NASA expert says DR must have a strong natural disaster risk mitigation system
SANTO DOMINGO. -By its geographical location, Dominican Republic have to develop a internal task in natural disaster prevention, con el objetivo de know the vulnerability and exposure rates of their communitiesassured the NASA researcher Ricardo Quiroga, during a conference at Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC).
Quiroga, coordinator of disaster risk management from NASA, delivered the keynote lecture "NASA Earth Observations for Disaster Risk Management”, During the celebration of the second INTEC Science Week, which focuses on Sustainable Development Goals (ODS).
The researcher said that Dominican Republic must know which structures are at risk and create adaptation plans and disaster mitigation.
“The Dominican Republic must have an almost perfect disaster mitigation system if it wants to survive as a nation; because future scenarios are worrisome and the fact that this country is at the center of all these confluences makes vulnerability to be maximized, that is the urgency, ”he said.
According to the researcher, the country requires a change of political vision, at the level of science and awareness of how you invest in these processes. Too recommends a "mass population involvement" in the natural disaster prevention, for which he estimated that universities and students play a leading role.
He pointed out that students, teachers and politicians must assume the mission of getting involved in disaster mitigation, with the vision of the future that current environmental problems require.
The researcher highlighted the interest of NASA in allowing countries to take advantage of the information collected by the Disaster program of that agency, to manage disasters. "We are in all the global disaster conventions, because NASA, as a space agency, has all this data and puts it at the service of the community for free and open, we create the model and we have it available to the public," he said the expert before dozens of students and teachers of INTEC.
Within significant findings registered by the aforementioned program for the future, explained that for 2020 all communities in the World they should have full knowledge of disaster riskThat the hurricane season will arrive every six months for environmental reasons and that seismicities are on the rise.
He pointed out that a series of major disasters will come and that some countries have not understood the need to create a different land use planning model. He said current models increase vulnerability and exposure of populations. "The scenarios we see in the political terms and territorial planning are not encouraging," he lamented.
About Ricardo Quiroga
Ricardo Quiroga is research scientist at the Earth Science Laboratory at the Goddard Space Flight Center of the NASAGreenbelt His research interests focus on the disaster risk reduction, focusing on the application of Earth observations to develop products and services aimed at decision makers throughout the disaster cycle. He directs the disaster group of the Regional Earth Observation Group of America-AmeriGEO and supports the AmeriGEOSS data exchange system.