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Lecture

Ecosystem-Based Approaches to Disaster Risk Reduction

Description

This lecture explores the importance of ecosystem-based approaches to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) through a case study from Nepal, highlighting the benefits of using vegetation as protection against coastal hazards, Eco-DRR, and Ecosystem-based Adaptation. It discusses various types of approaches to DRR, comparing the strengths of soil bio-engineering with civil engineering, and presents Eco-DRR approaches such as Integrated Coastal Zone Management and Community-based Natural Resource Management. The case study in Nepal showcases the impact of bio-engineering measures in mitigating extreme gullying due to road construction, emphasizing the incorporation of local knowledge with formal science in DRR strategies.

In MOOC

A Resilient Future: Science and Technology for Disaster Risk Reduction

Official source

Related concepts (32)

Ecosystem-based adaptation

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EBA) encompasses a broad set of approaches to adapt to climate change. They all involve the management of ecosystems and their services to reduce the vulnerability of human communities to the impacts of climate change. The Convention on Biological Diversity defines EBA as "the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of an overall adaptation strategy to help people to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change".

Disaster risk reduction

Disaster risk reduction (DRR) sometimes called disaster risk management (DRM) is a systematic approach to identifying, assessing and reducing the risks of disaster. It aims to reduce socio-economic vulnerabilities to disaster as well as dealing with the environmental and other hazards that trigger them.

Ecosystem service

Ecosystem services are the many and varied benefits to humans provided by the natural environment and healthy ecosystems. Such ecosystems include, for example, agroecosystems, forest ecosystem, grassland ecosystems, and aquatic ecosystems. These ecosystems, functioning in healthy relationships, offer such things as natural pollination of crops, clean air, extreme weather mitigation, and human mental and physical well-being.

Ecosystem

An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the system through photosynthesis and is incorporated into plant tissue. By feeding on plants and on one another, animals play an important role in the movement of matter and energy through the system. They also influence the quantity of plant and microbial biomass present.

Ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction

Ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR) is based on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and the purpose of Eco-DRR is to prevent and reduce disasters by utilizing ecosystems. Eco-DRR is to maintain ecosystems and ecosystem services, to use them as buffer zones and buffers for dangerous natural phenomena, and to provide humans and local communities with functions such as food and water supply. Eco-DRR is closely related to Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA), approaches to adapt to climate change.

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