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The "Hazard and Risk Maps" file contains 57 Hazard and Risk Maps that were created for the Port Vila and Luganville study areas under the Risk Mapping and Planning for Urban Preparedness Project as part of the Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction Project (MDRR) implemented by the Vanuatu Meteorology and Geohazards Department (VMGD).The work was undertaken by Beca International Consultants Ltd (Beca), GNS Science and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).
The hazards covered are seismic, river flood, wind, coastal inundation and tsunami. Maps showing the severity of each of these hazards have been prepared for various mean return periods from 10 to 2500 years depending on the hazard and the data available. Following compilation of the hazard maps, an urban risk assessment was undertaken and risk maps were produced for each hazard for the various return periods.
The maps are accompanied by a report: Hazard and Risk Maps and Geo-data Report: Planning for Urban Preparedness and a summary document which contains an index to the maps: Hazard and Risk Maps: Risk Mapping and Planning for Urban Preparedness.
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This UNDP-supported, GEF-LDCF funded project, "Vanuatu Coastal Adaptation Project (VCAP)", is working to build resilience through improved infrastructure, sustained livelihoods, and increased food production.
These efforts (with National Government as Key Collaborators) aim to improve the quality of life in targeted vulnerable areasor communities in the coastal zone of the island nation.
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The Secretariat of the Pacific Environment Programme (SPREP) is implementing the Climate Information Services for Resilient Development in Vanuatu (CISRD), or Vanuatu Klaemet Infomesen blong redy, adapt mo protekt (Van-KIRAP) Project. As the first part of this project, Tonkin & Taylor International Ltd (T+TI) has been engaged to provide technical expertise on the Van KIRAP Project and the Department of Water Resources to review and update existing flood mitigation guidelines for the Sarakata catchment in Espiritu Santo Island, and to support the development of flood early warning systems in Sarakata.
This report provides a review of the existing Flood Mitigation Guidelines for Sarakata, Pepsi and Solwei Areas (2011) including the evaluation and identification of gaps in terms of early warning systems and long-term climate change considerations. The review has identified the gaps across governance, institutional arrangements, observations, risk knowledge, warning dissemination, and preparedness and response. The following recommendations are provided to address the identified gaps and to inform the development of updated flood mitigation guidelines:
• Strengthened governance and institutional arrangements, relating to:
− Strengthened policies and institutional frameworks at the provincial level including clear roles and responsibilities.
− Clear standard operating procedures for flood early warning system management. − Development of forums to enable coordination and partnerships.
− Update and finalise the Sarakata Flood Management Plan, including establishment of a monitoring and evaluation plan to ensure effective and coordinated governance of flood disaster risk reduction and to foster sustainable development.
• Strengthened observation, monitoring, analysis, and forecasting, relating to:
− Additional observational equipment and supporting services and capacity.
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The ‘Coping with climate change in the Pacific Island Region (CCCPIR)’ programme aims to strengthen the capacities of Pacific member countries and regional organisations to cope with the impacts of climate change. The programme is funded by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany through the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented through GIZ working in partnership with SPC and SPREP.
The programme commenced its activities in 2009 working with Fiji, Tonga and Vanuatu. In 2011 the program was expanded to another nine Pacific Island Countries, namely the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and the duration has been extended until 2019. The programme brief available at http://www.spc.int/lrd/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=478&Itemid=44 gives further details.
At the regional level, the programme aligns with the Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific (FRDP). The programme will support countries in implementing key strategic priorities in the area of climate change including, where relevant, their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Programmes for Action (NAPA), National Communications to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and other relevant national strategies, polices and plans.
The overall objective of the programme is that ‘the capacities of regional organisations in the Pacific Islands region and its member states to adapt to climate change and mitigate its causes are strengthened’. This objective will be achieved through six components highlighted below.
Component 1: Strengthening regional advisory and management capacity
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Vanuatu, an archipelago of 80 islands with a population of approximately 250,000, is among the most disaster-prone countries in the Pacific. It regularly experiences tsunamis, floods, volcanic eruptions, cyclones, landslides, fires and disease outbreaks. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) ranks Vanuatu twelfth in the Asia Pacific Region for the frequency and severity of its natural disaster.
UNICEF is the co-lead of the Water cluster which, under the leadership of the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO), together with the Department of Geology, Mines, and Water Resources (DGMWR) responds to national emergencies.
Collectively, the Vanuatu WASH cluster has recognized that a lack of readily available, officially endorsed, standardized set of key messages and IEC materials to address critical life-saving safe water, sanitation and hygiene behaviours in an emergency context presents a gap in its current disaster risk reduction and management preparedness and response practices.
To address this gap, UNICEF seeks to partner with Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), and NGO that is a member of the WASH cluster and has expertise in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion and Emergency Response to coordinate and manage the preparedness and response efforts of this project. As an implementing partner, ADRA would provide technical support, coordination and management of stakeholder consultations, pretesting, production, prepositioning and provide training to stakeholders in Vanuatu to use the WASH in emergency standardized messages and IEC materials developed.
The materials were launched on 15th july 2016. You may view the details of the launching event here.
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The Climate Council is an independent, crowd-funded organisation providing quality information on climate change to the Australian public. This factsheet contains useful information about the influence of climate change on tropical cyclones, coastal flooding, storm surges, etc.
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The Pacific Islands region is experiencing climate change. Key indicators of the changingclimate include rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, rising air and sea temperatures,rising sea levels and upper-ocean heat content, changing ocean chemistry and increasingocean acidity, changing rainfall patterns, decreasing base flow in streams, changingwind and wave patterns, changing extremes, and changing habitats and species distributions.Currently, the most vulnerable areas include low islands (atoll islands and otherislands that rise only a few feet above present sea level), nearshore and coastal areas,and coral reefs. High-elevation (particularly alpine and subalpine) ecosystems are alsovulnerable. The climatic changes are affecting every aspect of life. Freshwater suppliesfor natural systems, as well as communities and businesses, are at risk. Food security isthreatened through impacts on both agriculture and fisheries. The built environment isalso at risk from coastal flooding and erosion as sea levels incrementally increase. Lossof habitat for endangered species such as monk seals, sea turtles, and Laysan ducks isexpected along with increased coral bleaching episodes, expansion of avian malaria tohigher elevations, and changes in the distribution and survival of the areas’ marine biodiversity.Over the coming decades, impacts are expected to become more widespreadand more severe.
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The environment of Vanuatu including its land based resources are extremely vulnerable to climate-related hazards, such as cyclones strong wind gusts, droughts, heats spells, floods and sea level rise/storm surges. Most of these hazards are precipitated by natural weather phenomena and therefore will be exacerbated by the current and future impacts of climate change. This vulnerability is a threat not only to the livelihoods of the people of Vanuatu but also to a healthy and prosperous nation. This national climate change adaptation strategy (NCCAS) lays out an approach to identify and implement efficient and effective activities to manage the existing and anticipated consequences of climate change for the land-based resources sectors in Vanuatu, namely forestry, agriculture, water, livestock, and biodiversity/ natural ecosystems. These sectors play dominant and essential roles in the economy of Vanuatu and contribute to livelihoods and the general well-being of people and the country as a whole.
The NCCAS is aligned with and builds on existing strategies, policies and action plans. For example, it builds on Vanuatu’s National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA), the Priorities and Action Agenda (PAA) or the Disaster Risk Reduction and Disaster Management National Action Plan (NAP) and sector specific documents like the National Biodiversity Conservation Strategy or the National Water Strategy.It is not just a strategy for government, but actively involves civil society including churches, youth organizations and other NGOs working in the land based resources sector in an active process to cope with climate change in a coherent and strategic manner. For each sector it describes adaptation strategies that are usable, practical and implementable.
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This Urban Risk Management Strategy (the URMS or the Strategy) provides a response to the hazards, risks and urban growth trends identified for Vanuatu’s two urban areas, the greater Port Vila Urban Area and Luganville. It is Stage 3 of the Risk Mapping and Planning for Urban Preparedness Project (the Project) being undertaken by the Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo-Hazards Department (VMGD) as part of the broader Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction Project. It also responds to the maping and assessment of earthquake, wind, river flood, coastal inundation and tsunami hazards and risks undertaken during Stage 2 of the Project. Moreover, it provides risk informed approaches to strengthen the formal physical planning framework and the informal (socio-political) system by incorporating risk information and risk reduction considerations into processes, policies and community activities.
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Vanuatu is one of the most vulnerable countries to natural hazards on the planet, (World Bank, 2011). More than three quarters of the population are at risk from not just one, but multiple disaster events, including: tsunamis, volcano eruptions, flooding, cyclones and many more. According to the Pacific Catastrophic Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (PCRAFI), undertaken by SPC and World Bank in 2010, Vanuatu can lose up to VT4 Billion in one year due to cyclone and earthquakes. Against this backdrop, Disaster risk management has become a cross-cutting issue that affects all sectors of Vanuatu and all development priorities and programs. Disaster risk management and climate change have been included into the current Priorities for Action Agenda 2011-2016. In September 2012, Vanuatu launched the National Advisory Board on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction (NAB) to better manage and coordinate Climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction programs in Vanuatu and facilitate mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction into sectoral policies and planning. The resources provided by this project will strengthen the NAB and assist the Government to conduct thorough hazard and risk assessment in the urban areas and use the data to inform national land use planning policies including the design of a Tsunami warning system for both urban areas.
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Following TC Pam NDMO recognised the need for enhanced community based disaster risk management responses. As such over the last year NDMO has been working with its key in country partners to review, revise and update certain processes and tools. One of those DRM processes and tools is the community based disaster assessment process. Community based disaster assessments are the first assessment undertaken following a disaster on the ground in Vanuatu and is envisaged to be completed where possible by trained community disaster and climate change committees (CDCCC) members supported by local and provincial government. This approach is to empower communities in achieving ownership and greater participation in the negative impacts of disasters that directly affect them.
Training CDCCC’s in the community assessment processes and its supporting tools has been ongoing during 2016 in targeted communities within Torba and Tafea Provinces as part of the Yumi Redi Consortium project.
Yumi Redi Consortium in conjunction with UNOCHA has been working in collaboration with NDMO to produce an updated first community assessment form and accompanying guidelines to be undertaken at community level and develop a consolidation, analysis and reporting process of community based assessment data at provincial level. The revised community disaster assessment form and its guidelines were launched by the NDMO during a national training in September 2016.
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This report uses these generic methods to provide recommendations for climate resilient development in the PICs in the following sectors: coastal protection, flood management, water resources management, protection of infrastructure against changes in temperature and precipitations, protection of buildings against cyclone winds, and adaptation in the agriculture sector.
A new World Bank report has highlighted the need for Pacific Island countries to better incorporate climate and disaster risk management into planning and development, while proposing priority investments and policies to boost resilience to the year 2040.
Launched in Fiji today at the Symposium on Climate Change Adaptation in the Pacific Region, Pacific Possible: Climate and Disaster Resilience considers the economic costs of climate adaptation, and proposes adaptation strategies for areas including infrastructure and buildings, coastal protection, water resources, flooding and agriculture, with special consideration given to the unique challenges of atoll islands.
“Climate change and extreme weather events have the potential to adversely affect coastal zones, water resources, health, infrastructure, agriculture and food security,” said Denis Jordy, Senior Environmental Specialist at the World Bank. “And if new investments are not properly planned, they risk exacerbating the impacts of natural hazards and climate change by increasing the vulnerability and exposure of those at risk.”
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As part of the preparedness towards any forthcoming disasters and continuous monitoring of the agricultural sector, the RRU in collaboration with FAO and DARD have established an early warning early action system that is run by the Risk and Resilience Unit (RRU) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries and Biosecurity (MALFFB) to the agricultural extension officers. The department of agriculture has a total of 45 extension officers that are based on all of the 6 provinces covering almost all the area councils of every island. The early warning early action system is mainly setup as a system monitoring the growth of main carbohydrate crops, vegetables and fruits and also the additional information’s from the officers on any other crops or just any unusual on the agriculture. This report serves to show what is collected from the extension officers and provincial agricultural officers during the seventh round of phone calls and show that if there is a spike in the data, then there would be need of further investigation.
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Climate Change in the Pacific is a rigorously researched, peer-reviewed scientific assessment of the climate of the western Pacific region. Building on the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this two volume publication represents a comprehensive resource on the climate of the Pacific.
VOLUME 1: REGIONAL OVERVIEW
Volume 1 presents an overview of the region: analysis of large-scale climate phenomena such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, seasonal variability and past climate trends and further develops regional climate change projections. Download the report from the links below.
DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT: VOLUME 1
Climate Change in the Pacific. Scientific Assessment and New Research, Volume 1. Regional Overview [PDF, 20.1MB]
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This guide responds to the emerging needs of many communities in the Pacific Islands whose members
are expressing concerns about storm damage, sea-level rise, and the frequency and severity of coastal
flooding events and shoreline erosion. For the purpose of the guide, the term “coastal zone” refers to
the entire area from the upland forest out to the reef edge. On small low-lying islands and atolls, the
entire island would be considered the coastal zone.
The term “coastal change” refers to:
1. Flooding of coastal lowlands from any, or combination, of the following: high (king) tides;
typhoons/cyclones/storms; large ocean swells; and heavy rainfall leading to storm water, river,
or stream flooding.
2. Gain or loss of land along the shoreline, which is the area of the coastal zone that directly
interacts with the sea and is changeable (e.g. sandy beaches, mangroves, cliffs).
With existing tools, communities have been able to identify the potential impacts of threats and
hazards to the coastal zone. However, understanding the complex interaction between natural coastal
systems and human development in order to determine effective responses often requires further
technical assistance, which is often not accessible.
Strategies to address the impacts of coastal erosion and flooding also tend to focus on reactive
approaches, normally through engineering projects such as building seawalls. In many cases, these
“solutions” have negatively impacted the surrounding environment and have increased conflicts with
other community values. Likewise, they are typically short-term in effectiveness, ignoring the role
inappropriate human development often plays as a key driver of the problem. Furthermore, these
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Scientist say climate change is already happening and temperatures will go on rising. They expect more extreme and more erratic weather. Sea levels will rise. hundreds of millions of poor people countries will be hit hardest.
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Vanuatu is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to natural hazards. Situated in the Pacific’s ‘ring of fire’ and ‘cyclone belt’, it regularly experiences volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, cyclones and at times tsunamis, drought and flood. With the onset of climate change, extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and intensity, and sea levels are rising.
Recognizing the need to build a ‘culture of safety’ in the face of hazards, Save the Children has launched a program in partnership with the Vanuatu Ministry of Education to develop quality Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) curriculum materials for primary schools. The goal of the program is to ensure that children, families and communities are better equipped to cope with and withstand hazard while also understanding what needs to be done to prevent hazards from turning into disasters.
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Set of posters that guves awareness of climate change and its impacts and adaptations.
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