Shaw R. (Ed.) Recovery from the Indian Ocean Tsunami

Springer, 2015. — 502 p.
Ten years have passed since the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. For a recovery program, it is diffi cult to say with justifi cation whether 10 years is a long or short duration. For the affected people, sometimes time passes very quickly. For some communities or families whose members lost their lives, time remains stagnant during the disaster period. From the recovery perspective, 10 years is a good time within which to complete physical recovery. It is also a good time during which to achieve socio-economic recovery. For psychosocial recovery, however, more time may possibly be needed. These past 10 years have taught us many important lessons. In a post-disaster scenario, the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) was adopted in 2005. We have seen implementation of the HFA over these 10 years and how it infl uenced the recovery program in different ways: institutionalization or legal framework of risk reduction, different levels of risk assessment, several education-related programs, looking at risk reduction as a part of development of initiative, enhanced response through early warning systems, and so on. The past decade has also seen a demand for greater education in risk reduction. Specific targets and measurements of progress have been incorporated. Recovery lessons are never completed. This is an on-going process, and 10 years is a good time in which to review the past achievements and progress and to design future agenda. Thus, while the HFA 2 process is under way and we are preparing for the next world conference in Sendai, Japan, it is an important juncture from which to look back and see different recovery lessons and to contribute to future actions. This book is a modest attempt at that process. I am very grateful and indebted to all the contributors, who have spent their valuable time making critical analyses of their own experiences related to the recovery process.