In January 2024, Tropical Cyclone Belal battered the Indian Ocean islands of Reunion and Mauritius. In the Reunion, the cyclone made landfall on 15 January, bringing heavy rain, flooding, and winds of up to 200 km per hour along the coast that were even stronger in the highlands. The Reunion is a French department. Along with Malta and the Netherlands, it is the focus of a project launched in December that aims to enhance the population’s preparedness for natural hazards. Funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme, the three-year project is entitled Innovating Preparedness by Leveraging Synergies and Enhancing Results of Disaster Risk Management Project (SYNERGIES).
UNESCO is contributing to this strategic partnership, which involves numerous stakeholders involved in disaster management, including first and second responders, citizens, communities, governments and businesses. The objective of this collaboration is to innovate, in order to ensure that communities will be better prepared the next time disaster strikes.
Often, we perceive disaster risk reduction as being solely a matter of applying science and engineering or developing effective policies. Yet, its scope extends beyond these fields. UNESCO is also striving to build community resilience to natural hazards, strengthen communication channels and preserve cultural heritage. The SYNERGIES project admirably mirrors this multifaceted approach.
Soichiro Yasukawa Chief of the Disaster Risk Reduction Unit, UNESCO.
Weathering the storm in the Reunion
Reunion Island is subject to a range of climatic and geological hazards, including tropical storms, landslides, volcanic eruptions and floods. Four cyclones hit the island each year on average. Although they typically veer away before making landfall, they can still cause damage.
The island’s inhabitants have a strong tradition of preparedness for cyclones that is rooted in their collective memory of past events – but this culture is evolving with the island’s rapidly growing population. In parallel, changing weather patterns as a consequence of climate change are making it necessary to adapt current forecasting models. That is why, in the Reunion, the SYNERGIES project is focusing on enhancing preparedness and societal resilience to tropical storms.
The aim is to experiment with new approaches. For example, during Tropical Cyclone Belal, text message alerts were sent to the entire population for the first time via local telephone operators. ‘This new feature was greatly appreciated by the population’, observes Aurelie Dubard-Grondin, Project Manager for the Center for Scientific, Technical and Industrial Culture Sciences in the Reunion, a SYNERGIES partner. It ‘played an important role in communication with citizens, along with the press briefings and the involvement of various media in the pre-alert phases” she remarks.
Despite a strong culture of risk awareness in the Reunion, some residents took risks, such as by crossing flooded rivers or approaching dangerous coastal waves. As a result, Cyclone Belal claimed several victims.
Irina Pavlova, the UNESCO Project Officer participating in SYNERGIES, welcomes the emphasis on boosting citizen involvement and empowerment. The project will train key community figures such as first responders, social workers, teachers and community leaders on how to minimize casualties and otherwise lower the human and financial cost of tropical storms.
How to understand the severity of a cyclone
Cyclones are categorized into five levels of intensity based on the internationally recognized Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Category 1 cyclones have wind speeds ranging from 119 to 153 km/hour, and category 2 cyclones from 154 and 177 km/h.
Cyclones of category 3 and above are termed ‘major cyclones’. Their powerful winds have the potential to cause devastating to catastrophic damage and significant loss of life. To qualify for category 3 status, the cyclone must have wind speeds ranging from 178 to 208 km/h. Cyclones in categories 4 and 5 have wind speeds of 209–251 km/h and above, respectively. Cyclone Belal was rated between categories 2 and 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
Réunion and Mauritius, islands in the southwest Indian Ocean, were lashed by a strong storm system in January 2024. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
The practice of naming storms was pioneered in Europe by the United Kingdom and Ireland in 2016. This practice has been shown to enhance the effectiveness of communication during violent storms. This is largely because the public tends to heed safety instructions more closely when a storm is identified by name. A storm receives a name, if it is expected to prompt a wind alert of level orange or higher in any of the countries participating in this approach, which also groups Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Spain.
Enhancing earthquake risk preparedness in Malta
The Maltese archipelago, which includes the islands of Malta, Gozo, and Comino, grapples with the rising need for comprehensive earthquake preparedness. The islands have seen a surge in the construction of residential buildings, many of which may lack the necessary reinforcements to withstand even moderate ground shaking3. In some localities, a substantial number of these structures are occupied by a dense and culturally diverse populace, posing a significant challenge to emergency services and public agencies in the event of an earthquake.
The SYNERGIES project aims to enhance seismic readiness in Regjun Tramuntana in Malta by emulating solutions that have proven their worth. The project also intends to develop recommendations to address shortcomings in current earthquake emergency responses, encouraging a more culturally sensitive and humane response from all stakeholders during an emergency.
In view of the history and diverse heritage of the island, UNESCO will support SYNERGIES partners in developing educational materials and initiatives considering key factors such as protecting cultural and historical heritage and catering to the specific needs of vulnerable groups. These will be aimed at overcoming linguistic and cultural barriers to effective communication during emergencies.
Harnessing volunteer power in the Netherlands
The low-lying Netherlands are vulnerable to flooding and storms. Over the centuries, they have developed various strategies to reduce this vulnerability, including dams and other barriers. One recent innovation has been the integration of top-down disaster management with grassroots initiatives, which may include up to 97,0004 volunteers in some cases. However, effectively integrating and managing these voluntary efforts, particularly during the preparedness and learning phases, is posing some challenges.
The SYNERGIES project plans to develop strategies for the effective integration of spontaneous volunteers in the Rotterdam area. These strategies are designed to be integrated into flexible and adaptable preparedness plans. UNESCO and its partners hope that, through the establishment of avenues for knowledge exchange and training among different actors, they will be able to mobilize a greater number of volunteers.
Photo credits: Shutterstock_689215504
