Question

Instructions: define and discuss the roles of preparedness, mitigation, protection, response, and recovery with a least 3 sources.

Answer 1

• Preparedness: these are the activities that are undertaken in the short term before disaster strikes that enhance the readiness of organizations & communities to respond effectively. It shortens the time required for subsequent response & speed up the recovery process as well. In the preparedness phase, training & exercises are also conducted which prepares the responders for the real events. The objectives of preparedness also include identifying data requirements, development of data sets, sharing data across agencies.
• Mitigation: this includes those activities which are undertaken in the long run & after one disaster & before the other one strike to prevent emergencies & reduce the disaster of occurring events. It also involves implementing policy changes & new strategies. Mitigation measures can also be non structural. For example, zoning that can be used to preclude development in those areas which are subject to risk from a hazard.
• Response: these activities are undertaken after disaster to provide relief measures to the victims. The examples of response phase would include search & rescue efforts to find people who may be trapped in buildings, under debris or on roofs, providing temporary shelters & power to the affected people etc. geospatial models can also be used to provide estimates of damages. Use of dynamic models can help guide and improve response; for example, the wildfire community makes extensive use of real-time and near-real-time geospatial modeling of wildfire behavior for logistical support. Display functions remain important at this time, showing the location of damage to specific infrastructure components (e.g., the transportation and energy infrastructure) as well as the severity of damage and other specific information (e.g., damage to roofs, temporary repairs, and energy grid restoration planned during the next 24 hours).
• Recovery: this includes long & short term activities that are undertaken to bring the life of the people to pre disaster condition. Examples of these activities would include temporary roofing, housing, financial assistance, infrastructure repair etc.geospatial information & analysis is used to help the managers to direct the recovery process including the rescue grid status, tracking the progress of repairs, provision of temporary water, locating populations, identifying sites for temporary housing & services & showing the operational status for hospitals & clinics.
• Protection: this stage involves preventive measures that are designed to provide protection from disasters or from any terrorist attacks as well. The protection is provided with good evacuation plans, environmental planning & design standards.