PROTECTION OF EDUCATIONAL BUILDINGS AND CULTURAL MONUMENTS

Background
International Programme on Landslides (IPL)
IGCP

Background

UNESCO helps Member States to deal with the problems that sudden natural hazard present for school buildings. Emphasis is laid on practical advise on how to build schools that will be relatively safe if a natural disaster occurs. This is mainly done through the holding of national/sub-regional training seminars and the publication and dissemination of guidelines on the construction of disaster-resistant educational buildings.

In addition, all school construction projects benefiting from UNESCO technical collaboration are examined from the point of view of their vulnerability to natural hazards and the necessary changes are made in the projects. The programme has also fielded a significant number of reconnaissance missions to countries that have experience disasters assessing the damage to educational buildings and recommending rehabilitation measures.

The emphasis of the programme is now on the development of schools that can be used as a place of community refuge during, and as a relief center after a disaster. UNESCO | Education - Restoration & reconstruction process

Recently some pilot studies have also included the introduction of disaster-preparedness in the curricula covering social and behavorial aspects. In addition, prototype schools (pilot projects) with emphasis on disaster resistance have been developed in certain countries to serve as models for large-scale projects.

Sites, monuments and other works of art are iable to be affected by natural disasters. UNESCO participates in the operations undertaken to safeguard such property against disasters and issues guidelines for the protection of cultural monuments. Within the framework of risk preparedness and emergency response for the safeguard of cultural properties and museums in relation to disasters, a computer assisted multimedia system for reporting, recording and communicating information and data is being produced together with a set of plans criteria and policies.

International Programme on Landslides (IPL)

UNESCO and the Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan (DPRI/KU) have exchanged in 1999 the Memorandum of Understanding concerning cooperation in research for landslide risk mitigation and protection of the cultural and natural heritage as a key contribution to environmental protection and sustainable development in the first quarter of the twenty-first century.

The 2001 Tokyo Declaration "Geoscientists tame landslides" was released in the UNESCO/IGCP Symposium on Landslide Risk Mitigation and Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage in 2001 to propose a new International Consortium on Landslides for the worldwide promotion of landslide research.

In the framework of the International Symposium "Landslide Risk Mitigation and Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage" co-organized by UNESCO and Kyoto University in Kyoto on 21-25 January 2002, international experts from different national, scientific, governmental organizations, academic institutions, regional and international organizations, international non-governmental organizations and United Nations organizations unanimously agreed to launch an International Programme on Landslides" (IPL).

In agreement with the work plan for the year 2002-2003, UNESCO has decided to initiate the International Programme on Landslides as one of the main intersectoral activities of the Organization from 2002, in cooperation with the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL), which was founded in Kyoto on 21 January 2002. more info on ICL Main Page, Intl Consortium on Landslides (ICL)

IGCP

The project "Landslide Hazard Assessment and Mitigation of Cultural and Natural Heritage Sites and Other Locations of High Societal Values" was initiated as an intersectoral project of natural sciences and cultural heritage in the framework of the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP), 1998-2003.