Integrating Indigenous Knowledge and EO Products for Disaster Risk Reduction: Some Reflections from the Real-life Experiences
- Paper number
IAC-08.E5.2.9
- Author
Dr. S.K. Srivastava, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), India
- Coauthor
Dr. V.S. Hegde, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India
- Coauthor
Dr. V. Jayaraman, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), India
- Year
2008
- Abstract
When a disaster strikes: the richer the country, the higher the economic losses; the poorer the region, the greater the loss of lives. Each natural disaster in the developed world is an economic setback, but people in poorer nations pay with their lives for their vulnerability. Natural disasters leave the poor even poorer, and sucks away any hope of a better life. However, there are practices that demonstrate that the diverse communities in multi-hazard zones of developing countries have learnt to live, cope and reduce their disaster risks through the inherited indigenous knowledge. Originated within communities - based on local needs and specific to the locale specific culture and the context, this vast knowledge resource has withstood the test of time. This knowledge capital has helped in building the community resilience and enhancing their coping mechanisms. There are also success stories, which have demonstrated how EO based information products and services have enriched the values of indigenous knowledge and made a difference to the lives and livelihoods of the poor farmers and fishermen. What holds the key is to have the practical knowledge and skill at community level to extract the relevant information in support of their livelihood enhancements. To enable such empowerment, appropriate products and services should be developed and operationally provided to be practically utilized by the end-users who are not familiar with them. For this objective, relevant service chains, or value-adding chains, have to be put into the place. The present study has placed focus on stories from real life domains of the end-users of EO products, mostly from the developing countries. Stories, whilst anecdotal, offer a rich picture of the usefulness and merging of EO products with indigenous knowledge in local, complex and dynamic social settings. Each incidence is specific to and reflective of the needs at a particular time of the community in which it was discovered. Each owes its outcome to the sensitive and timely delivery of useful information that contributed to local knowledge, which facilitated something desirable for the recipient. The paper besides analyzing these stories from community centric perspective concludes with some lessons on enabling EO products in support of reducing the disaster risk reduction and also strengthening the community livelihood systems in the developing countries.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)