Subject: Disaster Management

Disaster resilience is the ability of a community, system or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to and recover from their effects while preserving or restoring essential structures, functions and identity, and while minimising long-term losses. It is a dynamic capacity that grows through continuous learning, investment and adaptation.

How resilience is determined

Resilience assessments gauge four mutually reinforcing capacities:

• Anticipatory capacity – level of risk awareness, early-warning coverage, contingency planning and education.
• Absorptive capacity – robustness of physical assets, ecosystems, social networks, safety nets and emergency services that limit immediate impacts.
• Restorative capacity – speed, equity and sustainability of recovery of housing, livelihoods, health and basic services.
• Adaptive / transformative capacity – ability to learn from events, adjust institutions, adopt risk-informed regulations, diversify economies and invest in resilient infrastructure.

Composite tools such as community resilience indices blend indicators of exposure, vulnerability, socio-economic capital, infrastructure strength, governance quality and ecological buffers to produce an overall resilience score.

Elements of a resilience framework

• Context and risk assessment: multi-hazard maps, exposure inventories, social vulnerability profiling.
• Prevention and mitigation: risk-sensitive land-use, resilient building codes, nature-based solutions, critical-infrastructure protection.
• Preparedness: multi-hazard early-warning systems, drills, stockpiles, public awareness, local response plans.
• Response: clear command structures, interoperable communications, pre-arranged logistics, surge funding.
• Recovery and “Build Back Better”: participatory reconstruction, livelihood revival, psychosocial support, risk-proofed public investment.
• Adaptive governance and learning: inclusive institutions, knowledge management, accountability mechanisms, sustained finance.

Together these elements integrate social, economic, environmental and institutional dimensions to create a cycle of continual risk reduction and capacity building.

Global targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030)

• Substantially reduce global disaster mortality.
• Substantially reduce the number of people affected worldwide.
• Reduce direct economic loss in relation to global GDP.
• Substantially reduce damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services.
• Increase the number of countries with national and local DRR strategies.
• Enhance international cooperation and support to developing countries.
• Substantially increase availability and access to multi-hazard early-warning systems and risk information.

India's alignment with the Sendai Framework through the National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP) and strengthened institutions like NDMA demonstrates its commitment to building disaster resilience, though financial constraints remain a significant challenge.