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Abrupt air pollution accidents can endanger people's health and destroy the local ecological environment. The appropriate emergency response can minimize the harmful effects of accidents and protect people's lives and property. This paper provides an overview of the key emergency response technologies for abrupt air pollution accidents around the globe with emphasis on the major achievements that China has obtained in recent years. With decades of effort, China has made significant progress in emergency monitoring technologies and equipment, source estimation technologies, pollutant dispersion simulation technologies and others. Many effective domestic emergency monitoring instruments (e.g., portable DOAS/FT-IR systems, portable FID/PID systems, portable GC-MS systems, scanning imaging remote sensing systems, and emergency monitoring vehicles) had been developed which can meet the demands for routine emergency response activities. A monitoring layout technique combining air dispersion simulation, fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, and a post-optimality analysis was proposed to identify the optimal monitoring layout scheme under the constraints of limited monitoring resources. Multiple source estimation technologies, including the forward method and the inversion method, have been established and evaluated under various scenarios. Multi-scale dynamic pollution dispersion simulation systems with high temporal and spatial resolution were further developed. A comprehensive emergency response platform integrating database support, source estimation, monitoring schemes, fast monitoring of pollutants, pollution predictions and risk assessment was developed based on the technical idea of "source identification - model simulation - environmental monitoring" dynamic interactive feedback. It is expected that the emergency response capability for abrupt air pollution accidents will gradually improve in China. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• HSRN is modeled as a two-layer network based on high-speed trains running in it. • Space-time failure effects of high-speed trains on HSRN robustness are investigated. • A method assessing robustness is proposed from function feature and topology feature. • Travel time and passenger flow are taken into account in the methodology. High-speed rail (HSR) has become a critical infrastructure and even has formed a network in some countries, which plays an increasingly significant part in the modern transport system and exerts increasingly obvious impacts on regional economic activity and human mobility. Although its interruption may cause serious consequences, researching its robustness doesn't attract attention until recent years. Based on previous researches on the issue, this paper proposes a comprehensive method to assess the robustness of high-speed rail network (HSRN) by combining the network function features with network topology features and modeling HSRN as a two-layer network based on the high-speed trains running in the network, in which the travel time and passenger flow are taken into account. Finally, taking China's HSRN (CHSRN) as a case study, this paper investigates the failure effects of HSR stations and high-speed trains on the robustness of CHSRN, especially the space-time failure effects of high-speed trains at three typical HSR stations. Results reveal that the failure effects of trains at the selected stations on the performance of CHSRN are limited, and the failure effects of trains at three typical stations on the performance are different as the different failure time, which is beneficial to prioritize the decisions on maintenance resource allocation and prepare emergency response plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emergency decision-making is vital for nations or communities because it increases emergency management's effectiveness and legitimacy, which in turn greatly minimizes environmental damage, fatalities, and economic loss. The evaluation of emergency judgements must take into account significant inaccuracy, fuzzyness, and ambiguity. While high risk and uncertainty are frequently characteristics of emergency decision-making (EDM) circumstances. The current EDM methodologies do not take into account the psychological behavior of the decision makers in addition to the various emergency situations and the various responses. In this paper, we presented a new method based on a Complex Probabilistic Hesitant Fuzzy Soft Set (CPHFSS) as represented by membership in 2-D with hesitant probability. The idea that is being put forth captures the ambiguity and takes into account emergency situations while also taking into account the psychological state of the decision-makers involved in the EDM procedure. The introduction of a new score function for the CPHFSS serves as the second objective of this paper, which is to address a number of comparability issues. We examine a novel family of hybrid operators for CPHFSS that utilize numerous independent variables as a solution to these unforeseen issues. The group decision-making strategy and EDAS technique are then suggested employing these operators. Later, an emergency decision-making situation involving a major fire in China is used to demonstrate the validity of the algorithms. • Concept of complex probabilistic hesitant fuzzy soft set is presented. • Introduce a new score function for the CPHFSS. • Group decision-making strategy and EDAS technique presented. • Emergency decision-making problems discussed in the study. • Case study related to industrial disaster emergency decision-making discuss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small modular reactors (SMRs) are rapidly developed worldwide in recent years for their potential extensive applications. China is very active in promoting SMR design and construction. However, the current emergency preparedness (EP) guidance in China is developed based on the characteristics of large water-cooled reactors, and they are only partially applicable to SMRs. In our previous work, we have fully demonstrated from a technical perspective that it is feasible for China to establish a unified EP framework for all SMR designs based on the dose and consequence of an accident spectrum. Therefore, this paper will comprehensively discuss the costs and benefits of establishing a unified EP guidance for all SMR designs in China. Uncertainty analysis is also conducted for variables with great uncertainty. Through the study in this paper, it can be concluded that developing a new unified EP regulatory guidance for all SMR designs in China is cost beneficial in most cases. In addition, it will also bring other benefits that are hard to be quantified, such as the consistency of supervision, the clarity of the EP plan, and the improved engagement of all stakeholders during SMR development. In a word, it would always be beneficial to establish a new unified EP regulatory guidance for all SMR designs in the long term. • The fact that current emrgency preparedness guidance is only partially applicable for licensing SMR. • This paper proposes an operable process of cost-benefit analysis for regulatory guidance formulation. • Quantification approach is used to discussed cost-benifit analysis in guidance development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequent occurrence of natural disasters has become one of the most serious challenges to human society. As rural communities are the forefront of disasters, enhancing the resilience of rural community is crucial to mitigate the impact of natural disasters and seek rapid recovery. This paper provides an analytical framework for changing trajectories of the resilience of rural communities after disasters. Taking the disaster area affected by the catastrophic debris flow in China as an example, we analyze the changing trajectories of rural community resilience after disaster in three villages with different damage levels from 2010 to 2020 based on the data from key person interviews, the disaster situation and development reports, village work records and farmers' questionnaires. We found that the changes of community resilience after disaster show obvious stages due to the difference in the intensity of effects of government intervention and community self-organization ability during disaster relief reconstruction period and self-recovery period. The resilience of communities with different disaster losses showed an increasing trend. However, during the disaster relief and reconstruction period, the resilience of the severely affected community was improved faster, followed by the most severely affected community, while the resilience of generally affected community was improved more slowly. During the self-recovery period, the resilience of the affected general community was improved faster than that of the other two communities. The evolution process of community resilience reflects the increasing role of self-organizational capacity in post-disaster community development, aligning with the overall global trend in rural community governance. In addition, there is a significant sequence in the improvement speed of different dimensions of community resilience at different stages after disasters. During the disaster relief and reconstruction period, the resilience of community management was improved faster and the resilience of environment was slower. During the self-recovery period, the economic resilience of community was improved faster and the social resilience was improved slower. Finally, some suggestions were put forward to strengthen natural disasters prevention and community resilience in disaster-prone areas. [Display omitted] • Provide an analytical framework for the changing trajectories of the resilience of rural communities after disaster. • Community self-organization ability play an important role in improving community resilience. • There are significant differences in resilience of communities with different disaster losses. • There is an obvious sequence in the improvement speed of different dimensions of community resilience after disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emergency supplies pre-positioning is crucial to improve the speed of response and mitigate the effects of disasters. According to the requirements of emergency preparedness for both civilian and military operations in China, the paper presents a problem of integrated civilian–military emergency supplies pre-positioning, the aim of which is to maximize both the expected military operational efficiency and the expected civilian operational efficiency while minimizing the overall cost of pre-positioning. To solve the problem, the paper proposes a solution method that uses a multiobjective algorithm to evolve a population of main location solutions and uses another single-objective algorithm to search optimal allocation sub-solutions for each main solution. Among different heuristics, we select water wave optimization (WWO) to design a multiobjective algorithm for the main problem and select biogeography-based optimization (BBO) for the subproblem, and demonstrate that they have competitive performance advantage in comparison with a set of well-known algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal areas in China are particularly suffering from marine disasters, as they are attacked by marine disasters frequently, suddenly, catastrophically, leading to massive economic losses, even deaths. It is, therefore, necessary and urgent to build and reinforce a robust risk reduction arrangement for marine disasters in China. Marine disaster index insurance (MDII) has been recognized as an excellent emerging instrument for marine disaster risk management in coastal areas due to its dual advantages of avoiding moral hazard and adverse selection, besides immediate compensation. However, a clear understanding of its evolution, experience, and characteristics of MDII in China is remaining deficient. Taking the review and analysis of policy, this paper traces the history of evolution and investigates China's MDII pilots since 2013. It was found that China has made great progress in piloting MDII with the support of government policies in the past decade, which can be summarized in three stages: germination stage, initial development stage, and comprehensive development stage. However, some deficiencies and challenges have been identified from the investigation, including limited coverage, insufficient demand, inadequate supply, and imperfect subsidy policies. This paper proposes the following improvement strategies: improve the market ecosystem and regulatory system for MDII, enhance the ability of MDII insurers to deal with immediate huge claims, diversify the channels and forms of subsidy policies for MDII, raise public awareness of using MDII to manage marine disaster risks, and design scientific MDII products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A chance constrained stochastic programming model is proposed. • The uncertainty, dynamism and diversity of distribution system are considered. • The level assignment method is utilized to address distribution center disruptions. • The multimodal transportation system is introduced for road network disruptions. • An evolutionary algorithm is developed for large-scale cases. This paper presents a comprehensive approach to addressing the challenges of designing a reliable emergency logistics network under the dynamic uncertainty of natural disasters. The proposed multimodal transportation strategy based on level assignments can effectively mitigate the risk of facility disruptions and network uncertainty and enhance the adaptability of the system to diverse emergency supplies. The established two-stage chance constrained stochastic programming model and improved evolutionary algorithm are powerful tools for optimizing the network design and improving its resilience. Based on the real-world case of the Ya'an earthquake in China, the impacts of various practical constraints are analyzed. Several insights into the decision-making process of emergency logistics management are provided: managers should prioritize time utility over cost utility and use multiple aircraft and helicopters, supplies should be sorted into fewer and more important categories and placed in smaller packages for efficient transportation, multimodal transportation should be considered based on geographical and traffic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nuclear accident that occurred in Fukushima, Japan has broadly affected the rapid development trend of the worldwide nuclear industry, causing many countries, including China, to adjust their nuclear policies. However, as the impact of the accident is fading away, nuclear policies are differentiating worldwide. Hence, analysing nuclear policies in different countries and their trends after the Fukushima accident has a practical significance of promoting the effective and safe development of the nuclear power industry. This paper focuses on the nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan, and its wide impact. First, the changes of the developmental policies and the trends of the nuclear powers, including China, are summarised just after the accident in Fukushima occurred. Next, the nuclear power development of the nuclear powers and China in the last two years is analysed with real data. Finally, this paper systematically predicts the developmental direction of the global nuclear industry according to the actual nuclear development status in each country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, the occurrence of a series of disasters and the tremendous loss in human lives expose the vulnerability the emergency system and the incomplete of the methodology. Faced with the needs of the practice, this paper conducted a comprehensive review both from the system and the methodology prospective. From the system prospective, this paper aims at analyzing the existing problems and the solution finding. From the methodology prospective, emergency facility location problem, emergency resource allocation problem, and emergency management technical support problem are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steel lattice towers are commonly used as supporting structures for overhead transmission lines. Extreme wind conditions like typhoons can cause significant damage on those steel towers and consequently jeopardize the safe operation of transmission lines. In the line sections where a river crossing is unavoidable, the steel lattice towers are designed to be much taller and stronger than regular towers owing to safety and operation considerations. In previous typhoon events in Hainan Province of China, none of the installed river-crossing towers have collapsed or experienced significant damages, except in the aftermath of super typhoon Rammasun in 2014, when two 95-m tall river-crossing suspension towers collapsed. This paper presents the structural failure analysis of these two collapsed lattice steel transmission towers: The improved genetic algorithm (IGA) was applied to solve the typhoon wind field model for improved resolution of wind records measured during the Rammasun event and based on of 10-min average wind speeds. The IGA used the field measurement data to generate time-varying typhoon key parameters that lead to a more accurate prediction of the wind field than the conventional method. Then a systematic procedure was developed to investigate the failure mechanism of steel lattice towers under fluctuating wind loads combined with rain loads with consideration of the aerodynamic characteristics of the transmission tower-line system. The results show that the root-cause of the structural failure of the two transmission towers was overstressing of the tower main leg members in the second panel above the ground. Based on the numerical simulation of typhoon wind loads and the structural failure analysis procedure applied in this study, a general reinforcement method of river-crossing towers is proposed and the implementation of a typhoon warning method is recommended to identify the potential risks in transmission lines and formulate corresponding typhoon emergency plans to reduce the losses caused by typhoons. • The failure of a river-crossing transmission line damaged by typhoon is analyzed. • Improved genetic algorithm (IGA) method was innovatively introduced to solve the typhoon wind filed. • Fluctuating characteristic and strong rainfall led to the tower collapse. • A new transmission line typhoon warning method is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A method to assess the vulnerability of PTS comprising subsystem is proposed. • Critical areas of PTS are identified based on running timetable and position data. • Differences of vulnerability or critical area between subsystem and PTS are revealed. • A case of high-speed rail and air transport coupling system in China is researched. The public transport system (PTS) consists of different types of transport subsystems, such as high-speed rail (HSR), air transport (AT), conventional railway, expressway and waterway in a state, which exerts significant impacts on distribution of demographic and economic activities. And its interruption or failure may cause severe social and economic disruption. So the vulnerability analysis of the system attracts an increasing attention. However, most of previous researches mainly concentrate on the vulnerability modeling and analyzing of a single subsystem, neglecting the simultaneous interruption of components, and less considering the complementary effects of other subsystems from systematic perspective and the geographic interdependency among components. For trying to fill these gaps, this paper proposes a method to analyze the vulnerability of PTS composed of two or more transport subsystems and identity the critical area within the system based on the data of running timetable and position coordinates. Finally, taking HSR and AT coupling system in mainland China as a case study, we investigate the differences of vulnerability and critical areas between individual subsystem and overall system. Results reveal that the vulnerability variations and the critical areas distribution of the system are different from these of the subsystems. The research also finds that whether a component is critical depends not only on the system's feature, but also on the component's feature, whether an area is critical depends on economic development and population density of the area. These findings are beneficial to prioritize the plan, budget and maintenance of PTS, and prepare emergency response plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate forecasting is required for the effective risk management of drought disasters. Many machine learning- and deep learning-based models have been proposed for drought forecasting, however, they cannot handle the temporal and/or spatial dependencies in the input data, causing unexpected forecasting results. In order to solve the challenging issue, in this paper we proposed the Heterogeneous Spatio-Temporal Graph (HetSPGraph), for drought forecasting. It includes three major layers: spatial aggregations including inter and intra aggregations, temporal aggregation, and a forecasting network. The main function of HetSPGraph is to learn the dynamic spatiotemporal correlations between the regions and to further predict the drought in different regions, based on which accurate drought forecasting can be achieved. Experimental forecasting results of the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) in China indicated that the HetSPGraph model outperformed the traditional baseline methods including the Long Short-Term Memory model (LSTM), Convolutional Neural Network-LSTM (CNN-LSTM), Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), Spatio-Temporal Graph Convolutional Networks (STGCN) and Geographic-Semantic-Temporal Hypergraph Convolutional Network (GST-HCN). Even for long-term forecasting (12 months), more accurate forecasting results, with the coefficient of determination R 2 higher than 0.89, can also be obtained by HetSPGraph compared to the other three models. The proposed HetSPGraph model has the potential for wider use in forecasting drought and other natural disasters. • A novel HetSPGraph approach with three layers is proposed for drought forecasting. • Dynamic spatiotemporal correlation of droughts at multi-time scales can be described by HetSPGraph. • The HetSPGraph model outperformed conventional Deep Learning models for drought forecasting. • The HetSPGraph model can keep its stable accuracy at long-term forecasting period (12 months). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floods pose significant threats to farmers, and engaging in effective disaster avoidance behaviors can mitigate some of these risks for farmers in flood risk areas (FRA). However, due to farmers' bounded rationality characteristics, they often have a cognitive bias of blindly overestimating or underestimating flood risk, thus failing to perform correct disaster avoidance behaviors. Based on survey data from 180 farmers in FRA in southwest China, this study constructs an assessment method for farmers' subjective and objective flood risk and analyzes the characteristics of farmers' subjective and objective flood risk. A probit regression model explores the correlation between subjective and objective flood risk consistency and farmers' willingness to purchase natural disaster insurance (WPNDI). Results showed that of the 180 farmers surveyed, 63.89% had inconsistent subjective and objective flood risks, mainly reflected in an underestimation of objective flood risk. Farmers' subjective and objective flood risk consistency was found to be positively and significantly correlated with their WPNDI. When other conditions remain unchanged, for every unit increase in the consistency of farmers' subjective and objective flood risk, their WPNDI increased by 0.601 units on average. This paper originally proposed the hypothesis that the consistency of farmers' subjective and objective flood risk is positively and significantly correlated with their WPNDI, and proved the reliability of this hypothesis through research. These findings can provide policy references for disaster risk management and resilient disaster prevention system construction in FRA. [Display omitted] • The subjective and objective flood risk of farmers in FRA is assessed. • The correlation between farmers' subjective and objective flood risk consistency and WPNDI is analyzed by probit model. • Inconsistency of farmers' subjective and objective flood risk mainly reflected in underestimating the objective flood risk. • Farmers' subjective and objective flood risk consistency is positively and significantly correlated with their WPNDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent Russia-Ukraine war has reignited the world's biggest energy crisis in decades. As an important pillar of energy security, system resilience has attracted much attention. Previous research has focused on conception, composition and measurement. Few captured the dynamic features of resilience process of energy systems. In this paper, an input-output nested system dynamics (IO-SD) model is proposed to study the resilience of natural gas systems in a crisis. As a special feature, the model captures both inter-sectoral linkages and dynamic transmission of the crisis. The study highlighted and analyzed the role of emergency measures such as the release of stockpiles and emergency supplies. Later, the resilience performance of China gas system in 2017-crisis was examined in various aspects, e.g., economic loss and efficiency of emergency measures. We find that strategic storage could be beneficial to the resilience of NG systems. But expanding the storage size in isolation is not enough. Two key measures to enhance the resilience of the system are: (1) increasing the flexibility and operational efficiency of emergency facilities, e.g., storage releasing capability and gasification efficiency; and (2) building efficient infrastructure and services, enhancing connectivity of storage infrastructure and supply networks, and removing bottlenecks in regional interconnection. • Resilience plays an increasing important role in securing natural gas security. • The proposed resilience framework considers both restoring and economic performance. • The IO-SD model captures dynamic feature and intersection relations of gas system. • Enhance storage releasing rate can improve China gas system resilience effectively. • Strengthen connectivity of infrastructure can improve system resilience effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Built the storm surge disaster dataset with 50 indicators and 132 events. • Scientific data preprocessing methods ensure the reliability of the model. • Rank the importance of 50 indicators; hazard indicators are more important. • The indicator screening renders model simplification and workload reduction. • Satisfy machine learning models of storm surge disaster loss estimation are obtained. Storm surge is the most severe marine disaster in China, affecting the whole coastal area. Estimating storm surge disaster loss (SSDL) is significant to disaster prevention, sustainability and decision-making. Taking 11 provincial administrative regions in the coastal areas of China as the study area, this paper estimated SSDL grades based on four machine learning (ML) algorithms. A total of 132 pieces of official open-source data of storm surge disasters were collected and divided into a cross-validation set (CV set) and a test set. First, a comprehensive indicator system was constructed from three perspectives, covering the hazard (16) of disaster-causing factors, the vulnerability (22) and resilience (12) of disaster-bearing bodies, including 50 indicators. A few data preprocessing methods are implemented to improve the model performance such as normalization, SMOTE, etc. Then, Random Forest (RF), eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), Logistic model tree (LMT), and K-star were applied to construct the estimation model of SSDL grades. Principal component analysis (PCA) and recursive feature elimination (RFE) are adopted for an intelligent screening of the indicators. Finally, the models' performance is compared through Precision, Recall, F1 score and Kappa metrics. The results show that scientific and efficient data preparation is a strong guarantee for the reliability and stability of the models. RFE is verified more suitable for indicator selection in this paper compared with PCA. The importance ranking of RFE enhances the interpretability of the ML model, which shows that the hazard indicator is the most important, the vulnerability indicator is the second, and the resilience indicator is the least. The 27-indicator K-star model, with advantages of accurate estimation, strong generalization, and less workload, is the optimal SSDL estimation model. The number of input indicators of the optimal SSDL estimation model is 27, its CV Precision, Recall, F1 score, and Kappa are 0.838, 0.832, 0.827, and 0.776, and its Precision, Recall, F1 score, and Kappa for test set are 0.819, 0.786, 0.781, and 0.714, respectively. This paper provides a scientific basis for the government's decision-making and risk management, and it can be used as a typical demonstration case of SSDL research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In China, the land availability for urban development is reducing progressively. The trend of construction of inter-city railway stations is moving towards underground structures in order to save space. This paper has posed a discussion on means of egress in an underground railway station. Due to the lack of specific guidance on design of underground inter-city railway (UIR) station, current design in China mainly refers to the Code for design of metro (GB50157-2003). The design Code provides an approach for calculation of the platform evacuation time in case of an emergency; especially it requires a safe egress from the most remote point on the platform in 6minutes or even less. As the differences between metro station and UIR station, including the type of trains, passenger flow, waiting mode, etc., this paper also discusses the validity of the approaches for calculating the egress time provided by Metro Design Code.In the meantimerecommendations are given on equation for calculating the platform evacuation time when considering design of egress in an UIR station. A feasibility analysis on this engineering approach has been carried out in accordance of an under construction project, the UIR stations on an intercity express rail link in Hunan province together with STEPS evacuation model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In China, both the mountainous areas and the number of people who live in mountain areas occupy a significant proportion. When production accidents or natural disasters happen, the residents in mountain areas should be evacuated and the evacuation is of obvious importance to public safety. But it is a pity that there are few studies on safety evacuation in rough terrain. The particularity of the complex terrain in mountain areas, however, makes it difficult to study pedestrian evacuation. In this paper, a three-dimensional surface cellular automata model is proposed to numerically simulate the real time dynamic evacuation of residents. The model takes into account topographic characteristics (the slope gradient) of the environment and the biomechanics characteristics (weight and leg extensor power) of the residents to calculate the walking speed. This paper only focuses on the influence of topography and the physiological parameters are defined as constants according to a statistical report. Velocity varies with the topography. In order to simulate the behavior of a crowd with varying movement velocities, and a numerical algorithm is used to determine the time step of iteration. By doing so, a numerical simulation can be conducted in a 3D surface CA model. Moreover, considering residents evacuation around a gas well in a mountain area as a case, a visualization system for a three-dimensional simulation of pedestrian evacuation is developed. In the simulation process, population behaviors of congestion, queuing and collision avoidance can be observed. The simulation results are explained reasonably. Therefore, the model presented in this paper can realize a 3D dynamic simulation of pedestrian evacuation vividly in complex terrain and predict the evacuation procedure and evacuation time required, which can supply some valuable information for emergency management. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: With the urban rail transit network in Beijing becoming gradually intensive, the passenger flow organization also develops towards the type of the network mode. This paper analyzes the development trend of the urban rail transit network in Beijing. On the basis of a reasonable classification of emergencies occurred in urban rail transit, this paper puts forward the passenger organization model of rail transit network under emergency conditions, and then set a certain train accident of Beijing Metro Line 1 as an example to illustrate the practical application of the passenger emergency organization mode. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper first defines the term “urban fire risk” by referring to both the definition of “risk” in U.N.’s “International Strategy for Disaster Reduction” which was enacted in 2004 and the features of urban fire. Secondly, this paper presents a comprehensive analysis on the urban fire risk from the respects of risk of fire accidents in urban areas, urban vulnerability and urban anti-fire capability. Based on the analysis, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is employed in this paper to establish an urban fire risk assessment system, which includes 3 first-level indicators, 13 second-level indicators and 48 third-level indicators. With the data on fire accidents and fire statistics in the past as the basis, this paper applies the Gray Correlation Degree Method to set up the Weight Coefficient of the system and quantify the indicators mentioned above, and finally, this paper applies what has been discussed above to the case of Haikou, capital city of Hainan province, P.R. China. In the city''s chosen 17 sub-districts and 1 town, fire risk assessments are conducted, and the values of risk of fire accidents in urban areas, urban vulnerability, anti-fire capability and comprehensive fire risk in the mentioned selected areas are computed and identified. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights • Counted and analyzed the information of 47 Kilometer-Deep Mines in China. • Analyzed the situation of typical dynamic disasters in kilometer-deep mines. • Discussed the problems in the prevention and control of typical dynamic disasters. • Give out the measures for prevention and control of typical dynamic disasters. Abstract To ensure the safety of kilometer-deep mining and prevent the occurrence of typical dynamic disasters (rock burst and coal and gas outburst), this paper counted and analyzed the status quo of mining and typical dynamic disasters currently for 47 deep mines in China. The results show that the 47 deep mines are mainly distributed in 8 provinces; the proportions of mines affected by rock burst and coal and gas outburst are 53.2% and 29.79%, which are 29.23 times and 2.66 times the national average. Typical dynamic disasters in deep are more serious than that in shallow, the number of mines affected by rock burst will increase greatly in particular. The proportion of kilometer-deep mines that threatened by both coal and gas outburst and rock burst is 12.77%. Existing techniques used for prevention and control of typical dynamic disasters in kilometer-deep mines all refer to shallow mining; however, the following problems occur in deep mining: the mechanism of typical dynamic disasters and mechanism of complex disasters are not clear; the typical disaster early warning system is imperfect, and it's difficult to do precision mining in deep. Focusing on these problems, this study presents forward countermeasures from following directions: research on mechanism of deep typical dynamic disasters and coupling mechanism of complex dynamic disasters, establishing deep mine multi-parameter dynamic disaster monitoring and warning mechanisms and related equipment research, establishing deep mine typical dynamic disasters prevention and control systems, and research on the basic theory and equipment for precision mining in deep. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Both models have applicability in prediction of group-occurring shallow landslides. • Combining Scoops3D and TRIGRS shows more effective landslide prediction result. • TRIGRS has the problem of over-prediction in the simulation of unstable area. • Fitting curve of rainfall threshold supports landslide warning in basin lacking data. The stability evaluation of rainfall-induced landslides using a physical determination model supports disaster prevention, but it is mostly applied to the area with few landslides, and there is a lack of quantitative study on rainfall and landslide stability. This paper combined the Scoops3D model with the TRIGRS model (3D) to predict the shallow landslide spatiotemporal distribution and compared the simulation results with those of the TRIGRS model alone (1D), aiming to obtain more accurate assessment results. At the same time, the relationship between landslide stability and accumulative rainfall was quantitatively fitted to improve the real-time landslide prediction system. We applied the 1D and 3D models to the July 21, 2013 group-occurring landslide event (976 shallow landslides) in the Niangniangba basin, China. The required geotechnical parameters of both models were acquired by field and laboratory tests. We calculated the pressure head over time using the TRIGRS model based on practical rainfall data and predicted the shallow landslide stability using the Scoops3D model according to the resulting piezometric surface. We compared the landslide stability spatial distributions of the two models under initial and saturated conditions with the landslide catalogue. The success rate of landslides predicted by 3D model is 4.20% higher than 1D model. A composite index to quantitatively evaluate both models' performances indicates over-prediction by the 1D model in the stable region, while the 3D model more effectively predicts shallow landslides with a smaller unstable region. The relationship between instability proportion and accumulative rainfall in the 1D and 3D model can be represented by y = 24.57 x 0.18 and y = 11.59 x 0.33 , respectively. The 3D model shows more conservative result, and the rainfall threshold analysis proposed in this paper can provide reference for the time of most landslides in the case of insufficient data, which is an important indicator for disaster early warning and prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of the spatial distribution of populations at finer spatial scales is of significant value and fundamental to many applications such as environmental change, urbanization, regional planning, public health, and disaster management. However, detailed assessment of the population distribution data of countries that have large populations (such as China) and significant variation in distribution requires improved data processing methods and spatialization models. This paper described the construction of a novel population spatialization method by combining land use/cover data and night-light data. Based on the analysis of data characteristics, the method used partial correlation analysis and geographically weighted regression to improve the distribution accuracy and reduce regional errors. China's census data for the years 1990, 2000, and 2010 were assessed. The results showed that the method was better at population spatialization than methods that use only night-light data or land use/cover data and global linear regression. Evaluation of overall accuracies revealed that the coefficient of correlation R-square was >0.90 and increased by >0.13 in the years 1990, 2000, and 2010. Moreover, the local R-square of over 90% of the samples (counties) was higher than the adjusted R-square of the general linear regression model. Furthermore, the gridded population density datasets obtained by this method can be used to analyse spatial-temporal patterns of population density and provide population distribution information with increased accuracy and precision compared to conventional models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The JRODOS ( J ava-based R eal-time O nline D ecisi O n S upport) is a decision support system for off-site emergency management for releases of radioactive material into the environment. This paper documents the application of JRODOS by the Hong Kong Observatory in accident consequence assessment and emergency preparedness studies. For operational considerations, the most computational efficient dispersion model in JRODOS, ATSTEP, is adopted. Verification studies for JRODOS's ATSTEP model have been conducted. Comparison with tracer experiment results showed that under neutral atmospheric conditions and distances up to 50 km, the JRODOS simulation outputs were in general of the same order of magnitude with the tracer data. To further evaluate the capability of JRODOS in short-range simulation, a case study on the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident was also carried out. JRODOS was able to produce realistic simulation results which were comparable to the actual airborne monitoring data of the Cs-137 ground deposition from the Fukushima accident. Furthermore, the results of a comprehensive study to assess the potential consequences of accidents at a nearby nuclear power station are presented. Simulation using the French S3 source term for the Guangdong Nuclear Power Station at Daya Bay showed that the projected effective doses within Hong Kong remain far below the IAEA generic criteria of projected dose for urgent protective actions in sheltering/evacuation, while the projected equivalent dose in thyroid may meet the IAEA generic criteria for use of thyroid blocking agent at some areas in the northeastern part of Hong Kong, at distances of up to about 40 km from Daya Bay depending on the prevailing weather conditions in different seasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Port based transportations are key elements governing the operation of global maritime logistics. In China, the southeast coastline suffers from typhoons frequently every year and causes many disruptions to port operations and thus economic losses. Quantitative evaluation of coastal ports' economic losses induced by typhoons is quite demanding and can serve as guidance for port operation planning and disaster prevention. In this paper, a framework based on a hybrid wind numerical model for assessing the direct and indirect economic losses of coastline caused by typhoon-induced extreme wind is proposed. The estimation of port disruptions and their durations is realized based on the typhoon hybrid wind numerical model. For the direct economic losses, this model considers losses to the port based on the loading/unloading operations of containers. The disruption days and economic losses of 31 ports along China's coastline are selected. These include ports from the Bohai Rim Port Cluster, Yangtze River Delta Port Cluster, Southeastern Coastal Port Cluster, Pearl River Delta Port Cluster, and Southwestern Coastal Port Cluster. The analysis takes the record of typhoons from 2006 to 2020 for this investigation. The influence of time-varying variables on economic losses, such as economic growth rate, has been considered. For the indirect economic losses, the input-output models of 11 different provinces (or municipalities) are employed to analyze each sector. Features of adopting a climate model in the economic evaluations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Develop a complete problem-solving approach for group decision making. • Orient complex large-scale groups and time-sensitive emergency decision scenarios. • Design a feasible mechanism of group consensus strategies under time pressure. • Propose feedback recommendation strategies with a subgroup identification method. • A real case study of China's fight against the COVID-19 epidemic. Group Decision Making (GDM) has been well studied in the last two decades. Yet, two challenges exist: (a) how to resolve large-scale groups in GDM and achieve the consensus of preferences and (b) how to conduct GDM under risk and emergency conditions. In this paper, we develop a complete problem-solving approach for GDM that orients twofold settings of the complex large-scale group and the time-sensitive emergency decision scenarios. The crux of the matter is to design a feasible mechanism of group consensus strategies in the environment of time pressure and natural language preferences. To solve this problem, we propose a closed-loop mechanism of feedback recommendation strategies accompanied with a new subgroup identification method. This mechanism is underlain by a fourfold decomposition of complex large-scale groups, which entails multiple thresholds of group consensus, group hesitation, and time-related iteration of loops. Our mechanism and the whole GDM approach thoroughly orient the most intuitive representation of preferences - human natural language, which can be elicited and quantitatively formulated in probability linguistic preference systems. We illustrate the proposed approach through a real case study of China's fight against the COVID-19 epidemic. We verify that our mechanism can perfectly tradeoff between the effectiveness and the efficiency of complex large-scale GDM under risk and emergency. The results of this research provide proposals for mechanisms on large-scale GDM and are expected to contribute to emergency management such as epidemic controls, anti-terrorism, and other man-made or natural hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On September 16, 2018, Typhoon Mangkhut, with record sustained winds of an estimated 110–115 mph, struck southern China, causing tremendous damage to the region. Since then, there have been many online discussions about the typhoon and how the government responded to it. In the domain of emergency response to disasters, the increasingly prominent role of social websites has been confirmed. This paper presents a case study of public attitudes and opinions regarding Typhoon Mangkhut that were collected from the Sina Weibo and WeChat websites, as well as from news websites. We then present a method for managing false online information in the wake of such natural disasters. The method consists of four phases: information extraction, sentiment recognition, opinion classification, and simulation analysis. In the last phase, a simulation experiment was conducted to assess how false information spreads. We used three scenarios in the simulation—namely, a real scenario, an isolation scenario, and an embedment scenario, each of which was based on a scale-free network based on a scale-free network. The results showed that the embedment strategy better controlled the transmission of false information than did the isolation strategy. In addition, we have provided some practical suggestions. This paper contributes to the literature on the emergency management of natural disasters. • Internet public opinions toward Typhoon Mangkhut were studied using data mining methods. • A supernetwork theory-based method for managing false online information is proposed. • Simulations regarding the real, isolation, and embedment scenarios were carried out. • Relevance of the Tobler's First Law in social media was tested. • This paper contributes to the emergency management of natural disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that a large percentage of occupants in a building are evacuated together with their friends, families, and officemates, especially in China. Small group behaviors are therefore critical for crowd movement. This paper aims to study the crowd dynamic considering different social relations and the impacts of small groups on crowd dynamics in emergency evacuation. Three experiments are conducted in an 11-storey office building. In the first two experiments, all participants are classmates and know each other well. They are evacuated as individuals or pairs. In the third experiment, social relations among the participants are complex. Participants consist of 8 families, 6 lovers and several individuals. Space–time features, speed characteristics and density–speed relations for each experiment are analyzed and compared. Results conclude that small group behaviors can make positive impacts on crowd dynamics when evacuees know each other and are cooperative. This conclusion is also testified by four verified experiments. In the third experiment, speeds of evacuees are lowest. Small groups form automatically with the presence of intimate social relations. Small groups in this experiment slow down the average speed of the crowd and make disturbance on the crowd flow. Small groups in this case make negative impacts on the movement of the crowd. It is because that evacuees do not know each other and they are competitive to each other. Characteristics of different types of small groups are also investigated. Experimental data can provide foundational parameters for evacuation model development and are helpful for building designers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A new method for evaluating the failure of roof and floor strata under dynamic load impact is proposed. • The Energy Variation Coefficient (CV E) and Two Spatial Factors (S and α) are introduced to study the energy difference and aggregation characteristics of microseismic events respectively. • The vulnerability index model is established based on the principal component - entropy method, and the risk zoning map is determined by ArcGIS. • The different microseismic response characteristics of roof and floor are distinguished, which can be used for targeted disaster prevention and control. The disaster induced by dynamic loads in the coal mining process seriously affects the safe production of coal mines. A new method for failure evaluation of roof and floor strata under dynamic load impact is proposed in this paper. The key roof strata breaking and periodic weighting experienced by the 9212 working face of the Dongpang Coal Mine in China while passing through the abandoned roadway is taken as the research background. Firstly, the research stages are divided through theoretical analysis and microseismic monitoring, and then the plane, profile distribution and spatial position relationship of microseismic events in different stages are analyzed. After that, the energy variation coefficient ( CV E) and two spatial factors (S and α) are introduced to analyse the difference in the migration characteristics and damage degree of roof and floor strata under dynamic load impact. Then, the comprehensive weight is determined by principal component analysis and entropy weight method, and the failure evaluation model is established based on vulnerability index method; Finally, the risk grade zoning map of three stages is drawn by using ArcGIS technology. The research shows that the angle factor α can better describe the development direction of roof and floor fissures. The area factor S combined with the energy variation coefficient CV E can explain the development speed of fissures and the damage degree of coal and rock mass. According to the failure evaluation model, the corresponding risk degree of roof and floor in different stages can be comprehensively evaluated. The research results can be used as a reference for targeted disaster prevention and control in similar situations, such as large-area roof collapse and floor water inrush. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanization and exacerbated natural hazards, for example, floods, have been the big challenges for the sustainable development of many countries. Understanding the coupling coordination between urbanization and flood is important for promoting the sustainable development. However, there are few quantitative studies on the interaction between these two in China which is experiencing accelerated urbanization and climate change. In this paper, we developed an improved coupling coordination degree (CCD) model, applied Moran's I and projection pursuit model based on genetic algorithm to analyze the spatiotemporal distribution and spatial clustering effects of coupling coordination in urbanization–flood disasters system under the context of China's Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development. Our results showed an upward trend of the comprehensive level of urbanization subsystem and a decreasing first and rising later trend of flood disaster subsystem in China from 2001 to 2018. There was a U-shaped relationship between the two subsystems during the research period. From 2001 to 2018, provinces with the moderate and slight uncoordinated development decreased by 9.68% and 16.13%, respectively, while provinces with the barely coordinated development increased by 16.21%. Spatially, there was a remarkable spatial dependency on CCD. The CCD between two subsystems in Northwestern China was higher than that in Southeastern China. Due to the effects of geographic position, rainfall, human activities, and economic development, the low-low (L-L) clusters concentrated in Southeastern China, and the high-high (H–H) clusters appeared in Northwestern China. Our results show that the improved CCD model, along with Moran's I analysis, can provide theoretical basis for policy makers to formulate reasonable measures for promoting the coupling coordination between urbanization and flood disasters. • Spatiotemporal distribution and dynamic evolution of nexus between urbanization and flood disasters were investigated. • Improved CCD model, Moran's I and projection pursuit model based on genetic algorithm were developed. • There was a U-shaped relationship in comprehensive level between urbanization and flood disasters. • CCD between two subsystems in Northwestern China was higher than that in Southeastern China. • There was a remarkable spatial clustering effects in CCD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eastern China, a populous and economically developed area, is severely affected by various meteorological disasters under the background of global climate change. In recent years, urban waterlogs caused by heavy rainfall has become a major concern threatening urban safety and socioeconomic development. This paper aimed to reveal the spatial pattern of waterlogging risk in 89 prefecture-level cities of Eastern China by a comprehensive analysis on extreme rainfall, socioeconomic exposure and urban adaptability. Hazard intensity index was calculated on 20-year return period value of maximum daily precipitation. Exposure index was based on the total urban population and local gross domestic product, while adaptability index was an integrated evaluation of drainage pipeline density, river network density and greening rate of urban area. Risk assessment was a synthesis judgment of hazard intensity index, exposure index and urban adaptability index, according to which the cities in Eastern China were classified into five risk levels. The six cities with the highest level of waterlogging risk were Shenzhen, Beijing, Maoming, Yangjiang, Shanwei and Dongguan, which indicates relatively stronger intensity of meteorological hazard, higher density of socioeconomic exposure and the weakness of urban adaptability in these cities. The high risk cities would suffer much more losses than other cities in Eastern China when hit by an extreme rainfall. This paper could provide a scientific basis for urban waterlogging risk identification and governance, as well as for technical measures development and capacity building of disaster prevention and reduction. • A research framework and technical methods for urban waterlogging risk assessment were proposed. • An indicator system for waterlogging risk assessment was raised based on hazard, exposure and adaptability factors. • Urban adaptability of waterlogging disaster was evaluated based on drainage pipelines, river networks and greening level. • Taking Eastern China as a pilot, the paper presented a city risk ranking for urban waterlogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Establishing an assessment method of community resilience from multi-dimensions of social capitals, stakeholders and disaster phases. • Measuring the community resilience using SNA method from the perspective of six important disaster-adapting social capitals. • Proposing 4R implements on enhancing the community resilience in different disaster phases. • Helping to improve disaster management efforts in urban communities, especially those that are collaboratively managed by multi-stakeholders. Facing increasingly frequent disasters, the resilience concept are widely adopted to make up the limitations of traditional community disaster management. The relationships among community stakeholders along with their responsibilities and actions are important social capitals coping with community disaster, which have a significant impact on forming the community resilience. Accordingly, this paper is the first attempt to measure the community resilience using social network analysis (SNA) method from the view of social capitals of stakeholders. Firstly, six key disaster-adapting social capitals in the urban community are identified using systematic literature review (SLR). Then, the social capitals before, during and after the community disaster are calculated based on the SNA to characterize the level of community resilience. Finally, taking a waterlogging disaster in Nanjing city of China, some implements on enhancing the community resilience in different phases are proposed from four aspects: rapidity, robustness, redundancy and resourcefulness. The findings in the case study and the conclusions of this paper provides an easy method to calculate the resilience and social capitals of a community at different stages of a disaster, and also helps to improve disaster prevention and reduction efforts in urban communities, especially those that are collaboratively managed by multi-stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the national nutrition crisis and the adjustment of planting structure, millet has once again become a widely planted cash crop in Northern China. However, as the climate warms in recent years, drought has occurred frequently and repeatedly in Northern China, which has seriously threatened millet production safety in this area. Therefore, it is urgent to clarify the hazard of millet drought disaster and provide reference for the formulation of millet disaster prevention and reduction measures. In this paper, combined with the water demand of millet in each growth period, Standardized Precipitation Requirement Index (SPRI) was selected to identify and quantify the drought disaster of millet. Considering the impact of different degrees of drought in different growth periods, a hazard assessment model is constructed to evaluate the hazard of millet drought disaster in Northern China under the background of climate change. The results show that: (1) SPRI can well characterize the drought of millet in Northern China. (2) In the context of climate change, millet drought in Northern China shows a trend of increasing intensity and decreasing frequency, and it is possible that millet drought will be even more severe in the future. (3) Combined with the hazard assessment model, millet drought in Northern China will still be dominated by middle hazard in the future, but the areas with high hazard will gradually increase, mainly distributed in northeast China, central and western Inner Mongolia and northern Gansu. The research results can be of great practical significance for the adjustment of agricultural production structure in the future, especially for the sustainable development of agriculture and the formulation of measures to prevent and resist agricultural disasters. [Display omitted] • We apply SPRI to identify millet drought by considering actual water demand. • Future changes of millet drought evaluated by CMIP6-GCM models. • Hazard assessment model was presented combined with disaster loss coefficient. • The areas with high hazard of millet drought will gradually increase in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We address a less studied topic: states' cultural response to disasters. • We propose a perspective based on the cultural sociology of the state and cultural theories of trauma, theodicy, and performance. • States' cultural response is " performance ": states project their definitions of situation of disasters and construct their positive self-images when interacting with the publics. • The efficacy of their performance depends on how effectively states' address the key components of the " nomos " or " meaning structure " about catastrophes and suffering and how this performance is influenced by their political structures. • Our theoretical perspective is illustrated in a comparative study of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China and the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in the US. • The findings also speak to an enduring debate over whether democratic or authoritarian regimes perform better in disaster responses. The sociology of disaster has paid scant attention to states' cultural response—states' effort to use meaningful narratives and symbolic actions to address issues about citizens' suffering and death to enhance their legitimacy and secure citizens' support. Our paper starts to address this gap by asking: How do states culturally respond to massive disasters? How effective are their responses? What can explain the efficacy of their cultural responses? We propose a perspective based on the cultural sociology of the state and cultural theories of trauma, theodicy, and performance. We illustrate this perspective in a comparative study of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China and the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in the United States. We argue that the efficacy of their cultural responses depended on whether and how effectively they addressed the key components of the meaning structure of disasters through compassionate reaction to citizens' suffering and death, convincing accounts of states' accountability, and cogent narratives about the long-term consequences of disasters on citizens. Both states struggled to address these issues at various points in their respective disasters, and their cultural responses were shaped by their political structures. The findings also speak to an enduring debate over whether democratic or authoritarian regimes perform better in disaster responses. We eschew the exclusive focus of the debate on administrative responses and its simplistic correlation between regime type and responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We propose a new forest prediction model and use actual deforestation data for optimization and verification. • Use the XGBoost method to reconstruct deforestation intensity data. • Deforestation hotspots in China are mainly concentrated in the southern and southeastern regions. • Our model provides certain reference information for forest disaster prevention and forest management. Forests are important for the global carbon cycle, hydrothermal balance, and climate change. Human activities can exert a significant impact on forest ecosystems, thereby having the potential to alter their physical and chemical properties and thus affecting carbon, water, and heat budgets, and climate change. The historical reconstruction of the disturbance of global forests can help us understand the processes and patterns of human activities and global change. In this paper, we construct a deforestation prediction model using a Spearman correlation coefficient and implement the XGBoost method, using Python 3.6, for the reconstruction of deforestation intensity data from 2000 to 2019. Secondly, the selection of the driver indicators is done by using extreme difference regularization to unify the magnitude, and the potential deforestation area risk index is calculated in the form of equal weights. Finally, the actual deforestation data were used for optimization and validation. The model shows that the deforestation hotspots are mainly concentrated in the southern and southeastern regions of China and that there are large differences in deforestation in different provinces. In the future, the fine spatial and temporal patterns of deforestation in China during the historical period can be quantitatively reconstructed, which can provide some reference information for forest disaster prevention and forest management in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Based on the characters of wholesale and retail market, it owns larger amount of inventory, bigger fire load, larger crowds and bigger daily trading volume of the wholesale market, and lager size of the mall. Through investing the occupant density of Wuhan Financing Brand Square which used normal population mean and variance of interval estimation principle, the paper drew the occupant density interval of the wholesale and retail market, and it provided the basis for formulation and revision of the future specification. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: It has been found that many systems are characterized by scaling behavior. Time-scaling scale-invariant approaches are used to analyze the temporal distribution of urban fire sequences recorded in the city of Wuhan (China) in present paper. The results of the coefficient of variation show that there is a clustering distribution in the occurrence sequence of urban fire in Wuhan. And with the study of Fano factor and Allan factor for the urban fire sequences in Wuhan, it is found that the urban fire sequences have obviously time-scaling behaviors. These reveal that the point process of urban fires is a fractal process with a high degree of time-clusterization of the events. The results will be helpful to estimate urban fire risk. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: With the increasing number of subway stations, more and more attention has been paid to their emergency evacuation, as it plays an important part in urban emergency management. The present paper puts forward a method of crowd evacuation simulation for bioterrorism in subway station environment using the basic theory of the Social Force Model combined with the Gaussian Puff Model. A Combined Social Force Model is developed which is suitable for a real situation where there is a sudden toxic gas event. The model can also be used to demonstrate some individual behaviors in evacuation, such as competitive, grouping and herding. At last a series of experiments are conducted and the results are as follows. (1) When there is a toxic gas terroristic attack in subway stations, the influence on passengers varies according to the position that the gas source lies in and the numbers of gas sources. (2) More casualties will occur if managers do not detect the toxic gas danger and inform passengers about it. (3) The larger the wind speed is, the smaller the number of injured passengers will be. With the experiments, the number of people affected and other parameters like gas concentration can be estimated, which could support rapid and efficient emergency decisions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, we utilize network theory to model and study the coupled high-speed rail–aviation network (HSR–AN) in China. The HSR–AN depicting the transport services is modelled as a transfer network in P-space (TNP) in this research. The basic topology properties of the TNP and the corresponding critical components (e.g., nodes and areas) are analysed. As one type of spatial networks coupled two transportation networks, TNP of HSR–AN, counterintuitively, exhibits small-world properties which can be attributed by offering service connecting long-distance cities without transfer and complementary relationship between two transport modes. Additionally, an analysis of vital node (area) in vulnerability environment indicates that the importance of network components critically depends on the economic development level, population density, and geographical features in the corresponding city. Besides, the failure of high-speed rail station generates worse effect than that on airport in HSR–ANs. The findings are beneficial for enhancing the efficiency of HSR–ANs and developing emergency response plans for transport managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Upon the occurrence of a disaster, emergency supplies should arrive at disaster areas with different severities in the shortest time. Therefore, it is of pivotal importance to plan and schedule appropriate processes. This paper first elaborates on the principle of ordered arrival of emergency supplies. Then, it establishes a multi-objective multi-constraint emergency material scheduling (EMS) model based on the principle of ordered arrival. Subsequently, a hybrid ant colony optimization (HACO) is proposed to solve EMS. The computational results for 15 multi-depot benchmark instances are reported and the average error between HACO and the best known solution (BKS) is only 0.16% Then, real geological disasters from Hubei province in China are examined as a case study. Experimental results show that HACO performs better than non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) and multi-objective ant colony algorithm (MOACO) in the case study and benchmark instances. • Study a large-scale real landslide disaster. • Establish a multi-objective multi-constraint EMS model. • Propose a HACO to solve the EMS model. • The HACO is tested on benchmarks and disaster network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: At present, railway emergency plan management system has become the important support to maintain the normal operation of railway transport system in the foreign developed countries. But our country was far behind in emergency management system, and the emergency system is still not perfect. It''s already cannot satisfy the current railway transport development needs. This paper analyzes the present situation of China railway emergency plan, and puts forward China''s railway emergency plan standardization management strategic thinking in view of the existing problems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: How to handle emergencies is the core of government emergency management. This paper reformed emergency management business process base on Qinzhou government''s emergency management work. A city integrated emergency response system (CIERS) was also designed according to this business process and the actual situations of the city''s emergency were also considered. The new structure applies an innovative idea that was centralization and authorization emergency management mode (CAEMM). To perform this idea, the government will set up a city integrated emergency response center (CIERC), and authorize the emergency platform to deal with the basic routines; the significant events are disposed by emergency decision-making platform with an overall consideration. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The hazardous chemical accidents remain a matter of major concern. However, there is a dearth of practical measures about the emergency management of hazardous chemicals leakage. Therefore, in order to provide more accurate management plan, quantitative risk assessment has become a critical issue in chemical industry. The main aim of this study is to quantify the risk of hazardous chemicals leakage, and take precautions against the accidents. In this study, a Fire-Explosion-Poisoning Quantitative Probability Model (FEPQPM) has been established. The paper introduced the probability analysis methods to analyze derivative accidents caused by hazardous chemicals leakage, established quantitative risk assessment models, and made acceptable risk level analysis. This model has been applied to quantitatively assess an enterprise’s storage tank at Changshou Chemical Industrial Distripark (CID) in Chongqing, China. Evaluation results are in line with the actual situation of the CID. It is shown that the probability of poisoning is very large, causing more economic loss than the other two types of accidents, and death toll of leakage accident increases over time, resulting in greater economic losses. The risk level of leakage accident involving poisoning is unacceptable. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: To meet the relief demands caused by frequent natural disasters and unusual emergencies, the government should utilize the power of society fully and establish a complete system of emergency relief reserves. Thus, this is a complicated task of system engineering. In this paper, we build the system of China relief reserve at first. On this basis, the application of various methods of emergency relief reserve is analyzed through bargaining model in game theory. We conclude that the emergency supplies reserve strategy in the form of ex-ante government and enterprise co-reserve is superior to the strategy in the form of ex-post emergency procurement and emergency production with fund limitation and high social cost. The comparison embodies in three aspects including quantity requirements, quality requirements and structural requirements. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper aims to establish a classification system of mine disaster in order to develop the emergency response management. The study divides the mine disaster into three emergency levels and builds an evaluation model with three core factors, including information scarcity, time urgency and situation complexity. In addition, the study introduces catastrophe progression method to evaluate the seriousness level of mine disaster and takes a case study of mine disaster in Shanxi Province. The results show that the evaluation model has strong operability and practical value to emergency manager and rescuers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Keep in pace with the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 Shanghai Expo, engineering events of different types and sizes are coming to China more than it had ever happened during years. Obviously, these could all cause safety problems. To organize the event perfectly, a lot of questions occur: How to provide the best safety to everyone participate in our event? How to deal with the emergencies during the event? These questions are the most important element of holding a successful event. This paper discusses the necessity of engineering risk management during events. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Floods are indeed one of the most serious natural hazards for human societies, especially in China. In this paper, we firstly introduce the interior-outer-set model (IOSM) based on information diffusion theory in detail. Then taking consideration its deficiencies, we represent the diffused-interior-outer-set model (DIOSM) to obtain the possibility–probability distribution (PPD). Based on the PPD, we analyze and calculate the risk results. To illustrate the procedure of the proposed method, we apply DIOSM to describe the flood disaster risk quantitatively in China by using statistical data respectively, such as the time of floods, the number of the deaths as well as the economic losses each year from 1990 to 2009. The outcomes of this research offer new insights and moreover new possibility to carry out an efficient way for various future flood disaster prevention and mitigation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: To take into account reasonably the safety requirements of the disabled on emergency evacuation in the design, usage, management and emergency response of public places, the authors of this paper organized on-site experiments for 100 disabled individuals (40 people with no supporting tools, 20 people using a single crutch and 40 people two crutches) and 17 healthy people at a subway station in Beijing. The experiments were designed to measure the unimpeded free walking speed of the participants during horizontal and stair ascending/descending movement, and to assess the possible impact of passage width on movement speed. Based on the results of the tests, the authors systematically analyzed the speed variation patterns with disability grade, gender and passage width. The validity of the value of an important parameter for evacuation safety design in the prescribed fire codes in mainland China, the width of a single stream of people, is assessed. Finally the results of the experiments are compared with that from other researches to identify the similarities and differences between them. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: As crises happen more frequently and in bigger magnitudes in urban communities, disaster prevention and disaster mitigation become increasingly more important. One useful preventive measure is for community members to report relevant risk information before an actual crisis occurs. This paper presents a Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) system called Collaborative Risk Map System (CRMS), which is community based and through which local residents can report risk information of crisis events and share the information in disaster mitigation. Although the Internet and mobile phones are the preferred methods for public participation due to their convenience and ease of use, the feedback information needs to be filtered before usage, so we designed a credibility model to filter out the mendacious information. A risk model of crisis events is also proposed which transformed the static pre-planning to dynamic and timely risk map as a result of public participation. The risk state of the community and reliable risk feedback is displayed on the map using Oracle Spatial technology so that public can see the risk information visually. Through the analysis of risk information, the community can directly access reliable risk information easily and can prepare for it immediately. Most importantly, decision-makers can get the most up-to-date risk information and do more accurate risk analysis so as to make better informed decisions. We demonstrate the prototype system by selecting 20 places to be a community in Chengguan district in Lanzhou, the capital city in Gansu Province, China and selecting fire risk to evaluate its effectiveness and efficiency. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]