ACDR2022

The year 2023 marks the centennial of the Great Kanto Earthquake that struck Tokyo region in Japan on 1 September 1923. An estimate of 105,000 people was killed or missing and the economy suffered tremendous damages. The live of people, both in Japan and around the world, have changed greatly in these a hundred years. Urbanization have progressed rapidly and our lives have become richer. However, damages caused by disasters continue to exist, and we are also faced with new major challenges against disasters. During this past three years, the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the disaster risk reduction (DRR) efforts at the global, regional, national, and local levels. On top of the pandemic, many countries in the Asia-Pacific region have been frequently impacted by multiple disasters, many of which are exacerbated by climate change. Disaster information from ADRC (https://www.adrc.asia/latest/) shows some of the most recent and notable disasters in the Asia-Pacific region in 2022: i) On 15 January, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption and tsunami in Tonga caused substantial losses across multiple countries due to the damage of undersea communication cables and the plume rising 58 kilometers into the atmosphere; ii) On 22 June, a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck the central region of Afghanistan killing hundreds of people; iii) On 27 July, a major earthquake with magnitude 7.0 shook northwestern Luzon in the Philippines, causing serious damages to infrastructure and agriculture as well as human suffering; iv) On 11 September, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck Papua New Guinea, causing fatalities in addition to widespread power outages, communication infrastructure disruptions and damage to roads and bridges; and v) Since June, Pakistan has been experiencing severe floods caused by unusually heavy rainfalls. Innumerable people died or were injured and countless were affected. The floods have also caused widespread devastation to the agriculture and infrastructure including educational and health facilities. Although many countries in the Asia-Pacific region have strengthened their respective disaster risk management (DRM) systems (e.g., by implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Global Agenda 2030, and other related frameworks) to reduce the number of deaths from disasters, the economic losses have been exponentially increasing due to the overlapping impacts of the pandemic, natural disasters, and climate change. The frequent occurrences of these concurrent crises have left most countries ill-prepared to deal with the cascading and compounding impacts of disasters. Themes: As we are now aware of the compounding impacts of the pandemic and climate change in the DRR efforts, the Asian Conference on Disaster Reduction (ACDR2022) adopts the theme, “WHAT IS NEXT? —Learning from the Past, Preparing for the Future—”. ACDR2022 will highlight the importance of applying past lessons towards efforts for risk-informed preparedness to further strengthen the national-level DRM systems. It will also highlight how ADRC member countries and partners can leverage each other’s DRR programmes to better prevent, prepare, respond to, and recover from concurrent crises and future disasters. ACDR2022 aims to specifically highlight: i) the progress made in strengthening DRM systems by showcasing the experience of the Great East Japan Earthquake, ii) the experience and lessons of recent major disasters in member countries; and iii) the new initiatives and approaches of member countries and partner organizations in preparing for complex and overlapping disasters. ACDR2022 will cover three thematic sessions: Session 1: Large Disasters and Countermeasures Session 2: Broaden our horizons for disaster data linkage in SFDRR implementation —Application of GLIDE (GLobal IDEntifier Number) — Session 3: Provision of Information via Satellite for Disaster and Crisis Management （Images） Source: qzss.go.jp Provided by: National Space Policy Secretariat, Cabinet Office

ACDR2022_Concept Note

ACDR2022_Summary

ACDR2022_Participant_List