The Foundation for Science and Technology debate (held at The Royal Society, London, UK)

The Foundation for Science and Technology hosted a discussion on building effective and efficient infrastructure in the UK, in reference to the new National Infrastructure Delivery Plan 2016 to 2021. Good, secure infrastructure is one of the most basic components to a resilient and sustainable city. Having a set of stable infrastructure is an asset in face of any instances of interrupted system such as during conflict and in disasters.

During the discussion, Lord Adonis, Chair of National Infrastructure Commission, raised that one of the biggest hindrances to infrastructure developments in the UK proposed during the talk might be the political environment, where political movement might impede on the progress of infrastructure building. This is suggested to have caused the start / stop nature to a lot of projects. He also suggested that success to some infrastructure projects can be attributed to the serendipity of regional and national cross-party consensus.

Attention to the social impacts and long-term effects of the infrastructure should also be given to prevent unfortunate results. One highlighted example mentioned by Terry Morgan, chairman of Crossrail, was the training up of hundreds of apprentices to provide skills and increase their employment in the future. This example does not only concern with the direct results of the individual project, but also the long-term consequences.

While I am not very familiar to the problems faced by a lot of Hong Kong government’s infrastructural plans, the above issues can be considered in reflection in a Hong Kong context, and leaves a lot to desire in order to reach an ideal solution for building a comprehensive and resilient infrastructure.

EnRiCH Meeting (in Ottawa)

I had the opportunity to listen via telephone conference to a presentation about a disaster that is very different from the natural disasters that I am more accustomed to learning about. The talk was given by Dr. Mélissa Généreux on the long-term public health consequences of the Lac Megantic Crash – a train wreck disaster and explosion – that occurred in Canada on July 2013.

From her talk and my further review of her publication, some of the identified causes that exacerbated the consequences of the disaster include the lack of a national framework for disaster management. Issues included a lack of data on toxic chemical levels for officials to refer to when determining evacuation of the local at risk community. There was also inadequate communication between different rescue parties and an apparent lack of information sharing that led to delay in evacuation.

Despite the differing nature of these events, the issues relating to natural disasters disaster management and their consequences seem to me to be very similar. In particular the longer term mental health impacts such as PTSD amongst the population at risk remains a common problem in my view.

Using this Canadian incident study to reflect on possible similar incidents that might occur In Hong Kong, I remember the impact of the 2012 Lamma Island ferry collision, where albeit a sufficiency of life jackets, the incident happened too rapidly for passengers to act. Despite the rapid response of rescue parties and abundance of rescue workers, casualty of the accident amounted to 39. A similar accident happened three years later at a similar area of shore, but luckily there was no casualty this time. However some passengers on-board admitted that there was distrust in the crew’s ability due to the previous incident.

If there had been a rescue plan that covers a comprehensive range of accidents, and publicly familiarized by the general population, perhaps the anxiety felt by victims and those affected can be minimized, and consequences of any future disasters can be curtailed.

Christiana Figueres of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

We went to the Grantham Lecture held by Imperial College, where Christiana Figueres of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was the speaker for the night. She once again highlighted the importance of the whole world’s attention to climate change and how society as a whole should adapt for climate change.

To summarize her speech, there are five key take-home messages: 1) action to adapt and against climate change has strong positive aspects to everyone in the world; 2) the COP21 agreement should have happened 10 years ago, and our actions have to speed up to meet the fast pace of climate change, as the world that goes above 2°C is systemically uninsurable; 3) it is vital to include women in decision-making on all other aspects of climate change; 4) there should be an inclusive approach where all relevant stakeholders (especially the private sector, universities and the funders) are included in the conversations about climate change and the delivery of actions; 5) there is imbalance in consequences: e.g. those who contribute most to climate change (e.g. the big economies) does not receive the most negative impacts (e.g. small pacific islands).

However, she was also optimistic about the current progress of climate change adaptations, and that she expects the agreement of COP21 can come into force before the expected 2020.

In summary, climate change adaptation and actions against its fast progress should be central in all science and technology developments and policy decisions. This complements decisions for disaster risk reduction, as disaster risk is exacerbated by climate change. The vulnerable populations, risks and the measures against them are all similar. In Hong Kong, there has always been attention on protecting the environment, and an increasing dialogue for disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation. An interdisciplinary platform sharing both sides of expertise could be established for the sustainable development of the city.

Watch the recording: 

Social Cohesion

I attended a seminar on the “Addressing social cohesion in urban humanitarian response” organised by the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action (ALNAP) recently, and it tied in nicely with my MSc thesis, which was about community resilience in face of disasters.

The speakers argued that social cohesion is one of the most fundamental characteristics to maintain after the onset of the disaster. Social cohesions can easily breakdown if recovery is slow due to complexity in providing perceived basic needs such as water, sanitation and shelter, and it would be too late to start building them back.

In my previous research for my Masters thesis, I have also learnt that along with an increase in social cohesion, and a consequent increase sense of belonging within the community, there will also be an increase in community disaster resilience, which, according to UNISDR’s definition, is the community’s ability to “resist, absorb, accommodate to and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner”. Thus social cohesion is an important characteristic that should not be disregarded in planning disaster response.

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Reference: Ayyub BM. Systems resilience for multihazard environments: Definition, metrics, and valuation for decision making. Risk Analysis. 2013.

Call for capacity development for Disaster Risk Reduction & Disaster Risk Management

Following the call for local, national, regional and international capacity development for the DRR sector in the Sendai Framework and the UNISDR S&T conference, there has been a further discussion about internationally accredited training that not only assures quality of training, but also allows a more standardized set of training materials.

Although there are various training programmes across the world, an internationally recognized training standard is currently lacking. Accreditation is important as it could allow a universally recognized training standard which could more efficiently improve on the quality of training all over the world, with shared resources. 

In my previous work, we have been involved in train the trainer processes where we try to empower local communities. However, although the material and teachings are standardized within our organization, they are currently not recognized by other institutes. 

It has been an interesting process to observe the discussion and these issues that could link local community interventions with global priorities. Hong Kong, as an important humanitarian resource provider in the region, could take part in order to improve on the credibility of training services.