Master's Dissertation: Sustainability and Disaster Resilience in Oman

This Master's dissertation examines the crucial intersection of sustainability and disaster resilience within the Sultanate of Oman, focusing on the challenges posed by both natural and human-made disasters. The study investigates the vulnerability of Oman to various hazards, including cyclones and earthquakes, while also addressing the country's geographical location and its impact on disaster occurrences. The research delves into the need for proactive planning and the integration of scientific knowledge into urban infrastructure and developmental planning to mitigate human and property losses. The dissertation provides an overview of disaster risk reduction strategies and the importance of disaster resilience for sustainable development, analyzing Oman's current practices and suggesting improvements. It also explores the role of governance and mainstreaming disaster risk reduction in development, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach to economic, environmental, and social well-being to achieve sustainable development goals.

STUDY ON SUSTAINABILITY AND DISASTER RESILIENCE IN SULTANATE OF
OMAN
By Name
Course
Instructor
Institution
Location
Date

DECLARATION
I thereby affirm that this work of Master´s dissertation is my own original publications which
does not contain other author´s work without being cited, referenced and stated. The work given
has not been submitted to any university, other learning institutions or anywhere for the
fulfillment for any other award.
Print Name………………………………………… Date: / / 2020
Signature………………………………...

ABBREVATION
UET: Ultimate environmental threshold
LUI: Local Urban Indicators
SLR: sea level rise
UNISDR: United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
SD: sustainable development
IMD: India Meteorological Department
CRED: Center for Research on Epidemiology of Disaster
NCCD: National Committee for Civil Defense
GCC: Gulf Cooperation Countries
GIS: Geographic Information System
DRR: Disaster Risk Reduction
SDG: Sustainable Development Goals

ABSTRACT
This thesis basically addresses the Study on sustainability and disaster resilience in the
Sultanate of Oman. This paper focuses on understanding Disaster Resilient as an aspect of
sustainable development in Oman, and it is structured as follows. The second part analyses the
literature on Disaster Resilient and its importance to sustainable development. The third part
discusses the application of sustainable development to Oman. The fourth part elaborates on an
outline of sustainable development in Oman and its lack of Disaster Resilient. The fifth part goes
over the urgent need for resilience in Oman. Sultanate of Oman is really faced with several
disasters which include both man-made and disaster of natural causes. Disasters which are man-
made are due to the activities of human while the natural causes of the disasters are due to
natural actions. Omen has been faced with some disasters like road traffic crashes which is one
of the top endemic hazards in this country. The higher rates of road traffic crashes are due to
higher populations in the sultanate of Oman towns. In every year, there are almost 10000 road
traffic crashes, these crashes resulted in 700 direct deaths and injuries of about 8000. The
geographical locality of Oman which is in the eastern of the Peninsula of Arabian exposes the
state into many natural disasters.
Keywords: Sultanate of Oman; disaster risk reduction; disaster resilience; sustainability;
Cyclone; Earthquake.

TABLE OF CONTENT
Contents
DECLARATION..............................................................................................................................................2
ABBREVATION.............................................................................................................................................3
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................................4
TABLE OF CONTENT.....................................................................................................................................5
TABLE OF FIGURE.........................................................................................................................................7
LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................................................8
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................9
1.1 Background Information....................................................................................................................9
1.2 Problem Statement...........................................................................................................................11
13 The rationale to the study.................................................................................................................12
1.4 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES.................................................................................................................13
1.4.1 Aims.............................................................................................................................................13
1.4.2 Objectives.....................................................................................................................................13
CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW..................................................................................................14
2.1 Introduction.....................................................................................................................................14
2.2 DISASTER IN THE SULTANATE OF OMAN.............................................................................17
2.2.1 Natural disaster.........................................................................................................................17
2.2.2 Human Made disaster in Sultanate of Oman.............................................................................27
2.3 DISASTERS VULNERABILITY IN OMAN.................................................................................28
2.4 DISASTER RESILIENCE IN SULTANATE OF OMAN..............................................................33
2.5 SUSTAINABILITY AND DISASTER RESILIENCE....................................................................................35
2.6 Relationships between Disasters and Sustainable Development......................................................38
2.7 6Disaster resilient and its importance to sustainable development..................................................39
2.7.1 Sustainable Development Interpretations and Applications......................................................39
2.7.2 Significance of Disaster Resilient to Sustainable Development................................................39
2.8 Oman’s Application to Sustainable Development...........................................................................42
CHAPTER 3- METHODOLOGY.............................................................................................................44
3.1 Study Area.......................................................................................................................................44
3.2 Disaster and Risk management in the Sultanate of Oman................................................................45
3.2.1 Disaster Identification...............................................................................................................46

3.2.2 Risk Evaluation.........................................................................................................................47
3.2.3 Decision Made..........................................................................................................................48
3.2.4 Implementation of the decision made.......................................................................................48
3.2.5 Risk strategy Review................................................................................................................49
3.2.6 Risk Policy development..........................................................................................................49
3.3 The Assessment Tool.......................................................................................................................50
3.4 The Uniqueness of the Approach.....................................................................................................53
CHAPTER 4: RESULT.............................................................................................................................54
4.1 Mainstreaming DRR in Development..............................................................................................56
4.2 Disaster governance.........................................................................................................................56
CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION..........................................................................................................................58
CHAPTER: 6 CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................65
CHAPTER 7 REFERENCES....................................................................................................................67
CHAPTER 8 APPENDIX................................................................................................................................79

TABLE OF FIGURE
Figure 1: Showing Seismic activity in the Sultanate of Oman (Al-Shaqsi 2010).......................................17
Figure 2: Showing General view after Cyclone Mekunu in Salalah..........................................................20
Figure 3: Showing the effects of Cyclone Mekunu along the coast of the Sultanate of Oman
(https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/cyclone-mekunu-kills-eleven-and-leaves-dozens-missing-
1.734214 ).................................................................................................................................................21
Figure 4: Showing path followed by this type of Cyclone Cyclone Mekunu
(https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/cyclone-mekunu-kills-eleven-and-leaves-dozens-missing-
1.734214)..................................................................................................................................................22
Figure 5: Showing the movement of the Cyclone on Sunday 22nd May 2018
(https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/cyclone-mekunu-kills-eleven-and-leaves-dozens-missing-
1.734214)..................................................................................................................................................23
Figure 6: Showing the movement of the Cyclone on Friday 27th May 2018
(https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/cyclone-mekunu-kills-eleven-and-leaves-dozens-missing-
1.734214)..................................................................................................................................................24
Figure 7: Showing routes of Cyclone Gonu (Al-Shaqsi 2010).................................................................30
Figure 8: Showing the effect of this cyclone
(https://www.eumetsat.int/website/home/Images/ImageLibrary/DAT_IL_07_06_04_A.html).................31
Figure 9: Showing procedure of disaster resilience for a sustainable country............................................45
Figure 10: Showing performance of resilience building in Sultanate of Oman..........................................53
Figure 11: Showing management of the financial costs of disaster
(http://www.oecd.org/governance/fiscal-resilience-to-natural-disasters-27a4198a-en.htm)......................78
Figure 12: Showing scary photos of Cyclone disaster in Sultanate of Oman
(https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/editorial/the-fatal-cyclone-is-a-reminder-that-disaster-prevention-
and-response-are-vital-1.734484 ).............................................................................................................78
Figure 13: Showing scary photos of Cyclone disaster in Sultanate of Oman
(http://www.akademifantasia.org/middle-east/oman-natural-disaster-scary-photos/ )...............................79
Figure 14: Showing scary photos of Cyclone disaster in Sultanate of Oman
(http://www.akademifantasia.org/middle-east/oman-natural-disaster-scary-photos/ )...............................79
Figure 15: Showing scary photos of Cyclone disaster in Sultanate of Oman
(http://www.akademifantasia.org/middle-east/oman-natural-disaster-scary-photos/ )...............................80
Figure 16: Showing Total inundated land area
(https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/etd/ucb/text/Alruheili_berkeley_0028E_17210.pdf)...................81

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Showing a National Disaster in Sultanate of Oman from the year 1960 to 2010.........................28
Table 2: Showing the effect of Cyclone Gonu in Sultanate of Oman........................................................30
Table 3: Showing Timeline of disaster resilience in Sultanate of Oman....................................................34
Table 4: Showing UNISDR’s Ten Essentials for Making Countries/cities Resilient and the Local Urban
Indicators...................................................................................................................................................51
Table 5: Showing performance of resilience building in Sultanate of Oman.............................................54
Table 6: Showing Cyclonic Storms in Salalah Plain.....................................................................................80

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background Information
Generally, the term sustainability is used in planning to indicate sustainable development
in various realms; however, the term is interpreted subjectively. Sustainable development relies
on the interpretation and understanding of planners or policymakers. For example, in Italy,
planners had focused on natural resources analysis by adopting the ultimate environmental
threshold (UET) as a sustainable planning process to achieve sustainable land use. Policymakers
and planners are anticipated to be able to draw a balance among the economy, life quality,
environmental protection, and natural resources preservation for future generations. But the
reality is that making decisions in relation to sustainable development is challenging due to
external factors beyond their control, such as an extreme natural disaster. The thesis will analyze
some of the resilience which can be put forward to ensure that the effects of the disaster which
occurred in the Sultanate of Oman do not have a greater impact on citizens.
For disaster resilience, disasters are always categorized according to their source which
are human-made disasters and natural disasters. Human disasters are as a result of human
activities while natural disasters are imposed by force of nature like the location of Oman. The
term resilience given as the system´s ability to withstand external forces that are outside the
norm, such as storm events, while maintaining its functionality during an extreme event or as the
system's ability to regain functionality rapidly after an event (Chang, 2014) described resilience
from two perspectives: that of engineering resilience, and that of ecological resilience. These two
perspectives are deviating from one another because engineering resilience is based on long-term
infrastructural efficiency, constancy, and predictability, whereas ecological resilience is built on
persistence, change, and unpredictability. Even though the resilience of infrastructure and of

ecology appear to contradict one another, in real life they do coexist within one system; so
achieving a mutual relationship between these two will provide a safe connection between the
natural and built environment and people. Oman is situated in the Southeastern Arabian
Peninsula's corner. Oman´s coastal line stretches to 3,165 km from the North to the south
(Republic of Yemen). The idea of creating Disaster Resilient has emerged in response to natural
hazards associated with climate change impacts on infrastructure and other structures. Scholars
have begun to implement proactive planning to move toward Disaster Resilient; for example,
Biging, Radke, and Lee (2012) conducted a study to investigate the effects of the anticipated in
sea level rise (SLR) and higher events storm on the country´s structures and they recommended
to the government of California that it stop maintaining vulnerable country´s structures and roads
during an earthquake and instead build new roads that will not be vulnerable to SLR in the next
100 years. Although the definition of sustainable development indicates consciousness of the
natural environment, the economy, and society, it does not lay out how to approach a balance
among these three elements of Sustainability (Charabi, 2010). To achieve sustainable
development, a simultaneous linkage among the economy, the environment, and social well-
being is required. Therefore, many countries are facing challenges in creating a balance among
the three elements of sustainable development since it is influenced by the country's own
interests (Chang, 2014). Applying sustainable development elements alone is not enough to
achieve sustainable development; awareness of disaster resilience is crucial if sustainable
development goals are to be achieved.
The world has witnessed increasing natural hazard events that cause a crisis. In 2001, a
universal survey was conducted that showed that 700 natural disasters took place. These disasters
were combined with huge losses leading to in death of 25,000 citizens, $11.5 billion in insured

losses, and $36 billion in economic losses. Currently in Oman, whenever there are major or
minor natural disasters that often severely impacted and require expensive repair and
maintenance. This action conflicts with the definition of sustainability and disaster resiliency. In
the case of Oman, implementing the three elements of sustainable development is challenging
because it has an oil-based economy along with challenging physical topography. Most of
Oman's national development, including its infrastructure and buildings, are reliant on
unsustainable oil revenue, and any crisis in oil prices has a significant impact on strategic
developmental plans.
1.2 Problem Statement
Both natural and man-made disasters resulting in a significant loss as well as economic
setback and social development. In the Sultanate of Oman weather, climatic disaster and
weather normally contribute to 90 per cent of the entire disaster. The environmental and human
damage from the Cyclone Gonu of the year 2007 and from Cyclonic Storm ARB 01 in 2002,
showed Oman's vulnerability to climate change and natural hazards. This lead to the recognition
of the need for precautions and for the integration of science within Oman's strategic
developmental plans. The vulnerability of the Omani coastal zone, for instance, is also related to
the area's socioeconomic significance. Sixty-seven percent of the Omani population resides along
the coast; population growth, infrastructure development, and economic activity, for example,
the fisheries and tourism industries, are also clustered in the coastal area (Al-Shaqsi, 2010). The
growth and expansion of coastal cities mean that people, the built environment, and the
ecosystem are vulnerable to natural disasters that may take place. Specifically, there is a need to
assess Oman's planning practices. According to Belqacem (2010), planning in Oman is based on
the assumption of a constant, arid climate and normal weather conditions; such planning has

previously been adequate due to the country's geographic location, which meant that natural
disasters were rare. As a result, Oman's urban planners rarely take into account the natural
disasters that might occur as a result of climate change.
Charabi and Al-Hatrushi (2010) stated that "literature and scientific knowledge
concerning the climate of Oman is limited, incomplete and scattered." Yet, the literature
demonstrates awareness of the influence of climate change in Oman in terms of frequent and
intense. However, few studies have been conducted in an effort to understand the consequences
of climate change, including potential sea-level rise inundation and wadi flash flooding, and the
potential impacts on existing and future coastal development and infrastructure. This research
aims to encourage and demonstrate how Oman can integrate science, as the underlying process,
into urban infrastructure, and developmental planning. This research demonstrates a proactive
approach to measuring and quantifying future climate change impacts that lead to minimizing
human loss, property loss, and the disturbance or destruction of both private and public coastal
infrastructure. Such an approach will hopefully become an integral process within Oman’s
developmental planning. Moreover, this study answers the following question: Given Oman’s
current environmental challenges and its geographic location, how can science be integrated as
part of the underlying process of creating policy within Oman’s planning practices. In addition,
the results of this research map and encourage the adoption of resilient building practices within
the country’s infrastructure.
13 The rationale to the study
The study of disaster resilience and sustainability is a very crucial aspect in the 21st
century since countries need to be more sustainable in case a disaster occurs in a country.
Sultanate of Oman is located in the Peninsula of Arabian´s South Eastern Plate making it very

vulnerable to earthquakes (Abdalla, 2011). The country is also situated in a place that frequently
has more monsoon wind thus there are higher chances of several Cyclones like Cyclone Gonu,
Cyclone Hikaa, and Cyclone Mekunu. Therefore the study of disaster resilience helps the
country by giving ways in which such disasters can be managed properly. Managing these types
of disasters is very crucial since when they occur several causalities are always witnessed. There
is also man-made disaster which always occurs in the Sultanate of Oman (Abdel Malek, 2015).
This type of disaster can be controlled/ avoided by putting some serious strategies (Al-Hatrushi,
2014). While for the natural disaster they cannot be controlled /avoided from happening but
when they occur their effects need to be minimized (reduced). Thus this thesis paper helps in
outlining some strategies which can be put forth to help reduce the effect of natural disaster when
they happen thus making the country to be more sustainable.
1.4 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
1.4.1 Aims
The aim of this thesis is to study on sustainability and disaster resilience in Sultanate of Oman
1.4.2 Objectives
In order to realize the above-stated aim, the following are some of the objectives which will be
perfectly handled;
i. To analyze chances of risk factors of the disasters in the Sultanate of Oman

ii. To look for ways of dealing with the disaster once they occur (disaster resilience)
iii. To put strategies of ensuring that the Sultanate of Oman is sustainable during the case of
a natural disaster.
iv. To look for ways to reduce the chances of occurrence of Man-made disasters.
CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
Resilience is a broad word that is used to describe qualities that are acceptable in society.
Its description depends on the use and application in various education sectors. In safety
management, it denotes an organization's capability to withstand misery that emanates from
tragedies. A nation is described as being resilience it is capable of minimizing risks and can bear
in case of a tragedy. A resilient nation can minimize current and yet to come tragedies. This is
attained by initiating effective devices for catastrophe response and salvage centers. The United
Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) describes it as the capability of a group of
people or an organization that is open to danger to fight, absorb, put up with and recuperate from
a hazard in time and in an appropriate manner which entails keeping and restoring of the
organization’s vital arrangements and purposes (ESCWA, 2018). When thinking of the
importance of towns and the significance of resilience to various towns, it is worth noting that
resilience has become a campaign tool in the past ten years with support from different UN
branches including UNISDR, UNDP, and UN-Habitat plus other global organizations including
Department for International Development that is situated in the United Kingdom (Ghazanfar,

2013). The Rockefeller Foundation and the UNISDR’s are the two main bodies that initiated
resilience in over 100 towns in the world.
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction draws the essential features of a
risk resilient nation; it should have a local administration that is experienced and responsible in
handling and establishing itself before, during and after a disaster strikes (Mori, 2012). Most
nations in the world have combined in making the 100 cities resilient campaign and given in
their plans towards the same. The main aim of this paper is to try and contribute to the present
information by doing a comprehensive analysis of a nation’s resilience by use of Oman as the
point of view (Gaillard, 2010). The knowledge we have shown Asia as the global most hit region
by disasters. However, Europe has a few cases if compared to those in Asia. This study will,
therefore, enlighten the study on resilience and ecological growth in times to come (Michael,
2014).
Threat and danger knowledge can be easily accessed by the public on government
websites for instance weather and climatic condition information can be retrieved on the
Sultanate of Oman website which deals with risk management (Meerow, 2016). The Sultanate of
Oman provides more facts in the modern forms of communication which includes social media
such as Facebook, Twitter, and youtube that is useful in faster broadcasting information and
ideas to a big number of people. DRR, an organization in Sultanate of Oman is viewed as being
weak in resilience when compared to other institutions something that the Oman administration
ought to put into consideration to ensure that all resilience institutions are fully equipped to carry
out their mandate ( Manji, 2018).
Different government branches in Sultanate of Oman take note of many DRR policies
which are done through a proper description of tasks to be carried out and responsibilities (Fritz,

2010). It is nevertheless important to note that the DRR laws in Sultanate of Oman only favor the
building, environment and town planning leaving out other essential legal frameworks as
stipulated by the international institutions (ESCWA, 2017). The missing element includes having
a central foundation where leadership knowledge is provided by coming up with means through
which rules are regulated and properly coordinated all across the Sultanate of Oman. There are
other means of information strengthening apart from the legislation (Majbouri, 2015). Various
publics should be incorporated in resilience-building because they help in collecting information
from different points of view and thus helps in knowledge affirmation. Knowledge is also shared
institutionally amongst various government departments however it is important to note that
limited mechanisms are used to disseminate the information (Ezzine, 2015). The public should,
therefore, be made aware of different information in regards to resilience since it will help in
case of disaster (Lokuge, 2013). To make resilience information available to the public in
Sultanate of Oman, the government communicates through the following ways, sending of
messages, public exhibitions and through various mobile applications (Lizarralde, 2010).
Since sustainable development (SD) theory was developed in 1987 by the World
Commission on Environment and Development, it has become a popular idea among the
international community and policymakers (Fenner, 2014). The emergence of this theory has
been helpful in addressing various global issues in relation to the economy, the environment, and
society. Therefore, the term sustainable development has been used widely in sustainability
planning; however, discerning the best way to implement sustainability in planning is subjective
and is confusing for decision-makers. Much like the rest of the world, Oman has witnessed

various natural hazards events such as Phet in 2010, cyclones Gonu in 2007, and Ashoba in
2015.
These cyclones affected the infrastructure and daily life across the country and required a
long time for recovery and return to normal life. As a result, these events cost the country a great
deal of money: $4 billion in 2007 and $1 billion in 2010, and the 2002 extreme event cost about
$25 million dollars, just to maintain the basic infrastructure (Al- Qurashi, 2014). These severe
impacts demonstrate the significance of Oman's missing resiliency in its infrastructure
development: Long-term functionality after an event is not present. Since the sustainable
development portion of Oman's strategic development planning mainly focused on
diversification of the economy and sustainable socio-economic development, this paper argues
that this strategy led the country to underestimate the need to incorporate Disaster Resilient
within the national development strategy planning (ABDEL-FATTAH, 2016). It also argues that
any new developmental project in Oman has inherited similar goals of focusing on sustainable
socio-economic development.
2.2 DISASTER IN THE SULTANATE OF OMAN
In Sultanate of Oman, there are 2 main disasters which always hit the country, these types
of disaster include the man-made and natural disaster.
2.2.1 Natural disaster
In the Sultanate of Oman, its geographical location is in the Peninsula of Arabian´s
South Eastern Plate, this exposes the country to several natural disasters. The 2 key natural
disasters in this country are earthquakes and flash floods which are as a result of tropical
cyclones.

2.2.1.1 Earthquake
Tectonically, the sultanate of Omen is located on the Arabian plate´s South Eastern. This
plate has a crystalline Precambrian continental crust basement roughly 40-50 km. The crust
basement overlays to the younger Phanerozoic rocks (sedimentary) which range in thickness
from 0km to 10 km. The splitting and isolation of the Arabian Plate from the African Plate in the
Gulf of Aden axes and red sea which is followed by Arabian Plate drift to the northeast and north
result in a crash with the plate of Eurasian which led to the creation of fold belt of Zagros
(Abosuliman, 2013). The belt is the main earthquake´s source in the eastern border for Oman
and the Plate of Arabia. These system's faults affect only Oman with the south which is being
secured from tectonic actions. Oman's south contains low seismic actions, in comparison,
Oman's northern part has an adequate to more seismic actions that guarantee special
consideration and might possibly lead to a broader population.

Figure 1: Showing Seismic activity in the Sultanate of Oman (Al-Shaqsi 2010).
2.2.1.2 Tropical cyclones:
In the Sultanate of Oman, tropical cyclones are common events in the country during the
Monsoon wind season which always occurs from May to August annually. These cyclones are
viewed as low-risk events while they result in torrential rain which always results in a flash flood
in the country (Aguirre, 2018). Human distribution in this country tends to focus on the banks of
water bodies and this escalates the population's exposure to the effects of the flash flood in the
country. The country also has a poorly controlled drainage system in several cities thus a slight
increase in rainfall will lead to a major flood in the country. For example, in the year 2007,
tropical cyclone Gonu resulted in a 24-hour torrential rain that was approximated to be 27 times
more than the yearly country´s rainfall (Al-Shaqsi 2010). The northern part of the country is at a
higher risk of natural disasters as compared to the southern part of the country. Sultanate of
Oman is highly exposed to the seismic disaster and tropical cyclones, whilst the southern portion
of the country is exposed more to human-made conflicts and politically unstable.
2.2.1.3 Cyclone Mekunu
A tropical storm was witnessed on the Southwest Arabian Sea on 23rd May 2018 which
intensified into Cyclone Mekunu. This Cyclone then moved northwest at a speed of 11 km per
hour and it continued with the same speed and the same direction for a whole week and it
resulted in landfall near Salalah on Saturday 26 May 2018. This Cyclone was made to further
strengthen due to serious fluctuations in tropical weather over the Southern Arabia Sea. This led
to overwhelming downpour in the Sultanate of Oman and other surrounding countries like
Yemen and the United Arab Emirates (Al-Awadhi, 2019). Due to this Cyclone, there were some

minor damages to infrastructures in Shahan and Hawf districts, two ships were also reported to
sink in Al Gaydah, this cyclone also damaged agricultural equipment. The locals who were
residing in Badahola evacuated their area due to the presence of flood in the nearby locality. The
majority of the causalities (90 per cent) from this particular Cyclone were students in their
hostels. Due to this Cyclone, the death toll to 11 on Sunday which was witnessed from the highly
hit areas which were Southern part of the Sultanate of Oman and 30 people were still missing by
that date.
Cyclone Mekunu dumped three years' worth of rain along the Oman coast as it battered
cities and seaside towns over the weekend. It downgraded to a tropical storm that struck Saudi
Arabia's Empty Quarter late on Saturday with strong winds and heavy rains. The Oman
meteorological authority reported the speed of the wind to be 60kph which was destroying
blinding dust storms (Al Ruheili, 2019). The downpours were anticipated to continue for a period
of 2 days which drenched the area with more than 10mm, and this value was six times more than
a yearly average in the area. Salalah, Oman’s third-largest city, received at least 278 millimeters
of rainfall as the cyclone passed over. The city, which is subject to a monsoon season, typically
receives 70 to 90mm of rain annually. Omani police announced a fourth fatality from the cyclone
on Sunday but gave no details (Al Barwani, 2010). The others killed were a 12-year-old girl who
was hit by the door on the head, the door was flung open by a very strong wind during that
Friday night, and an Asian laborer who died in a flooded valley and an Omani national in an
SUV whose vehicle was swept away in floodwaters. The General view after Cyclone Mekunu in
Salalah can be illustrated in the following;

Figure 2: Showing General view after Cyclone Mekunu in Salalah
(https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/cyclone-mekunu-kills-eleven-and-leaves-dozens-
missing-1.734214 )
And along the coastal line, the effects of this Cyclone is illustrated in the following diagram;

Figure 3: Showing the effects of Cyclone Mekunu along the coast of the Sultanate of Oman
(https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/cyclone-mekunu-kills-eleven-and-leaves-dozens-
missing-1.734214 ).
The path followed by this type of Cyclone (Cyclone Mekunu) is highlighted in the following
diagram;
Figure 4: Showing path followed by this type of Cyclone Cyclone Mekunu
(https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/cyclone-mekunu-kills-eleven-and-leaves-dozens-
missing-1.734214)

When the movement of Cyclone Mekunu was simulated for different days when it occurred, the
following were the outcome. On 22nd May 2018 (on Sunday) the storms were moving towards
the North-Eastern part of the country as illustrated in the following diagram;
Figure 5: Showing the movement of the Cyclone on Sunday 22nd May 2018
(https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/cyclone-mekunu-kills-eleven-and-leaves-dozens-
missing-1.734214)
While on Friday 27th May 2018 the Cyclones were moving towards the North-Western part of
the country as illustrated in the following diagram;

Figure 6: Showing the movement of the Cyclone on Friday 27th May 2018
(https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/cyclone-mekunu-kills-eleven-and-leaves-dozens-
missing-1.734214)
2.2.1.4 Cyclone Hikaa
Recently on 24th September 2019, there were few tropical cyclones that spun into Northwest of
the Arabian Sea. These cyclones were named as Cyclone Hikaa, this cyclone brought damages
like lots of flood in the Arabian Peninsula, and it also resulted in landfall over the Sultanate of
Oman. The storm continued to the westwards. Locals were then advised to move from low lying
areas. The movement (path) of this type of Cyclone is illustrated in the following diagram;

Cyclone Hikaa path (https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1181787/Cyclone-Hikaa-path-
where-Hikaa-hit-landfall-oman-india-latest-maps-models-jtwc)
An area of convention or thunderstorms persisted along the west coast of India on September 19,
2019, a distinct low-pressure area developed a day later off the coast of Maharashtra. By
September 21, a circulation was consolidating within the system, located east of the heaviest
convection. The system moved slowly westward across the Arabian Sea, steered by a ridge to the
north. Warm water temperature favored further development, despite moderate wind shear. Early
on September 22, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) designated the system as
depression and soon upgraded it to a deep depression. Late on September 22, the American-
based Joint Typhoon Warning initiated advisories on the system, designating it Tropical Cyclone
03A. At the time, the storm had a compact area of thunderstorms, supported by an outflow from
the south. Due to decreasing wind shear and warm, moist air, the system quickly intensified on
September 23, prompting the IMD to upgrade the system to Cyclonic Storm Hikaa; later that day
the agency upgraded the storm further to a severe cyclonic storm. During the strengthening
phase, an eye feature formed in the center of the convection, indicative of strengthening.
2.2.2 Human Made disaster in Sultanate of Oman
From the year 1970 the time when Sultan Qaboos Bin Said was a ruler there was a rapid
moderation swept in the country. During this year, only 11 per cent of the total country was
considered urban. And by the year 2005, this increased to 79 per cent and it was projected that by
the year 2030, it will be 86 per cent urban. The quick growth of the Omanis numbers leaving the

rural areas and settle in the coastal areas and coastal cities like seep (Al Gharibi, 2014). The
quick dramatic and modernization city development implies that several Omanis are being
exposed to the disaster of glowing cities.
The magnitude of the Omanis problem is beyond compression and was reflected in the
annual speech of the Sultan when he pleaded for the Omanis' to pull together in order to
minimize the disaster and national crisis The country has been witnessing several road traffic
crashes having several causalities which fit the criteria for it to be termed "a national disaster." In
an incident that occurred in the year 2006, where 23 individuals died and 9 people got injured.
Another human disaster that is highly anticipated in the future is a disaster due to terrorist attacks
from the two unstable neighboring countries like Iran and Yemen. The country thus will have to
put forwards serious strategies to ensure that it perfectly manages the situations during the
attacks. There can also be some intelligence that is put in the country to ensure that terrorism is
blocked before it is executed.
2.3 DISASTERS VULNERABILITY IN OMAN
It is not easy to precisely measure the population vulnerabilities in the Sultanate of
Oman. Nevertheless, there are several parameters that have been employed to worsen people's
vulnerabilities to disasters. Some of these parameters include residing in the industrial locations,
a specialist working in a construction site, living in the rural area and low awareness of the
disaster and risks at the community level. Besides, the essential amenities in several industrial
cities in the country are not planned to accommodate the increasing density of laborers that
further increments the vulnerability of individuals residing in such cities. Observations from later
calamities within the nation highlight the insufficiency of community awareness about the
neighborhood dangers and disaster.

Oman´s modernization has forced the workforce to move to exile for work in industrial
development. Just like many other countries in the Gulf most of the exiles in the Sultanate of
Oman are from the landmass of sub-India. The geographical separation with widespread of the
rural population and the spare distribution for the basic services at the community makes the
emergency provision readiness activities for a difficult task. For instance, there was a bus crash
in the year 2004 on the rural roads in the middle of the night, delayed response and notification
to this specific incident.
The disaster vulnerability in the sultanate of Oman is an emergency and multidimensional
planners need to be watchful to such factors and address them perfectly. The disaster records in
Sultanate of Oman is very poor and very sketchy, a recent database review (International
Disaster Database) by CRED (Center for Research on Epidemiology of Disaster) found that the
Sultanate of Oman is hit by a cyclone one after a period of 3 years. There was a serious wide
flood in the country during the year 1977. This was the first serious flood recorded in the country
´s history, this flood was due to torrential rain and it caused causalities where more than 105
people and more than 5,000 were directly injured. Up to date, this flood is still regarded as one of
the serious disasters in the country.
In the year 2003, there was another flood (salaha flood) which resulted in serious
disruptions of services and life in the southern part of the Sultanate of Oman. Salaha floods were
due to unprecedented torrential rains which were witnessed for a period of 2 weeks. The disaster
was highly linked to the poor drainage system and flood control system in the country, this
disaster claimed the lives of at least 30 people. In the year 2007, Cyclone Gonu was a stimulus
for the new disaster resilience structure in the Sultanate of Oman, the cyclone brought the
country to a standstill for 7 days. In June 2010, there was another Cyclone known as Cyclone

Phet which caused damaging flash floods and it also resulted in deaths of more than 24 people
and more than 10,000 people were affected by this disaster.
Apart from the above natural disaster in the Sultanate of Oman, there have also been
some serious human linked disasters in the country. In the year 2004, there was a bus crash on
the road between Salaha and Nizwa cities. The crash occurred at midnight and it claimed the
death of 24 people and about 8 people were injured. The causalities were evacuated from the
scene by the armed forces. In the year 2008, a building collapsed in Muscat capital city where 2
people lost their lives.
The effect of Tropical Cyclone and its impact in the country is given in the following table;
Table 1: Showing a National Disaster in Sultanate of Oman from the year 1960 to 2010
It is worth saying that Cyclone Gonu of 2007 was a new disaster resilience in the
Sultanate of Oman, the Gonu was the first cyclone to hit Oman. On 27th May 2007, images of
satellite showed widespread convection that persisted in the Arabian sea´s South Eastern. The
cyclone gradually increased into a deep depression and then changes into a cyclonic storm on 2nd
June the same year. And on 4th this Cyclone was named a-five storm. It moved to the eastern
coastline of the country with a speed of 260km/hr. The cyclone had a pressure of 920Mbar whilst

situated 285 km from the land. On 5th June, the cyclone degraded to category 4 for 9 hours at a
constant speed. The cyclone later hit the land on the same day of which its intensity increased to
95km/hr. The diagram below illustrates the routes of Cyclone;
Figure 7: Showing routes of Cyclone Gonu (Al-Shaqsi 2010).
The Gonu´s effect started before the onset of the actual cyclone. 7 hours before the Cyclone´s
center hit the Northeast coastline, the Sultanate of Oman had experienced the effect of rough
winds. These strong wind knocked down the poles of the power line of the State. The highly
affected cities were the Capital City of Muscat and Sur where there was severe damage to
building and road in the initial hours of the occasion. There was a short water supply in
numerous parts of the nation. Isolated towns that are near the coastline had fresh water delivered
by the use of fishing boats.
The Omani government and its community’s preparedness in managing events like that
were put to test during this cyclone. A summary of the effects of Gonu cyclone is illustrated in
the table below.

Table 2: Showing the effect of Cyclone Gonu in Sultanate of Oman
The effect of this cyclone can be illustrated from the following diagram;
Figure 8: Showing the effect of this cyclone
(https://www.eumetsat.int/website/home/Images/ImageLibrary/DAT_IL_07_06_04_A.html)
The direct budget of the occurrence was projected to be about four billion US dollars.
The cyclone Gonu led to 49 people losing their lives. Most people who died were Emigrants
from the sub-continent region of India. They were mostly workers who were living in the city's

low-lying areas which are highly affected by flash flooding some hours to the arrival of the
cyclone. It is, nevertheless, essential to note that the total number of death does not put into
consideration people who lost life due to exacerbation of prolonged illnesses and could not reach
medical facilities. Regardless of the great resilience of the Oman people and stout rebuilding
after the cyclone, many lessons were learned (Al-Shaqsi 2010). The major lesson learned
involved the awakening of Oman policymakers to the need and importance of engaging in
nonstop disaster resilience practices. A comprehensive assessment of the structure of disaster
resilience in Oman was sparked by the cyclone. Many places were left flooded as a result of
torrential rainfall which also took place. The level of rainfall in Gonu near the Coastline reached
24 inches which contradicts an average of 3.9 inches yearly in the state. Therefore bridges and
roads were washed out and many sites within the capital city were isolated and unreachable for
days. Hospitals were also flooded and cut off as a result of roads that were damaged. It led to the
airlifting of more than 2,000 people.
2.4 DISASTER RESILIENCE IN SULTANATE OF OMAN
The history of disaster management is inconsistent in Oman. A document showing the
country's crisis management scheme was first done in 1988. The idea was initiated by the
government's four key departments namely: the Royal Police of Oman, the Interior Department,
the Social Affairs department and the Health Ministry. A Nationwide Commission for Disasters
was formed in the year 1988 by the effort of these ministries. This was exceptional in the region
at that time by the records available.
Gonu sheltered 67,120 people in 139 shelters on day one. Day three saw 2,650 people
being sheltered in four shelters, 90% of all roads were affected with 20% of street lighting being
cut and 31% of people living within the capital were in a total blackout since there was no light.

23% of the city did not have access to water since the supply was cut short due to the destruction
incurred and 7% of the people within the city who did not have water were experienced
telephone links problems in that 36% of landline had problems and 30% of the mobile network
was also affected.
Another committee, the National Committee for Natural Disasters was formed.
Nevertheless, a gap seems to exist in the administration olden times between the period of 1988
and 1999. Even though some comprehensive and nicely recorded calamities happened in the
course of this era, there remains no record that shows what happened. Assuming that the time
was unique and of complacency for crisis management efforts in Oman is perhaps the safest
thing to do. Disaster managing measures reached a stop due to universal and local diplomatic
powers after the Gulf war and the economic problems which took place in the year 1991.
NCCD turned into a single body with its operations being run by an executive body.
These changes probably led to a universal increase in the concept of disaster controlling after the
9/11 terror attack. 8 subcommittees were established in the year 2003 from the key NCCD
organization concept. These are specific regional-level disaster controlling organizations that are
mandated with carrying out crisis readiness happenings in eight Oman areas. Smaller and
specified disaster reaction groups were formed from the Royal police of Oman since 2003. They
entail the national chemical response team, national emergency medical service (Al- Shaqsi,
2010) besides other rescue plus research groups. The maiden nationwide tragedy remains
cyclone Gonu in the year 2007 as previously mentioned. Qaboos, a sultan handed the mandate of
appointing members to the NCCD after Gonu. He also called for the organization reformation of
NCCD thus making it active in disaster readiness procedures instead of responding to tragedies
within the nation.

The state was hit by another cyclone (cyclone phet) in June 2010 prompting the Sultan to
order NCCD to form a panel of disaster management to comprehensively carry out its activities
actively regarding the ideas of Oman crisis supervision (Al Hatrushi, 2016). The Sultans order of
2010 further ordered the NCCD to upgrade its competences and regionalize its actions in all
areas of Oman. The Sultans stressed the essential for improved well-being and examination
competencies for NCCD as it had initially concentrated on emergency responses and logistical
support. On a wide view, the structure of NCCD is the basis of the Regional Crisis Centre which
was newly formed with its headquarters in Kuwait (Al-Hakmani, 2012). The Gulf Cooperation
Countries (GCC) Regional Crisis Centre is responsible for refining, preparedness, and stoppage,
alleviation and response precaution to man-made plus natural calamities in the area (Al
Mukrashi, 2015). The timeline below shows the cornerstones of disaster resilience in the
Sultanate of Oman;
Table 3: Showing Timeline of disaster resilience in Sultanate of Oman

2.5 SUSTAINABILITY AND DISASTER RESILIENCE
The concept of sustainable development has risen after a few decades of advancement
endeavors. Generally, the advancement of the industrialized world centered on material
generation. The prior accentuation was on yield development and financial proficiency. But due
to the large and developing numbers of destitute in the developing world and the lack of "trickle-
down" benefits to them, efforts were made to directly improve salary dispersion (Al Reesi,
2013). The advancement worldview moved towards equitable development, and effectiveness
and value became the twin goals. Assurance of the environment has currently become the third
major goal of advancement. Hence, the concept of sustainable development has advanced to
include three major points of view: economic, social and environmental.
Natural catastrophes threaten all three measurements of sustainable development. The
financial approach to sustainability is grounded on protecting the stock of capital (or resources)
which yields the greatest amount that an individual or community can devour over some time
period and still be at a better place at the end of the period as at the initial point. Natural assets
and the assimilative capacity of the environment, whether innovatively initiated or natural, are
included as resources (Al Saud, 2010). Hence, the loss of natural capital plays a vital part in
constraining advancement. Of course, the degree of efficiency loss happening as a result of
natural catastrophes is also decided by the resilience of the country in the face of stress and
shocks.
From this financial perspective, the quickly expanding interconnecting has worsened the
spread of catastrophe vulnerability. The number of individuals influenced by catastrophe harm in
the country is ordinarily one thousand times the number of individuals murdered by disasters.
For example, losses might be engendered through capital markets, through capital flight,

devaluation of the domestic currency, greater obligation etc. Creating economies are sensitive to
the vagaries of universal capital flows, which makes them also defenseless to disturbance from
natural calamities. The key components for financial development incorporate investment, viable
administration and social steadiness -- unfortunately, calamities lead to precisely the inverse
conditions. Loss of artificial and natural capital causes sudden disinvestments; post calamity
alleviation increments both the money related and authoritative burden on the government. At
last, it can be said that calamities are socially destabilizing due to its effect on the community
and human deaths.
The social perspective of sustainable development shows that vulnerability to natural
calamities is certainly a work of human activities and conduct. Hence, the versatility of socio-
economic frameworks may be expanded through relief efforts, and adjustment in expectation of a
perceived hazard, and more generally, through greater financial advancement. Natural
vulnerability and poverty are commonly strengthening. As the impacts of natural catastrophes
fall excessively on the poor, the social view of sustainable development stresses the interest of
at-risk communities in concocting and actualizing successful procedures to diminish
vulnerability (Al Shueili, 2015). The communities must have a voice in recognizing site-specific
solutions and evaluating the viability of proposed measures. Nearby communities, the
government, and industry best perform the execution of catastrophe arranging together. Better
community mindfulness is fundamental. There's a need to recognize and fathom people's
recognition of chance, to create better channels of communication and well-known discussion,
and to rely on nearby assets (Al-Habsi, 2015). On many occasions, the significant changes
brought by urbanization have undermined the traditional support framework for adapting with an
emergency (Al Wardy, 2016). Decentralization of decision-making is imperative within the

strengthening of the organization for calamity readiness prevention and mitigation, especially
given the need for fast and localized reactions in the face of quickly happening calamities.
The environmental perspective of sustainable development focuses on protecting the
resilience and dynamic capacity of biological and physical frameworks to adjust to change.
Whereas catastrophes may be past human control, the likelihood of their event may be
influenced through human activities. Quickened changes in demographic and financial patterns
have irritated the adjustments of biological systems (Al‐Badi, 2010). The disappointment to
restrain natural debasement coming about from human mediation increments the powerlessness
to dangers postured by normal risks. Most of the cities in the Sultanate of Oman are illustrations
of uncontrolled urban improvement, combined with deforestation and dumping of squanders into
streams and canals, which have driven to expanded runoff and overwhelming flooding (Al-Ajmi,
2013). Numerous of the same activities that protect the capacity of frameworks to adjust or to
increment resiliency to outside stuns or extremes within the environment such as normal
catastrophes (Al-Awadhi, 2010). This interconnection between common asset corruption and
expanded helplessness to natural disasters focuses on the necessity for preventive measures (Al-
Jufaili, 2011).
2.6 Relationships between Disasters and Sustainable Development
Sustainable development highly depends on disaster resilience. It is impossible to avoid
natural disaster but through disaster resilience, their effects on people can be reduced and when
this is done sustainable development can be attained. The disaster set back programs for
sustainable development, this gives an opportunity for improvements of utility and infrastructure
systems to be rebuilt easily since with a well-set disaster resilience the destruction will not be too
much serious (Donat, 2014). Rebuilding the utility and infrastructure after the occurrence of the

disaster. For instance, a program of self-help housing to reconstruct the buildings which were
already destroyed by an earthquake.
Sustainable development programs can increase the susceptibility of the country to
disaster, for instance, the probability of technological disaster may increase in the industrialized
country like Sultanate Oman (Dibajnia, 2010). This will help in ensuring that the evaluation of
environmental impact is significant. The program of sustainable developments is put to reduce
the susceptibility to both natural and man-made disaster and their consequences. Building
projects constructed under the codes of the construction of the country should be designed to
withstand strong storms (cyclones) like Cyclone Hikaa, Cyclone Gonu and Cyclone Mekunu
which can result in fewer object destruction when they occur in the next tropical Cyclone.
Individuals who make a decision on disaster who presumes the relationship between sustainable
development and disaster always do a disservice to the individual who put much of their trust on
them.
2.7 6Disaster resilient and its importance to sustainable development
To understand the contribution of disaster-resilient to sustainable development, we need
first to review elements of sustainable development such as the theory's application within social
and environmental contexts.
2.7.1 Sustainable Development Interpretations and Applications
Sustainable Development (SD) is mostly concerned with both environmental and
socioeconomic issues. SD had been understood as comprising entities—the environment, the
economy, and society—that were both separate and connected, with a balanced intersection
among them. Sustainable development debates usually prioritize either the environment or the

economy (Deif, 2012). Most often the economy takes priority in policies, and the environment
and society are treated as separate elements that will benefit from a strong economy.
2.7.2 Significance of Disaster Resilient to Sustainable Development
Disaster Resilient is an aspect of sustainable development. The impact of climate change
on disaster is no longer only a local matter for certain regions but has become a global issue that
is subject to external variables. No nation in the world is immune to catastrophic natural events
(Al-Kalbani, 2014). However, the destruction caused by these events can be reduced to lessen
economic loss and minimize the effects on daily life. Having a sustainable and Disaster Resilient
is crucial as countries develop.
Resilience is an “ability to bounce back or to overcome adversity.” Specifically,
resilience in regard to disaster focuses on three elements: performance of a system under stress;
consequences of this stress on the system and return to normality; and scale and affordability of
required response. Whenever an extreme event takes place, it goes in parallel with economic loss
and devastation of everyday life (Al-Lamki, 2010). The world has already experienced various
extreme natural hazards events that caused severe economic losses, such as the 2009 floods in
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Hurricane Katrina in the southeastern portion of the United States in 2005;
Hurricane Sandy in 2012, in New York, U.S.A; and flooding in the UK and Ireland from extreme
storms in 2012 and 2015. All these extreme events alerted us to the need for Disaster Resilient
because they caused huge disruption to critical hazards that cost millions to billions of dollars to
recover. In the case of floods in the summer of 2007 in the UK, the damage cost about $3.5
billion; the flood disaster in 2009 in Australia that caused infrastructure damage cost $6.8 billion;
and natural events in the USA in 2012 cost about $400 million in damages (Cutter, 2014).

Disaster resilience is measured in terms of its ability to maintain its functionality and
ability to return to normality after an event. Therefore, Disaster Resilient contributes positively
toward the principle of sustainable development (Al-Maskari, 2010). The developed countries
incorporated the concept of Disaster Resilient and got fruitful results. For instance, Australia
understood the importance of Disaster Resilient, specifically in terms of transportation, for
promoting community resilience to reduce impacts on daily life through strengthening rural
roads and bridges (Lokuge, 2013).
Approaches such as this have the potential to minimize social destruction and allow for
rapid recovery after an extreme event. In 2011, the UK took a step toward creating a Disaster
Resilient by publishing a national disaster plan that indicated the need for decision-makers to
integrate resilience at all stages of the project life cycle, and to allocate funding at the early
stages of planning and conceptual design (Hansen, 2014). We concur with scholars who
suggested the need for designing a disaster resilience plan is proactive, reactive, and adaptive to
get resiliency into both natural and man-made disasters in the Sultanate of Oman.
Bosher (2018) suggested that in countries like Bangladesh and in slum areas in India, the
lack of choice contributes to being not resilient socially and with respect to disaster management.
In the oil-producing countries in the Gulf, environmental constraints also contribute to the notion
of lack of choice. For example, in Saudi Arabia, the 2009 flooding in Jeddah caused about $3
billion in infrastructural damage. The government lacked choice because of the area's
topography: Urban settlements were distributed without regard for any natural risk that might
occur, resulting in post-event disadvantages for citizens (Al Saud, 2010). The flood disaster in
Jeddah proves the country is not prepared to deal with natural disasters. The country responded
by improving its preparedness for and abilities to respond to natural and manmade disasters. This

indicated a reactive approach and one that still failed to promote proactive planning and response
that would move the country toward developing resiliency and sustainable development
(Almoharby, 2010).
The case of Oman is similar to that of Saudi Arabia in that the allocation of some
residential, infrastructural, and economic developments are within the wadi watershed and along
the coastal area due to Oman’s topographical challenges: 82% of Oman is desert, 15% is
mountainous, and 3% is coastal (Al-Qurashi, 2014). Oman is approaching sustainable
development through sustainable social and economic conditions. However, these projects lack
the principle of Disaster Resilient. Disaster Resilient should be a requirement in these projects
since their resilience is what will help Oman move toward a sustainable socio-economic status.
Bosher et al. (2017) stated that damage from flooding is greater than from any other
natural disaster. For that reason, resilience must be integrated within the planning and design
processes and not added after an event. This idea complements the notion of being in harmony
with nature, which, as he explains in his book Design with Nature, helps to mitigate impacts
from natural disasters (Al-Naamani, 2016). A collaborative effort among country´s planners,
engineers, architects, developers, and decision-makers can help to increase knowledge and
awareness of Disaster Resilient planning and design. Being proactive and adaptive in planning is
the path to Disaster Resilient. According to one study, an increase in expenditure now can reduce
long-term costs, and long-term planning will be rewarded by long-term gains (Cormie et al.,
2012).
2.8 Oman’s Application to Sustainable Development
Before 1970, Oman lacked basic infrastructure. After 1970, development in Oman moved
at a slow rate even though modern development started in 1970 when His Majesty Sultan

Qaboos came to power. This is due to the fact that during the 1970s we saw a combination of
minimal financial resources and various political problems and civil war. However, upon the end
of the civil war, the country started to look for ways to improve development and to diversify the
economy by integrating and using natural resources (Cormie, 2012). The main challenge at that
time was the lack of planning and direction in Oman, which are considered among the first
obstacles for the new government. Nevertheless, the new government led by His Majesty Sultan
Qaboos coupled with the introduction of oil to the national economy in 1967, contributed to
rapid development in Oman.
Oman is still undergoing major infrastructural developments which were as the country
continues to build across its regions and governance is seen in the strategic development plans.
However, the new development is taking the same process and path as older development (Al-
Rawas, 2014). The new structures are not resilient; they are based on old survey maps created
since the 1980s through ICZMP and they are located within areas that are vulnerable areas to
SLR and flash wadi flooding. Omani people are noticeably sensitive about their land and natural
resources. They did not allow construction on fertile land (Al Gharibi, 2014). For that reason,
people are actually building among the rock surfaces and keep the lowlands for their oasis and
farms; as is the case of Manah (Bandyopadhyay, 2010). If these practices are continuing and
implemented now, Oman will be the most resilient country with citizens able to understand their
topography, watershed, and environment, and actually apply McHarg’s ideas regarding
combining design with nature.
To further national development, Oman's government implemented a 5-year strategic
development framework. Almost all of the strategic development planning is required to
integrate economic factors. For that reason, Oman underwent a significant increase in the

development and building of infrastructure; the transportation sector achieved the highest
development across the country (Al-Rawas, 2010). For example, Oman allocated about US$78
billion for the development of roads, ports, and airport infrastructure, as had been outlined in
Oman's eight strategic development plan (Palmieri, 2012). Much like the rest of the world, Oman
has embraced the concept of sustainable development and continues to put effort toward it.
CHAPTER 3- METHODOLOGY
3.1 Study Area
The data and the information employed in this thesis were collected from the Sultanate of
Oman including major cities and towns like Muscat and Salalah. Sultanate of Oman is a
landmass of 309501 km2 and a population of 4.636 million (as per 2017). The data collected
about the casualties from earthquakes and Cyclones and floods were obtained from the journal as
well as the governmental publications. And as seen above, the country is highly hit by natural
disasters as well as man-made disasters. The higher rates of road traffic crashes are due to higher
populations in the sultanate of Oman towns (Cools, 2012). In every year, there are almost 10000
road traffic crashes, these crashes resulted in 700 direct deaths and injuries of about 8000.
In particular, in the year 2004 alone, there was a bus crash on the road between Salaha
and Nizwa cities. The crash occurred at midnight and it claimed the death of 24 people and
about 8 people were injured. The country is also being affected by floods from Cyclones. Salaha
floods were due to unprecedented torrential rains which were witnessed for a period of 2 weeks.
The disaster was highly linked to the poor drainage system and flood control system in the
country, this disaster claimed the lives of at least 30 people. In June 2010, there was another

Cyclone known as Cyclone Phet which caused damaging flash floods and it also resulted in
deaths of more than 24 people and more than 10,000 people were affected by this disaster (Al-
Reesi, 2013). On 5th June 2007, cyclone Gonu resulted in 49 people losing their lives.
In 2001, a universal survey was conducted that showed that 700 natural disasters took
place. These disasters were combined with huge losses leading to in death of 25,000 citizens,
$11.5 billion in insured losses, and $36 billion in economic losses. In the year 2018, another
Cyclone by the name Cyclone Mekunu led to the loss of 11 lives and 30 individuals being
seriously injured (Al-Shaybany, 2016).
3.2 Disaster and Risk management in the Sultanate of Oman.
Sultanate of Oman faces several disasters for the past years as highlighted in chapter 2
above. The natural disaster in Oman includes thunderstorms, Heavy downpour, and Tropical
Cyclones (Al-Yahyai, 2014). In an event that these occur landslides and floods may occur which
can lead to several causalities, destruction of property and devastation of infrastructure and
transport sector. In order to ensure that disaster resilience is perfectly adopted, the earlier disaster
is used as references to help in the future anticipated disaster. Both man-made and natural
disasters need a well-planned strategy to ensure the disaster is well managed (Anand, 2018).
This is always given in cycle form just as below;

Figure 9: Showing procedure of disaster resilience for a sustainable country
3.2.1 Disaster Identification
Disaster identification outlines the characteristics and types of potential disaster facing
the Sultanate of Oman. For instance, as indicated above, the Sultanate of Oman is highly faced
with several disasters like buses crashing on road, earthquake, Cyclones which results in heavy
downpours causing floods. Evaluation of the probability of the weather-related disaster and
earthquake is based on the analysis for both geologically and historical records of the event,

physical process knowledge resulting in disaster occurrence and a real-time collection of data.
Even though historical disaster records in Sultanate of Oman is so significant, limits on the
extent where generalization can be made on how physical scenario will occur in the future
(Ayyub, 2012). For instance, anticipated climatic changes in climate bring into question on how
the historical data can be interpreted to characterize the magnitude and intensity of both floods
and Cyclones in the country. This increases the losses and the costs associated with severe
storms and higher events of disaster in years to come. Therefore disaster identification is the first
step used to combat the disaster to realize sustainability in the country (Azaz, 2010) (Babikir,
2015). After identification of the disaster and learning its magnitude and its frequency of
occurrence, the country will be capable to reduce its future chances of occurrence of man-made
disasters and reduces the effects of a natural disaster.
3.2.2 Risk Evaluation
The evaluation process of the risk combines the physical nature of potential hazards
gotten via disaster identification with data after exposure, mitigation measures and vulnerability
measures. Evaluation of disaster constitutes approximation of the probability for particular
events occurring in the country and estimates of consequences in the country. In the simplest
level, the country can overlay maps indicating places with higher, medium and lower chances of
a disaster occurring (Bandyopadhyay, 2010). A more serious approach can be attained via an
extra structural layer of vulnerability (susceptibility of effects from the disaster impacts) to
obtain the riskiest place in the country. Through disaster evaluation, the effects of mitigation
measures are perfectly analyzed. The new technology software like Geographic Information
System (GIS) can be employed to give this information as it maps the location, value of
community asset, type of disaster and the magnitude of the disaster in the country. GIS enables

the storage of information as well as managing a bigger amount of spatial information and hence
it has become an ideal platform for conducting disaster evaluation.
3.2.3 Decision Made
After carefully analyzing the disaster identification and evaluation in the process of
attaining disaster resilience and sustainability in the Sultanate of Oman, there will be some
decision that will be made. Decision made in the process of disaster resilience is the ways in
which the government and the relevant authority of the Sultanate of Oman will employ to ensure
that there is a disaster resilience that will make the country more sustainable in case such disaster
occurs in the country. Some of the possible decision which could be made in these cases may be
a decision to construct dams to reduce floods, Looking for seeds of plants which are able to
withstand strong Cyclone hence reduce their effects on property like buildings and cars. Another
decision which could be made in this process is to train all tradesmen in earthquake-proof
building practices. During the process of making disaster decisions, several suggestions are
brought forth but they are all scrutinized so as to pick some which are mostly relevant.
3.2.4 Implementation of the decision made
After scrutiny has been done on the several decision made on the board combating
disaster, the selected decision will then have to be implemented. The process of implementation
helps to check if the chosen decision can really work in attaining disaster resilience in Sultanate
of Oman. The implementation here acts as point of testing a prototype of the real project. This
can take so many months to be attained and in case the decision work perfectly they will be
employed but if the decisions made do not work properly or some did not work as anticipated
then process move risk strategy Review.

3.2.5 Risk strategy Review
Risk Strategy review is the part of this process where the decisions made and did not
work correctly are implemented (Berkes, 2016). It is not always that when a decision made they
will work as anticipated, this is because some decisions may be as a result of benchmark which
means they worked in other places, but due to the geographical differences and tectonic
differences, they may not work for this country as well. The board dealing with the disaster
resilience will have to thoroughly discuss why the decision given prior did not work and then
implement them properly by improving on the mistakes they made earlier (Blount, 2010). The
new decisions will have to be tested again until the board is fully satisfied with the outcome.
3.2.6 Risk Policy development
At this point in the disaster resilience for a sustainable country, the board is fully satisfied
with the decisions at hand to be employed in attaining disaster resilience in the Sultanate of
Oman. The decisions here are employed (implemented) as they are put into practice (Bocchini,
2014). According to the 2010 formed National Level disaster panel in the Sultanate of Oman,
this panel will ensure that the decision is properly implemented to manage the disaster. This
committee (National Committee for Civil Defence (NCCD)) consists of 16 members from
different governmental departments. It has a Chairman who is the Inspector General of the Royal
Oman Police as well as a deputy-chairman who is the Assistant Inspector General of the Royal
Oman Police (Choueiri, 2013). The daily operations of the NCCD are coordinated by the
Executive Director who is a senior rank police officer.

3.3 The Assessment Tool
This research employs the Sendai Framework for LUI (Local Urban Indicators) tool
which was developed by UNISDR for towns and urban to measure disaster resilience and
disaster risk reduction´s implementation policies in urban and towns (BosettiL, 2016). The
country´s local indicators lately made by the UNISDR (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk
Reduction (DRR) based on the UN´s prior "Ten parameters of achieving cities Resilient"
launched a global campaign with a title "making towns and cities resilient in case of disaster."
Due to this, the Sultanate of Oman was not left behind this world campaign as the then Sultan in
the year 2010 order NCCD to form a panel of disaster management to comprehensively carry out
its activities actively regarding the ideas of Oman crisis supervision (Brundiers, 2018). And this
came immediately after the country was hit by cyclone phet in June 2010.
Sultan Qaboos bin Said the then Sultan was aiming at promoting disaster resilience and
sustainable country through some policies which were taken by the Sultanate of Oman´s
government to minimize the effects of natural disasters and to avoid man-made disaster(Chacko,
2015). The "10 Essential for resilient" is a conceptual system developed by the United Nations
to help most countries´ leaders to implement the Disaster Risk Reduction policies. In the year
2015, the United Nations´ 3rd world conference for the reduction of disaster risks and effects
where the Sendai Framework for DRR was adopted. Four layers of measurements were adopted
by the LUI which are Layer 0, layer 1, layer 2 and layer 3. Layer 0 is employed for national level
measurement and it has six indicators. Layer 1 contains 311 indicators, layer 2 contains 77
indicators and the last layer contains 122 indicators. The more the indicators the more accurate
the measurement of the resilience taking into account the measurement unit and the dimension.

The 31 indicators in LUI are all grouped according to the ten essentials of realizing a
resilience country and every essential domain contains a number of main indicator questions as
illustrated in table four below. Through addressing these questions, the country establishes a
baseline, identify gaps, measure their resilience levels, share comparable data and implement the
solutions obtained. The evaluator scale will give a score which is from zero to five, where zero
means no effort/ no risk and scale of five means maximum efforts/ maximum risk. The
explanation for answers in every indicator question was given after the question. For instance, in
indicator 1.1, the indicator question is what are some of the plans safeguarding the country to
realize its goals?
A score of 0, show that no risk factor was identified, a score of 1 implies that risk factors
are not considered in the strategic plan. A score of 2 means that risk factors are one of the agenda
to be discussed, a score of 3 means that risk factors are in the process of being identified for a
strategic plan. A score of 4 shows that risk factors are identified and also included in detail for
the Strategic plan. And lastly, a score of 5 shows that the current and future risks are wholly
considered in the strategic plan with some reliable scientific data as well as information from the
multi-stakeholder which supports the decisions of the strategic plans.
While answering the indicator questions, the process assessment recommended
UNISDR. First, the available documents were carefully constructed on an open website of the
Sultanate of Oman and related governmental departments. Next is to consolidate an in-depth
report which is based on consultations to give answers to the related DRR. Seven relevant
stakeholders were invited to the research workshop to give their views and for their comments.
A group of four specialists in the country were also invited to the research workshop to evaluate
the disaster mitigation and risk identification in one of the 61 provinces in Sultanate of Oman.

The final outcomes from the research workshop were presented to the National Government of
Sultanate of Oman through the already formed NCCD as well as the international conference like
the 2016 United States´ Florence, Italy on on16June, this gave room for further discussion and
feedback beyond the Sultanate of Oman.
Table 4: Showing UNISDR’s Ten Essentials for Making Countries/cities Resilient and the Local
Urban Indicators

3.4 The Uniqueness of the Approach
In this analysis, the technique of mixed top-down and bottom-up approaches was employed in
evaluating the process. A top-down approach is always employed to make the country more
disaster resilient. While addressing the unique governance of the Sultanate of Oman of absolute
monarchy where the monarch holds the authorities of the supreme autocracy. And the Omanis
and the government of the Sultanate of Oman NCCD fathom the idea of the reduction of the
effects of the disaster in the country. The NCCD adopted a mixed top-down and bottom-up
approach which was led by the 16 members from different governmental departments. And the
result of the analysis is given in the result section.

CHAPTER 4: RESULT
From the evaluation of results using the framework of the Sendai LUI tool (scorecard), the
scores for the Sultanate of Oman´s disaster resilience is 4.16 out of 5. This is a good performance
which implies a satisfactory performance of the disaster resilience in the country.
Figure 10: Showing performance of resilience building in Sultanate of Oman

Table 5: Showing performance of resilience building in Sultanate of Oman
ESSENTIAL ESSENTIAL DETAILS SCORE
E 5 Safeguard Natural Buffers to Enhance Ecosystems’ Protective Functions 5.0
E7 Understand and Strengthen Societal Capacity for Resilience 5.0
E3 Strengthen Financial Capacity for Resilience 4.7
E8 Increase Infrastructure Resilience 4. 5
E9 Ensure Effective Disaster Response 4.3
E10 Expedite Recovery and Build Back Better 4.3
E4 Pursue Resilient Urban Development and Design 3. 5
E1 Organize for Disaster Resilience 3.3
E6 Strengthen Institutional Capacity for Resilience 4.0
E2 Identify, Understand and Use Current and Future Risk Scenarios 3.0
AVERAGE SCORES 4.16
Average score= ∑ Scores
total number of essentials . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. .. .. . 1
Average score= 5.0+5.0+ 4.7+ 4.5+ 4.3+ 4.3+3.5+4.0+ 3.3+3.0
10
Average score= 41.6
10
Average score=41.6

4.1 Mainstreaming DRR in Development
The mainstream Disaster Risk Reduction of the Sultanate of Oman is evaluated with
respect to the 5 essential areas of the LUI tool. These five essentials out of the UN ten essentials
include the essentials 5 (Natural ecosystem), essential 8 ( infrastructure resilience), essential
4( urban development), essential 7 ( societal capacity), essential 9( disaster response ). The
sultanate of Oman ensures that the infrastructure is evaluated and it is made a disaster-resilient,
this is so significant since when a disaster occurs they highly affect infrastructures like bridges
and roads.
The solutions of urban design are employed to upgrade disaster resilience in the whole of
Oman. This is very significant as most of the Omanis (84.5 %) reside in urban/ cities as per
2018. The government of Oman made it compulsory for the building industries to use and update
the building practices and codes of construction to meet the international standards. For
instance, the Sultanate of Oman employs the use of Steel in the construction of infrastructure,
railroads, and roads, the use of these steel in construction make the Sultanate of Oman more
resilient and more sustainable when a disaster hits the country. According to the essential 5
natural ecosystems has a protective function against disaster and its risk on people and society.
The government of the Sultanate of Oman also protects its people from natural disasters.
4.2 Disaster governance
The disaster control (disaster governance) of the Sultanate of Oman is limited rendering
to the evaluation from the essential 1 (disaster governance), essential 6 (Institutional capacity)
and essential 2 (risk identification). Actually, the sultanate of Oman has constructed an
organizational structure having well defined which will ensure that the risks and the effects of

the disaster are highly reduced when they occur. And even though there is already an established
body for disaster resilience in the country, there are still more efforts which the Sultan and his
government will have to put forth and continue with a discussion on disaster resilience and
attaining sustainability in the country (Kwarteng, 2010). This is so significant due to the location
of the Sultanate of Oman which is exposed to lots of natural disasters.
The tectonic plate where the country lies and the monsoon winds which makes the
country to experience lots of Cyclones makes the country to be on alert each and every time to
ensure that the fatalities and the damages are highly reduced (Golnaraghi, 2012). The country
uses a fully documented of the historical disaster which has occurred in the country with
damages and fatalities and this information is made available for everyone in government
websites. For an instant, information about floods caused by the Cyclones, earthquakes and
different types of Cyclones like Cyclone Hikaa of 2019.
A detailed, in-depth and current risk maps for the whole country of Oman which covers
several disaster and population need to be documented to help in ensuring that this is employed
as a reference to help make the country more disaster resilience and make it a more sustainable
as possible, currently such documentation is lacking in the country (Kitchin, 2015). Because of
the lack of disaster maps in the Sultanate of Oman, it thus means that risks of disaster in the
country are not included in long term planning for the country and when the disaster occurs it is
always as a surprise. For instance, several Cyclones in the country, earthquakes and man-made
disasters and also the history of flooding always hit the country as a surprise and several people
die while several property are destroyed (Hafiez, 2015).

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION
The Sendai Structure Local Urban Indicator Tools which were established by UNISDR
was used in the study to evaluate the flexibility of the sultanate of Oman (Khaili, 2013). Since
the Sultanate of Oman bestows adequate economic resources and also mainstream calamity
threat in its growth, it was concluded that it is a calamity resistant Country. In general, Sultanate
of Oman’s calamity managing system emphasizes majorly on making the resilience in reality and
disaster response, but there is still a lack of long term DRR strategy and imperfect formal
building for calamity controlling image and as result, the Sultanate of Oman´s calamity may
weaken its resilient ability (Islam, 2012). In particular, when it comes to its relation to the low
calamity risk readiness of Sultanate of Oman´s general public.
The government has put some of the reliable efforts that were meant to be protective
measures after every dangerous experience, and this is partly the reason why the sultanate of
Oman has not experienced a great state calamity that results in major fatalities for a period about
five years (Hancilar, 2018). Oddly, the society of Sultanate of Oman is less flexible to calamity
given less occurrence of calamities and the government's persistent investment. To ensure
feasible public resources that stimulate calamity flexibility within the people of the Sultanate of
Oman, it is very important to have a long term and clear DRR vision (Hoffmann, 2013). The
unpredictable and new disaster risk may occur as a result of growing challenges like unsteady
socio-political changes and climatic dynamics, although the study presently shows that the
people of the sultanate of Oman are very flexible to calamities (Homsy, 2019).
It is still however not clear if the people of the sultanate of Oman are in a position to cope
with a theoretically volatile future since the country does not have enough experience with the

calamity and again there is a lack of long term vision that addresses future hazards (Hunter,
2019). It is also not easy to improve, asses and design the calamity flexibility of towns that have
complex systems, and in building a country's flexibility, it is very important to start with the
assessment of its flexibility to the calamities. By using the Local Urban Indicator Tools which
was sponsored by UNISDR, the study revealed a useful case in assessing the flexibilities of
major towns (Papadopoulos, 2017). Since it is important to understand the flexibility of different
multi-stakeholders and not just decision-makers and public leaders, we inventively used mixed
top-down and bottom-up approaches while doing the evaluation process. Furthermore, this study
enthralled us to reconsider the flexibility of what, with what and to what.
There is still a need to improve on the formal ability, in particular, the coordination and
participation amongst the civil society and private sector in crisis managing system and current
disaster but the ecological observation, the protection of infrastructure and financial investment
to country flexibility in the sultanate of Oman are significant (Weidlich, 2011). It is therefore
important for a society to corporate and work together since this is the key aspect in ensuring the
calamity flexibility since the least injured capital calamity is the social capital, and again in the
recovery process it always plays important assisting roles. Particularly, during the climatic
dynamics periods, it is improper to ignore potential risks since the country has not for year’s
experienced great or notable national calamities (Waha, 2017). Who could have thought that a
Storm would put down a whole of New York City before the storm sandy in 2012? To improve
the flexibility of the town, it is important to prepare for the worst situation in addition to working
with stake-holders together and defenseless residents.
The policymakers appreciate the goodness of the services rendered and thus there is hasty
development of disaster management in sultanate Oman. The best approach for calamity

management in sultanate Oman has always been the top-down strategy (Tyler, 2012). The
sufficiency of this strategy will be seen if the service providers in Oman will be able to consider
disaster management creativity as more essential in their operations (Turcu, 2013). The state
decline has become a major concern to the country since many services are pushed to the edge
thus leading to radical changes in capability building and emergency development programs.
Another concern that is considered as atop most priority by the National Committee for Civil
Defense is the regionalization of state possessions for hasty utilization. This can be achieved
when there is adequate logistical assistance from the local specialists to designate to regions
where the resource can be carefully kept for efficient and hasty utilization in the time of
emergencies.
The local subcommittee of the national of NCCD should be given the mandate to
regularly maintain the local depots since the move from central storage to local deports
establishments are very difficult.in sultanate Oman, it is very challenging to enhance the
community awareness on the importance of self-awareness on the readiness on emergency, this
is because, for several years, people from Oman have not experienced any natural calamity that
would foster them to be ready for the calamity (Parry, 2014). It has been observed that people
from sultanate Oman do tend to under-estimate the lethality of the natural calamity and the
natural danger, furthermore, they make long-distance travels just to go and see the new rivers
that are formed as a result of the storms not bearing in mind that this is actually a flood that can
get out of control within a short period with no forewarnings and may later cause damage.
Therefore, it is for the right information to be communicated by the media outlining the level of
warning without instilling panic and fear among people (Tjandradewi, 2011). Lastly, there is no

research done to oversee the different units in disaster management in Oman. The need to
apprehend the present position and dynamic set-up will be a forthcoming task.
Rather than only considering random adaption ideas from well-resourced countries, it is
very important to put into consideration on local need assessment and logical proof to improve
and develop disaster management .To examine the shortcomings and chances for executing the
SFDRR in the Arab areas at the native level, a relative investigation for 25 Arabic towns flexible
valuation and the use of UNISDR calamity flexible record for towns- 2017 new ten essentials
must be applied (Shen, 2011). Therefore, as a result, a range of chances and regions and
resolutions came up as patents of flexible building activities were done by Arabic towns and also
responses and interpretations were received from the native specialist councils based on the 25
Arabic towns' flexible assessment workshops. All these efforts focus on the shortcomings of the
DRR stakeholders, supremacy, information and data exchange and capability building (SalehI,
2010). The update on risk assessment is lacking with no clear hazard component and on the same
note, the countrywide hazard maps are constrained or do not exist. This is shown in the
smartcard outcome average. There is no compulsory regulation to update and maintain the risk
and information loses and that is why this shortcoming is linked to the calamity risk authority.
To curb gaps in handling with calamity and management threats mostly to the delicate
situations of conflict and dislocation with the funding of dislocation interventions with the
sustenance of global aid organizations, the community knowledge, and local experience has been
used. Though this is not enough to predict, control and sustain disaster flexibility actions since
there is a high increase in disaster (Rajabifard, 2015). Understanding the practical terms of the
Ten essentials and awareness of the ideas of the Disaster Risk Reduction differs amongst the
participants even though they are known to be of the same state power, this may cause biases in

the ranking response that is received from the same country power. This is therefore termed as
lack of data, communication and incorporation sharing through the government organizations,
thus it is necessary to conduct workshops in all the DRR shareholders to better the connection
amongst the roles of each contributing organization in accordance to the calamity response
formal structure, and hearten complete alertness, improved data management and organized
planning (Poggi, 2017). The participant's access and awareness of the calamity information
available were only restricted to the most possible disaster thus challenging the method of
recognizing the flexible gaps for the numerous hazard dangers.
Some new part of alertness that need new building capabilities and skills were also
acknowledged as inappropriate awareness of calamity fiscal charge of loses; cover risk
demonstrating and the value of natural ecologies that needs building capabilities and offer
training on top practices and calamity justification practices (Perera, 2017). In order to improve
the education of a nation on resiliency and sharing of information on country´s preparedness,
there should be an inter-community exchange of ideas whereby different cities will come
together and share information on what they have gone through. The feedback obtained should
be used to improve the local community’s capacity in tragedy preparedness by the preparation of
appropriate guidance on resilience both in cities and rural areas in line with the DRR rules.
Differences in cities in regards to the DRR policies was also evident in both at the
community and national level. Lack or minimal funds was equated to weak tragic leadership
which led to poor preparedness in various cities. The government should, therefore, do a budget
towards risk management. The budget will ensure that both cities and the local community are
prepared in case a tragedy hits them. The society which includes the local communities should be
educated on resilience issues which will help them be ready in and out of season (Homsy, 2019).

Making the individual citizens know the advantages of being prepared in case of a tragedy and
doing an evaluation of various factors that cause tragedies, observing and making better the
capability of the chosen individuals from various participating countries in the area of disaster
and danger controlling will help the citizens participate better in both local, regional and global
activities that deal with disaster preparedness which will in long run help in beefing up the
experiences and better DRR campaigns.
With the high scorecard of 4.16, it is true to say that the disaster resilience in the
Sultanate of Oman is relatively good. And with this model, the government will be able to make
the country a disaster-resilient thus making the country more sustainable when a disaster occurs.
The panel selected to ensure that the country is disaster resilient will have to follow the plan
(Hoffmann, 2013). This procedure with the disaster identification as the first step will enable the
country to identify all the disaster which occurs in the country, the frequency of occurrence and
their effect on people and destruction of property. These disaster occurrences and their
frequency are recorded and will be used to reduce the effects of the disaster in case they occur in
the future. At least with these strategies of reducing the effects of the disaster in the country, it
will never be as a surprising ton Sultanate of Oman if such disaster occurs again.
With the proper procedure of reducing the effects of the disaster in the country, it will be
possible to make attain the higher scorecard. For instance, the proper strategy of reducing the
effects of the disaster in the country will help improve the elements which are lower in the
scorecard like element 1 (organize for disaster Resilience). With the proper management of the
NCCD panel, it will be appropriate for the country to organize a strong disaster resilience and
help reduce the effects by setting some strategies. Some of the strategies which can be put
forward by this panel may include, building houses with strong steel and planting trees to help

during Cyclones, the panel may also suggest building some dams, constructing building above
flood levels and putting more flood barriers.
The panel may also put strict rules on the road through the ministry of road and transport
to ensure that the man-made disaster like the crushing of vehicles which always results in loss of
people´s lives are reduced. For element 3 (Identify, Understand and Use Current and Future Risk
Scenarios), the panel may use the history of the past occurrence of disaster to help predict for the
future occurrence of disaster and putting ways of reducing the effects of these disasters.
Incorporating the sense of leadership when coming up with the resilience process in a nation is a
very essential factor in the study especially for the local DRR communities.
A unified coordination area incorporating all publics that will ensure that DRR rules are
consistently implemented so that resilient policies are slowly incorporated in the rules that exist
in the organization (Hancilar, 2018). Proper communication with all publics involved such as
the private area and efficacy providers will guarantee the preparedness of the nation when
tragedy strikes thus incorporation proper planning, prioritization, strategy, carrying out and
upkeep cycles. Tragedy survivors and the local community hit by a tragedy's basic needs and
wants should be put in mind when dealing with their wellbeing and the area renewal. This can be
attained by incorporating them when planning before and after the tragedy hits as they act as
translators between the local and the outer world of various indicators by putting them into
action. All these ensure the realization of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

CHAPTER: 6 CONCLUSION
In summary, the use of Sendai framework Local Urban Indicators helps in gauging the
disaster resilience of a country. With the LUI, the country is able to check on the failed elements
and put suitable strategies to help improve and make the general disaster resilience of the country
better. This is done through the formed panel which will come with the strategy plans like dam
construction, constructing stronger houses to help withstand stronger Cyclones. The strategies
and the panel established by the government of Sultanate of Oman is very vital since Sultanate of
Oman is situated in region where it is highly vulnerable several types of disaster like cyclones,
flash floods and even earthquakes.
The study comes up with the joint determination of evaluating how Sultanate of Oman is
prepared in terms of natural tragedies by use of UNISDR as the measure and tool of assessment.
The nation’s preparedness is attained by the use of a method that involves various stakeholders
thus a bottom-up and top-down process of resilience assessment. Modern and standard
infrastructure, enough assistance financially and an environment that is well maintained reflect a
nation that is resilient thus well prepared in case a tragedy strikes. Lack of the fore mentioned in
a nation plus lack of local community participation in the community’s welfare, therefore, points
to a country that has a weak resilience system. This research on disaster management in the
Sultanate of Oman shows the need to incorporate various stakeholders in the local community
progress missions.
Upgrading and local community progress have to go hand in hand with appropriate
emergency mitigation structures to ensure that there is proper management of both natural and
man-made tragedies. It is time to shift from a responsive way of tragedy management to an

appropriate way of preventing or better still reduce tragedies. Disasters don’t just happen
overnight it is therefore wise to have appropriate plans in place just In case the worst happens.
This is an uphill task that calls for a concerted effort from different stakeholders that will ensure
success. The stakeholders should be made up of the private sector, the local community, and the
government. The Sultanate of Oman is progressing in terms of disaster mitigation and it should
improve even farther so that the required satisfaction is reached.

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CHAPTER 8 APPENDIX
Figure 11: Showing management of the financial costs of disaster (http://www.oecd.org/governance/fiscal-resilience-to-natural-
disasters-27a4198a-en.htm)
Figure 12: Showing scary photos of Cyclone disaster in Sultanate of Oman (https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/editorial/the-
fatal-cyclone-is-a-reminder-that-disaster-prevention-and-response-are-vital-1.734484 )

Figure 13: Showing scary photos of Cyclone disaster in Sultanate of Oman (http://www.akademifantasia.org/middle-east/oman-
natural-disaster-scary-photos/ )
Figure 14: Showing scary photos of Cyclone disaster in Sultanate of Oman (http://www.akademifantasia.org/middle-east/oman-
natural-disaster-scary-photos/ )

Figure 15: Showing scary photos of Cyclone disaster in Sultanate of Oman (http://www.akademifantasia.org/middle-east/oman-
natural-disaster-scary-photos/ )
Table 6: Showing Cyclonic Storms in Salalah Plain

Figure 16: Showing Total inundated land area
(https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/etd/ucb/text/Alruheili_berkeley_0028E_17210.pdf)