Demonstration EVI Set for March 2003
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SOUTH PACIFIC APPLIED GEOSCIENCE COMMISSION Number 2002(4), October – December Demonstration EVI set for March 2003 A “Demonstration EVI” is tentatively set for March and temporal scales and hierarchial levels relating team to secure as 2003 as a show and tell for the international to ecosystems, and even incorporates sub-indices much data as audience on how the EVI will look and work when to cater for the great complexity of the possible; or to it is completed. interrelationship of the variables being monitored. arrive at alternative proxies For those who came in late, the Environmental The EVI Project entered its third phase at the end for those indicators Vulnerability Index (EVI) is an indicator based of 2002. The main tasks that remain to complete for which data is tool for estimating vulnerability of the Phase III include the globalisation of the EVI by unavailable. environment of a country to future shocks. It is a establishing links with collaborating countries (32 method that uses 54 smart indicators to assess countries around the world that are targetted). The EVI Project this vulnerability. (An informative booklet that This would be for the purpose of collecting country recently secured a thoroughly discusses the logic behind the EVI Tool data so a country-by-country testing of the EVI further sum of is available on our website; and can be sent to tool could be carried out. Also, creation of a 100- US$100,000 from interested people on request.) country database is underway from public sources the Government of Ursula Kaly to allow for more extensive testing of all the The 54 smart indicators have been developed to indicators. Indicator-by-indicator testing is also to Ireland to assist in monitor environmental conditions and at the same be enhanced by convening another Experts Think completing its work. Funds contributed by New time focus on the vulnerability of human systems Tank – another task set for Phase III. The Zealand, Norway and Italy are also most gratefully as responders to social, climatic and other successful completion of Phase III tasks are all acknowledged. International and regional partners environmental factors or hazards. essential for arriving at a fully-functional and in developing the EVI include UNEP, WMO, SPREP, robust global EVI. SPC, the Forum Secretariat and the University of The maintenance of ecosystem or ecological Malta. integrity is at the heart of the development of a At the end of 2002, the EVI Team has collected vulnerability index for the environment. The data for 100 countries for 30 out of the 54 Collaborators have been urged by the UN General environment is threatened by natural and indicators. The minimum data requirement of 80% Assembly to finalise their contributions to the anthropogenic hazards, which when damaged can data for a country profile has, so far, been vulnerability index, “by 2004.” This sets the at a fundamental level affect the welfare of collected for 21 collaborating countries. Collection deadline for the completion of the global and humans. This notion of ecosystem integrity is of data is crucial for the complete and thorough robust EVI shortly thereafter.§ complex and testing of the EVI for global application. Two major Ursula Kaly & Craig Pratt depends on factors hamper data collection; these are : the biodiversity, unavailability of data in the appropriate form; and ecosystem function the lack of funding to enable collaborating and resilience, all countries to collect their data. Funding available to ALSO IN THIS ISSUE ...... of which are SOPAC is invariably Pacific-specific and justifying interrelated its use in other regions is difficult. variables. This complexity cannot To assist in raising funds for the completion of the Cyclone Zoe in the Solomons ..... 2 be expressed EVI, a Demonstration EVI is being set up for peer through a single review and trial in March 2003. It will be set up indicator; hence and tested as if all the required data was at hand. EU-SOPAC Project Update ......... 3 the set of smart While this Demonstration EVI will not have met indicators. the criteria needed to cover global vulnerability, it will provide a glimpse to collaborators of the type Freshwater Kit for Schools ........ 6 The smart of results that can be expected when the full EVI indicators are set can be tested. Efforts have been stepped up by the at different spatial Swath mapping help for cops ..... 8 Craig Pratt 1 Cyclone Zoe assessment team confirm “no deaths” The Eastern outer islands of the Santa Cruz exposed locations such as hilltops and along other islands in the Temotu Province to verify group of the Solomon Islands, Tikopia, Anuta the shore have been damaged. that no other communities suffered any losses and Fataka were hit by Zoe, a rare category because of Cyclone Zoe, the MV Isabella 5 cyclone between 28-30 December The supplies on board Auki – tarpaulins, returned to Honiara with the assessment team 2002. plastic sheeting and 2MT rice – will meet the on 12 January. immediate needs of the community. Those on The initial rapid assessment conducted on the other two vessels should meet the longer- The inter-island freighter, MV Hamakyo Maru Tikopia found no fatalities and only minor term relief needs. The nurse on the assessment departed Honiara on 8 January 2003 with injuries, in spite of major damage to housing, team confirmed that there were ten cases of 170 x 200 litres drums of diesel, 2 drums of especially in the coastal villages. People chicken pox and a range of other diseases. kerosene, 24 MT rice, 100 household kits, survived the storm by moving inland and 300 mosquito nets, fishing equipment, 34 sheltering in caves. The island’s partially piped The assessment and relief operation on bags of cement, 4 community water tanks, a water supply system was damaged, although Tikopia are still underway, now being quantity of PVC guttering and pipes, the water source was intact and coordinated from the MV Isabella. One of educational materials for 3 schools, and seeds. uncontaminated by seawater. Many More food was also supplied by the Tikopians subsistence gardens were damaged. Root living in Honiara. Local bush construction crops and fruit trees destroyed or damaged materials will be picked up in Lata on Nendo would take three to four months for new Island. An NDMO official will manage the crops to grow, but the islanders still have distribution and a plumber provided by World about two weeks of food stocks remaining. Vision will carry out the water supply system The island’s sole medical clinic was only repairs. This delivery of relief and slightly damaged, but the school and church reconstruction items on the MV Hamakyo were both badly damaged. Maru will conclude the emergency phase.§ The assessment team sent to Anuta reported Source: OCHA Situation Report No.5 (8 less severe damage than in Tikopia. There are January 2003) no casualties. The main village of three hundred inhabitants, two churches and the school are still standing and overall 90% of At the time of compiling this issue, Fiji came buldings across the island are intact, with only in for a turn to bear the brunt of another minor damage. Minor damage was sustained cyclone called Ami, in mid January. Though by the water supply system, and a not as severe a storm as Zoe, the official replacement tank for the community was the first tasks completed was the repair of the death toll at the end of it was 14 with 6 still loaded onto the Hamakyo Maru. 70% of island’s HF radio, located in the clinic. The missing. As in the Solomon Islands with Zoe, gardens are intact but banana and coconut population has been divided into eight groups all communication links between affected areas palms have been blown down, and gardens in for the distribution of relief items. and the centres of business were destroyed Assistance is now needed to reconstruct during the storms. Large-scale relief operations ews is not good nowadays. Here we are homes, using traditional bush materials that could only get underway after communication trying to confine our reporting to the must be supplied from unaffected islands in links were restored.§ period October to December 2002, and the Temotu Province, to replace lost or just the bad news in January 2003 alone damaged household possessions, and to Ncan fill this whole issue. So if I’ve sneaked in a Opinions expressed in this publication are not repair the water supply system. Much of the mention of Cyclone Ami in Fiji; by rights I should materials for this work are being dispatched necessarily those of the SOPAC Secretariat, also mention the bushfires in Australia – they got neither does the mention of any firm or licensed a bit out of hand in Canberra last weekend. on the third vessel, the MV Hamakyo Maru, which left for Tikopia on 8 January. process imply endorsement by SOPAC. The new EU-SOPAC Project finally gets off the SOPAC News is published by the SOPAC ground. Staff recruitment got underway in earnest On Honiara, a small and effective Central Secretariat. with some positions filled. We begin updating you Control Group (CCG) has been established, on the happenings on that front, see page 3. chaired by the Acting Police Commissioner, Director : Alf Simpson with membership including the Adventist Deputy Director : Russell Howorth The time of “suddenlies” I mentioned at the turn Relief Agency (ADRA), Solomon Islands Please address correspondence to: of the century is upon us. If you like keeping track Red Cross Society, World Vision and the The Director of trends and watching human history, then these National Disaster Management Office things will not be suddenlies for you.