Showing papers on "Disaster recovery published in 2013"

There is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster : Race, Class, and Hurricane Katrina

Abstract: 1. Pre-Katrina, Post-Katrina 2. A Matter of Choice: Historical Lessons for Disaster Recovery 3. Oral History, Folklore, and Katrina 4. Towards a Transformative View of Race: The Crisis and Opportunity of Katrina 5. Abandoned Before the Storms: The Glaring Disaster of Gender, Race, and Class Disparities in the Gulf 6. Katrina and the Politics of Later Life 7. Where is Home? Housing for Low-Income People After the 2005 Hurricanes 8. Reclaiming New Orleans' Working-Class Communities 9. A New Kind of Medical Disaster in the United States 10. Double Jeopardy: Public Education in New Orleans Before and After the Storm 11. An Old Economy for the 'New' New Orleans? Post-Hurricane Katrina Economic Development Efforts 12. From Poverty to Prosperity: The Critical Role of Financial Institutions 13. The Role of Local Organizing: House-to-House with Boots on the Ground 14. Rebuilding A Tortured Past or Creating A Model Future: The Limits and Potentials of Planning

The Role of Cloudlets in Hostile Environments

Abstract: The convergence of mobile computing and cloud computing is predicated on a reliable, high-bandwidth end-to-end network. This basic requirement is hard to guarantee in hostile environments such as military operations and disaster recovery. In this article, the authors examine how VM-based cloudlets that are located in close proximity to associated mobile devices can overcome this challenge. This article is part of a special issue on the edge of the cloud.

Indicators of Community Recovery: Content Analysis and Delphi Approach

Abstract: Disaster recovery has been studied from a variety of perspectives including the fields of sociology, engineering, policy implementation, political-ecology, systems theory, geography, and urban planning, leading to a wide variety of definitions and indicators for measuring recovery. To assess what indicators can be used to measure both predisaster resilience and postdisaster recovery, an in-depth content analysis of recovery indicators in the existing literature was performed. Articles from 2000 to 2010 in four disaster-focused journals that include perspectives of engineers, social scientists, practitioners, and economists were analyzed. Articles were selected by a keyword search and analyzed for recovery indicators using an emergent coding scheme. Interestingly, many research articles never defined recovery. Recovery indicators were categorized as social, economic, environmental, and infrastructural. The indicators cited were analyzed based on the disciplinary affiliation of the author. Authors from different disciplines cited different indicators, suggesting that increased interdisciplinary collaboration may be needed. As a second step in this research, a multiround Delphi survey was used to obtain expert opinion on the recovery indicators. This process verified that the set of indicators identified through the content analysis were important and provided a rating of the importance of each indicator. Panelists also provided justifications for any ratings that differed from the median. Researchers can use these results as indicators of recovery in future studies. Similarly, practitioners will be able to use the condensed opinions of experts in the field of disaster recovery and planning.

Social Capital, Community Resilience, and Faith-based Organizations in Disaster Recovery

Abstract: In August of 2005, Hurricane Katina struck the Gulf Coast, flooding eighty percent of the City of New Orleans (Associated Press, 2005). This disaster that continues to be defined as the most destructive natural disaster to impact the United States in recorded history illustrated the social vulnerability of urban populations living in hazard prone regions. Moreover, the disaster illustrated that a community’s vulnerability to disasters was not only a product of the built environment’s varying resistance to disasters and a community’s physical proximity to hazards, but also a byproduct of social dynamics that contribute to the vulnerability of populations (Miller and Rivera, 2008; Cutter et al., 2009). The subsequent effects of these social dynamics, when placed under the pressure of a severe natural disaster, illustrates to both the directly affected communities and the rest of the nation, that organizational, governmental, and private sector arrangements designed to mitigate detrimental disaster affects are inadequate (Gunter and Kroll-Smith, 2007), and that the public’s reliance on governmental structures can be more detrimental to the success of community survival than self-reliance (Miller and Rivera, 2008; Rivera and Miller, 2010). As a by-product of the public’s realization that governmental structures put in place to mitigate disaster risks and aid communities in the disaster recovery process were inadequate, reliance on other types of organizations was necessary for some communities to survive. Although there are a number of different actors that played a role in the reestablishment of communities within New Orleans since the Hurricane took place, the Mary Queen of Vietnam (MQVN) Catholic Church is a prime example of how a community based organization stepped in to address the needs of its community in the wake of the disaster. This paper examines how MQVN garnered social capital within its surrounding community to pursue successful community development in the absence of governmental support, and to a certain extent in the presence of political resistance. This paper will first review the government failure and decrease in civic trust that fostered a robust third sector response in disaster recovery and redevelopment. Then, using social capital theory, the paper follows Newton’s (2001) proposition that civic distrust and confidence is derived from government and institutional performance, rather than “increasing individualism, declining social trust, or the disintegration of community life” (Newton, 1999, p. 12); and argues that the social trust fostered by MQVN empowered community solidarity, bridged social networks and successfully pursued community redevelopment initiatives in the aftermath of disasters, even when resources are restricted and local political structures are at odds with neighborhood priorities. ct will be provided by author.

Beyond Bushfires: Community, Resilience and Recovery - a longitudinal mixed method study of the medium to long term impacts of bushfires on mental health and social connectedness

Abstract: Natural disasters represent an increasing threat both in terms of incidence and severity as a result of climate change. Although much is known about individual responses to disasters, much less is known about the social and contextual response and how this interacts with individual trajectories in terms of mental health, wellbeing and social connectedness. The 2009 bushfires in Victoria, Australia caused much loss of life, property destruction, and community disturbance. In order to progress future preparedness, response and recovery, it is crucial to measure and understand the impact of disasters at both individual and community levels. This study aims to profile the range of mental health, wellbeing and social impacts of the Victorian 2009 bushfires over time using multiple methodologies and involving multiple community partners. A diversity of communities including bushfire affected and unaffected will be involved in the study and will include current and former residents (at the time of the Feb 2009 fires). Participants will be surveyed in 2012, 2014 and, funding permitting, in 2016 to map the predictors and outcomes of mental health, wellbeing and social functioning. Ongoing community visits, as well as interviews and focus group discussions in 2013 and 2014, will provide both contextual information and evidence of changing individual and community experiences in the medium to long term post disaster. The study will include adults, adolescents and children over the age of 5. Conducting the study over five years and focussing on the role of social networks will provide new insights into the interplay between individual and community factors and their influence on recovery from natural disaster over time. The study findings will thereby expand understanding of long term disaster recovery needs for individuals and communities.

Data Mining Meets the Needs of Disaster Information Management

Abstract: Techniques to efficiently discover, collect, organize, search, and disseminate real-time disaster information have become national priorities for efficient crisis management and disaster recovery tasks. We have developed techniques to facilitate information sharing and collaboration between both private and public sector participants for major disaster recovery planning and management. We have designed and implemented two parallel systems: a web-based prototype of a Business Continuity Information Network system and an All-Hazard Disaster Situation Browser system that run on mobile devices. Data mining and information retrieval techniques help impacted communities better understand the current disaster situation and how the community is recovering. Specifically, information extraction integrates the input data from different sources; report summarization techniques generate brief reviews from a large collection of reports at different granularities; probabilistic models support dynamically generating query forms and information dashboard based on user feedback; and community generation and user recommendation techniques are adapted to help users identify potential contacts for report sharing and community organization. User studies with more than 200 participants from EOC personnel and companies demonstrate that our systems are very useful to gain insights about the disaster situation and for making decisions.

Multi-organisational coordination for disaster recovery: The story of post-tsunami Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: Coordination during disaster recovery is one of the most neglected areas of disaster risk management, as the majority of literature on coordination focuses on disaster response. The purpose of the study is to investigate the factors affecting coordination for long-term recovery. For this purpose, the study uses semi-structured interviews with different actors involved in the recovery process of the 2004 tsunami in Tamil Nadu, India. The study highlights five key factors that affect coordination in long-term recovery: (1) the need to coordinate; (2) the role of the government; (3) knowledge networking; (4) mandates and goals and (5) coordination at the donor level. Finally, the study indicates a potential for applying a governance perspective on disaster recovery coordination, which needs to be further researched.

Decision Aid Models and Systems for Humanitarian Logistics. A Survey

Abstract: The number and impact of disasters seems to be increasing in the last decades, and their consequences have to be managed in the best possible way. This paper introduces the main concepts used in emergency and disaster management, and presents a literature review on the decision aid models and systems applied to humanitarian logistics in this context.

Strong, safe, and resilient : s strategic policy guide for disaster risk management in East Asia and the Pacific

Abstract: Experiencing both recurrent small-scale events as well as devastating large-scale catastrophes, no other region in the world is affected by disasters as is East Asia and the Pacific. In the last decade, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Manila, and many other cities have been repeatedly hit by floods. In the last five years, Asia has experienced a large share of wide-scale natural catastrophes, including earthquakes in the Tohoku region in 2011, Padang in 2009, and Wenchuan in 2008; typhoons in 2009 in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, the Philippines, and Vietnam; a cyclone in Myanmar in 2008; and large-scale floods in 2011 in Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines. The year 2011 was the costliest year on record for natural disasters with cascading effects (Japan) and trans-boundary consequences (Thailand), adding up to US$380 billion in economic losses, almost doubling the 2005 record of US$262 billion. In the first nine months in 2011, East Asia sustained about 80 percent of all disaster losses worldwide. The executive summary provides a brief overview of the key issues, strategic goals, and recommendations for DRM in East Asia and the Pacific. Chapter one gives an overview of the key trends related to disaster impacts in the region. Chapter two focuses on cross-sectoral issues of institutional arrangements for DRM and outreach to communities. Chapter's three to seven follow the core areas of DRM: risk identification, risk reduction, emergency preparedness, financial protection, and sustainable recovery and reconstruction. The appendixes include additional information related to specific sections of the report, a glossary of key terminology, and a summary of the main activities of the World Bank East Asia and the Pacific disaster risk management team.

Automated Disaster Recovery System and Method

Abstract: Methods and systems for recovering a host image of a client machine to a recovery machine comprise comparing a profile of a client machine of a first type to be recovered to a profile of a recovery machine of a second type different from the first type, to which the client machine is to be recovered, by a first processing device. The first and second profiles each comprise at least one property of the first type of client machine and the second type of recovery machine, respectively. At least one property of a host image of the client machine is conformed to at least one corresponding property of the recovery machine. The conformed host image is provided to the recovery machine, via a network. The recovery machine is configured with at least one conformed property of the host image by a second processing device of the recovery machine.

Disasters and Social Inequalities

Abstract: In this article, I review recent research on the relationship between social inequalities and disasters, focusing on the areas of social vulnerability to disaster and social inequalities in disaster recovery. I highlight how race, class, and gender structure the disaster experience such that marginalized populations are most vulnerable to the negative consequences of a disaster and face significant challenges in recovery. Then, I discuss the next steps for advancing disaster studies. First, scholars should work to develop improved methodologies for disaster research. Second, theoretical work on defining, theorizing, and classifying disasters is needed. Finally, the field should incorporate other intersectional dimensions of social inequality into the study of disasters.

Should I stay or should I go? An experimental study of health and economic government policies following a severe biological agent release

Abstract: Extensive research has explored policy chal- lenges associated with preparing and responding to a large- scale biological release. A key component in recovery strategy development that has received less attention is the understanding of government policy influence on the impacted populations' migratory decisions. This study experimentally manipulates health and economic govern- ment policies during response and recovery to assess the extent to which public migration is contingent on the level of government intervention. Set immediately following a large- scale anthrax release in San Francisco, we use a five episode video scenario to describe details about the environmental impacts of the disaster, emergency response procedures, and clean-up operations. Within these video segments, the extent of government involvement in economic and health risk policies is manipulated. Using these manipulations as pre- dictors, we track how varying levels of government risk signals influence migration behavior at three distinct decision points during disaster recovery. In addition, two belief scales and two scales of emotion (affect) are included as predictors to explore the potential for their mediating role in explaining intentions to migrate. We find that the decision to migrate is highly context-sensitive, with each decision point showing a unique combination of significant predictors influencing decision making. At 19 days following the anthrax release, the health risk policy manipulation has both a direct and indirect effect on migration behavior. At 3 months, the influence of the health risk policy manipulation is mediated by beliefs, and at 1 year, only indirect effects associated with affect and beliefs influence migration.

Risk-based input–output analysis of hurricane impacts on interdependent regional workforce systems

Abstract: Natural disasters, like hurricanes, can damage properties and critical infrastructure systems, degrade economic productivity, and in extreme situations can cause injuries and mortalities. This paper focuses particularly on workforce disruptions in the aftermath of hurricanes. We extend the dynamic inoperability input–output model (DIIM) by formulating a workforce recovery model to identify critical industry sectors. A decision analysis tool is utilized by integrating the economic loss and inoperability metrics to study the interdependent effects of various hurricane intensities on Virginia’s workforce sectors. The extended DIIM and available workforce survey data are incorporated in the decision support tool to simulate various hurricane scenarios. For a low-intensity hurricane scenario, the simulated total economic loss to Virginia’s industry sectors due to workforce absenteeism is around $410 million. Examples of critical sectors that suffer the highest losses for this scenario include: (1) miscellaneous professional, scientific, and technical services; (2) federal general government; (3) state and local government enterprises; (4) construction; and (5) administrative and support services. This paper also explores the inoperability metric, which describes the proportion in which a sector capacity is disrupted. The inoperability metric reveals a different ranking of critical sectors, such as: (1) social assistance; (2) hospitals and nursing and residential care facilities; (3) educational services; (4) federal government enterprises; and (5) federal general government. Results of the study will help identify the critical workforce sectors and can ultimately provide insights into formulating preparedness decisions to expedite disaster recovery. The model was applied to the state of Virginia but can be generalized to other regions and other disaster scenarios.

A Study of ad hoc Network Performance in Disaster Response

Abstract: Management problems are prevalent within ad hoc networks of public and nonprofit organizations that engage in disaster relief. This study explores the enabling factors that have an impact on the pe...

Decision Aid Models for Disaster Management and Emergencies

Abstract: Disaster management is a process or strategy that is implemented when any type of catastrophic event takes place. The process may be initiated when anything threatens to disrupt normal operations or puts the lives of human beings at risk. Governments on all levels as well as many businesses create some sort of disaster plan that make it possible to overcome the catastrophe and return to normal function as quickly as possible. Response to natural disasters (e.g., floods, earthquakes) or technological disaster (e.g., nuclear, chemical) is an extreme complex process that involves severe time pressure, various uncertainties, high non-linearity and many stakeholders. Disaster management often requires several autonomous agencies to collaboratively mitigate, prepare, respond, and recover from heterogeneous and dynamic sets of hazards to society. Almost all disasters involve high degrees of novelty to deal with most unexpected various uncertainties and dynamic time pressures. Existing studies and approaches within disaster management have mainly been focused on some specific type of disasters with certain agency oriented. There is a lack of a general framework to deal with similarities and synergies among different disasters by taking their specific features into account. This book provides with various decisions analysis theories and support tools in complex systems in general and in disaster management in particular. The book is also generated during a long-term preparation of a European project proposal among most leading experts in the areas related to the book title. Chapters are evaluated based on quality and originality in theory and methodology, application oriented, relevance to the title of the book.

Downsides of Social Capital for Women During Disaster Recovery: Toward a More Critical Approach

Abstract: This article examines the downsides of social capital (networks of citizens) for women affected by disasters, an issue little understood in the public administration literature. Studying this issue...

Do all crises have to become disasters? Risk and risk mitigation

Abstract: Risk and uncertainty are part of the everyday operating environment for all organisations. Occasionally the risks may be sufficient to generate a crisis which, if left unattended, can become a disaster. The key person in an organisation who is often charged with the responsibility of recovering the supporting services that will enable the business to start functioning again is the facility manager, in charge of all property management functions. What should facility managers be aware of in terms of the characteristics of risk and crises and organisational culture that will affect their ability to plan for disaster recovery? Describes some features and characteristics of crises that could become disasters and discusses the features of organisations (such as tight‐coupling and interdependency) that can affect their exposure to risk ‐ crisis‐prone or crisis‐prepared ‐ and suggests some crisis‐mitigating strategies that could be adopted by property managers. Concludes that organisations can become crisis‐prep...

Disaster recovery service

Abstract: A customer may use a disaster recovery service to generate a disaster recovery scenario in order to make certain resources available to the customer in the event of a data region failure. The customer may specify a recovery point objective, a recovery time objective and a recovery data region for the scenario. Accordingly, the disaster recovery service may coordinate with one or more other services provided by the computing resource service provider to reproduce the customer resources and other resources necessary to support the customer resources. These reproduced resources may be transferred to the recovery data region based at least in part on the parameters specified by the customer. In the event of a data region failure, the disaster recovery service may update the domain name system to resolve any customer requests for the customer resources to the recovery data region.

A Path to a Public-Private Partnership: Commercial Logistics Concepts Applied to Disaster Response

Abstract: This paper initiates an exploratory investigation with the aim of providing a better understanding of the applicability of several commercial logistics processes to humanitarian logistics. The paper begins with background information, including humanitarian logistics literature and then summarizes current government agencies' and nongovernmental organizations' policies. Stakeholder theory is used to explore the motivations of commercial organizations to participate in humanitarian logistics operations. Next, the adequacy of emergency management policy is evaluated and four commercial logistics frameworks are analyzed for application to immediate disaster response. The analysis includes ratings of the frameworks and open-ended comments from a sample of logistics experts. Findings provide guidance to the implementation of commercial logistics processes to disaster response efforts.

Microgrid provision of blackstart in disaster recovery for power system restoration

Abstract: Prior system restoration studies have focused on contingency response more than disaster recovery. We develop a stochastic mixed integer linear program to assess the impact of coordinating microgrids (μGs) as a blackstart resource after a natural disaster. Existing research has demonstrated the blackstart capabilities of microgrids operated in islanded mode. We focus on the potential for microgrids to provide blackstart services to the regional grid or RTO. We differentiate micro-grids from traditional blackstart through modeling uncertainties, decoupled real and reactive DC power flows, and generator ramping and capability curves. We use parameters based on actual system operation studies for blackstart capability and optimal scheduling. We conclude that operable microgrids can provide sustainable benefits regardless of the natural disaster occurrence realized.

A Software-Defined Networking Approach for Disaster-Resilient WANs

Abstract: The current technology of Internet provides an acceptable level of resilience in normal operation. However, the Internet may get catastrophic impacts when unexpected disasters such as earthquakes, tsunami, etc. happen. Specifically, the Internet infrastructure including Wide Area Networks (WANs) face many challenges to normal operation including power outage, link, device failures, rerouting packets, traffic engineering, etc. In this paper, we follow a systematic approach for realizing disaster-resilient WANs using Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technology. SDN enables the network control plane to be decoupled from the network forwarding hardware, and moves the control plane to a programmable component, i.e., the network controller. The network management and operation therefore increase flexibility. To confirm the feasibility of SDN-based resilient network towards fast disaster recovery, we have constructed two evaluations under the real large scale network topology. One is to investigate the latencies between controllers and switches in order to find the appropriate number and locations of controllers. Another one is to simulate a reactive switch-over from a faulty link to an alternative link, assuming a realistic scenario. The results show that the switch-over time depends on the latencies between networking devices and a controller. Additionally, even those latency values equal the worst-case latency, the fast rerouting of TCP traffic is achievable.

DistressNet: A disaster response system providing constant availability cloud-like services

Abstract: Large scale disasters like the earthquake and tsunami in Japan (2011) cripple the local infrastructure. Proprietary systems and protocols used today for disaster response still lack data at the high spatial and temporal resolution needed to quickly save lives and to support disaster recovery efforts. Victims are rescued after days, if not weeks; digital coordination interfaces among responders are lacking, or are based on archaic methods (pencil, paper, paint on walls); the delay in receiving vast amounts of information from the field is bounded by the time used to physically transport tapes or hard drives. In this paper we present the design, implementation and evaluation of DistressNet, a system that provides services for emergency response applications. DistressNet integrates a variety of rapidly deployable, battery powered COTS devices into a secure framework. An optimal placement of networked components allows users to quickly and reliably store and retrieve data, in a ''cloud''-like manner, from a local intermittently connected ''fog''. High volumes of field data are available for emergency response personnel to view on interfaces like smartphones and tablets. DistressNet is a large academic effort, proposing open systems, instead of proprietary solutions. It has been developed in collaboration with Texas Task Force 1 and its components have been evaluated for over one year in outdoor deployments that required over 1500 man hours.

The effect of housing assistance arrangements on household recovery: an empirical test of donor-assisted and owner-driven approaches

Abstract: The paper assesses whether different types of housing assistance–owner-driven in situ or donor-assisted resettlement housing programs—influence perceptions of household recovery by tsunami-affected households. Utilizing data gathered in India 3½ years after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, we compared the perceptions of households provided with either in situ housing assistance or resettlement/relocation housing assistance. The extent to which households have recovered from the disaster was also examined to gauge the importance of housing arrangements in household recovery. We found that the beneficiaries of the resettlement programs generally experienced improvements in basic household amenities, while households provided with financial and material assistance for in situ housing repairs and rebuilding reported better access to essential services. When assessed in terms of perceptions of overall household recovery, the beneficiaries of in situ housing assistance programs fared better than beneficiaries of the resettlement programs despite the former receiving lower monetary assistance. These findings offer new insights to architects, designers, and public officials on what types of housing assistance arrangements expedite the overall recovery process and can help to evaluate and refocus funding towards specific housing recovery programs. The analysis thereby makes it easier to gauge the successes and failures of post disaster housing recovery programs.

Coordinating heterogeneous teams of robots using temporal symbolic planning

Abstract: The efficient coordination of a team of heterogeneous robots is an important requirement for exploration, rescue, and disaster recovery missions. In this paper, we present a novel approach to target assignment for heterogeneous teams of robots. It goes beyond existing target assignment algorithms in that it explicitly takes symbolic actions into account. Such actions include the deployment and retrieval of other robots or manipulation tasks. Our method integrates a temporal planning approach with a traditional cost-based planner. The proposed approach was implemented and evaluated in two distinct settings. First, we coordinated teams of marsupial robots. Such robots are able to deploy and pickup smaller robots. Second, we simulated a disaster scenario where the task is to clear blockades and reach certain critical locations in the environment. A similar setting was also investigated using a team of real robots. The results show that our approach outperforms ad-hoc extensions of state-of-the-art cost-based coordination methods and that the approach is able to efficiently coordinate teams of heterogeneous robots and to consider symbolic actions.

Evaluating disaster recovery plans using the cloud

Abstract: Every organization requires a business continuity plan (BCP) or disaster recovery plan (DRP) which falls within cost constraints while achieving the target recovery requirements in terms of recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO). The organizations must identify the likely events that can cause disasters and evaluate their impact. They need to set the objectives clearly, evaluate feasible disaster recovery plans to choose the DRP that would be optimal. The paper examines tradeoffs involved and presents guidelines for choosing among the disaster recovery options. The optimal disaster recovery planning should take into consideration the key parameters including the initial cost, the cost of data transfers, and the cost of data storage. The organization data needs and its disaster recovery objectives need to be considered. To evaluate the risk, the types of disaster (natural or human-caused) need to be identified. The probability of a disaster occurrence needs to be assessed along with the costs of corresponding failures. An appropriate approach for the cost evaluation needs to be determined to allow a quantitative assessment of currently active disaster recovery plans (DRP) in terms of the time need to restore the service (associated with RTO) and possible loss of data (associated with RPO). This can guide future development of the plan and maintenance of the DRP. Such a quantitative approach would also allow CIOs to compare applicable DRP solutions.

Disaster resilient built environment : role of lifelong learning and the implications for higher education

Abstract: Disasters cause considerable damage around the world every year. The built environment is significantly affected by disasters. Whilst the built environment is expected to withstand such occurrences, the construction industry is expected to play a pivotal role in reconstruction of damaged property and infrastructure. Such responses call for technological and managerial innovation. Therefore it is important that construction professionals receive continuous skill development to respond to disaster situations in order to build a disaster resilient built environment. Due to the complexities involved in and due to peculiar nature of disaster situations, lifelong learning is considered as an appropriate way of ensuring continuous education to the various stakeholders of disaster management. The paper reports preliminary findings from a European Commission funded research project aimed at modernising the higher education institutes to support lifelong learning in the built environment. The paper reports the key findings from the literature review and case study on disaster management, emphasising the role of lifelong learning in disaster management education. Empirical data collected as part of the workshop suggest that providing disaster management education as a degree programme is ineffective due to the complexity and multi-disciplinary nature of the subject. Further, the lack of involvement with the industry and the lack of research and development activities on disaster management by built environment professionals act as hindrance to effective disaster management education. In addressing the shortcomings on the existing approaches of disaster management education, this paper concludes that lifelong learning as the most appropriate approach to educate built environment professional in the context of disaster management.