International training workshop on natural disaster reduction (ITW) 2011
As indicated by the Emergency Disasters Data Base (Em-Dat), the economic losses caused by natural disasters have been increasing in the past 50 years; meanwhile, climate changes around the globe and exploitation of the environment have magnified the effects of disasters. Taiwan, like many other Asian countries, bears the impacts: the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) has shown record-breaking casualties and economic losses caused by extreme weather phenomena around the island.
Efficient disaster preparedness and evacuation plans play a crucial part in mitigating lives and economic losses. Hence, a successfully story of public private partnership has saved Lai-yi Village in southern Taiwan when Typhoon Fanapi struck the island: no casualty. Another distinguished case would be the floods induced by torrential rain in Australia around the end of 2010: over 1.2 million km² of the territory was submerged and yet the toll was kept around 30.
Extreme hazards bring tremendous impacts on the society. However, with efficient emergency response, the well-establish collaboration mechanism in resources allocation and information sharing can help capacity building and ensure community resilience in disaster-prone area to mitigate the impact induces by natural disasters. Thus with a view to further knowledge of the disaster response systems, evacuation and sheltering strategies as well as collaboration among the government officials, NGOs an communities, National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction (NCDR) has proposed “The 7th International Training Workshop on Natural Disaster Reduction: Evacuation and Sheltering” complying with the “International Cooperation on Research and Training Programs” of the National Science Council of Taiwan; This proposal aims to propel practical interchange across-boarder in best practices sharing in disaster management.