Disaster Risk Management of Cultural Heritage in Urban Areas
A Training Guide
| Climate change | A change in climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over omparable time periods (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change;http://unfccc.int/). |
| Disaster | A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society causing widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources (www.unisdr.org). |
| Emergency | An unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action (Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, www.m-w.com). |
| Hazard | Any phenomenon, substance or situation, which has the potential to cause disruption or damage to infrastructure and services, people, their property and their environment (Abarquez and Murshed, 2004). |
| Mitigation | Taking action in the timeframe before a disaster to lessen post-event damage to lives and property. In risk management, many hazards such as earthquakes cannot be reduced, but the risk from that hazard can be reduced, or mitigated, for example by constructing earthquake-resistant buildings, or shelves that prevent objects from sliding off. The former is structural mitigation, the latter is non-structural. |
| Prevention | Measures taken to reduce the likelihood of losses. Ideally, these measures would seek to reduce losses to zero, but this often is not possible. Key question: How much prevention do you need to undertake? |
| Recovery | The process of returning the institution to normal operations,which may also involve the repair and restoration of the building or site. |
| Response | The reaction to an incident or emergency to assess the damage or impact to the site and its components, and actions taken to prevent people and the property from suffering further damage. |
| Risk | The chance of something happening that will have an impact upon objectives. (Emergency Management Australia, 2000). |
| Vulnerability | The susceptibility and resilience of the community and environment to hazards.‘Resilience’ relates to ‘existing controls’ and the capacity to reduce or sustain harm.‘Susceptibility’ relates to ‘exposure’ (Emergency Management Australia, 2000). |
| World Heritage property | World Heritage properties are those defined in Articles 1 and 2 f the World Heritage Convention and inscribed on the World Heritage List on the basis of their outstanding universal value, which is fulfilled through meeting one or more of criteria (i)–(x) in the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention (UNESCO / WHC, 2008a). |
Before introducing the subject matter to participants it is important to orient them to the objectives and methodology of the course and also enable interaction between participants and resource persons. This may be done through an orientation session facilitated by the course coordinators and instructors, briefly introducing the organisers, objectives and structure of the course while also discussing what expectations the participants have about the course.
Ice-breaking exercises may be organised in order to ensure that participants not only are introduced but also feel comfortable in each other’s company. The orientation session can also address logistical concerns that participants may have. This is especially important in the case of courses that cater to an international audience.
Participants who are unfamiliar with the host organisation or host country’s cultural aspects may benefit from this type of session. Informal interaction should be encouraged at this stage so that participants are receptive to team exercises through the length of the course. Finally during this session, an opportunity should be provided to the participants to make brief presentations on the cultural heritage and disaster management context in their home countries and the challenges and initiatives for disaster risk management of cultural heritage.
