Today I posted this 'six months before and after' video on my blog showing the recovery in Tacloban, following the devastating Typhoon Haiyan. A drone was used to do the filming and opens up so many possibilities for the future monitoring of disaster recovery.
Very interesting comparison and
comparison methodology, Bob. Thanks for providing it. The material offers a
visible demonstration (i.e. real transparency) allowing some immediate analysis
without recourse to any form of statistical assessment. This is my
own instant take. The economic infrastructure (roads = logistical arteries)
have been re-established as a priority and, with it, the local economy (road
traffic) is rebuilding. People have reclaimed their land holdings, so land
boundaries were either not destroyed or there is sufficient community agreement
on who owns what to allow people to work out who has the right to what space.
Much of the debris have been cleared allowing re-habitation, so that part of
recovery has gone well. Policy makers have either not imposed or not reinforced
restrictions on returning to the same locations, the corollaries of which are
that (1) land planning lags behind rehabilitation demonstrated by the ships
that are still grounded and will be difficult/impossible to move once permanent
housing is rebuilt although presently the primary shelter remains transitional,
(2) the community remains vulnerable to the next storm surge and (3) developers
will not be able to get their hands on the land cheaply. The surrounding
agricultural land is replenishing after salt water inundation suggesting there
has been plenty of rain since Yolanda to leach out the salt, so local food
production should quickly return and, with it, the local economy. Aside from
the road, the major recovery work has been done by the community alone or with
the assistance of civil society, which should not be a problem if it frees the
authorities to rebuild their own capacities and develop more coherent plans for
the future. All in all, therefore, encouraging progress with some interesting
twists and turns.
It is now becoming conceivable with the use of 'drones' that disaster assessment can be done remotely thus cutting huge amounts of money spend by sending in national and foreign experts to view from the ground. An inexpensive drone could do the job much more cheaply..
Six months on from Typhoon Haiyan, The Telegraph’s Lewis Whyld, who covered its immediate aftermath with an unmanned drone, returned to see how the worst affected city is recovering. This is what he said.
“The drone has allowed us to retrace our exact steps six month later,” said
Whyld. “Previously with a static camera on the ground you wouldn’t have been
able to do that.”
The new images, gathered over 10 days and around 20 hours of flight time, offer a bird’s eye view of how Tacloban has changed.
Much of the debris has now been cleared from its once body-lined streets. But other parts of the city that were completely levelled remained “pretty much untouched,” Whyld said.
A lack of government housing for the displaced means many have been forced to return to the vulnerable coastal areas that bore the brunt of the typhoon.
“Aid workers who are there are saying that the main thing is housing. Food and electricity is available and people have access to health care. What is really lacking is housing,” said Whyld.
“There are signs up and everybody knows the rule that you can’t build near the sea but it is blindingly obviously that they are doing that. The first thing I saw was that everyone is rebuilding exactly where they were living previously. At the moment it is really up in the air for a lot of families.”
The new images, gathered over 10 days and around 20 hours of flight time, offer a bird’s eye view of how Tacloban has changed.
Much of the debris has now been cleared from its once body-lined streets. But other parts of the city that were completely levelled remained “pretty much untouched,” Whyld said.
A lack of government housing for the displaced means many have been forced to return to the vulnerable coastal areas that bore the brunt of the typhoon.
“Aid workers who are there are saying that the main thing is housing. Food and electricity is available and people have access to health care. What is really lacking is housing,” said Whyld.
“There are signs up and everybody knows the rule that you can’t build near the sea but it is blindingly obviously that they are doing that. The first thing I saw was that everyone is rebuilding exactly where they were living previously. At the moment it is really up in the air for a lot of families.”
Perhaps I am droning on too much but what a new and fascinating disaster management tool
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