India-Pakistan floods 2014

This issue of Southasiadisasters.net contains many insights from practitioners and academics from different areas who have focused their attention on rebuilding Jammu and Kashmir after the devastating floods of 2014. This issue is a compilation of such

In response to the Jammu Kashmir Government lingering over a proposal for a disaster management plan, residents of 10 flood-prone villages have come together to formulate their own plan. Solutions to the flood-related issues were formulated through participatory risk assessment and identification of vulnerable populations in the communities.

Flood-induced destruction in Srinagar, India can be attributed to haphazard urban development. A new Master Plan that is being developed for Srinagar Metropolitan Region is the first to consider flood disaster management. However, the plan has been criticized for failing to appropriately classify land use regulations according to flood risk levels.

Insurance companies in Indian-administered Kashmir, which was hit by a destructive flood last September, have collected substantially higher premiums this year as property owners seek to avoid further financial losses from weather-linked disasters...

Southasiadisasters.net issue no. 125 - February 2015:

This issue focuses on the important theme of children, cities and disasters in India. It tries to highlight all the aspects of building the resilience of children, especially in urban centres to the

'The authorities should introduce policies to reduce the risk of disasters, including guidelines for geologists to be consulted before house and road construction, research on the stability of mountain slopes with human settlements, and awareness-raising about landslides,' S.K. Pandita of the University of Jammu said...

'If the policy is implemented in letter and spirit, it can undoubtedly help improve the country's resilience against natural disasters, particularly floods,' said Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, a lead author of the policy and...

With climate change models predicting a continuing increase in heavy rainfall in the region, 'there is every possibility of more such floods occurring in the future, and there is a need for concerted and coordinated efforts to address longer term concerns about disaster risks during extreme weather events,' said Suresh Chugh, director of Environment and Remote Sensing for the Jammu and Kashmir government...

It is time to devote more effort and space to understand the underlying drivers and mechanisms which put a system and society at greater risk. This shift from ‘What is at risk’ to ‘Why is it at risk’ would help create a systematic and coherent approach to the framing as well as management of disasters in the country...