PDC Updates | Nov 27, 2007
Workshop 1
PDC Hazard Mitigation Specialist Sharon Mielbrecht, left, Chief Information Officer Chris Chiesa, and Vice Minister Nguyen Ngoc Thuat of Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development listen to a speech by Dr. Dang Quang Tinh, chairman of the Steering Committee, CCFSC, at the opening session of the International Workshop on “Best Practices” in Disaster Management. (Image: PDC)

Workshop 2
Sharon Mielbrecht, third from right, presented a multi-hour, hands-on course about Risk and Vulnerability Assessment to approximately 40 eager students.
Under the direction of Chief Information Officer Chris Chiesa, PDC organized and presented an International Workshop on “Best Practices” in Disaster Management: Disaster Risk Assessment and Early Warning Systems in Hanoi, Vietnam, November 6–7. Hazard Mitigation Specialist Sharon Mielbrecht joined Chiesa in representing PDC, and gave a presentation on Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment methodologies.

PDC’s relationship with the Government of Vietnam includes a long history of supporting the country’s effort to reduce the devastation to lives and property that results from frequent typhoons, flooding and landslides. This workshop is a landmark in that relationship. It brought together many of PDC’s disaster management colleagues and its private sector partners with decision makers and leaders in Vietnam.

The busy, two-day workshop started off with a welcome and opening remarks by Vietnam’s Vice Minister Nguyen Ngoc Thuat of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Workshop 3
The workshop provided opportunities to network and socialize with experts from Vietnam and throughout the Asia Pacific region. Here, left to right, Sharon Mielbrecht (PDC), Dr. Wei-Sen Li (Taiwan), Chris Chiesa (PDC), and Deputy Director Hien of the DMC (Vietnam) are entertained by local singers as they discuss future collaborations.
Among the PDC collaborators and guests who presented in Hanoi were:

Mr. Thomas Aguilar, city planning and development officer from Marikina City, Philippines, where PDC did urban risk assessment work; Mr. Chul-Do Kim, director of Disaster Prevention and Civil Defense Division, Busan City, Republic of Korea, where PDC is working with metropolitan officials on a Plan for Disaster Risk Reduction and Enhanced Emergency Operations, intended to be a model for a national disaster management center; Dr. Smith Dharmasaroja, Chairman of the Committee of the National Disaster Warning Administration, Thailand, where PDC deployed its DisasterAWARE early warning and decision support system; and Dr. Wei Sen Li, Deputy Executive Secretary, Home Institution: National Science & Technology Center for Disaster Reduction, Taiwan, with whom PDC plans to sign a memorandum of understanding in January 2008 for future collaboration on disaster management.

Workshop 4
PDC’s David Askov, left, and Todd Bosse, second from right, give one-on-one instruction in using the new Open-source Multi-source Map Viewer during the November 8 training session.

Other presenters included PDC business partners Mr. Chuck Dolejs, representing ESI911; and Mr. Christopher Nielsen, representing Danish Hydrologic Institute (DHI).

Vietnamese speakers and presenters included top officials of the Central Committee on Flood and Storm Control (CCFSC), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Department of Dyke Management and Flood and Storm Control (DDMFSC), Disaster Management Committee (DMC), and Hydro-Meteorological Service of Vietnam (HMSV). The keynote speech was given by an assistant to Prof. M. T. Nhuan, president, Vietnam National University, on his behalf.

The second day of the conference was a skills development workshop in flood modeling (DHI) and risk and vulnerability assessment (PDC) with a special presentation of WebEOC skills by Dolejs. A Proceedings CD is being compiled.

Workshop 5
Here the four presenters from Pacific Disaster Center, back row, pose with ten of the participants in the day-long, Map Viewer training session following the International Workshop on “Best Practices” in Disaster Management.

PDC-Vietnam Background

Vietnam, with its major river systems (the Mekong and Red Rivers), more than 3,200 km (over 1,900 miles) of coastline, and steep mountainous terrain is one of the most natural disaster-prone countries in the world. The nation is routinely subjected to typhoons and associated high winds and heavy precipitation that result in flooding and deadly landslides; major causes of death and displacement within the country.

Over the past three years, Vietnam’s disaster managers and their stakeholders, working with PDC, have identified gaps in Vietnam’s capacity for multi-hazard disaster management—particularly in terms of flooding and landslides. PDC, in conjunction with the Vietnamese Disaster Management Center (DMC), a unit within the Department of Dyke Management and Flood Control (DDMFC) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and serving as the Standing Office of the Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control (CCFSC), is now working on a plan to leverage recent technological and methodological developments elsewhere in the region to significantly increase capacity and capabilities for flood and landslide disaster management and early warning in Vietnam.

Of Related Interest

In Hanoi, on November 8, immediately following the International Workshop on “Best Practices” in Disaster Management: Disaster Risk Assessment and Early Warning Systems, PDC Sr. Geospatial Data Analyst Todd Bosse and Enterprise Geospatial Program Applications Developer David Askov, presented a one-day intensive training on PDC’s Vietnam Hazards and Vulnerability Atlas. The training marked the launch of the Vietnam Atlas in the Open Source Multi Source Map Viewer. Trainees were from the Standing Office of the Central Committee on Flood and Storm Control and the Phu Tho provincial offices associated with dyke management and flood control.

For additional information about PDC’s support of disaster managers in Vietnam, go to the following web resources:

  • A PDC-Vietnam project profile, including a background statement about recurring natural hazards, appears on the PDC website.
  • At the request of the PDC and the U.S. Geological Survey, the International Charter “Space and Major Disasters” has been activated three times on behalf of Vietnam since August, with PDC performing as the project manager in each case.
  • To provide a simple overview of the International Charter “Space and Major Disasters,” PDC published an article on the web in June 2007.
  • PDC published an article about International Charter Call No. 170, an activation in response to the flooding that occurred in Vietnam in August 2007.
  • International Charter Call No. 181, support for flooding in Vietnam as a result of Typhoon Lekima, October 2007, is covered in another web article.