95739 Chap.9 Climate Disasters, Preparedness and the Sendai Framework
Climate Disasters, Preparedness and the Sendai Framework
Climate and health
Week 8 shows climate change driving extreme weather that harms health directly, through deaths and disease, and indirectly, through conflict and migration, with vulnerable communities hit hardest.
Preparedness
Disasters and emergencies differ; preparedness, mitigation and risk reduction are built before an event, yet most money still goes to response.
The Sendai Framework
Four priorities, understanding risk, governance, investment and preparedness to Build Back Better, frame the analysis of Hurricane Katrina and the Libyan floods.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Health impacts of climate change
- 02
Disaster and emergency defined
- 03
Preparedness, mitigation and risk reduction
- 04
Spending on response versus prevention
- 05
The four Sendai priorities
- 06
Build Back Better
- 07
Hurricane Katrina
- 08
The Libyan floods case
Worked example · free
Classify five actions under the Sendai priorities
- 1Mapping flood-prone suburbs is Priority 1, understanding disaster risk.
- 1A single command centre is Priority 2, strengthening disaster risk governance.
- 1Raising the hospital’s power supply is Priority 3, investing in risk reduction for critical facilities.
- 1Evacuation drills are Priority 4, preparedness for effective response.
- 1Rebuilding the school on higher ground is Build Back Better, also under Priority 4.
Key terms
- Build Back Better
- Using recovery and reconstruction to reduce future disaster risk, under the fourth Sendai priority.
- Adaptation Gap
- The shortfall between the health adaptation needed for climate change and the action taken so far.
- Early Warning System
- A system that alerts people to an approaching hazard so they can act in time.
- Heat Health Action Plan
- A plan with early warning and response measures to protect people from extreme heat.
Climate Disasters, Preparedness and the Sendai Framework FAQ
What is the difference between an emergency and a disaster?
UNDRR describes a disaster as a serious disruption of a community or society from hazardous events interacting with exposure, vulnerability and capacity. An emergency can involve hazards that do not seriously disrupt a community, and may precede a disaster when the response is poorly prepared.
How do the Sendai priorities divide up disaster risk work?
Understanding disaster risk; strengthening disaster risk governance to manage it; investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience; and stronger preparedness so that response works and recovery can Build Back Better. The Week 8 case quiz uses them to analyse the Libyan floods.
How is disaster funding split between prevention and response?
The module cites the Australian Government: of each $100 of disaster assistance worldwide, just $5 funds prevention and preparedness, while 90% pays for emergency response, which totalled $1.05 trillion from 2010 to 2019.
What health impacts of climate change does the IPCC project?
The fact sheet projects an excess of 250,000 deaths a year by 2050 from heat, undernutrition, malaria and diarrhoeal disease, more than half in Africa, along with mental health harm from extreme events, displacement and loss, and rising food-, water- and vector-borne disease.
What happened in the Libyan floods case?
On 11 September 2023, Storm Daniel brought more than 400 mm of rain in 24 hours to north-east Libya, where about 1.5 mm usually falls in the whole of September. The module says the town of Derna was critically unprepared, with significant loss of life and damage to infrastructure.
What lessons does Hurricane Katrina offer?
Katrina, a category 5 hurricane in August 2005, killed more than 1,800 people and hit New Orleans especially hard. Through Dr Sheri Fink’s account of one hospital, the module asks how failing to prepare led to failing to respond, including decisions about patients made without consent.
How does preparedness differ from mitigation?
Preparedness is the knowledge and capacity to anticipate, respond to and recover from disasters, such as early warning, contingency plans, stockpiles, evacuation arrangements and training. Mitigation lessens the harm an event causes, for example through engineering works and public awareness, since many natural hazards cannot be prevented.
Assessment move
Learn the six definitions as pairs and the four priorities in order with one example each. Practise sorting a list of failures or actions into priorities, asking when each happens relative to the hazard. Read the IPCC fact sheet and note three projected health impacts and two adaptation options. Before the Task C window, review the preparation list on the Week 8 case page.
Link each Sendai priority to one health service decision, such as where a hospital’s generator sits, so the framework stays concrete.
Working through Climate Disasters, Preparedness and the Sendai Framework in 95739? Sia is AskSia’s AI Health and Medicine tutor — ask any 95739 Climate Disasters, Preparedness and the Sendai Framework question and get a clear, step-by-step explanation grounded in how 95739 is taught and assessed. Read this chapter free, then take your hardest questions to Sia.
