Geopolitics of Natural Disasters

POL? STICS OF URBAN PLANNING S RISKS? SMIC in Bogota?, Capital District.

José Luis Cadena Ph.D Montenegro

NOTE PRIOR

In late August 2007, a crazy, unemployed, or telephone terrorist, caused panic in Bogota to predict that at four in the afternoon of 30 happen a major earthquake. The lack of knowledge in this area and the culture of gossip, paralyzed several public and private entities and some people got to commend the all-powerful. In the XXI century there are dreamers who believe that earthquakes can be predicted, which is absolutely false. What can be minimized or canceled, the effects of a natural event. For this reason, after publication in a scientific journal in 2000, he decided to republish this article that explains a real and simple, the situation of Bogotá against seismic risks. It is possible that after seven years from the filing of this research, things have changed, improved or worsened in Bogota because that should give authorities the issue.

SUMMARY

To get your Master's degree in Socio-Economic Planning Department of Sociology at the University of Santo Tomas in Bogota, he filed in late 1999, this research under the title of Urban Planning Policies against Earthquake Risk in Bogotá DC This article is a summary of this work which presents and organizes a series of data related to seismic risk to which the city is exposed. After studying the existing urban planning, zoning of areas of risk and to evaluate existing security measures and plans for prevention and relief, polls existing policies and activities and strategies applicable in the case of an eventual earthquake in the city. The author proposes a number of possible strategies in order to delineate and establish effective planning for the prevention and minimization of the disasters that this phenomenon often triggers.

1. INTRODUCTION

The growth and densification of the population in Bogotá, Distrito Capital, the development of dangerous technologies and neglect in this issue of vital importance to the threat of earthquakes can affect large numbers of people, property and infrastructure city, causing huge losses that will surely also affect economic and social development of the city on the occasion of this work, then take many years to recover.

As a result of this situation, in order to promote the mitigation of risk through appropriate urban development policy, the author undertook to carry out this investigation in the light of the theories, experiences, studies and techniques available to provide the logical prevention, applying social and economic planning.

The research process in this case is purely scientific criteria and has the support of existing studies, avoiding speculation and additional use as a basic, empirical knowledge and experience of the agencies that historically have handled this issue as well as recent knowledge based on new technologies. It has been necessary to use knowledge of the area for collecting and organizing data so that the result of the research is real, serious, profound and serve as a contribution to socioeconomic development in Bogotá, DC

The technical management of the issue and its implications for seismic planning, still does not have a consistent development towards knowledge of the progress that it deserves. The City Administration has hired in the past studies and designs of building standards that must be taken up and updated. Likewise, the risk zoning of the city should consider this variable consistently with the knowledge of the differential conditions of the threat in the area of ​​the city (Comprehensive Plan for Disaster prevention and care).

It should be recalled that the social costs of earthquakes, as well as the costs of material losses in a city that has developed preventive measures, carry political and social consequences that affect the population and exacerbated its problems. According to existing studies (2000), the capital of Colombia is located in an intermediate seismic hazard zone, which is permanent concern against an unexpected event of great magnitude.

The peculiarities of seismic hazards to which exposed the capital city of Colombia have been treated at the level of specialists from the late 80's twentieth century. The earthquake that struck Mexico City in 1985, whose damage was concentrated in an area built on soft soil deposits, geometry and stratigraphy particular was a warning bell as Bogotá has similar characteristics.

The district authorities responsible for physical planning of the city have addressed this issue since late 1991 in the context of the development of regulations of the Statute for the physical order of the Special District of Bogota (Agreement 6 of 1990) and specifically the process of formulating Environmental Management Plan.

Planning is too important to prevent or reduce emergencies and this requires an understanding of it and interdisciplinary work. It is an ongoing process and therefore should not be considered as a purposeful action precisely because, includes preventive measures for the future.

Planning reduces the unknowns facing disaster situations because it tries to anticipate problems that may arise and possible alternative solutions, in addition, contributes a rapid response to problems as long as they fit and adapt to the particular situation, resources available and respect the local culture.

The present thesis aims to contribute from academia to develop a culture that allows the authorities and the general public, understand the natural hazards to plan the development of the city, minimizing the exposure of inhabitants to disasters that may affect their lives and heritage.

The problem of disasters is no longer an occasional concern of peoples and governments and has become a vital element in the list of issues that concern all humanity, whether by their impact on the overall development or because their solution is obtained only with systematic efforts extended.

In the last twenty years (writing in 2000) catastrophic events have caused the deaths of more than two million eight hundred thousand human beings, and disruption of serious life another eight hundred twenty million people (Gomez, 1994). These dramatic figures are sufficient to indicate the profound significance that is disaster prevention in the context of global development, all efforts to protect human life, improving the quality of life and prosperity of nations .

Any catastrophe, regardless of the level of economic progress the country concerned, clearly shows the severe trauma caused to the processes of development of each nation and there is still long way to go to optimize prevention systems in their international dimensions, national and local . In addition to the trail of pain and the environmental and social consequences of disasters, it is clear that the loss of millions in basic infrastructure and production systems and supply affect the short, medium and long-term development goals . And while disasters do not distinguish borders, it is also clear that social and economic impact is more severe in developing countries.

In countries like Colombia, which are still building their basic physical and social infrastructure, which should make great efforts to build access roads, service networks and extend coverage in health and education, too heavy a burden bear the losses resulting from disasters and the cost of rebuilding this demand. As such, prevention must be central to all efforts aimed at reducing disasters, whether natural or caused by man's hand, and the effects generated by these.

1.1 The earthquakes and urban planning

Bogota, D.C., Jan is located. Center of the country between latitudes 4.6 degrees North latitude and 74 degrees west longitude, on a wide savanna (some would say valley) in the middle east ridge adjacent to a major geological fault located a few kilometers from the town, neighborhood involving a high risk event of an earthquake of high intensity. Has been the policy of the state at all levels, not to arouse the interest of the people on the subject to avoid panic in case of possible earthquakes.

Live in this great city of seven million people (2000) and industrial, commercial and student due to the large number of schools, colleges and universities exist. The threats and risks in the capital of the Republic by factors related to possible earthquakes should be taken into account in urban planning in order to define and activate real policies. For that reason it was important to investigate the existing regulations and responsibility with respect to the planning agencies in this regard.

In addition to planning agencies must know and exercise control those entities whose mission is to care for the environment, health and disaster prevention, and related public services. Catastrophes such as Armero, Popayan, the Region of Paez in Cauca and Armenia, to name but four, left serious consequences that definitively have influenced the regional and national economic development. The findings of the evaluation after these events point to the lack of planning in the prevention and relief.

These experiences force us to think seriously about what they can mean to the people of Bogotá a surprise earthquake and its consequences if it does not take into account the appropriate measures on urban planning against the risk of earthquakes of higher intensity. Faced with the risk of earthquakes, for example, physical vulnerability means, first, the location of the community in the vicinity of active faults, and second, in the absence of structure in earthquake-resistant buildings (WILCHES: 1989) .

Of the seven wonders of the world, two of them, the Colossus of Rhodes in the year 225 AD and the lighthouse of Alexandria about the year 800, were destroyed by violent earthquakes (RAM? REZ: 1957). Two of the strongest earthquakes that have happened in the news last eighty years with a magnitude of 8.9 the first on the border between Colombia and Ecuador, near Tumaco on January 31, 1906 and the second in Sanriku, Japan March 2, 1993.

The why and wherefore of this research are responsive to real needs within the current and future socioeconomic area. Socio-economic planning among multiple applications should be used to realize the possibilities of preventing tragedies arising from earthquakes. Under the above, it was convenient to approach the following questions in relation to the research question: what will happen in Bogota in the event of an earthquake of major proportions?, What security measures are currently applied to prevent catastrophe in the Capital District?, how could respond to a major emergency relief agencies Capital District?, What are the plans concerning disaster prevention and care for Bogota?, What are the policies regarding sen Capital District the seismic resistance standards for construction?, how can prevent and deal with disasters caused by earthquakes in Bogota?.

Throughout this research was possible to evaluate existing policies regarding urban planning and earthquake risk against the Capital District and the planned activities to reduce risks to a large-scale disasters caused by natural phenomena and seismic type alternatives and strategies applicable solution in our environment.

1.2 The planning and the 1991 Constitution

One of the central aspects of the National Constitution of 1991 is the incorporation of planning as a key instrument for achieving the essential goals of the State, that is, to serve the community, promote prosperity and ensure the effectiveness of the principles, duties and rights enshrined in the Constitution, to facilitate the participation of all in the decisions that affect them and in the economic, political, administrative and cultural center of the nation, maintaining the territorial integrity and ensure peaceful coexistence and the validity of a just order (CN of Colombia).

This planning function is displayed in two dimensions: first as an instrument of rationalization of government action and public spending through the definition of principles, objectives, strategies and instruments of governance in a given period, otherwise, as a mechanism to foster a new relationship between state and civil society, redefined in terms of democracy, in which the dialogue and cooperation tools become privileged in the joint pursuit of development and well being.

In other words, not only interested in obtaining a product, the plan, with the goal also trigger a process, planning to mobilize public opinion and make the whole country in its ethnic diversity, territorial, environmental, gender, organizational and social, without exception, play a more active role in the construction of a new citizen and a welfare society.

Urban problems, the principle of complexity is expressed in each of the attributes of the city: land, housing, transportation, utilities, equipment and public space. The economy is essential to democracy, because freedom is based on the property, understood in its private and public expressions, which are combined in the city. If born in the Greek polis philosophy, democracy and political, intellectual productions oldest and present, and if the cops meant the set of community life, political, moral, cultural and even economic, we think that the city must mean something more contemporary than it currently is, at least some of what was the Athens of Pericles, who in his funeral oration came to show how the polis was primarily a lifestyle. Cities built to fit the space man who could promote mutual understanding, educating the mind and character of the citizens. But, something different to what we now show cities facing globalization of the economy. Cities with disproportionate sizes and densities, for beyond human scale, fully traversed by these unexpected mutants of our time: televisions, computers and other devices that make us believe that communicatively interact in a globalized world like a village.

Cities, in order, in which you begin to lose the most wonderful good in which human beings are endowed with: communication. The problem of the city is not only a political problem is a cultural problem and it concerns the philosophical sense of human life.

That is the challenge, think the construction of the contemporary city as a mechanism for the construction of the new citizen, the same being who understands that economic democracy is the component of political democracy, in short, a city to search for the purpose of the polis masterfully summarized by Sophocles: the city is people.

Earthquakes and their aftermath have made over time, serious facts affecting the population from a socioeconomic perspective. Although natural phenomena because it is impossible to avoid, knowledge of the physical factors that contribute produce to prevent risks and to the best care, minimizing the loss of lives and economic resources. "Physical vulnerability refers specifically to the location of human settlements in areas of risk and differences in their structures to absorb the impact of these risks? (WILCHES: 1989: 21).

This thesis has a direct relationship and other areas of knowledge and its incidence is expected in matters educational, scientific, theoretical, practical, political, social and economic. Experience in cases of large earthquakes in city, indicates that the catastrophe is directly proportional to the degree of readiness to face and that the role of prevention begins with the execution of a series of technical requirements that can and should be improved by evaluating the known and use the resources available to develop these skills from the point of view of scientific research.

Knowledgeable in the field say with reasonable grounds that a strong earthquake occur in the capital of Colombia, the facts certainly have repercussions for socioeconomic development, not only in the region affected is the entire country for being the national political and economic center. Risk maps and urban sprawl, especially in areas where human groups settle the lower strata, show elevated risk factors with unpredictable consequences of enormous impact on the political and social (AUGUST THE EARTHQUAKES ).

1-3 The social impact

The social impact will now be one of the concerns of scientists in basic or natural areas, as well as social scientists. Get this impact arises as a desired goal in all research projects or action. It should be noted that the effort to achieve this goal may prompt institutions to adopt hasty measures or cosmetic solutions. Urge the conclusion of ideas, a comprehensive, multidisciplinary studies that by globalizing vision, integrated from the outset, allow the development of studies, research and appropriate solutions (THE SHOCK SUBTERRA? NEAS: 1897).

Avoid studies of natural disaster reduction motivated by a thirst for knowledge about a specific factor is, in isolation and to develop methodologies that lead to fragmented results, the implementation or success can be as effective or appropriate for discipline but not for a goal of disaster reduction. The social impact achieved by reduction projects in the aftermath of disasters and addressing the issue that occurs in their methodologies, is one of the factors most discussed today. For a long period, the physical point of view has been the determinant to mark the path of prevention and disaster preparedness, to which they have printed a feature strongly deterministic: it has created an area of ​​research and study social sciences which seem to have arrived late, said Lavell (1993): "From the perspective of the social sciences (agricultural economics, sociology, geography, anthropology, social ecology, management, political science, law, etc..) there is no institution with established research programs and continuous, while a very limited number of indigenous researchers, individuals, have ventured into this issue? (DUR? N: 1994).

All research projects must be justified on the basis of a vulnerable population which has been called "the social background?. Thus d is sought to incorporate social components since the beginning of the project and identify the nodes and connections previously, so it will not come only to swell the size of libraries.

1.3 The public goods

For purposes of this work and to better understand the state's responsibility in the prevention and relief, then I will refer to one of the most basic concepts and appropriate. "There are some goods that either are not provided by the market o. if so, the quantity supplied is insufficient?. A large-scale example is national defense and other small-scale aid to navigation (buoys and light). These are called pure public goods have two properties. First, it costs nothing to have someone else enjoy its advantages. Formally, the fact that an additional individual enjoying the good, has a marginal cost or zero. It costs no more to defend a country of a million and one person to defend one of a million. The cost of a light buoy not depend on the number of ships passing through its vicinity. Second, it is generally difficult or impossible to not enjoy the public good. If we put a light buoy in a rocky area for our ships to navigate safely, it is difficult or impossible to prevent others from sailing in the area.

If state policy on disaster prevention and urban planning are able to minimize the risks from earthquakes, we all benefit, it is not possible to exclude anyone from these benefits (CHAIN: 1999).

The safety of citizens and their property constitutes a public good. Is the state responsible for providing public safety through the development and enforcement by their partners, policies to protect their lives and property. It would be endless to enumerate the number of tangible and intangible assets in a country are affected by inefficiency in disaster prevention and as such they should reaffirm that definitely physical safety against seismic risk, constitutes one of the most precious and necessary public goods.

2-RESEARCH PROCESS

In the methodological development of research considered two scenarios, taking into account represents disorderly urban development for the people of Bogota, a serious risk to seismic events especially those of the lower strata who live in unsafe conditions for poor quality of its construction, likewise, raised the assumption that urban planning authorities and relief agencies can anticipate the consequences of earthquake-induced disasters, minimizing or removing risk factors in proportion to its social and the degree of stringency in the application of earthquake-resistant measures.

It should be noted that this evaluative research has features, attributes, dimensions and very special properties because of the importance of off the existing policies on socio-economic planning. It was necessary to resort to historical sources, scientific and practical, as well as specialized work and empirical knowledge of the theme is the author. Ongoing consultation with professionals specialized in seismology, geology, geography, history, engineering and other disciplines was crucial to find the technical elements were used directly in the development of research. That was how were the following variables:

 Loss of human life

 Use of soil

 Urban Planning Standards

 Population Growth

 Commitment to the scientific

 Commitment to civil society

 Quality of housing construction

 Preparation of relief agencies

 Impact on the socioeconomic development of Capita District

 Knowledge of risk by the population of Bogotá

 Cost of prevention against the unpredictability sequelae

It was necessary to use statistical data for qualitative and quantitative analysis related to the research problem and as such they are worked the following indicators:

• Loss of lives in large numbers and in a surprise

? Wounded and maimed with permanent

? Destruction of civil engineering works

? Destruction and loss of homes

? Absolute poverty in large populations for loss of all his possessions

? Delay in development plans

? Increased unemployment closure of industries and business sectors

? Failure to State policies for immediate emergency care

? International contractual commitments unplanned

? Emergence of new slums

? Generation inefficiency of state violence to deal with such emergencies.

? Increased poverty

There are now some studies about the risks of earthquakes of higher intensity, however, there is no clear understanding in civil society about the severity in case of an event for the unprepared. The main features of this research may include:

 Earthquakes are naturally occurring

 can not be predicted but minimize its harmful effects

 The effects of an earthquake falls on the poorest people in greater proportion.

 are known risk factors clearly against earthquakes

 The capital of Colombia is intermediate seismic risk

 The relief agencies are insufficient to meet major emergencies.

The research topic was summarized into five chapters whose titles are:

1 - Disasters and their implications

2 - The planning and disaster theory

3 - Bogotá urban seismic vulnerability

4 - Environment and culture of prevention

5 - Conclusions and recommendations

3 - RESEARCH RESULTS

To comply with the objectives proposed in this research, below are the major conclusions after a thoughtful and critical analysis of a serious situation with regard to socio-economic planning that involves a large number of Colombian citizens, residents one of the most important cities in the continental concert.

Not surprisingly, while the number of lives lost due to the phenomenon of earthquakes has been reduced substantially over the world, while there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of economic losses, including property damage, loss of income, infrastructure and facilities and lifelines. In fact, Colombia has begun to practice procedures aimed at reducing threats to human life and personal injury, for example, through significantly improved warning systems, but has not achieved similar benefits in terms of economic losses.

Preventive action is the most important in any disaster because it contemplates what to do before the events happen, however, neither the district authorities and civil society are aware of this great responsibility and occur only when natural or anthropogenic taken measures, often without planning. In recent natural disasters in Colombia, for example, Armero, Popayan and the coffee to name but three, it has been possible to demonstrate a mess as to what should have been done, and mistakes were made despite repetitive to know not corrected. The state was inefficient, both in the field of prevention and care in the.

The most elementary and important for a disaster after an earthquake is to have an instruction guide and standards for what should be done. Not having a guide is to stick for the blind and improvise on matters as serious as Viada and death. The guide to address a disaster should include matters relating to personnel, supplies, technical support, administrative support and all matters of government. In order to perform calculations of needs and get the best results in the care of a disaster, it is advisable to make early assessments of the socio-economic risks and consequences of leaving an earthquake. This is concluded from national and international experiences.

Children and elderly are most usually affected in a disaster, as are those who are less able to defend. During the distribution of donations, rations, tents and supplies in general, have difficulty waiting in long lines because of their physical condition and therefore, it is important to get the supplies to enabled sites such as shelters or temporary housing. After a disaster, if the people affected are not helped him get a job or to boost their business, get used to being kept, long-term becoming beggars. Economic activity in the region or the affected site must be reactivated to return to normal and inserted in the national economy.

Bogotá destructive earthquakes over the last hundred years occurred in the Cordillera Oriental, on the Magdalena River and limits the Llanos Foothills. To the south and out to distances of 350 kilometers, earthquakes have occurred causing further damage.





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