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The authors would like to acknowledge the continuous support and guidance of the colleagues and family members. The author would like to acknowledge the constant support and guidance from Anila Pathak, Nupur Chaturvedi, Meleana Chaturvedi and Aaryana Pathak. ORCID: 0000-0002-2750-8483 (Shubham Pathak)., Natural disasters have been a significant hurdle in the economic growth of middle-income developing countries. Thailand has also been suffering from recurring flood disasters and was most which are severely affected during the 2011 floods. This paper aims to identify the various factors that impact the speed of disaster recovery among the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) severely affected by the floods in Pathumthani province in central Thailand, and how it is related to its speed decision of neighbours SMEs. The methodology adopts a spatial econometric model, to analysis and understand each of the chosen factors' impact. The findings include the impact of disaster resilience, mitigation and planning at the SME level as well as the government level. The absence of accurate perception of actual risk, flood insurance and disaster management planning before the 2011 floods had contributed to the severity of the impacts during the 2011 floods.

Introduction: Nepal is vulnerable to many hazards and disasters. Geographically, Nepal is situated at the Indi-an and Eurasian seismic plates and is prone to disasters like floods, landslides, fire, and earthquakes. The earthquake of April 25, 2015, with a 7.8 Richter scale and several aftershocks, have resulted in a considerable loss of human lives, physical infrastructure, and natural resources in Nepal. Many studies on the impacts of the earthquake mentioned the challenges in community recovery. This paper examines and explains the impact of earthquakes on family and community, how family and community cope during the disaster. Besides coping mechanisms, this paper explains discourses or conflicts in the family and communities. The paper is an outcome of a statistical analysis of 912 households' survey conducted in Nepal's central hill, Kispang Rural municipality, a community affected by the 2015 earthquake in Nuwakot district. Methods: This research relies on literature review, key informant interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGD), field visits, expert interviews, etic and emic approaches to observe from the field. The research questionnaires were prepared and performed a household survey of 912 households. Various questions on how the earthquake in Nepal "X" has created the "Y" impacts and discourses or conflict in the family and the community in Nepal's central hills were analyzed. Results: The earthquake has impacted the families and communities; however, the families and communities had shown distinct coping mechanisms to stay resilient to the impact—various factors were identified where family discourses and conflict escalated, which has impacted the community peace. Family level discourses and conflict emerged mainly in collectivist society or joint or extended families. Gender-based violence/ conflict is also measured and found augmented after the earthquake in the community. Conclusion: The research study concluded that family discourses and conflict emerged when disaster relief and reconstruction policies do not incorporate the affected communities' needs. The multi-dimensional holistic, integrated policies that integrate all the affected communities' needs will support building community and family-level peace. Discriminative policies that divide families and communities should not be practiced.

The unique geography and fragile geological condition have made Nepal more prone to various types of disasters. The 2015 Gorkha Earthquake had a serious effect on one-third of the population of Nepal. Disaster comes with both opportunities and consequences. It depends on how a country and affected people deal with the situations. After the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake, many people especially those from the affected districts were assumed to be sensitized regarding the consequences of Earthquake disaster. In general, the disaster affected people have certainly gained know-how of the disaster to some extent even through experiences. But, the people who are less affected by the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake are yet to be aware of its major consequences. Hence, this research aims to understand the perception of people who were not severely affected by the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake but they are at high risk of future earthquake events. This research evaluated whether such people are aware of the major disaster consequences or not. Likewise, it also evaluated whether they are working on the risk reduction and disaster preparedness plans to minimize human and property loss in the future or not. So, this research was carried out in the rapidly urbanizing Pokhara City situated in the western part of Nepal which is at high risk of various types of disasters including earthquakes. The research was focused on understanding the perception of risk perceived by the people of Pokhara City in the aftermath of the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake. A household survey was conducted that involved the individual interview of a total of 152 participants from randomly selected houses. Various questions related to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) issues including readiness and mitigating behaviour of people, disaster risk adaptation and perceptions were asked. Histogram analysis, distribution analysis, bivariate correlations and independent sample t-tests were conducted to examine the relationship between people in disaster education-related programs and how they are following key DRR issues related to dependent (criterion) variables. A series of independent sample t-tests were conducted to examine the effects of age, gender, and disaster events on the dependent variables. Likewise, to evaluate the coherency of the data provided by the respondents, the Partial Credit Model (PCM) was used. Validity, reliability and unidimensionality of the scale were further evaluated by using PCM. The findings of this research show that the people residing in such a rapidly urbanizing Pokhara City are completely unaware of the major consequences of various types of disasters. Almost 60% of the respondents even well-educated conceived that the disaster is merely the act of God that is beyond our imagination to control and mitigate. This easily concludes that in Pokhara City, the local community, technicians and even policymakers are unaware of the proper disaster management plans and policies. Pokhara city lacks awareness of upcoming disasters and it is a serious drawback that can create too many issues in sustainable development practices in the city.

This study differs from previous similar studies in three main directions. Firstly, the location of the most suitable facilities that can provide regional service were determined by applying clustering method. Thus, not only one airport facility in a single location serving across the country was determined, which separates this research from the others. Secondly, in the previous studies, Istanbul Airport was not taken into account because it has not been put into service. Therefore, this study takes that particular airport into consideration. Thirdly, optimum solutions for such new situation were produced with more up-to-date data and using a modern optimization method, the tree seed algorithm. As a result of the analyzes made based on traffic data, traffic-based weight coefficients and location data from which transportation distances were obtained, a total of sixteen ideal airports were recommended that can provide service to their regions, especially during emergencies or after any disaster. In accordance with the suggestions of this research, it is expected that progress will be made in minimizing the loss of time and expense, and especially minimizing the loss of life thanks to the services which can be provided by air transportation in any emergency., Bu çalışma, önceki benzer çalışmalardan üç ana yönden ayrılmaktadır. Birincisi, yöntem olarak diğerlerinden ayrılarak ülke çapında sadece tek bir lokasyondaki havalimanı tesisi değil kümeleme yöntemi uygulanarak bölgesel hizmet verebilecek en uygun tesisler tespit edilmiştir. İkincisi, önceki çalışmalarda İstanbul Havalimanı henüz hizmete girmediğinden dolayı değerlendirmeye alınmamışken, bu çalışmada optimizasyon hesaplarına dahil edilmiştir. Üçüncüsü, yeni durumun önceki çalışmalara nazaran daha güncel verilerle ve daha güncel bir optimizasyon yöntemi olan ağaç tohum algoritması kullanılarak optimum çözümler üretilmiştir. Trafik verileri, trafiğe dayalı ağırlık katsayıları ve ulaşım mesafelerinin elde edildiği konum verilerine dayanarak yapılan analizler sonucunda, toplam on altı havalimanı kendi bölgelerine, özellikle herhangi bir felaket sırasında veya sonrasındaki acil durumlarda, servis sağlayabilecek ideal havalimanları bu çalışmada ortaya çıkarılarak tavsiye edilmiştir. Bu araştırmanın önerileri doğrultusunda, herhangi bir acil durumda gerekli olan ve havayolu ile sağlanabilecek hizmetler sayesinde zaman ve gider kaybının azaltılması gibi amaçlar gözetilirken daha da önemlisi can kaybının en az düzeye indirilmesi konusunda ilerleme kaydedilmesi beklenmektedir.

The article's abstract is not available.

With the industrial revolution, environmental problems have diversified and have increased significantly, affecting both the natural and the human environment. Air pollution, which is among the most important of these environmental problems, has been a serious problem today as it was in the past. In this study, which examines the human factors affecting air quality and pollution between 2007-2019 in the provinces of Southeast Anatolia Region, pollution shows continuity especially in certain provinces. Depending on this continuity, our aim is to detect air pollution in the provinces of the region and offer solutions to them. IDW (Inverse Distance Weighting) analysis was used through Geographic Information Systems to detect the spatial change of air pollution. With this analysis method, interpolation was provided between the measurements. The provinces with the highest SO2 concentration are Şanlıurfa and Siirt in 2007, Şırnak in 2012, Şanlıurfa and Siirt in 2017 and Şanlıurfa in 2019. PM10 annual average concentration is high in Batman in 2007, Gaziantep, Batman and Siirt in 2012, Şanlıurfa in 2017 and Şırnak in 2019. The number of population living in the city, the type and quality of fuel used in residences and industry, the number of industrial enterprises and the number of vehicles are among the important human factors affecting pollution. In this sense, local and national administrations should take serious measures in the air pollution that causes human health to deteriorate or even die., Sanayi devrimiyle birlikte çevre sorunları çeşitlenmiş ve önemli ölçüde artış göstererek hem doğal hem de beşerî çevreyi etkilemiştir. Bu çevre sorunlarının en önemlileri arasında yer alan hava kirliliği geçmişte olduğu gibi günümüzde de ciddi bir sorun olmuştur. Güneydoğu Anadolu Bölgesi illerinde 2007-2019 yılları arasında hava kalitesi ve kirliliğine etki eden beşeri unsurların incelendiği bu çalışmada, kirlilik özellikle belirli illerde süreklilik göstermektedir. Bu sürekliliğe bağlı olarak amacımız bölge illerindeki hava kirliliğini tespit etmek ve bunlara çözüm önerisi sunabilmektir. Hava kirliliğinin mekânsal değişimini tespit etmek için Coğrafi Bilgi Sistemleri aracılığıyla IDW (Inverse Distance Weighting) analizi kullanılmıştır. Bu analiz yöntemiyle ölçümler arasında enterpolasyon sağlanmıştır. SO2 konsantrasyonun en fazla olduğu iller 2007’de Şanlıurfa ve Siirt, 2012’de Şırnak, 2017’de Şanlıurfa ve Siirt ve 2019’da da Şanlıurfa’dır. PM10’de ise 2007’de Batman, 2012’de Gaziantep, Batman ve Siirt, 2017’de Şanlıurfa ve 2019’da da Şırnak’ta yıllık ortalama konsantrasyon fazladır. Kirliliğin artmasında en önemli beşeri unsurlar; şehirde yaşayan nüfus miktarı, konutlarda ve sanayide kullanılan yakıt türü ve kalitesi, sanayiye bağlı işletme sayısı ve araç sayısıdır. Bu manada insan sağlığının bozulmasına hatta ölümlere neden olan hava kirliliğinde yerel ve ulusal yönetimlerin ciddi önlem alması gerekmektedir.

During the last decade, 2.4 billion individuals, the majority of which were residing in low economic growth countries, became victim of global disasters. As economic growth is correlated with the resilience of a nation against a disaster, therefore developing and underdeveloped nations significantly face higher magnitude of losses. With Pakistan being a developing country, the present study takes into account the most recently accomplished mega project of METROBUS service that is currently operational in the twin metropolitan cities of Pakistan i.e. Islamabad and Rawalpindi to study the pre and post development perspectives of project in terms of the hazard perception, prospect disaster threats it poses towards the society in case of major seismic activity and the magnitude of disaster preparedness associated to the potential hazardous circumstances as result of seismic event occurrence. Statistical evaluations for the current study were conducted utilizing the SmartPLS 3.0, being based upon the information collected through 336 self-supervised surveyed responses. The results of the current study indicated, the respondents to be highly in favor of the commute service project, but at the same time, they highlighted the concerns regarding socio-economic adversities faced during the project development phases as well as after its completion. Further, the respondents expressed major reservations regarding the disaster management measures taken by the potential stakeholders of the project. Despite the fact that most of the respondents were well educated, the lack of awareness regarding preparedness against any possible project related disastrous situation, was observed. To mitigate the potential disaster losses associated to the project, respondents suggested that the national authorities should proactively provide awareness to the public and assure the availability of all necessary facilities, in case of any hazardous situation; seismic in particular. Considering the practical implications, the current study may be useful for other developing countries, which too faced similar concerns during development of comparable megaprojects and share similar environmental conditions.

Lava flows have threatened and/or inundated inhabited areas and/or their supporting networks 38 times at 12 volcanoes in the past 70 years. A systematic evaluation of these events has not been undertaken, making it hard to compare eruptions, create lava flow vulnerability models to support impact assessments, and deduce best practices for managing lava flow crises. In this paper, we summarise all 38 basaltic lava flow crises and conduct a gap analysis by evaluating published literature. Eleven data types that could support enhanced physical impact studies and/or research on the societal effects of lava flows were identified. Four of the data types (preparation actions and narrative, eruption narrative, response narrative, and evacuation data) have been well-documented (i.e. documented in at least half the eruptions). Communication approaches and recovery narratives have been included in at least a quarter of the studied eruptions, and their documentation in the literature is increasing with time. Five data types (lava flow attribute data, detailed physical impact data, and information on lava flow hazard modelling, community reactions, and applications of learnings) have only been documented a handful of times each. We suggest that standardisation of data collection and data storage could increase the frequency with which these data types are documented. Finally, we use the case studies to extract lessons about how community understanding of volcanic hazards influences community resilience and how lava flow modelling can inform planning. We also describe lessons relating to evacuation processes, mitigation methods, and recovery.

Background Tunisia is one of countries most affected by desertification. Sustainability of its resources, particularly agricultural ones, is closely dependent on it. Studies have multiplied to understand this phenomenon and consequently try to reduce its consequences on society. In recent decades, attempts have been made to find methods of forecasting and predicting desertification. Today, with significant progress made in remote sensing and GIS techniques, there is a better control of data from field, environment and society. This now makes it possible to produce documents that are much more accurate and reliable than before. This paper aims to assess sensitivity to desertification in a region of central Tunisia using remote sensing tools, GIS and guidelines of MEDALUS (Desertification and Land Use in the Mediterranean) model. Integration of different parameters with weighted values in a GIS system resulted in indices of climate, soil, vegetation and management. Result In almost all cases, indices reveal the preponderance of soils, vegetation, climate and management of moderate and especially poor quality. Overlaying the four indices by multiplying them according to model equation yields the final sensitivity index map. This index shows that study area is in an advanced stage of desertification since most of its surface area (82%) is in critical class. The rest is considered as fragile. Whole region is therefore placed in of high sensitivity classes of desertification. This situation is linked to a very poor vegetation cover, unstructured and low-developed soils, cultural practices based on tillage and high livestock numbers in regard to low natural grazing resources. It is also due to a farming system not taking into account soil natural vulnerability. Conclusion As natural resources, in current context of exploitation, cannot regenerate so quickly, pressure on environment is remarkable, exacerbating at the same time desertification problem. Continuing with current practices with clear signs of degradation may make situation irreversible in near future. Therefore, immediate action is necessary to stop degradation and preserve future generations’ resources.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (SFDRR) and its implementation is evaluated after its first five years. A dozen questions that the author and a colleague used in their evaluation of the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015 (HFA) are repeated. Improvements are noted in relation to possible coherence and alignment with other components of the Post-2015 Agenda, especially as regards climate change and urban disasters as well as the higher visibility of civil society and women, and also regarding the specificity of targets and monitoring of governments’ successes. Nevertheless, the overall conclusion is that both the HFA and the SFDRR fail to deal with root causes of disaster. A new, radically proactive leadership role is suggested for the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction in partnership with civil society in identifying and warning all engaged in Post-2015 Agenda activities of possible creation of new risk by agenda implementation activities, especially for the poor and already-marginalized.

The 1990 initiation of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction marked its 30th year in 2019. The three decades since then have seen significant developments in science and technology and their incorporation into the decision making in the field of disaster risk reduction. The disasters that have occurred during that time have enhanced the importance of the field, and new research and innovations have evolved. This article summarizes this evolution through the review of specific milestones. While the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 provides opportunities for synergies with the sustainable development agenda, the science and technology communities have also changed their roles from advisory to co-designing and co-delivering solutions. Higher education plays an important role in developing new generations of professionals, and the role of thematic incubation in higher education institutions is highlighted along with the development of the professional society in disaster risk reduction. The evolution from Society 4.0 (information age) to Society 5.0 will see an enhanced role of the technology-driven approach in disaster risk reduction, while traditional knowledge and indigenous technologies still remain valid for society. Scientists and science communities need to be more sensitive to changing the “last mile” concept to “first mile” thinking with respect to the users’ needs and perspectives.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 recognizes health at the heart of disaster risk management (DRM) at the global policy level. Five years on, it has catalyzed the rapid development of the field of Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management (Health EDRM) by providing a mandate for building partnerships as well as enhancing scientific research. Key milestones achieved include publication of the World Health Organization’s Health EDRM Framework, development of the WHO Thematic Platform for Health EDRM and the WHO Health EDRM Research Network, and further application of health information principles to DRM. Furthermore, health actors at all levels have continued to engage in the Sendai Framework processes and have had a key role in its implementation and proposed monitoring. There have been significant gains made through the partnership of health and DRM, but the relationship has not been without its challenges. Many national, regional, and global initiatives continue to operate with a lack of consistency and of linkages to respond to the Sendai Framework’s call for embedding health resilience in DRM, and conversely, embedding DRM in health resilience. Overcoming this hurdle is important, and doing so will be a key marker of success of the next 10 years of partnership under the Sendai Framework.

This research explored the basic issue of what preparedness means and entails to people in Fako Division, Cameroon—a place threated by many hazards and that has experienced many disasters. Findings from the analysis of the 33 interviews conducted in this study indicate that preparedness is a dynamic state of readiness that is dependent on context, a social process, and a process of completing activities to save lives and minimize the effects of disasters. In addition, the research determined that Cameroonians view a wholly prepared person as someone who would: (1) have knowledge about hazards and what to do about them; (2) engage others, including their families and neighbors, in discussions about activities related to hazards; and (3) participate in activities to minimize loss from hazards, sustain themselves in the face of hazards, and flee from hazards. The findings from the interview data synchronize to a large extent with what is implied, but not clearly stated, in the existing research literature. The article addresses this synchrony, posits a definition of preparedness, and identifies the theoretical components of preparedness.

This study focuses on the casualty-load distribution problem that arises when a mass casualty incident (MCI) necessitates the engagement of multiple medical facilities. Employing discrete event simulations, the study analyzed different MCI response regimes in Lahore, Pakistan, that vary in terms of the level of casualty-load distribution and the required coordination between the incident site and the responding hospitals. Past terrorist attacks in this major metropolitan area were considered to set up experiments for comparing delays in treatment under the modeled regimes. The analysis highlights that the number of casualties that are allowed to queue up at the nearest hospital before diverting the casualty traffic to an alternate hospital can be an important factor in reducing the overall treatment delays. Prematurely diverting the casualty traffic from the incident site to an alternate hospital can increase the travel time, while a delay in diversion can overload the nearest hospital, which can lead to overall longer waiting times in the queue. The casualty distribution mechanisms based only on the responding hospitals’ available capacity and current load can perform inefficiently because they overlook the trade-off between the times casualties spend in traveling and in queues.

The utility poles of electric power distribution lines are very vulnerable to many natural hazards, while power outages due to pole failures can lead to adverse economic and social consequences. Utility companies, therefore, need to monitor the conditions of poles regularly and predict their future conditions accurately and promptly to operate the distribution system continuously and safely. This article presents a novel pole monitoring method that uses state-of-the-art deep learning and computer vision methods to meet the need. The proposed method automatically captures the current pole inclination angles using an unmanned aerial vehicle. The method calculates the bending moment exerted on the poles due to wind and gravitational forces, as well as cable weight, to compare it with the moment of rupture. The method also includes a machine learning-based model that is built by using a support vector machine to predict the resilience conditions of a pole after a wind event in a faster manner. The three modules of the proposed method are effective tools to classify pole conditions and are expected to enable utility companies to increase the resilience of their systems.

Climate change, especially as reflected in heat waves, is a rising threat worldwide. Appropriate use of cooling devices can protect people from health impacts during a heat wave. A population-based telephone survey was conducted in a representative sample of residents in Hong Kong to investigate ownership and use of domestic cooling devices, identify correlates, and examine their associations with risk perception of potential health impact of climate change. More than 90% of the 1002 respondents owned and used cooling devices at home. The majority (57.7%) perceived the potential health risk of climate change at a high level. However, risk perception had no relationship with ownership and utilization of cooling devices. Old people (≥ 65 years), the low-educated, those with low income, and those with chronic diseases were more likely not to use air conditioners when feeling hot. Our findings suggest that there are no signs showing people have taken more protective actions although half of respondents recognized climate change as a threat. Familial economic condition may be a major determinant in ownership and use of air conditioners at home. Old people and those with chronic diseases are at high risk of adverse exposure to climate change and therefore should be equipped with appropriate measures to use cooling devices.

In 2013, scientists implemented a binational exchange for emergency planners and responders in communities near Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia and volcanoes of the Cascade Range of the United States (US). This program was designed to promote understanding of volcanic disasters and effective mitigation options, motivate participants to strengthen emergency planning efforts, and promote trust-building among participants. The 2013 Binational Exchange was funded by the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP), a joint U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)—U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) program.During a week-long visit to Colombian emergency response agencies, Nevado del Ruiz, and lahar-destroyed ruins of the city of Armero and the region of Viejo Rio Claro, US participants became familiar with Colombian counterparts who have had recent and frequent experiences addressing volcanic crises. Aging survivors and authorities of the Nevado del Ruiz catastrophe of 1985 gave participants first-hand accounts, and ideas for improved preparedness and response. While in the US, Colombian participants observed emergency response capabilities and facilities, and received training in systems of incident command. Colombians made presentations to the US public and officials about the similarities of lahar risks in both nations.This article describes the 2013 Binational Exchange as an experiential learning event and uses results of post-exchange discussions and interviews as evidence of steps achieved within the learning process. Six years hence, this article provides examples of progress with volcano hazards mitigation in both nations. The article offers the binational exchange model as an effective tool that employs both experiential learning and socialization of participants to create a highly motivating and effective learning environment.

Understanding social resilience can assist in the formulation of disaster management policies to help communities better prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. However, direct social resilience measurement methods such as household surveys are not always a practical option as they are a time- and resource-exhaustive process. Existing measures mainly utilize publicly available census data, which often provide a poor and outdated assessment of current social resilience status. Another limitation includes a failure to capture multiple facets of indicators that are process-oriented and dynamic in nature such as mobility of people. These challenges can be addressed by employing a surrogate approach. Surrogates are alternative measures to depict the target indicator. The surrogate approach can capture key facets of a target indicator, which can be used as potential measures for the target indicator. A framework to conceptualize the surrogate approach is presented, and operationalized using a case study approach on the southeastern coast of Sri Lanka to identify surrogates to measure mobility of people as a resilience indicator. Six higher-order themes were identified as potential surrogates to measure mobility of people in a disaster context. The approach proposed to methodically identify potential surrogates and their measurement protocols can help to improve the current knowledge base and understanding of complex interrelationships of social resilience.

This work aims to stress the concept of a safety culture in the sense that each us is an emergency responder, the first one to respond, and the more prepared we are, with better training and awareness, the better we will perform. This applies even to the relationship between us and the emergency responders. All this will improve the likelihood of surviving an accident. If there is an accident, anywhere at any time, each of us is alone. And the bigger the accident the longer we are alone. There is no firefighter, no policeman, no doctor nearby, so it is very important to be competent, in other words, to know how to react, to want to react and to be able to react. It is a basic requirement to understand the phenomenon, to appreciate the consequences arising from the way we act and realize that we have to perform according to the situation - before, during and after its occurrence. In brief, let resilience not just be a word; let it be a concept that belongs to the wider definition of the Safety Culture.

Introduction: Nepal is known for its cultural diversity and ethnicity. Despite its unique characteristics, Nepalese society has marked visible social and gender divisions that constrain the overall growth of the nation. Low decision-making power, poor control over assets, long working hours, inadequate membership to community institutions, poor access to credit services, and lack of access to appropriate information are some key indicators. However, it was also worth mentioning that places where there is effective leadership to address the gender-based constraints, the outcomes are more promising in attaining growth, dignity, self-confidence, and respect, answering to some of the common constraints. Methods: This research relies on literature review, expert interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGD), simulations, and Key Informant Interviews. The expert interviews were conducted in-person to get detailed information on some of the organization-based interventions. Results: The study showed that since the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, the workload pressure has increased especially for women. It also increased the exposure to some of the common risks such as gender-based violence, women & child trafficking, abuses, stress, family tension, health care issues, fear, and other challenges. However, leaderships shown by organizations, communities, and individuals have positive impact on reducing gender-based violence. Also, reduction of other constraints such as long walking to fetch water, long working hours, restricted movements, decision making for self-improvement, lack of recognition, and seeking permission to attend social events has been addressed by community level and individual leaderships. The places where such constraints of the women have been addressed, their engagement in disaster preparedness activities are more promising. Conclusion: The research study concluded that there is potential leadership among women groups, family members, and community-based organizations to ensure the reduction of gender-based constraints, and it is helping women for productive engagement.

Globally erosion has been considered as an environmental and agricultural problem since the first agricultural revolution. In Ethiopia gully erosion has been recorded as a very serious and common socio-economic and environmental problem of several watersheds. Therefore, the objective of this research was to assess the drivers, dynamics and impacts of gully erosion in case of Tabota Koromo and Koromo Danshe watersheds, South-Central Ethiopia. The intended objectives were achieved by triangulating the image analysis with the data obtained from GPS, group discussion, interview, house hold survey, field observation and field measurement. The result of the study indicated that gully erosion was initiated in the steep slope following the 1970s and 1980s land cover change and other anthropogenic factors. In addition, the soil properties and steep slope (gravity) of the land have contributed in exacerbating the problems. Gully erosion caused physical, social and economic impacts in the area. According to the participants on group discussion and interview, the socio-economic impacts of gully erosion were loss of life for a 12 year boy, injuries of five live stocks, and decline of yields throughout the year. Result from field measurement and observation depicted that loss of soil (1,080,782.6m3) and loss of biodiversity are the major physical impacts of gully erosion. Yet there are promising conditions to rehabilitate the gullied area for sustainable ecosystem services in the watersheds. These promising conditions are the availability of high labour forces, access of transportation, civic societies working on natural resource conservation and the green economy development policy of the country. Therefore, concerned government bodies and the local communities at different level need to set plan and work for implementation in a way to use the existing opportunities.

A 3 day exercise simulating unrest and a large explosive eruption at Katla volcano, Iceland, was conducted in January 2016. A large volume of simulated data based on a complex, but realistic eruption scenario was compiled in advance and then transmitted to exercise participants in near-real time over the course of the exercise. The scenario was designed to test the expertise and procedures of the local institutions in charge of warning and responding to volcanic hazards, namely the volcano observatory, national civil protection, and the local university-science sector, as well as their interactions with the European science community and the London Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre. This exercise was the first of this magnitude and scope in Iceland and has revealed many successful developments introduced since the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull and 2011 Grímsvötn eruptions. Following the exercise, 90% of participants said that they felt better prepared for a future eruption. As with any exercise, it also identified areas where further development is required and improvements can be made to procedures. Seven key recommendations are made to further develop capability and enhance the collaboration between the volcano observatory, volcano research institutions and civil protection authorities. These recommendations cover topics including notification of responders, authoritative messaging, data sharing and media interaction, and are more broadly applicable to volcanic institutions elsewhere. Lessons and suggestions for how to run a large-scale volcanic exercise are given and could be adopted by those planning to rehearse their own response procedures., This work was funded by the European Community’s FP7 Programme grant 308377 (Project FUTUREVOLC).

Performing exercises is of utmost importance for hospital preparedness. Tabletop exercises are more straightforward and less expensive comparing to operation-based exercises. Iran University of Medical Sciences, using public and private sector partnerships in the field of health, held a joint tabletop exercise. This exercise aimed to enhance the ability to respond efficiently to disasters. Findings of this study revealed that not only performing continuous training and partnership through both public and private sectors is essential for hospitals’ preparedness, but also promoting the training level can provide a ground for integration and trust among all private and public centers. Consequently, these endeavors can be beneficial in preparing for disasters and emergencies. This article aims to describe the experience of holding a joint tabletop exercise.

Community resilience has received growing attention in disaster risk management policies and practices, especially in China. However, few applicable instruments are available as a baseline for profiling and estimating a community’s resiliency in the face of disasters. The purpose of this study is to cross-culturally adapt and validate the original version of the 10-Item Conjoint Community Resiliency Assessment Measurement (CCRAM-10) in China. Our study further investigates if and to what extent community members translate their participation in disaster risk reduction (DRR) activities into perceived community resilience. A Chinese version of CCRAM-10 was generated and applied to 369 participants from a rural and an urban community in southwest China affected by the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake. Internal consistency reliability and confirmatory factor analyses were performed to test the assessment instrument’s applicability. The Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit Assessment Survey was used to establish the convergent validity for the Chinese version of CCRAM-10. Multiple linear regression models were used to explore the correlations between respondents’ participation in activities and their perception of community resilience, while controlling for basic socio-demographic variables. Analysis results demonstrated good internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.85) and satisfactory convergent validity for the Chinese version of the CCRAM-10. Construct validity was also confirmed (χ2/df = 2.161; CFI = 0.977; GFI = 0.971; NFI = 0.958; RMSEA = 0.056; SRMR = 0.030). The regression analysis results indicated that respondents’ participation in DRR activities was positively correlated with their perception of community resilience. This study contributes to the wider collection of disaster studies by providing a tested tool for assessing community resilience in the context of China. Community workers and practice researchers may be interested in applying CCRAM-10 to evaluate the effect of specific DRR programmatic activities for improving community resilience.

This article provides a spatial and comparative approach to evaluate the territorial accessibility in the event of a volcanic crisis in the French West Indies. A spatial assessment of resources and populations exposed to volcanic hazards is performed, followed by an assessment of the risk of territorial isolation due to lahars. Modelling of the risk of terrestrial isolation builds upon graph-based computations and indices that take into account the specific vulnerability of river-crossing structures and the knowledge of historical lahars. Another application of the graphs concerns scenarios for the evacuation of population, the sole efficient response to an eruption. This results in an optimised division of areas to evacuate in order to assess the potential reduction of the load on the road network. These different results are integrated into a prototype for evacuation maps intended for local authorities. The situation of Guadeloupe is of greater concern than that in Martinique, given the level of exposure, the potential losses of accessibility in case of lahars, and the greater and on-going volcanic unrest of La Soufrière volcano in Guadeloupe.

Disasters exact a heavy toll globally. However, the degree to which we can accurately quantify their impact, in particular mortality, remains challenging. It is critical to ensure that disaster data reliably reflects the scale, type, and distribution of disaster impacts given the role of data in: (1) risk assessments; (2) developing disaster risk management programs; (3) determining the resources for response to emergencies; (4) the types of action undertaken in planning for prevention and preparedness; and (5) identifying research gaps. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030s seven global disaster-impact reduction targets represent the first international attempt to systematically measure the effectiveness of disaster-impact reduction as a means of better informing policy with evidence. Target A of the Sendai Framework aims to “substantially reduce global disaster mortality by 2030, aiming to lower the average per 100,000 global mortality rate in the decade 2020–2030 compared to the period 2005–2015.” This article provides an overview of the complexities associated with defining, reporting, and interpreting disaster mortality data used for gauging success in meeting Target A, acknowledging different challenges for different types of hazard events and subsequent disasters. It concludes with suggestions of how to address these challenges to inform the public health utility of monitoring through the Sendai Framework.

Many African countries are prone to numerous hazardous events, exacerbated by the vulnerability of their rapidly increasing population and leading to frequent disasters that often have dire fiscal and development implications. Yet, there is declining sensitivity to these risks, contrary to the conventional wisdom of disaster management (DM) principles. The primary aim of this research is to understand the constraints and/or challenges limiting the ability of contemporary African DM systems/institutional frameworks from implementing adequate disaster risk reduction (DRR) measures. Using a qualitative, case study based research strategy, this research investigates resistance to the effective implementation of DM/DRR within Cameroon’s contemporary DM system by using the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 guiding principles for DRR as benchmark. The findings reveal the existence of resistance factors that particularly complicate the communication, decision making, and coordination of DRR activities, the provision of resources, aspects of international assistance, as well as DRR planning and policies. The authors argue that such resistance factors contribute to making Cameroon’s DM system more reactive and further undermine risk reduction. The article concludes by offering key recommendations that have the potential to alleviate the identified resistance factors as well as strengthen Cameroon’s DM, particularly in relation to capacity building, training, research development, and organizational resilience.

Nonfunctionality of engineered water sources after two catastrophic cyclones—Sidr in November 2007 and Aila in May 2009—created acute scarcity of safe drinking water in coastal Bangladesh. The objective of this study was to estimate households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for disaster resilient water sources in Dacope upazila of Khulna District in southwestern coastal Bangladesh. By applying the double bounded dichotomous contingent valuation method to a dataset of 250 randomly selected households, we found that the mean WTP is BDT 263 and that inaccessibility to functional safe drinking water sources is the most significant determining factor of households’ WTP. Projecting mean WTP for a disaster resilient water source project in the study area, we measured a present value of aggregate WTP over project’s life span worth about BDT 624 (USD 7.37) million, which is about 14.30 times the present value of project’s aggregate establishment and maintenance cost. However, charging the local inhabitants a water tariff at mean WTP would lead to the exclusion of around 50% of the people from getting access to the improved water services or create a free riding problem. Through simulation exercises this study determined that the socially optimal water tariff is BDT 50 per month. This tariff would not only generate revenue of more than five times the project cost but would also create access to disaster resilient improved drinking water sources for almost 99% of the people.

Disaster management is a global challenge, but disasters do not affect men and women equally. In most of the world’s disasters, more females are impacted than males, and in Afghanistan the disparity between female and male victims is even greater. This study identifies and maps the relationships between the factors that make Afghan rural women more vulnerable to natural hazard-induced disasters. Data for this study were obtained through focus group discussions with rural women and men, as well as person-to-person interviews with employees of government and nongovernmental organizations at the national and local levels in Afghanistan. The study uses Grounded Theory and Interpretive Structural Modeling, not widely used before for this type of study, to analyze the data collected and to map the factors of vulnerability identified and their relationships. In agreement with previous studies, our findings show that insufficient disaster education, inadequate protection measures, and powerful cultural issues, both pre- and post-disaster, increase women’s vulnerability during and after disasters. In particular, cultural issues play a role after disasters by affecting women’s security, access to disaster aid, and health care. The study also found that perception regarding these cultural issues and how they affect women during disasters differs among men and women. Finally, by using Interpretive Structural Modeling, we show how the importance of the factors and their interrelationships change in pre-disaster and post-disaster situations. We conclude the article with some policy recommendations such as finding ways to allow women to participate in disaster planning activities and decision-making processes related to disaster risk reduction, as well as securing dedicated funds for the mainstreaming of gender in disaster risk reduction policies in Afghanistan.

Forest fires have caused considerable losses to ecologies, societies, and economies worldwide. To minimize these losses and reduce forest fires, modeling and predicting the occurrence of forest fires are meaningful because they can support forest fire prevention and management. In recent years, the convolutional neural network (CNN) has become an important state-of-the-art deep learning algorithm, and its implementation has enriched many fields. Therefore, we proposed a spatial prediction model for forest fire susceptibility using a CNN. Past forest fire locations in Yunnan Province, China, from 2002 to 2010, and a set of 14 forest fire influencing factors were mapped using a geographic information system. Oversampling was applied to eliminate the class imbalance, and proportional stratified sampling was used to construct the training/validation sample libraries. A CNN architecture that is suitable for the prediction of forest fire susceptibility was designed and hyperparameters were optimized to improve the prediction accuracy. Then, the test dataset was fed into the trained model to construct the spatial prediction map of forest fire susceptibility in Yunnan Province. Finally, the prediction performance of the proposed model was assessed using several statistical measures—Wilcoxon signed-rank test, receiver operating characteristic curve, and area under the curve (AUC). The results confirmed the higher accuracy of the proposed CNN model (AUC 0.86) than those of the random forests, support vector machine, multilayer perceptron neural network, and kernel logistic regression benchmark classifiers. The CNN has stronger fitting and classification abilities and can make full use of neighborhood information, which is a promising alternative for the spatial prediction of forest fire susceptibility. This research extends the application of CNN to the prediction of forest fire susceptibility.

For decades sections of the academic community have been emphasizing that disasters are not natural. Nevertheless, politicians, the media, various international organizations—and, more surprisingly, many established researchers working in disaster studies—are still widely using the expression “natural disaster.” We systematically analyzed the usage of the expression “natural disaster” by disaster studies researchers in 589 articles in six key academic journals representative of disaster studies research, and found that authors are using the expression in three principal ways: (1) delineating natural and human-induced hazards; (2) using the expression to leverage popularity; and (3) critiquing the expression “natural disaster.” We also identified vulnerability themes that illustrate the context of “natural disaster” usage. The implications of continuing to use this expression, while explicitly researching human vulnerability, are wide-ranging, and we explore what this means for us and our peers. This study particularly aims to stimulate debate within the disaster studies research community and related fields as to whether the term “natural disaster” is really fit for purpose moving forward.

Within the framework of disaster risk management, this article proposes an interdisciplinary method for the analysis of multiple natural hazards, including climate change’s influences, in the context of cultural heritage. A taxonomy of natural hazards applicable to cultural heritage was developed based on the existing theoretical and conceptual frameworks. Sudden-onset hazards, such as earthquakes and floods, and slow-onset hazards, such as wetting–drying cycles and biological contamination, were incorporated into the hazard assessment procedure. Future alteration of conditions due to climate change, such as change in heat waves’ duration, was also taken into account. The proposed hazard assessment framework was applied to the case of the Historic Centre of Rethymno, a city on the northern coast of the island of Crete in Greece, to identify, analyze, and prioritize the hazards that have the potential to cause damage to the center’s historic structures. The assessment procedure includes climate model projections, GIS spatial modeling and mapping, and finally a hazard analysis matrix to enable the sharing of a better understanding of multiple hazards with the stakeholders. The results can facilitate decision making by providing the vulnerability and risk analysis with the nature and spatial distribution of the significant hazards within the study area and its setting.

Governments are increasingly trying to ensure that communities are resilient to the effects of climate change and encourage community empowerment and autonomy. Local resilience planning groups (LRPGs), which include stakeholders with an interest in a local area, are emerging as one potential approach to building community resilience. A conceptual framework has been developed to identify the common requirements for community resilience, building upon existing work in the wider community resilience literature. Aberdeen Resilient, Included and Supported Group, Scotland, UK is an example of a LRPG. In this study the data collected during a workshop with the Aberdeen LRPG were used with the conceptual framework to identify some of the challenges faced when building community resilience. The study examined whether the Aberdeen LRPG illustrates the challenges and constraints faced by LRPGs more widely, and how the membership influences the potential to develop the attributes of community resilience outlined in the conceptual framework. The thematic analysis of the workshop revealed Aberdeen LRPG’s six dominant challenges: engaging with individuals, culture, attitudes, assumptions, terminology, and timescale. These challenges impede the group in utilizing the skills, knowledge, and resources that its members possess to build community resilience. While the Aberdeen LRPG cannot change all factors that affect community resilience, framing specific problems experienced by the group within a conceptual framework applicable to any community contributes to understanding the practical challenges to developing community resilience.

Introduction: Due to the increasing mortality rate from trauma, determining the severity of injury has a very important role in the prognosis of the injured person. On the other hand, the quality of medical care provided to the casualties is evaluated using the Trauma Scoring System. Various scales were used to determine the trauma severity of injured. In this study, the most commonly used tools are investigated. Methods: This review was conducted by searching throughout the Persian data bases of Magiran, Barakat, SID and English databases of Scopus, Web of sciences, PubMed, and Google scholar. To conduct the search, the following keywords were used: "Severity of Trauma", "Trauma scoring", and "Trauma Scoring System" without considering any time intervals. Our early search resulted in 2125 articles. Finally, 17 articles were analyzed and different functions of traumatic assessment tools were compared and studied. Results: Traumatic assessment methods vary based on the anatomical and physiological parameters and composition of these two methods. In this study, the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS), Injury Severity Score (ISS), and New Injury Severity Score (NISS) were considered as anatomical parameters; Revised Trauma Score (RTS) as physiological parameters; Trauma Score Injury Severity Score (TRISS) and A Severity Characterization of Trauma (ASCOST) were mentioned as a hybrid ranking system. Conclusion: Application of accurate scientific evaluations in trauma severity assessment methods and application of each method in its appropriate position would result in appropriate improvements in the development of trauma care. In addition, these systems can play an important role in providing care to patients with traumatic injuries in the present and future.

Introduction: To survive is the first concern of people after disasters. The ability to keep performing and offering services in hospitals at the same time as appropriate responding to the medical needs of disaster victims, matters tremendously. An effective element in this regard is having appropriate safety level in hospitals. The aim of this study was to specify the safety index of hospitals covered by Alborz University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This descriptive-provisional study was conducted between 2014 and 2015 in Alborz province. Nine public hospitals, affiliated with Alborz University of Medical Sciences, were chosen by the means of census method. The data collection tool was the standard tool of hospital safety index, WHO / PAHO, through which the level of hospital safety (in three structural, non-structural and functional areas) were determined. Data were analyzed through Excel software. The outcomes were rated between zero to one, and accordingly, in terms of safety, hospitals were classified as either A, B or C. Results: Based on the results of this study, most of the examined hospitals were at B level of safety. Although the group B hospitals can put up with disasters in time but, their vital equipment and services will be put at jeopardy. Conclusion: Measuring the safety index of hospitals as well as determining their level of safety, it can be figured out how much a hospital can preserve its organization and function in disasters. This index will be helpful for decision makers and policymakers, when it comes to prioritizing management and civil interventions.

The utility poles of an electric power distribution system are frequently damaged by wind-related disasters. This study notes that the wooden poles are particularly vulnerable to such disasters and the failures of the poles can cause a network-level failure leading to short- or long-term power outages. To mitigate the problem, this study proposes a framework for measuring the resilience of the wooden utility poles based on the angular deflection of a pole due to the wind force. Given the existing inclination angle of a pole, the angular deflection is measured by finite element analysis using ANSYS® Workbench1 to determine the resilience area under various wind speeds. For this, the conditions of load and support for a pole, which are called boundary conditions in ANSYS®, are generated. The proposed framework also includes an approach to cost–benefit analysis that compares different strategies for corrective action. The results of the case study in which the framework was applied show that the proposed framework can be effectively utilized by electric power distribution companies to increase the resilience of their systems.

Cogu insan zamanlarinin %80’ninden fazlasini ic ortamlarda gecirmektedir. Hastaneler, Turkiye'de onemli bir kamusal alandir. Insanlarin hastanelere diger kamusal alanlardan cok daha fazla gitmesi hastaneleri onemli bir kurum haline getirmektedir. Bu calismada, Turkiye’nin Sanliurfa ilinde en cok hasta bakan hastanenin polikliniklerinde ic hava kalitesi arastirilmistir. Ic hava kalitesini belirleyen partikul madde (PM), CO, CO 2 , sicaklik ve bagil nem ic hava kalitesini belirleyen parametreler olarak degerlendirilmistir. Olculen degerler WHO, ASHAE gibi uluslararasi standartlarla karsilastirildiginda PM 2.5 ve PM 10 konsantrasyonun her ikisinin de yuksek degerlerde oldugu poliklinikler sirasiyla genel cerrahi, uroloji, noroloji, kalp servisi ve goz hastaliklari olarak belirlenmistir. CO 2 insanlar tarafindan solunum yoluyla yayilan bir ic hava kirleticisidir. Bu arastirmada CO 2 seviyesinin radyoloji, tomografi, rontgen, ortopedi poliklinigi ve acil serviste ASHAE standartlarinin altinda oldugu bulunmusken diger polikliniklerde standartin ustunde olculmustur. Sicaklik ve bagil nem degerleri tum polikliniklerde standartlara uygun olmadigi, CO degerinin tum polikliniklerde dusuk olup standartlari saglamakta oldugu saptanmistir . Yetersiz havalandirma, eksik temizlik, alcak tavan ve hasta sayisindaki fazlalik polikliniklerde standartlarin uzerinde degerlere sebep olan ana etmenler arasinda oldugu dusunulmektedir. Eski yapili hastanelerde, toz partikulleri, CO 2 , sicaklik ve bagil nem polikliniklerde calisanlarin ve hastalarin sagligi icin risk olusturabilecegi saptanmistir.

It is not possible to prevent earthquakes and to give notice in advance byusing contemporary technological opportunities. However, it is possible to takeprecautions in order to minimize losses in case of an earthquake. Lossestimation models take a significant role in determining these precautions.Earthquake scenarios are used when preparing loss estimation models. Theobjective in earthquake scenarios is to estimate the economic losses, thedamage to infrastructure, and the social impact associated with the potentialearthquake. In this paper, it was discussed loss estimation models of threedifferent earthquake scenarios developed for Kırşehir where is a seismicallyactive province of Turkey. In the study, informationabout the seismicity of Kırşehir province was also given. Individual buildingdamages, life and property losses and financial losses due to structural damagewere obtained within each of the three earthquake scenarios. Building damages werecalculated by two different methods which included in the software package. The greatest structural damage was observedin the Scenario 2 earthquake that is Akpınar Earthquake. The work has animportant place in terms of modern disaster management and urbantransformation. Such studies can be used as a support tool for decision makersat the pre-disaster preparation stage., Bugünküteknolojik imkanlar kullanılarak depremleri engellemek ve önceden haberverebilmek mümkün görünmemektedir. Ancak bazı tedbirler alınarak depremzararları asgari düzeye indirgenebilir. Alınacak bu tedbirleri belirlemedekayıp tahmin modelleri önemli bir yer tutmaktadır. Kayıp tahmin modellerikullanılırken deprem senaryolarından faydalanılmaktadır. Depremsenaryolarındaki amaç herhangi bir bölge için tahmin edilen bir depremin obölgede oluşturacağı hasarın sayısal olarak tahmin edilmesine dayanmaktadır. Bu çalışmada sismik olarak aktif bir bölgedeyer alan Kırşehir ili için üç farklı deprem senaryosu kullanılarak kayıp tahminanalizleri gerçekleştirilmiştir. Çalışmada ayrıca Kırşehir ilinin depremselliğihakkında bilgiler verilmiştir. Her üç deprem senaryosu içinde ayrı ayrı binahasarları can ve mal kayıpları ile yapısal hasar kaynaklı mali kayıplar eldeedilmiştir. Bina hasarları yazılım programında yer alan iki farklı yöntem kullanılarakhesaplanmıştır. En büyük yapısal hasarlar Akpınar Depreminin dikkate alındığı Senaryo2 depreminde gözlemlenmiştir. Çalışmamodern afet yönetimi ve kentsel dönüşüm açısından önemli bir yeresahiptir. Bu tür çalışmalar afet öncesihazırlık noktasında karar vericilerin destek aracı olarak kullanılabilecektir.

Introduction: SARS-Covid 2 is a new type of coronavirus which is a serious threat to all countries. Identifying the risk factors and investigating cases between deaths and discharge can increase public awareness to deal with this virus more easily. Methods: We conducted a case-control study on 274 patients with COVID-19 between March 1, 2020, and April 30, 2020. The cases were 137 COVID-19 patients discharged from the hospital, and the controls were patients who died due to COVID-19. Patient's information was obtained with demographic, clinical risk factors questionnaire, and their medical records. Result: The results showed that the age over 70, overweight, and high body mass index were significant predictors of death due to COVID-19. Opium use was associated with the death of COVID-19; however, it was not a significant predictor as an independent variable. Histories of chronic disease, as well as clinical signs of dyspnea, were significantly associated with death due to COVID-19. Fever and myalgia were introduced as the supportive clinical signs, so fever and myalgia were significantly more common in discharged individuals. Conclusion: Given that in this study, age over 70, overweight, obesity, opium use, and having clinical symptoms such as chronic diseases and dyspnea have been introduced as the risk factors for death due to COVID-19, so it is recommended due to lack of access to the appropriate vaccine to prevent COVID-19, during the outbreak of the virus. To prevent infection and spread of the virus, further training is required in the use of face masks, reducing traffic in public places, and proper handwashing.

Introduction: Hospitals provide healthcare services to society during and after emergencies. Therefore, the hospitals should be well-prepared for emergencies and have easy applicable, and efficient emergency plans. We aimed to investigate the applicability of emergency regulations in a university hospital. Methods: It is a descriptive study in which the current emergency plan of a university hospital is compared with the regulations and legislation in effect in Turkey. The number of teams and officials included in the teams in the current legislative emergency plan are identified and compared to the available emergency teams in a hospital for the present study. Results: The present study identified the potential emergencies in accordance with the “Regulation on Emergencies in Workplaces” and the conditions in the particular region and hospital. 16 teams were identified for these emergencies and the number of officials in each team was confirmed. In the current staff of the hospital, there were 12 teams. Additionally, three teams were identified in the current hospital team that was not stated in the regulation. Although stipulated in the regulations, chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear teams, and national medical rescue teams were not available in the hospital. Therefore, these teams and the number of officials in each team were determined. Discussion: Due to the geopolitical location of Turkey, the high disaster risk in the region, and the history of disasters, all hospitals should have applicable and constantly updated emergency plans. The number of teams in emergency plans and the number of officials in these teams should be arranged under current legislation, size of the hospitals, risk analyses, and functionality. With this study, we determined the emergency teams and the number of staff in the hospital.

The article's abstract is not available.

This study presents an enhanced analysis of the subsidence rates and their effects on Mexico City. As a result of excess water withdrawal, Mexico City is experiencing subsidence. To analyze this subsidence of Mexico City, we integrated and analyzed Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), Continuous Global Positioning Systems (CGPS), and optical remote sensing data. This study utilized 52 ENVISAT-ASAR, nine GPS stations, and one Landsat ETM+ image from the Mexico City area to gather a better understanding of the subsidence rates and its effects on Mexico City’s community. The finding of this study reveals a high amount of correlation (up to 0.98) between two independent geodetic methods. We also implemented the Support Vector Machine (SVM) analysis method based on Landsat ETM+ image to classify Mexico City’s population density. We used SVM to compare Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) subsidence rates with the buildings’ distribution densities. This integrated study shows that the fastest subsidence zone (i.e. areas greater than 100 mm/yr), which falls into the above-mentioned temporal baseline, occurs in the areas of high and moderate building distribution density.

A major challenge in flood mapping using multi‐criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is the selection of the flood risk factors and the estimation of their relative importance. A novel MCDA method through the integration of two state‐of‐the‐art MCDA methods based on catastrophe and entropy theory is proposed for mapping flood risk in the Peninsular Malaysia, an area very susceptible to flooding events, is presented. A literature review was undertaken which identified the various socioeconomic, physical and environmental factors which can influence flood vulnerability and risk. A set of variables was selected using an importance index which was developed based on a questionnaire survey. Population density, percentage of vulnerable people, household income, local economy, percentage of foreign nationals, elevation and forest cover were all deemed highly relevant in mapping flood risk and determining the zones of maximum vulnerability. Spatial integration of factors using the proposed MCDA revealed that coastal regions are highly vulnerable to floods when compared to inland locations. Flood risk maps indicate that the northeastern coastal region of Malaysia is at greatest risk of flooding. The prediction capability of the integrated method was found to be 0.93, which suggests good accuracy of the proposed method in flood risk mapping.

O propósito deste trabalho é analisar os principais desastres ambientais ocorridos no município de Barcarena, estado do Pará, Amazônia Brasileira, ocorridos na atividade de beneficiamento de bauxita e caulim no período compreendido entre os anos de 2003 a 2018, causando degradação ambiental em corpos hídricos e nas comunidades próximas. A metodologia de pesquisa adotada para a elaboração deste artigo consistiu na revisão bibliográfica, legislação relativa à mineração e consulta a documentos oficiais de órgãos públicos como: inquéritos policiais, relatórios técnicos e laudos periciais. Foram analisados dados quantitativos e qualitativos sobre desastres ambientais registrados em nosso estado, causados pelo vazamento de rejeitos e efluentes líquidos derivados do beneficiamento desses minérios. Demonstrar-se-á, com os resultados deste estudo, que os recursos naturais, principalmente os hídricos, estão comprometidos pela mineração de bauxita e caulim, tornando-se necessária a execução de políticas públicas de gestão de riscos e desastres ambientais na Amazônia.

This research examines the ways in which social media is used to organize and manage volunteers during a flood. Flooding is currently one of the top risks highlighted within the UK National Risk Register and ways to help those affected need to be explored further. Social media is a valuable tool in disaster management as it enables information to be passed quickly and effectively to its target audience. Through semi‐structured interviews with those who have experienced a flood disaster or worked during a flood recovery, we examined the potential role of social media, as well as traditional media, before, during, and in response to a flood. Interviews showed that the use of social media during a flood saved time and reached a larger audience than traditional media outlets (i.e., email, telephone). Social media was reported to be particularly useful for facilitating recruitment and management of volunteers, and for gathering equipment required during the recovery phase of a flood disaster. Our findings demonstrate that social media can play a crucial role in facilitating effective organization and management of volunteers during flood disasters.

Recent years have shown a significant increase in the occurrence of floods globally, with an impact on habitation and different sectors of the economy. This, in turn, necessitates the use of different flood mitigation strategies, wherein flood vulnerability assessment plays a significant role. The proposed work presents a methodology that combines vulnerability under physical-environmental and socio-economic domains to assess the overall flood vulnerability at the local self-government level. The methodology was illustrated to the case of Aluva municipality, located on the banks of River Periyar, in Kerala state, India. The spatial variation of hazard inducing factors and population statistics were analysed using Geographic Information System (GIS) tools. The machine learning algorithm, Random Forest, which uses hazard inducing factors as input was implemented for the evaluation of physical-environmental vulnerability. The social vulnerability of the region was analysed using the GIS Multi-criteria decision analysis approach (MCDA), with criteria weights to incorporate the interests of different stakeholders. The critical combinations of the two domains of vulnerability in the assessment of the vulnerability to flood, to have efficient flood management in local self-government was demonstrated in this study and can be made use of for any flood event.

Decision‐making in flood risk management is increasingly dependent on access to data, with the availability of data increasing dramatically in recent years. We are therefore moving towards an era of big data, with the added challenges that, in this area, data sources are highly heterogeneous, at a variety of scales, and include a mix of structured and unstructured data. The key requirement is therefore one of integration and subsequent analyses of this complex web of data. This paper examines the potential of a data‐driven approach to support decision‐making in flood risk management, with the goal of investigating a suitable software architecture and associated set of techniques to support a more data‐centric approach. The key contribution of the paper is a cloud‐based data hypercube that achieves the desired level of integration of highly complex data. This hypercube builds on innovations in cloud services for data storage, semantic enrichment and querying, and also features the use of notebook technologies to support open and collaborative scenario analyses in support of decision making. The paper also highlights the success of our agile methodology in weaving together cross‐disciplinary perspectives and in engaging a wide range of stakeholders in exploring possible technological futures for flood risk management.

Different water related risks such as lake outburst floods and water scarcity are typically assessed by separate methods and often by separate research communities. However, in a local context such as in mountain regions of the developing world different water risks are intertwined and shaped by multi-dimensional natural and socio-economic drivers. Progressing glacier melt and the associated growing number of lakes rises the threat of glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs); at the same time declining melt water supply changes the hydrological regime, resulting in changing water availability, especially during dry seasons. Here, we address this challenge by integratively assessing water scarcity and GLOF risks and their interactions for two study sites in glacierized catchments in the Cordillera Blanca and Urubamba in the Peruvian Andes. We used hydrological modelling, GLOF flow path modelling, and interviews with local people and technical experts to assess the hazard and risks of water scarcity and GLOFs. We incorporate perspectives of people living in those areas in order to gain a more comprehensive view on risks. While metrics of flood and water scarcity hazards are difficult to compare, we found insightful results using a comparative analysis of elements at risk from different water related hazards with different probabilities of occurrence. Furthermore, our study shows that considering the diverse local perspectives on risks as well as the social, cultural, economic and political context is essential to more successful and sustainable disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and integrated water management.

This study aimed to develop novel flood forecasting models using artificial neural network (ANN) algorithms. The models were assessed and validated for the case study of an alluvial river in the Kashmir region of the Indian Himalayas‐River Jhelum. In September 2014, a major flood occurred in the Kashmir Valley with peak discharge exceeding 115,000 m3/s; brought about by the multifarious interaction among atmospheric disturbances. The present study targeted the development of ANN models for flood prognosis. Thereby five neural network models were developed: Bayesian regularisation neural network, the Levenberg–Marquardt neural network, conjugate gradient neural network, scaled conjugate gradient neural network, and resilient back‐propagation neural network. Levenberg–Marquardt neural network model, with the mean squared error of 0.002128 (lowest of all models) and coefficient of determination of 95.839% (highest of all models), proved to be the best model based on the statistical validation parameters. All the simulations were evaluated and curves graphed for actual versus predicted discharges for 20% of the data. These models may be used to predict floods, and take advance precautionary measures by Irrigation and Flood Control Department of the State, rather than waiting for flood hydrograph to shoot (norm as of now).