ITU Activities
in Disaster Prevention, Mitigation and Relief
Disasters
disrupt national economies, severely weaken the poor and vulnerable
and are recognized as major impediments to sustainable development
and reduction of poverty especially in poor countries. The impact is
even worse for those living in remote and isolated areas with no
access to basic information and communication facilities that are
essential to providing vital alerting information.
In
order to mitigate the impact of disasters, timely dissemination of
authoritative information before, during, and after disasters is
critical. ITU’s activities in the field of radiocommunications
make invaluable contribution to disaster management as they
facilitate the prediction, detection, and alerting through the
coordinated and effective use of the radio-frequency spectrum and the
establishment of radio standards and guidelines concerning the usage
of radiocommunication systems.
ITU’s telecommunication
technical standards
also play a strategic role in ensuring global interconnection and
interoperability of telecommunications networks for monitoring and
management at the onset and during emergency and disaster situations.
A number of Recommendations have been developed for call priority
schemes that ensure that relief workers can get communication lines
when they need to, whether using traditional or next generation
communications networks. Complementary to the need to provide call
priority during emergencies is the ability to deliver warnings to
users, and standards are fundamental to ensure that warnings are
timely delivered uncorrupted from the source to the end users – no
matter how they can be reached.
The
development
arm
of the ITU considers emergency telecommunications an integral part of
its development agenda. For this reason, a lot of effort is directed
at mainstreaming disaster management in
telecommunications/information and communication technology projects
and activities as part of disaster preparedness. This includes
infrastructure development, and the establishment of enabling policy,
legal and regulatory frameworks. In the immediate aftermath of
disasters, ITU deploys temporary telecommunications/ICT solutions to
assist countries affected by disasters. This includes the provision
of basic telecommunications and telemedicine applications via
satellites. Reconstruction and rehabilitation of
telecommunications/ICT networks is an important part of disaster
management. After providing assistance for disaster relief and
response, ITU undertakes assessment missions to affected countries
aimed at determining the magnitude of damages to the network through
the use of geographical information systems. On the basis of its
findings, ITU and the host country embark on the resuscitation of the
infrastructure while ensuring that disaster resilient features are
integrated to reduce network vulnerability in the event of disasters
striking in the future.
(Source:
Emergency Telecoms - ITU)
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