1 Important Elements of Disaster Management and Mitigation and Design and Development of A Software Tool GURUMURTHY VIJAYAN IYER MNM Jain Engineering College, 36, Venkatesh Nagar Main Road, Virugambakkam, Chennai-600 092, INDIA v http://www.vijayaniyer.net NIKOS E MASTORAKIS WSEAS European Office Agiou Ioannou Theologou 17-13, 15773, Zografou, Athens, GREECE http://www.wseas.org/mastorakis Abstract ; - Natural Disasters causing damage to human life, property, infrastructure and economy has emerged as a global challenge. Requisite safety measures have to be provided for natural hazards. Prevention is better than cure. Once disaster occurred, it is very difficult to handle and control it. Hence proper planning shall always handle and mitigate the various kinds of disasters effectively, for which open, transparent and efficient systems have to be followed. There is a need for systematic identification, preparation, prediction, assessment, evaluation of disaster events and incorporation of mitigate measures. Disaster management is a sequential and continuous process planning. The important elements which are to be considered at all stages during the disaster management are disaster management system and standards (DMS)/ Indian Standard (IS) codes, disaster diagnosis, disaster resource planning (DRP), disaster impact assessment (DIA), investigation of disaster and hazardous risk assessment (IDHRA), onsite and offsite emergency planning, disaster management plans (DMPs), corporate disaster preparedness programmes , emergency response plans, identification of proactive measures (IPM), systematic measurement, resource evaluation and quantification, cost analysis, environmental impact assessment (EIA), feedback towards achieving the disaster control abatement and mitigation strategies, research and development, management innovations, loss assessment & prevention (LAP) measures , recovery, relief , reconstruction and rehabilitation (RRRR) activities, computer aided methods, state-of-art software on disaster management and enforcement of disaster compensation laws. The disaster management must also involve co-ordination activities about disaster events with all participatory sectors namely, all levels of central and state government, districts administration, municipalities, corporations, medical and health administration including industrial disaster and safety administration, occupational health hazard and safety administration, non-occupational health hazard and safety administration, communication services, geographical information system services, environmental remote sensing services, print and electronic media networks,, insurance services, social and community mobilization services, fire and explosion services, civil defense and home guards, police and paramilitary forces, armed forces, industrial security forces, border security forces , public and private sector industries, research and development organizations, non-government and voluntary organizations, environmental and ecological protection services, information and broadcasting services, construction sector, education and training sectors. The officials of the above sectors must be imparted specialized on-campus and off-campus training in the emerging areas of disaster management modules such as emergency preparedness plans, DMS, DRP, DIA, IDHRA, IPM, DMP, EIA, LAP training modules, RRRR modules, occupational, non-occupational health hazard, disaster investigation, risk assessment and EIA training modules including training in various computer aided and state- of-art software packages. In this research paper important elements of the disaster management for practitioners have been discussed. Key-Words: - catastrophe, disaster, industrial, management, mitigation, natural, plans Proceedings of the 7th WSEAS International Conference on Mathematics & Computers in Business & Economics, Cavtat, Croatia, June 13-15, 2006 (pp102-121)