Ecology in Disaster Management Mr. Edward Fernandez

Ecology in Disaster Ecology in Disaster Management Management

Mr. Edward Fernandez

Ecology focuses on the interaction of living and non-living objects. This requires a nuanced understanding of the connections between all manner of things, from human behaviour to seasons to the availability of nutrients. I will examine the responses to two natural disasters to identify lessons for improved environmental management. In August 2018, the Indian state of Kerala experienced much more rain than normal filling all the state’s reservoirs and causing the strongest floods recorded since 1924. The floods killed more than 480 people, destroyed homes and entire towns, and displaced over 1 million people. In July 2019 a record-breaking season of bushfires began for the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW). These fires destroyed 2,476 homes, burned 5.5 hectares and resulted in 26 deaths. While these were two separate issues with their own distinct causes, some commonalities exist. Both floods and bushfires are recurring hazards that have shaped our environments for millennia - Kerala has annual monsoon seasons, and NSW has an annual bushfire season. Yet our authorities seem ill-equipped to minimise the harms they create. Multiple factors contributed to the 2018 Kerala floods: ● Kerala monsoon rainfall showed a trend of decline. In the decade leading to 2018, only two years experienced greater monsoon rainfall than the previous year. Hence the large rainfall in 2018 was unexpected. ● Dam management authorities were primarily focused on keeping dams as full as possible to ensure reliable hydroelectricity generation.

Authorities were apparently unaware of the likelihood that dams would reach capacity and, it seems, did not consider their responsibility to actively limit risks of downstream flooding.

Once the large rains arrived in August 2018, the shutters of 35 dams had to be opened due to the risk of dams overflowing. ● The Central Water Commission, the federal institution responsible for water management, had no agreement with Kerala state dam authorities to provide alerts of imminent flooding.

The primary cause of flooding remains disputed - a Kerala High Court report identified the inability of dam management authorities to actively manage dam levels in anticipation of monsoon rainfall. However, the Central Water Commission and several other research groups claim that the large August rainfall directly caused the flooding.

In some cases, landline and mobile phone networks failed, rendering it impossible to coordinate local emergency responses. Kerala’s community strongly mobilised in response to the disaster. Using Twitter and other platforms, everyday citizens gathered funds and donated household products for disaster relief. This was a very effective self-organised system

Cenkāntal Cenkāntal

driven by individuals, and given the lack of telecommunications, was critical in providing assistance to flood-affected communities. Social media also allowed the rapid dissemination of information among communities, faster than traditional communication mechanisms - allowing locals to access help.

The NSW bushfire season in question began in July 2019 and ended only in March 2020, a whole 240 consecutive days of fires, and a total of 11,774 fires in the state. The official NSW

Bushfire Inquiry identified several challenges for the bushfire response: ● Previously-successful firefighting techniques proved ineffective. ● Communications towers often failed, meaning firefighting crews could not communicate, and residents in fire-affected areas could not receive alerts. ● For Australia’s federal government, widely criticised for not taking climate change seriously, the role of climate change in creating the bushfire season remains contentious. The

Inquiry concluded that climate change helped create the conditions for bushfires to happen and encouraged fires to spread.

The NSW community showed solidarity - many citizens helped their neighbours defend their properties from fire damage, and many donated goods and money to relief efforts. Inquiry recommendations included: building community preparedness and resilience; introducing new monitoring systems to track bushfires, and using citizen science initiatives; maintaining a national bushfire database; learning from the traditional fire management practices of Australia’s indigenous Aboriginal communities.

Most expert analyses of both the Kerala floods and NSW bushfires relate to fundamentals of environmental management.

Systems thinking - understanding that any given system, whether it is an animal, human infrastructure such as a dam, or a ‘natural’ object such as a river, can be viewed as more than the sum of its parts. Rather it can be understood via specific interactions that take place between different components; and

The precautionary principle - when the effects of a particular activity are unknown, taking precautions to reduce any harmful effects of that activity; and

Working with local communities and making use of informal knowledge;

Using multiple disciplines of knowledge to identify solutions; and

Using adaptive management practices - first planning the response to a disaster, then taking action, and multiple cycles of monitoring the effects of actions taken and review of their success, which then informs future actions. Environmental hazard management could take inspiration from the world’s spiritual traditions. In particular the concept of stewardship is relevant: taking care of living and non-living things so they are available to the next generation. The strong self-organised action to provide assistance to communities in need shows citizens have a strong practical understanding of these ideas. As all nations are managing the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, there are opportunities for authorities to adopt these principles in disaster prevention and beyond.

(Mr. Edward Fernandez studied environmental management. He has worked in the corporate sustainability field within local government, university and live events contexts, delivering projects to reduce waste and increase adoption of low-emission vehicles. He has also worked as a facilitator in youth engagement projects with YLab and the Foundation for Young Australians, including a project that was awarded at the 2018 NSW Youth Work Awards.)