Disasters have always brought the most terrible form of destruction to human societies. Natural, man-made, and technological hazards, as well as environmental conditions, make an area more vulnerable to the happening of disasters. It is not wrong to say that disasters can be managed if their causes are addressed in advance to avert a human catastrophe. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines a disaster as a sudden, large-scale event that requires external assistance.
For example, earthquakes are innate disasters that bring painful consequences for people. Floods, heat waves, and droughts also fall into the category of calamities. The menace of climate change is a human-induced calamity. Health effects from the smog in major cities make it worthy of being classified as a disaster. The 2005 earthquake in Pakistan was a natural disaster. Natural disasters like the floods of 2010 were horrible. The nuclear misfortune of Nagasaki and Hiroshima were human-caused catastrophes that rattled the foundations of humanity. Incorporation of technology into disaster forecasting and management is essential, as it allows nations to take proactive measures in predicting disasters beforehand, enabling governments to reduce economic and human loss.
Innovation and technology make a nation capable of surviving any untoward incident. Advanced nations have been able to protect themselves from disasters by making use of technology. Investing in technology can help to control disasters effectively. Technology is a tool that can assist humans in tackling deadly disasters from happening. Numerous developed countries have utilized technology as a tool to devise plans to fight disasters. Japan is a case in point. Japan is accustomed to utilizing technology, and the country uses it to protect its citizens from natural calamities.
Japan has successfully imparted technology to build earthquake-resilient buildings. For this reason, technology is essential in disaster management. Today, many kinds of disasters have engulfed the world. Nations everywhere have been drawn into a vortex of the COVID-19 pandemic, floods, climate change, cyclones, food shortages, heatwaves, droughts, and unpredictable rainfall patterns. A number of countries, mainly developed countries, have used technology to prevent catastrophes. Employing technology for forecasting the likelihood of floods in any area can manage floods, which bring unrepairable destruction to infrastructure. Technology can help us anticipate the size of a flood. Governments can build a blueprint with artificial intelligence to avoid the loss of life and belongings owing to flooding of an area. Taking precautionary steps like evacuating people from flood-prone areas can help greatly limit the destruction caused by floods. Singapore and other developed countries utilized technology to restrict the transmission of COVID-19.
The use of technology at the terminals lessened human-to-human contact protecting the citizens of Singapore. Technology can help humans to deal with pandemics in the future too. Likewise, environmental change is a reality now, and changes in the precipitation patterns and melting of glaciers are hinting at the rise in the sea-levels across the world. It will put coastal settlements at risk of extinction. Technology can provide an accurate assessment of the rise in sea levels, allowing countries to make plans to stop a disaster from occurring and wiping away coastal cities from the map of the world. In the current era, bushfires have been catastrophic, especially for wildlife. The incidence of forest fires in Australia last year was an eye-opener. Artificial rain, utilizing modern technology, can provide a solution to governments to combat the danger of wildfires for safeguarding wildlife species. Famines were a frequent occurrence in the past. However, the modernization of the agriculture sector allowed the global population to tackle the rise in the demand for food. Today, technology can help the world assess the regions that experience food shortages warding off a food disaster. Technology is capable of significantly aiding to increase crop yield which can serve humanity to confront the challenge of an increase in the demand for food worldwide. Carbon emissions have been a relentless hazard to the climate of the planet. The menace of global warming has been haunting humanity for years now. Eco-friendly techniques, such as the use of solar and wind energy, can lessen the effects of global warming, which is beckoning a catastrophe for humanity.
Utilizing technology can profoundly aid in determining the effects of a disaster, making it easier to manage it proficiently. By using drones, technology can also be a significant factor in determining how much damage a disaster has brought. Governments can make use of social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook to manage a disaster more efficiently. Leveraging advances in technology is a requirement to prepare for disasters, which is vital for keeping the lives of millions of people around the world safe. Technology has a big role in disaster management. Alert systems, drones, and more - the world is quickly changing the way it handles disasters. The sagacious use of technology can save this world from the menace of disasters. This is our chance to come up with new tactics to stave off disasters and reduce their aftermath wherever possible. With the prudent use of technology, the world can ward off disasters. without it, the risk of calamities will keep tormenting humanity.