Natural disasters are inevitable. Risk can be effectively reduced through pinpointed, surgical interventions
Over the past 30 years, Miyamoto’s engineers and technical specialists have responded to more than 100 natural disasters. When Miyamoto deploys its engineers and technical specialists to assist in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, local governments are often overwhelmed by the scope of the disaster and receptive to support and technical assistance. The knowledge and experience gained working in post-disaster environments enables Miyamoto to share best practices, what has worked and what didn’t work well, assisting governments in developing and implementing response, early recovery and reconstruction strategies, plans and programs.
Following some of the most devastating earthquake disasters over the last decade, Miyamoto imbedded staff within government ministries and agencies to help guide response and reconstruction activities. In Christchurch, New Zealand following the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes, Miyamoto’s team worked with the Christchurch City Council to develop the draft Central City Plan, which included short-, medium- and long-term plans for the city’s recovery.
Following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Miyamoto worked with the Government of Haiti and development partners to design and implement the largest post-disaster damage assessment program of the time, which was the first to use a GPS (real time) data management system, resulting in the habitability assessment of more than 400,000 houses. In 2015, Miyamoto worked with the Government of Nepal’s Ministry of Tourism to assess damages to the two most popular trekking routes in order to support recovery efforts of the tourism industry, which accounts for 40 percent of the country’s GNP and was hard-hit in the 2015 earthquake.
Key to Miyamoto’s approach is to work hand-in-hand with government stakeholders, but, critically, to also engage and work through the private sector and academia. In the developing world, Miyamoto seeks to gain a good understanding of the local business and operating environment, and is committed to supporting the development of local industry and technical capacity.
Experience: We’ve responded to more than 100 earthquakes between 1971 and 2018