Exploring Guidelines for Disaster Waste Management in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Disaster waste is defined as the waste generated as a result of natural disasters. Not only are meteorological disasters becoming more severe and frequent due to climate change, but urbanization and population growth in Asia are also increasing the damage caused by natural disasters. Once a natural disaster happens, a huge amount of waste is generated, so guidelines for disaster waste management should be prepared before disasters happen. In Southeast Asia, guidelines for disaster waste have been established by Indonesia’s national government and the Metropolitan Manila government in the Philippines, and have been developed at universities in Thailand. Each of these three sets of guidelines takes a different approach, so comparing them can provide suggestions for various points that are important to consider. This paper explores the three sets of guidelines for disaster waste management and attempts to formulate a typology from the perspectives of “motivations and mandates” for developing such guidelines and “entities responsible for the guidelines.” Such perspectives and typologies will be useful when assessing the status of disaster waste management in a country or region, or when considering specific policies for disaster waste management. In addition, academia has contributed to the development of these guidelines by utilizing their accumulated knowledge in waste management.