Cambodia CATSIM: Understanding disaster risk and resilience in Cambodia

IIASA collaborates with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) on a project “Strengthening the Disaster Management Systems in Cambodia through Risk Assessment, Early Warning Systems and Developing Building Codes” supported by the World Bank.

Rice farmers in Camobia, Tonale Sap. 10022744 © Dirk Ott | Dreamstime

Rice farmers in Camobia, Tonale Sap. 10022744 © Dirk Ott | Dreamstime

The 17-month project began in May 2013 is aimed at strengthening Cambodia’s disaster management capacities. Technical assistance is provided to assess the probabilistic risk of major hazards including floods, landslides, droughts, storms and epidemics and their implications for Cambodia’s economy and public finance. Standard protocols will be developed to improve the country’s end-to-end multi-hazard early warning system, post-disaster data collection and building codes. National, Provincial, District and Commune-level Committees for Disaster Management, together with line ministries, donor agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) participate in this project.

Cambodia is considered one of the most disaster prone countries in the Southeast Asian region with approximately 86 percent of its land located within the Mekong, Tonle Sap and Bassac river basins. Repeated floods in 2013, 2011, 2009, 2002, 2001 and 2000 along with less frequent but destructive typhoons such as Ketsana of 2009 and locally occurring droughts have impeded the country’s goals of economic growth and poverty alleviation. Despite the strides made in recent years, approximate 50% of population in Cambodia lives under $2 a day.

IIASA focus

IIASA’s Risk and Resilience program and its CATSIM modeling framework will be used to assess direct and indirect natural disaster risk on the Cambodian economy. A participatory workshop conducted in October 21-22nd in Phom Penh identified key stakeholder concerns and policy questions on catastrophic natural disaster risk in Cambodia. Based on these inputs, IIASA will develop a user-friendly economic risk assessment tool tailored to local policy context and will provide training to end-users jointly with ADPC.


Print this page

Last edited: 05 April 2016

CONTACT DETAILS

Reinhard Mechler

Research Group Leader and Senior Research Scholar Systemic Risk and Resilience Research Group - Advancing Systems Analysis Program

CONTACT DETAILS

Junko Mochizuki

Senior Research Scholar Water Security Research Group - Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Phone: (+43 2236) 807 0 Fax:(+43 2236) 71 313