Disaster risk reduction strategies in earthquake-prone cities

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of disaster risk reduction (DRR) activities underway in 11 earthquake-prone cities including Antakya and Istanbul, Turkey; Bandung and Padang, Indonesia; Chincha and Lima, Peru; Christchurch, New Zealand; Delhi and Guwahati, India; San Francisco, USA; and Thimphu, Bhutan. The goal is to provide information about the tools and resources that practitioners and organizations in these 11 cities have access to, in order to provide a more comprehensive understanding of DRR strategies and a better sense of the contexts in which future potential products may be created, evaluated, and ultimately adopted. Drawing on both survey and in-depth interview data with earthquake safety practitioners from government, business, health care, education, and grassroots groups, the chapter describes earthquake and disaster risk reduction programs and initiatives in these communities, explains what spurred the creation of those programs and initiatives, details the technical tools and resources that practitioners in these cities currently use to assess and mitigate their risk, and analyzes the communication channels that disaster and risk professionals now have access to and find most useful in their work. The chapter concludes with a discussion of overarching motivations for adopting new disaster and seismic risk reduction (SRR) practices and offers practical advice to help guide the development of risk reduction tools for use in earthquake-prone cities around the world.