Developing an Open Database to Support Forensic Investigation of Disasters in South East Asia: FORINSEA v1.0

Abstract

Arguably the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (SFDRR) fail to deal with root causes of disasters (Wisner; 2020) and therefore calls for science to support policy move towards more holistic solutions to disaster risk. In this context; root causes analysis has been described as “a structured investigation that aims to identify the true cause of a problem and the actions necessary to eliminate it” (DKKV; 2012; p. 12). A systematic review of 40 studies of disaster causation concluded that the FORensic INvestigations of disasters (FORIN) provides a broad and adaptable approach for the study of disaster root causes (Fraser et al.; 2016). FORIN has been developed by the IntegratedResearch on Disaster Risk (IRDR) program of International Council for Science (ICSU), International Social Science Council (ISSC) and United Nations International Strategy for disaster Reduction (UNISDR) (Oliver-Smith et al.; 2016). The FORIN approach has been used to investigate the root causes of disasters around the world. For example; to reveal the underlying causes and risk drivers in the Haitian earthquake (Oliver-Smith et al.; 2016); to inform the narratives to identify the factors that exacerbated the loss of human life in one of the most devastated local municipalities on the coast by 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (Nakasu et al.; 2017)or to understand the political ecology of the recurrent El Niño-related disasters in Peru (French et al.,2020)