The role of geosciences in the improvement of mitigation of natural disasters: five case studies

LEROY S. A. G., WARNY S., LAHIJANI H., PIOVANO E. L., FANETTI D. AND BERGER A. R.

Geophysical Hazards: Minimising risk, maximising awareness³ edited by Tom Beer. Series International Year of Planet Earth.

Springer

Año: 2008;

The analysis of geoscientific data combined with historical documents about past natural hazards and of the disasters that followed is essential to improve mitigation plans. It is only with this method that the full scale of potential rapid changes that is not covered by the instrumental record can be obtained. Therefore the collection of these past data and their integration in planning should become one of the priorities of the Hyogo Framework of Actions. This paper analyses five case studies under these lights: global warming impact on the Inuit populations at high latitudes of Canada, hurricane impact on the southern coast of the USA especially in New Orleans, rapid level rises in several lakes of the Argentinian Pampas with emphasis on laguna Mar Chiquita, the rapid sea level rise of the Caspian Sea as seen from Iran and the tsunami risk in a large Alpine lake of Northern Italy, Lake Como. In each area, the main natural hazard detailed here is not the only one by far. Any combination of hazards could lead to change from disaster to catastrophe. The most successful cases of transfer of information between geoscientists and end-users are when the hazards are visible or when the messengers bearing the information are trusted by the local communities.