Author(s)

A. I. Mondlane

Abstract

Mozambique is one of the countries which is most vulnerable to natural catastrophes in the world with the second highest annual per capita death rate from disasters, 328 deaths per million, ranking only below the P.D.R of Korea; flood disasters are responsible for half of the fatalities and a third of the economic losses from natural disasters worldwide. Its geographical location, along the Indian Ocean with an area of more than 1,700 km², gives a degree of higher exposure to tropical depressions of different magnitudes, severe floods and droughts. Within the country, disasters are under the management of the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC) a governmental entity composed of a multisector commission to deal with emergencies and natural catastrophes. Natural disaster risk management is also a wide field that attracts the attention of many stakeholders in the country, namely NGO, governmental institutions, academics and researchers, international agencies and others at international level. This particular research paper aims to investigate and propose different techniques of responses in emergency situations such as floods and tropical depressions. The study will explore different approaches which are applied in emergency situations, combining theories and practices in order to formulate an integrated model. Stakeholder participatory approaches, earlier warning and probabilistic and mathematical simulation are among the main components of the Integrated Risk Response Techniques. The main objective in developing such Integrated Risk Response Techniques is to provide the natural disaster risk managers with a holistic tool that can be applied, in case of emergencies, and reinforce the sustainability of the emergency planning processes. The use of such techniques might create added value for the national and regional response mechanisms in case of emergency. Keywords: floods, emergency, disasters, modeling, simulation.

Keywords

floods, emergency, disasters, modeling, simulation.