreaming climate information applications in order to reduce the vulnerabilities associated with paddy farming by rallying all stake holders (academia, local level government institutions, farmer organizations & media) under the leadership of the Matara District Secretary to form a local Management and Monitoring Committee which helped in identifying the most effective policy framework. It has also helped in addressing the main issues related to climate, plant, soil, water and social problems through technology intervention and adapting them to improve farming systems