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This study investigates the enduring consequences of recurrent flood disasters on communities located in river basins and proximate to significant water bodies. Floods are identified as a primary contributor to disaster-related losses, affecting 34.2 million people in 2018 alone. The region under scrutiny has witnessed an escalation in the frequency and severity of natural catastrophes due to unpredictable climate changes over the last decade. Despite the profound challenges flooding poses, there is a need for more in-depth studies on the subject. Focusing on the Port St Johns community, this research addresses the existing gap by closely examining the difficulties confronted by residents during and after flood disasters. The study utilizes interviews, observations, and data analysis to gain context-specific insights. A purposive sampling approach is adopted, selecting 15 participants from disadvantaged backgrounds. Semistructured interviews and thematic analysis are the primary data collection and analysis methods. The study's findings delve into the multifaceted impact of recurring flooding in the Green Farm Community, emphasizing the interplay of environmental factors, social responses, and historical trends. Themes such as infrastructural damage, property loss, and community preparedness challenges are explored. The municipality's role in flood support, timeliness and effectiveness is scrutinized. Environmental factors, including changing rainfall patterns and proximity to water bodies, are vital to the community's vulnerability. Recommendations include enhancing longterm planning, improving communication, assessing financial support adequacy, tailoring responses to community needs, investing in proactive preparedness, and ensuring equitable resource allocation. The study underscores the community's proactive measures, offering valuable insights for disaster management and resilience-building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As humanity enters a new era of climate‐induced unpredictability, research into the role of religion in shaping perceptions of, and responses to disaster will become increasingly important. This is particularly true of South Asia, which contains dense populations certain to be adversely affected by climate change. This contribution explores the way religion shapes and mediates responses to disaster in Pakistan. Where previous work in this field has focused on extremists and militants, mine considers currents of lived Islam that take explicit stances on questions of natural resource development. Drawing upon extensive primary data, I identify two distinct disaster cosmologies permeating state and society. First, I consider the official Islam of experts and policymakers, whose approach to development is derived from, but arguably surpasses the modernism of British and American colonial and Cold War paradigms in its dogmatic, faith‐based belief in the imperative of mastering and exploiting nature. The second is an altogether contrasting formation embedded in a political protest movement representing a marginalized constituency, the Siraiki speaking population of Southern Punjab, which mobilized flood affectees in the aftermath of the 2010 floods around issues of social and environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a novel classification framework for severe global catastrophic risk scenarios. Extending beyond existing work that identifies individual risk scenarios, we propose analysing global catastrophic risks along three dimensions: the critical systems affected, global spread mechanisms, and prevention and mitigation failures. The classification highlights areas of convergence between risk scenarios, which supports prioritisation of particular research and of policy interventions. It also points to potential knowledge gaps regarding catastrophic risks, and provides an interdisciplinary structure for mapping and tracking the multitude of factors that could contribute to global catastrophic risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various natural and manmade disasters during last decades have highlighted the need of further improving on governmental preparedness to emergency events, and a relief supplies distribution problem named Inventory Slack Routing Problem (ISRP) has received increasing attentions. In an ISRP, inventory slack is defined as the duration between reliefs arriving time and estimated inventory stock-out time. Hence, a larger inventory slack could grant more responsive time in facing of various factors (e.g., traffic congestion) that may lead to delivery lateness. In this study, the relief distribution problem is formulated as an optimization model that maximize the minimum slack among all dispensing sites. To efficiently solve this problem, we propose a two-stage approach to tackle the vehicle routing and relief allocation sub-problems. By analyzing the inter-relations between these two sub-problems, a new objective function considering both delivery durations and dispensing rates of demand sites is applied in the first stage to design the vehicle routes. A hierarchical routing approach and a sweep approach are also proposed in this stage. Given the vehicle routing plan, the relief allocation could be easily solved in the second stage. Numerical experiment with a comparison of multi-vehicle Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) has demonstrated the need of ISRP and the capability of the proposed solution approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floods are pervasive catastrophic disasters which cause financial damages, lost life and environmental scarcity. Flood damage estimation is one of the important factors to the way in the depth of the flood and predicts the future damages. Data mining classification techniques to discover patterns and sequences will use to predict the zones that depiction to flood. A data of flood damages for twelve years collected from various sources. The classification models of Decision Trees and Support Vector Machine with different kernel functions are taken for the prediction models. The Matlab analytics compare the prediction models indicates the performance of the algorithm has much better accuracy. Experiments confirm that the Support Vector Machine with Quadratic kernel function is more accurate in finding the prediction pattern. The accuracy and visualization also suggest that flood prediction which the outcome will goal to better manage floods all the way through preclusion, fortification and catastrophe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disasters continue to have a dramatic impact on lives, livelihoods and environments communities depend on. In response to these losses, the global community has developed various theories, assessment methodologies and policies aimed at reducing global losses. A contemporary outcome of these interventions is to build the disaster resilience. However, despite the disaster resilience-building endeavours espoused by policies, theories and methodologies, very little progress is being made in reducing disaster losses. This paper argues that a possible reason behind the limitations of current resilience-building policies and methodologies could be that most of these policies are based a mechanistic scientific paradigm that places an emphasis on system components that are perceived to build resilience and not the function of systems as a whole. This often leads to resilience-building initiatives that are based on a 'one-size-fits-all' approach. This paper argues for the use of a complex adaptive systems approach to building resilience. This approach argues that contextual factors within different social systems will have a nonlinear affect on disaster resilience-building efforts. Therefore, it is crucial to move away from 'one-size-fits-all' approaches to more flexible approaches to building resilience. These hypotheses are tested by means of a correlation statistical analysis of agricultural communities in Southern Africa. Results of this analysis indicate that unique resilience profiles are evident in almost all of the communities studied. This indicates that resilience is not the same for everybody, and that resilience-building endeavours should be flexible enough to be adapted for different contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catastrophe risk engineering (CRE) is the field of engineering that quantifies the risk of individual assets exposed to natural catastrophes, such as earthquakes or hurricanes, for the purpose of finding risk management solutions. An accurate estimation of the risk is essential for decision makers, such as risk managers or insurance brokers, who seek to either reduce or transfer the risk of the high-valuable assets in their portfolios. Current practices in CRE use either oversimplifications of the structural systems and/or perform incremental dynamic analyses on limited number of ground motion records for the analyses selected by arbitrary heuristic methods. This paper proposes a novel framework for earthquake CRE. An accurate assessment of the earthquake risk requires a detailed analysis of the structural performance under site-specific seismic loading. Dynamic analyses of structures may be computationally expensive for complex structures, which are often overcome by simplifying assumptions at the expense of accuracy and rigor. The proposed framework uses a set of simulated ground-motion records consistent with the local-site seismicity. An efficient method based on stochastic reduced-order models is then used for running detailed dynamic analyses for the structural system. The methodology proposed is validated for linear and non-linear systems located in a highly-seismic zone. Comparisons between the newly proposed and the traditional CRE frameworks are conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the standard AK growth model we introduce the threat of an ecological catastrophe and study the consequences for the economic variables in the long-run. We extend the basic framework by considering two environmental externalities: the first one is local and gives account of the marginal damage from emissions flow; the second one is aggregate, or global, and relates to the extreme damage which may happen if the accumulated stock of pollutants is on the threshold of a worldwide catastrophe. In this context dominated by market failures, we focus on the socially optimal solution and the search of conditions for sustainability. We identify the efficient balanced growth path, which may even show a singularity with trajectories truncating and changing course. In short, with respect to the economy’s long-run performance, we study how environment matters in different ways and at different stages, giving conditions to prevent the catastrophe and preserve (a lower) sustained growth. This paper may also be read as a clear and rigorous example of an optimal control problem involving a pure state-space constraint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Owing to their essential influence on human society and natural environment exerted by inducing disasters, such as floods and droughts, further studies on precipitation extremes in China are needed. This study presents the regional frequency and spatial-temporal patterns of precipitation extremes in China based on a high-resolution (0.5° × 0.5°) daily precipitation dataset from 1961 to 2013. With fuzzy c-means, L-moments methods and other scientific statistical tests, a regional frequency analysis ( RFA) is conducted, aiming to further understand the regional and spatial distribution of precipitation extremes across China. The results show that: (1) the whole Mainland China can be divided into 50 homogeneous regions on the basis of the characteristics of mean annual precipitation and location indices. (2) For most of the regions, Generalized Extreme Value ( GEV), Generalized Normal ( GNO) and Pearson type III ( PE3) distributions of precipitation extremes fit well, according to the results of goodness-of-fit ( GOF) test. (3) For RX1DAY, GEV has the best-fit distribution in the east, northeast and southwest of China, whereas GNO distribution mostly fits the northern and parts of southwest and southeast; in addition, regions which fit PE3 and Generalized Logistic ( GLO) distribute dispersedly across the country. (4) For RX5DAY, GEV mainly fits in the middle, southwestern and southern; GNO and PE3 apply best to the northeastern and northern, respectively. (5) Return periods of 20, 50 and 100 years for their best-fit distributions decrease gradually from southeastern China to northwestern China. Compared with the results of GEV distribution fitted to each grid, RFA may provide more accurate estimates of rainfall quantiles. Definitely, the study results will not only benefit further understanding of the unique and complex features of extreme precipitation in the whole Mainland China but also contribute to the nation-scale flood prevention, control and management in the backdrop of the changing climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the extent to which economic development decreases a country's risk of experiencing climate-related disasters as well as the societal impacts of those events. The paper proceeds from the underlying assumption that disasters are not inherently natural, but arise from the intersection of naturally-occurring hazards within fragile environments. It uses data from the International Disaster Database (EM-DAT), representing country-year-level observations over the period 1980-2007. The study finds that low-income countries are significantly more at risk of climate-related disasters, even after controlling for exposure to climate hazards and other factors that may confound disaster reporting. Following the occurrence of a disaster, higher income generally diminishes a country's social vulnerability to such happenings, resulting in lower levels of mortality and morbidity. This implies that continued economic development may be a powerful tool for lessening social vulnerability to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is frequently argued that, at the parcel level, stakeholders are capable of and well supported in managing their land-related risks. Yet, evidence from the contemporary Australian context suggests otherwise: numerous large-scale disaster events have revealed that citizens are ill-prepared to respond and recover adequately. This paper begins with the premise that information, specifically land information, could better support parcel-level risk preparation, mitigation, response, and recovery. State land administration organisations in Australia primarily maintain this information and make it accessible. Land information is used regularly across all levels of government to support risk management activities; however, such application has not always occurred at the parcel and citizen level. Via a case study approach, this paper initially explores the land information available in Australia to stakeholders interested in parcel-level detail, and then goes on to propose how the utilisation of parcel-level land information could serve to enhance risk management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Engineering Geology / Gongcheng Dizhi Xuebao is the property of Journal of Engineering Geology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

ABSTRACT Climate change affects mean and extreme temperature and precipitation, increasing the risk of related disasters. Assessing the performance of current models in simulating these aspects is therefore crucial to future projection and policymaking. Based on a large ensemble ( LE; 30 members) of the Community Earth System Model ( CESM- LE), this study seeks to answer the following two questions: (1) Are the simulated trends of mean and extreme temperature and precipitation over China consistent with observations? (2) What is the range of model uncertainty due to internal variability? The results show that CESM-LE can capture the trends of observed annul mean temperature and extremely low temperature days ( ELD) over 16-26% of China, but has difficulty in reproducing the observed trends in extremely high temperature days ( EHD). For precipitation, CESM-LE demonstrates similar capability in reproducing the observed trends in annual mean precipitation and extreme precipitation days ( EPD). For consecutive dry days ( CDD), the decreasing trends over part of northwestern China can be captured, but the increasing trends over northern China cannot be reproduced by CESM-LE. Regarding the uncertainty of the model resulting from natural internal variability, because all 30 ensemble members of CESM use the same model and external forcing, CESM-LE's spread (uncertainty) is mainly due to internal variability. Larger uncertainty in simulated trends is found over northern China and the Tibetan Plateau for annual mean temperature, over northeastern China and the Huang-Huai region for ELD, and over the Tibetan Plateau for EHD. The trends in annual mean precipitation show uniform uncertainty over nearly all of China, except for the northwest. Larger uncertainty trends appear over southern and northwestern China for EPD, and over the Tibetan Plateau and northern China for CDD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yamal peninsula is the largest center of reindeer herding in the Arctic, and Nenets historically and recently succeeded in maintaining their economic and ethnocultural potential. However, environmental challenges, such as the formation of a widespread ice crust across the Yamal Peninsula in the winter of 2013-2014 and the outbreak of anthrax in the summer of 2016, have provoked a discussion on Nenets herding "crisis" that allegedly implies the overgrowth of herds and the overgrazing of pastures. Biologists and administrators emphasize the necessity to significantly reduce the Yamal reindeer population "for the sake of environmental safety." The author of this article presents an alternative approach focused on a system of movement: skillful herd-navigation and quick maneuvering is the basis of Nenets' traditional rule ya puna hayoda (land after us remains). Conversely, the consequences of sluggish and stationary behavior, including huddling around camp for a long time, is reflected in another Nenets proverb: yadata habei ("land is turned upside down"). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disasters pose a growing threat to sustainable development. Disaster risk management efforts have largely failed to arrest the underlying drivers of increased global risk: uncontrolled urbanization and proliferation of assets in hazardous areas. Resilience provides an opportunity to confront the social-ecological foundations of risk and development; yet it has been vaguely conceptualized, without offering a concrete approach to operationalization. We propose a conceptualization of disaster resilience centred on well-being: ' The ability of a system, community or society to pursue its social, ecological and economic development objectives, while managing its disaster risk over time in a mutually reinforcing way.' We present a conceptual framework for understanding the interconnections between disasters and development, and outline how it is being operationalized in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three neighborhoods in Lexington, Kentucky, share a common flood history, including property acquisitions, as a means to mitigate against flooding; yet, the interactions of residents with the buyout landscapes vary significantly among the neighborhoods. Although the same institutions and structural controls implemented flood buyout programs in all three neighborhoods, semi-structured interviews illustrate that differing perspectives, personalities, and neighborhood politics shaped unique identities and land uses for the acquired properties in each neighborhood. Varying levels of resident engagement with the buyout landscape resulted in a range of attitudes towards hazard preparation, management, and mitigation, thus leaving some neighborhoods more resilient to future flooding than others. This study explores key residents, termed magnetic agents, who drove neighborhood civic action and land uses on the open space created through floodplain property acquisition. This research indicates magnetic agents can serve as important partners for local governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in building community-based projects aimed at reducing vulnerability to flood events and instituting high utility land uses on floodplain buyout open space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assessment of social vulnerability is a requirement for understanding the risk of natural hazards. This paper calculates the social vulnerability index of geological disasters in China with the super-efficiency DEA (data envelopment analysis) model, carries out global and local autocorrelation tests for social vulnerability to geological disasters in each province in China and identifies the characteristics of its spatial distribution pattern. The results show the following. (1) China's social vulnerability to geological disasters is relatively high and has obvious differences. It represents the pattern of a significant increase by degrees in social vulnerability to geological disasters from east to west and a significantly negative correlation relationship between the vulnerability level and the economic level. (2) Based on the comparative analysis of the mean values of the indexes and the social vulnerability index of geological disasters, it is found that the social vulnerability index of geological disasters in China is directly related to the regional exposure degree and reaction and recovery ability, among which the reaction and recovery ability has great effects on the social vulnerability index. (3) Most of the regions in China are in a high-high clustering area or a low-low clustering area; that is to say, the regions with similar social vulnerability to geological disasters represent the pattern of clustering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an ADCIRC model with 26 coastal sea walls and assuming that not all coastal sea walls are damaged during a storm surge, we simulated the county of Yuhuan's maximum possible inundation depth and performed a hazard assessment. Additionally, we assessed the vulnerability of Yuhuan County based on land use. Then, based on these assessments, we evaluated the overall storm surge risk for Yuhuan County. The results show that Yuhuan County can be divided into three areas. The first area includes the town of Shamen, the Damaiyu sub-district, etc., and is occupied by people and typically an active area. Although the hazard grade of a part of this area is not high, its risk grade is significant, and most areas belong to the extremely high-risk grade. The second area consists of the sea walls of Jiaomen, Puzhu, Xiaopuzhu-Xitan, Taiping, etc., and includes bare lands, farmlands, shoals, small villages and storage areas. Although the hazard grade for this area is extremely high hazard or high hazard, its risk grade is moderate risk. The third area includes the remaining area in Yuhuan County, where there is no submerged area; this area includes low-lying areas but also has two layers of sea walls. In this area, the surroundings of Xuanmen Bay are only partially used for aquaculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analytical literature on the exact link and nature of problems faced by the urban poor due to climate change and disasters is scarce. The objective of this research is to identify slum residents’ current disaster management (DM) strategies, their perceived needs, and preferences for infrastructural upgrades. Twenty-four in-depth interviews and nine focus groups were conducted with community members in seven different communities in Ahmedabad, India. One important finding was that some physical and non-physical infrastructure needs were not considered in traditional slum upgrading strategies. Implications of these findings can be considered for DM strategies and for Sustainable Development Goal #11. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A variety of models have been applied to assess the economic losses of disasters, of which the most common ones are input-output (IO) and computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. In addition, an increasing number of scholars have developed hybrid approaches: one that combines both or either of them in combination with noneconomic methods. While both IO and CGE models are widely used, they are mainly compared on theoretical grounds. Few studies have compared disaster impacts of different model types in a systematic way and for the same geographical area, using similar input data. Such a comparison is valuable from both a scientific and policy perspective as the magnitude and the spatial distribution of the estimated losses are born likely to vary with the chosen modelling approach (IO, CGE, or hybrid). Hence, regional disaster impact loss estimates resulting from a range of models facilitate better decisions and policy making. Therefore, this study analyses the economic consequences for a specific case study, using three regional disaster impact models: two hybrid IO models and a CGE model. The case study concerns two flood scenarios in the Po River basin in Italy. Modelling results indicate that the difference in estimated total (national) economic losses and the regional distribution of those losses may vary by up to a factor of 7 between the three models, depending on the type of recovery path. Total economic impact, comprising all Italian regions, is negative in all models though. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humanity has long sought to explain and understand why environmental processes and phenomena contribute to and interfere with development processes, frequently through the terms and concepts of 'vulnerability' and 'resilience'. Many proven ideas and approaches from development and disaster risk reduction literature are not fully considered by contemporary climate change work. This chapter describes the importance of older vulnerability and resilience research for contemporary investigations involving climate change, suggesting ways forward without disciplinary blinkers. Vulnerability and resilience as processes are explored alongside critiques of the post-disaster 'return to normal' paradigm. The importance of learning from already existing literature and experience is demonstrated for ensuring that complete vulnerability and resilience processes are accounted for by placing climate change within other contemporary development concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds upon the risk culture concept started with Mary Douglas’ and Aaron Wildavsky’s seminal work on risk and culture. Based upon the empirical results of a qualitative sociological study on sociocultural factors affecting risk perception and crisis communication in seven European countries, a theoretical model, illustrating how differences in disasters framing imply diverse approaches to risk and disaster management, is suggested. According to this framework, culturally bounded assumptions and conventions strongly influence how communities make sense of risks and hazards and how these communities consider some ways of dealing with disasters more appropriate than others. The framework suggested in this article distinguishes between risk cultures of a given society, which do not necessarily respond to nation states. In order to explain differences in how cultures deal with risks and disasters, and to define the main features of our typology, three main interrelated dimensions have been selected: disaster framing, trust in authorities and blaming. By analyzing differences and similarities in how people perceive and interpret disasters, as well as to whom the responsibility for risk prevention and crisis management is attributed, in seven European countries, three specific ideal types of risk cultures emerged: state-oriented risk culture, individual-oriented risk culture and fatalistic risk culture. Implications for crisis management and communication in case of a disaster will be addressed for each of these risk cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disasters result in devastating human, economic, and environmental effects. The paper highlights women's active participation in community-based disaster recovery efforts drawing from the results of the ‘Rebuilding Lives Post-disaster: Innovative Community Practices for Sustainable Development’ by an international research partnership. Two case studies are presented from Pakistan and the USA to demonstrate how women contribute to building resilience and promoting sustainable development in diverse post-disaster contexts. The policy and practice implications are relevant for discussions regarding the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals and framework. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the rapid development of GIS and RS technology, especially in recent years, GIS technology and its software functions have been increasingly mature and enhanced. And with the rapid development of mathematical statistical tools for spatial modeling and simulation, has promoted the widespread application and popularization of quantization in the field of geology. Based on the investigation of field disaster and the construction of spatial database, this paper uses remote sensing image, DEM and GIS technology to obtain the data information of disaster vulnerability analysis, and makes use of the information model to carry out disaster risk assessment mapping. Using ArcGIS software and its spatial data modeling method, the basic data information of the disaster risk mapping process was acquired and processed, and the spatial data simulation tool was used to map the disaster rapidly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global pandemic of Coronavirus COVOD-19 has caused global physical health threats and psychological health shocks, whether it is fear and panic of infection, emotional impact on home quarantine or isolation, and economic difficulties due to the epidemic. Interpersonal conflicts caused by epidemic prevention or mental health problems such as internet addiction and domestic violence arising from home extension due to fear of the spread of epidemic disease and their corresponding ways, which deserve the attention of guidance and counseling professionals. These biological epidemics are not individual cases. Significant disasters include SARS and MERS. The minor disasters include influenza and dengue fever, plus the natural disasters such as earthquakes, typhoons, heavy rain, tsunami, and volcanic eruptions. or significant traffic accidents such as plane crashes and train derailments, or unexpected events such as fires, dust explosions, oil pipe explosions, terrorist attacks and nuclear power leakage. Whether it is a natural or human-made disaster, it will cause severe destruction and damage to people's lives, property, and environment of the world. It will bring significant trauma and sorrow to the mental health of the people. As a result, there is an urgent need for psychological counseling and psychotherapy. Guidance and counseling professionals should understand and respond to these counseling needs caused by disasters. At this moment, when COVOD19 continues to spread, the Chinese Journal of Guidance and Counselling specifically plan this special issue on “disasters and counseling” and solicit contributions from scholars around the world. It is hoped that relevant helping professionals will jointly discuss the psychological crisis of the disaster in-depth, and actively build a psychological turning point of counseling, cultivating the present, reviewing the past, and inspiring the future. Professionals in the field of guidance and counseling, as well as cross-disciplinary professionals, are welcome to participate in the submission. Topics include (but not limited to): 1. Different types of mental health problems of people from different backgrounds caused by disasters. 2. The mental health policy and related counseling strategies in response to disaster-induced mental health problems. 3. Mental health problems of helping professionals caused by disasters or disaster relief. 4. The psychological process and experience of helping professionals during disaster relief. 5. All relevant theoretical constructions, intervention programs, case studies, literature reviews, qualitative or quantitative empirical studies related to disasters are also welcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective disaster risk management relies on science-based solutions to close the gap between prevention and preparedness measures. The consultation on the United Nations post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction highlights the need for cross-border early warning systems to strengthen the preparedness phases of disaster risk management, in order to save lives and property and reduce the overall impact of severe events. Continental and global scale flood forecasting systems provide vital early flood warning information to national and international civil protection authorities, who can use this information to make decisions on how to prepare for upcoming floods. Here the potential monetary benefits of early flood warnings are estimated based on the forecasts of the continental-scale European Flood Awareness System (EFAS) using existing flood damage cost information and calculations of potential avoided flood damages. The benefits are of the order of 400 Euro for every 1 Euro invested. A sensitivity analysis is performed in order to test the uncertainty in the method and develop an envelope of potential monetary benefits of EFAS warnings. The results provide clear evidence that there is likely a substantial monetary benefit in this cross-border continental-scale flood early warning system. This supports the wider drive to implement early warning systems at the continental or global scale to improve our resilience to natural hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change-related disasters displace millions of people each year. Small island states in the Pacific have become emblematic of the problem because they are among the most impacted and the most vulnerable. Often portrayed by global media as drowning beneath the sea, these states are struggling for their very survival. Many of their residents are looking to move overseas, but face a lack of legal options to migrate. A test case in New Zealand from a Kiribati national claiming to be a "climate change refugee" highlights the difficulty of fitting climate-induced migrants into the Refugee Convention mold. To grant refuge, deemed the persecutor, would have turned the refugee paradigm on its head. This case reveals the wide protection gap left by existing domestic and international laws for those hoping to flee their sinking homes. To fill this gap, it will be essential for domestic, regional, and multilateral bodies to proactively work together in developing and implementing effective strategies for migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Klemas, V., 2015. Remote sensing of floods and flood-prone areas: An overview. River floods and coastal storm surges affect the lives of more people than most other weather-related disasters. Floods can destroy homes, roads, and bridges; tear out trees; cause mudslides; and take many human lives. During flooding, timely and detailed situation reports are required by disaster management authorities to locate and identify affected areas and to implement damage mitigation. Remote sensing systems on satellites and aircraft can provide much of the required information for delineating the flood-affected areas, assessing the damage, and feeding models that can predict the vulnerability to flooding of inland and coastal areas. In this article, I provide an overview of remote sensing and modeling techniques for forecasting the vulnerability to flooding of an area, determining the extent and intensity of the flooding, and assessing the damage caused by the flood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ambiente & Sociedade is the property of Nepam Unicamp and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The world tourism industry suffered some severe losses as a result of a series of major international events and the magnitude of disaster risks has become a major topic of discussion for a sustainable tourism especially in the insurance industry. Most of the tourism destinations face a wide range of disasters and crises from a variety of hazards (natural, technological, biological, and civil/political). Risk management for sustainability of tourism refers to the planning and implementation of processes directed towards managing the adverse effects of disasters on tourism. The aim of this paper is to consider the key elements of disasters and their effects upon tourism destinations, and to provide background on risk management processes for sustainable tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is likely to affect the pattern of disasters in the Pacific and, by extension, the organizations and systems involved in disaster response. This research focused on how immediate humanitarian health-related needs following disasters are met using the concept of adaptive capacity to investigate the resilience of organizations and the robustness of the broader system of disaster response. Four case study countries (Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, and Vanuatu) were chosen for deeper investigation of the range of issues present in the Pacific. Key findings were that adaptive capacity was enhanced by strong informal communication and relationships as well as formal relationships, appropriate participation of traditional leaders and churches, and recognition and support for the critical role national disaster management offices play in disaster coordination. Adaptive capacity was found to be constrained by lack of clear policies for requesting international assistance, lack of coordinated disaster assessments, and limited human resources for health in disaster response. Limitations in psychosocial support and Australian medical services to meet specific needs were observed. Finally, the research revealed that both Pacific and Australian disaster-response agencies would benefit from a strengthened ‘future’ focus to better plan for uncertainty and changing risks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Guimaras oil spill of 2006 was the worst environmental accident of the Philippine and coincidentally happened during a period of rapid progress in nationwide communication technology. This study took advantage of the massive media coverage of the incident to answer questions about the priority needs of the affected population, the prominent disaster response, and the rationale for the response. Techniques were combined to implement a descriptive analysis of the available information-interview of key respondents and news survey, substantiated by a document analysis of hardcopy and online materials, and content mapping in the integration and analysis. The priority needs of the oils spill victims were few and basic-a plain consequence of economic and physical dislocations. Yet, these needs were inadequately met because the many forms of disaster response “diluted” the relief operation and further spawned unwarranted issues that aggravated the situation. Habitat assessment and rehabilitation, especially of mangroves, emerged as the prominent response. Aggressively pushed by experts and advocates, it competed with and overshadowed the priority action on the distressed population. The environmental response is linked to a lingering foreign crusade. The environmentalism is unregulated and turning adverse, but it continually succeeds because, apart from its domineering advocacy, as foreign imposition, the society is naturally resilient to it, Philippine laws support it and, particularly, even intellectuals espouse it. Moreover, there exists a large pool of potential environment advocates in the country with hardly 1% of which being development-oriented. Other failures of the disaster response are discussed. The aftermath rippled with issues on litigations, irregularities and continuing research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widespread disasters in recent years such as Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy have focused attention upon the reliability of, and possible legal issues relating to, on-site generation. This article focuses upon onsite generation, such as synchronous cogeneration, which can start when the grid is down, and other emergency back-up generation that has the capacity to function during an electric distribution outage. Cogeneration has the economic advantage of providing baseline electric and thermal energy to the facility whether or not the grid is operational. Here we concentrate on cogeneration and generation at healthcare facilities and within multi-occupant residential dwellings and discuss certain legal consequences arising as a result of failing to provide on-site power when required to do so by law. We also discuss the potential consequences resulting from the installation of cogeneration in multi-occupant residential buildings when the owner has no legal obligation to make such an installation, and how such consequences, including obligations that arise, can be addressed and potential legal liability mitigated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The current study examined the impact of the Gulf Oil Spill and Hurricane Katrina, environmental attitudes, and environmental action among residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The authors sought to determine if disaster impact, worry about the environment, or connection to nature was associated with environmental action following the oil spill and in general. We hypothesized that disaster impact and environmental attitudes would be significantly associated with environmental action. Surveys were administered to 1,108 individuals receiving mental health services in connection with the Gulf Oil Spill. Results indicated that disaster impact was correlated with environmental worry, connection to nature, and action. Additionally, environmental worry and connection to nature were significantly associated with action, as were the effects of Hurricane Katrina to a lesser degree. This study supplements the existing literature by examining environmental attitudes, disaster impact, and their association with environmental action following two disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trans-boundary haze events in Southeast Asia are associated with large forest and peatland fires in Indonesia. These episodes of extreme air pollution usually occur during drought years induced by climate anomalies from the Pacific (El Niño Southern Oscillation) and Indian Oceans (Indian Ocean Dipole). However, in June 2013 - a non-drought year - Singapore's 24-hr Pollutants Standards Index reached an all-time record 246 (rated "very unhealthy''). Here, we show using remote sensing, rainfall records and other data, that the Indonesian fires behind the 2013 haze followed a two-month dry spell in a wetter-than-average year. These fires were short-lived (one week) and limited to a localized area in Central Sumatra (1.6% of Indonesia): burning an estimated 163,336 ha, including 137,044 ha (84%) on peat. Most burning was confined to deforested lands (82%; 133,216 ha). The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during this brief, localized event were considerable: 172 ± 59 Tg CO2-eq (or 31 ± 12 Tg C), representing 5-10% of Indonesia's mean annual GHG emissions for 2000-2005. Our observations show that extreme air pollution episodes in Southeast Asia are no longer restricted to drought years. We expect major haze events to be increasingly frequent because of ongoing deforestation of Indonesian peatlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 6 July 2013, in Lac Mégantic, Quebec, the explosion of an MMA train, carrying light petroleum hydrocarbons, annihilated the downtown area of this 6000-inhabitant community. A total of 47 people lost their lives in this tragic accident and 5978 m3 of petroleum sub-products spilled into Lake Mégantic and the Chaudière River, not counting the incomplete combustion products that were dispersed with the smoke form the fire. This was the worst petroleum spill on land in Canada. The accident and the management of the environmental catastrophe revealed major deficiencies at several levels: transport safety of hazardous materials, preparedness of municipalities facing environmental emergencies, relevance and adequacy of emergency measures, environmental risk assessment, assessment of contamination and selection and speed of rehabilitation measures. This article describes the accident, the emergency measures applied and the environmental impacts of petroleum contaminants. It states and analyses the characterization data on water, soils, sediment and air supplied by the government, environmental organisations and universities. It addresses sanitary issues and solutions, such as potable water supply for some communities along the Chaudière River, surface water, groundwater, sediments and soil contamination issues, as well as the future of contaminants and their potential long-term cumulative impacts. This article proposes recommendations for signaling the deficiencies and critical needs as pertains to regulations, infrastructure, training and knowledge so the populations and municipal services may be better prepared to face future similar situations and events. [Journal translation] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Side Scan Sonar (SSS) is a common method for mapping seagrass meadows that allows to define meadow extent and typology. Should sonogram interpretation be efficient, repeated mapping would allow evaluation of spatial meadow dynamics through time. Here, maps of Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile meadows from western Liguria (NW Mediterranean Sea) produced in 1990, 1991 and 2006 through SSS surveys, were processed with GIS (Geographical Information System) and compared by means of diachronic analysis to establish concordances and discordances. While any difference between maps of 1990 and 2006 might provide information about change in seagrass cover with time, the availability of maps taken at only one year of distance (1991 vs 1990) offered the unique opportunity to evaluate the efficiency of SSS mapping, as the slow dynamics of P. oceanica makes significant change over such a short time scale unrealistic in absence of any large-scale environmental catastrophe. Results showed obvious differences in P. oceanica meadow distribution among the three periods in most of the areas. The largest differences were found between the maps of 1990 and 1991. This discrepancy was probably due to erroneous interpretation of small, fragmented shallow-water meadows on sonograms. Errors in sonogram interpretation combine with inefficient positioning in old cartographies to blur the evaluation of change over large time scales (i.e. between 1990 and 2006). Extensive sea-truthing based on a rigorous design is mandatory for efficient acoustic mapping of seagrass meadows. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Environmental pollution is one of the important problems for the living beings. It interrupts to lead better life. The present study is an attempt to study the environmental awareness and behavior towards the environment of the students with environmental disasters factors in private universities in Sylhet, Bangladesh. To conduct this study, a questionnaire was designed and implemented on a sample of 200 students of four private universities in Sylhet city. Research findings show that global warming (66.5%) is the most important problem in the world and unplanned urbanization (32%) is the most important problem in Bangladesh. Research indicates that 'Global warming', 'The conflict over the natural water resources' and 'The needs for other energy sources against petroleum' are the most influential factors for environmental disaster. Most of the respondents believe that education of environmental awareness and use of bi-cycle for short distance in the city may solve environment pollution. Therefore, Government and non-government organizations should take initiative to prepare bi-cycle road aside foot-path as well as educational activities regarding healthy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semi-natural wet meadows are threatened by drainage, the abandonment of traditional management and climate change. The large blue butterflies Maculinea teleius and M. nausithous are flagship species associated with wet meadows and are the targets of many conservation programmes. However, there is little knowledge on the impact of natural catastrophes, such as floods, on the persistence of these butterflies. In our study we tested how a flood that resulted in the temporary inundation of meadows affected populations of M. teleius and M. nausithous. Studies were conducted in two consecutive seasons of 2009 (with ‘normal’ weather) and 2010 (with extreme rainfall and a consequent flood in May) in a wet meadow complex located in the Vistula River valley in southern Poland. In both years the abundance of adults was estimated for each local habitat patch (n = 55) within sympatric metapopulations of both species. Additionally, in June 2010, i.e. directly after the flood and shortly before the flight period, a total of 754 Myrmica ant nests in 10 habitat patches (6 inundated vs. 4 not inundated) were checked for the presence of Maculinea larvae and pupae. We found no impact of inundation on year-to-year changes in adult population sizes. The probability of occurrence of Maculinea larvae and pupae in ant nests was higher in temporarily inundated meadows. Our results indicate that temporary inundation occurring after long-term downpours does not negatively affect the investigated species even during the larval period in ant nests at ground level. This provides an argument against drainage works in wet meadows with Maculinea butterflies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute catastrophic events can cause significant damage to marine environments in a short time period and may have devastating long-term impacts. In April 2010 the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon (DWH) offshore oil rig exploded, releasing an estimated 760 million liters of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. This study examines the potential effects of oil spill exposure on coral larvae of the Florida Keys. Larvae of the brooding coral, Porites astreoides, and the broadcast spawning coral, Montastraea faveolata, were exposed to multiple concentrations of BP Horizon source oil (crude, weathered and WAF), oil in combination with the dispersant Corexit® 9500 (CEWAF), and dispersant alone, and analyzed for behavior, settlement, and survival. Settlement and survival of P. astreoides and M. faveolata larvae decreased with increasing concentrations of WAF, CEWAF and Corexit® 9500, however the degree of the response varied by species and solution. P. astreoides larvae experienced decreased settlement and survival following exposure to 0.62 ppm source oil, while M. faveolata larvae were negatively impacted by 0.65, 1.34 and 1.5 ppm, suggesting that P. astreoides larvae may be more tolerant to WAF exposure than M. faveolata larvae. Exposure to medium and high concentrations of CEWAF (4.28/18.56 and 30.99/35.76 ppm) and dispersant Corexit® 9500 (50 and 100 ppm), significantly decreased larval settlement and survival for both species. Furthermore, exposure to Corexit® 9500 resulted in settlement failure and complete larval mortality after exposure to 50 and 100 ppm for M. faveolata and 100 ppm for P. astreoides. These results indicate that exposure of coral larvae to oil spill related contaminants, particularly the dispersant Corexit® 9500, has the potential to negatively impact coral settlement and survival, thereby affecting the resilience and recovery of coral reefs following exposure to oil and dispersants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the authors discuss the theme of disasters explored from various perspectives, including the philosophical, life science, and economical aspects, within articles of this issue.

Optimal life histories in a fluctuating environment are likely to differ from those that are optimal in a constant environment, but we have little understanding of the consequences of bounded fluctuations versus episodic massive mortality events. Catastrophic disturbances, such as floods, droughts, landslides and fires, substantially alter the population dynamics of affected populations, but little has been done to investigate how catastrophes may act as a selective agent for life-history traits. We use an individual-based model of population dynamics of the stream-dwelling salmonid marble trout ( Salmo marmoratus) to investigate how trade-offs between the growth and mortality of individuals and density-dependent body growth can lead to the maintenance of a wide or narrow range of individual variation in body growth rates in environments that are constant (i.e., only demographic stochasticity), variable (i.e., environmental stochasticity), or variable with catastrophic events that cause massive mortalities (e.g., flash floods). We find that occasional episodes of massive mortality can substantially reduce persistent variability in individual growth rates. Lowering the population density reduces density dependence and allows for higher fitness of more opportunistic strategies (rapid growth and early maturation) during the recovery period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental calamities and destruction do not recognize national borders. Furthermore, environmental "crimes" are being committed everyday throughout the whole planet. Rare species of flora and fauna of the Globe are insistently in the process of extinction. Deforestation and desertification are going on with full speed. Not only the rain forests of South America, but also the forests of Africa and ex-Soviet bloc counties are being completely cleared. The impacts of global warming and acid rain are becoming more visible thus threatening the fate of the global civilization. GMOs are being explored and put into the service of mass consumers day by day without any adequate control over it. Toxic and hazardous wastes are still being exported illegally to especially developing countries. Hundreds of international documents have been put into effect for several years. However, since there is no global monitoring organization, the implementation status of these treaties is not clearly known. All these indicate that global environmental planning and management needs require institutional remedies to be set by the international community. However, on the other hand, the available international organizations such as the United Nations, The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and Global Environmental Facility (GEF) do not have such a global organizational setup, global power and global financial resources. Therefore, these organizations cannot provide any light of hope for the global future. The subsequent transformation of the GATT, into the World Trade Organization (WTO) has created a new example and genre of international institutions. Member countries have transferred some of their rights to this Organization in order to accelerate the pace of global trade. The world's environmental problems desperately need a unique and comprehensive body to run the planning, organizing, execution, coordination and cooperation functions of the global environmental management. This organization should be the World Environment Organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]