The Column Vol 49

THE LAUNCH OF ARMOR FIRST EDITION

The ASEAN Risk Monitor Report and Disaster Management Review (ARMOR) is the AHA Centre’s newest publication – a journal that aims to bridge science with disaster management policy and decision making.

THE LAUNCH OF ARMOR FIRST EDITION

The ASEAN Risk Monitor Report and Disaster Management Review (ARMOR) is the AHA Centre’s newest publication – a journal that aims to bridge science with disaster management policy and decision making.

MONTHLY DISASTER REVIEW AND OUTLOOK
MARCH | DISASTER MONITORING & ANALYSIS (DMA) UNIT AHA CENTRE

March ended the first quarter of 2019 continuing the trend of lower disaster occurrences compared to its five-year average. This month registered 61% of its five-year average number of disaster occurrences, similar to the statistics of January 2019. However, the number of affected persons was more than 10 times the average for March, and the number of casualties is more than 13 times more than the previous 5 years on average. These considerable differences were driven by two significant events – the drought in North Cotabato, Philippines and the flooding in Sentani, Indonesia. 60% of this month’s affected population is attributed to the Philippines drought, particularly due to the drought’s extensive geographic coverage. On the other hand, 92% of this month’s casualties resulted from the flooding and landslide in Sentani, Indonesia. The primary factor for these figures can be attributed to the timing of the flash flood, which happened at night while most of the residents were sleeping in their homes

TIDAL FLOODING
INSIGHT INTO A UNIQUE PHENOMENON

For this Column Volume’s Insight, the AHA Centre invited a young contributor who was also one of its interns – Eviana Viosa Rosyid – to develop an interesting and informative article. Evi’s current studies in disaster management see her focusing on the unique occurrence of tidal flooding, upon which she has developed this volume’s Insight article. For the ASEAN region, with a coastline 173,00 km in total length, and nine nations bordering the sea or having maritime zones, the potential for tidal flooding is significant. Increasing population density in coastal areas across the region also increases potential impact, while many high-density areas facing the sea are formed by coastal cities.