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Disaster emergency management is crucial for safeguarding lives and the environment in the face of natural and human-caused calamities, such as quick clay landslides. Disaster emergency management encompasses hazard identification, prevention, response, and recovery, most of which require knowledge and information acquired through training initiatives. Quick clay landslides pose a substantial hazard in regions like Scandinavia, Canada, Alaska, and Russia. With numerous historical incidents, knowledge-based awareness of quick clay landslide hazards is of paramount importance. In recent years, the area of application of virtual reality (VR) has grown tremendously from the entertainment industry to the military, to mental health, to hazard identification training and our daily lives. VR has been widely employed in hazard identification and prevention, safety training, evacuation, search and rescue, and damage identification of hazards. This study outlines the design, development, and implementation of QuickAware, a VR tool designed to create awareness of quick clay hazards. The development process of the tool started with a co-design approach where stakeholder experts were brought to collaborate in setting up VR scenarios and defining the VR environment contents. The contents were then conceptualized and translated into a VR experience. The novelty of the tool is that it immerses users in a realistic experience, allowing them to engage directly with the causes and consequences of quick clay landslide disasters which would be dangerous in real-life. The usability of the VR tool was examined by surveying 16 participants. The preliminary results of the survey indicated that the tool has a promising value in improving awareness creation for quick clay landslide hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid modernization in Saudi Arabia has led to environmental challenges like pollution. Public understanding of pollutants is crucial for public participation in Saudi government efforts to monitor and mitigate impacts. This cross-sectional observational study aimed to assess the awareness and perceptions of environmental pollutants among 817 adults in Saudi Arabia's Jazan region. The online survey identified transportation and industrial emissions as widely recognized hazards, but there were gaps regarding risks like asbestos. Illegal dumping and junk houses were major concerns. Females had 1.86 times higher adjusted odds of concern about outdoor environmental risks compared to males (AOR: 1.86; 95% CI: 1.12–2.84; p = 0.004). Participants with high school education or above had significantly increased odds of concern about outdoor hazards, with 4.27 times higher odds for those with high school education (AOR: 4.27; 95% CI: 1.92–9.52; p < 0.001) and 3.51 times higher odds for those with university education or above (AOR: 3.51; 95% CI: 1.59–7.72; p = 0.002). Self-reported environmental interest was strongly associated with concern about outdoor and indoor air pollution, with 4.89 times higher adjusted odds of concern about outdoor air pollution (AOR: 4.89, 95% CI: 3.02–7.93, p < 0.001) and 2.86 times higher adjusted odds of concern about indoor air quality (AOR: 2.86, 95% CI: 2.86–4.47, p < 0.001). Overall, Jazan residents display general but incomplete awareness of health hazards, signaling a need for expanded educational efforts to improve consciousness of less visible pollutants. Effective public communication strategies built on these insights can strengthen societal environmental awareness in Saudi Arabia and promote sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of urban design in disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) has taken more attention in the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, as transmission rates are highest where cities are mostly crowded. Rapid urbanization is taking place in Asia, making its populations most vulnerable to hazards and disasters, including this current pandemic. This paper aims to assess the basic hazard awareness of the city population, particularly in the central business district (CBD), as a prerequisite for urban resilience. A comprehensive survey of the daytime population of Davao City's CBD was conducted in the latter half of 2019, focusing on the respondents' awareness of the five (5) most prevalent disasters in the study area. Existing government policies and programs on climate change adaptation and DRRM were also examined as to how they are translated into community development and other forms of interventions. Research results show that the majority of the daytime urban population are in their early and prime working age and despite their high educational background, they have low awareness of hazards, and their recall of experiences in disasters is short-term. The majority of them are not able to identify which hazard they are most susceptible to, and DRRM-related terminologies are poorly understood. In conclusion, this study hoped to provide a basis for integrating risk communication in architectural and urban design interventions toward a sustainable and resilient built environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of the Risk Awareness and Perception Training (RAPT) program among teens of various socioeconomic status (SES).Methods: A secondary analysis was undertaken of data collected from 5036 teen participants for a study in 2011. They were randomly assigned to either receive RAPT or a placebo training. The total number of crashes (property damage only and injury) within the first 12 months after licensure was recorded. A Poisson regression model was employed to investigate the effectiveness of RAPT in terms of crash frequency among teens in different levels of SES, as measured by SES level (high or low) or poverty rate.Results: Poverty rate was significantly associated with participants' crash frequency within the first 12 months after licensure such that when poverty rate increased, the crash frequency increased. The interacting effect of poverty rate and training was also significant. When compared to participants who did not receive RAPT, participants who received RAPT had fewer crashes when poverty rate increased.Conclusion: The RAPT program attenuated the negative effect of teen drivers' SES on crashes. No significant effect of sex or age was found, indicating that in terms of crashes, regardless of age or sex, RAPT is equally effective at reducing crashes for lower SES teens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The utility of communicating hazard vulnerability to the public through monuments and historical markers commemorating and describing past disasters is explored in this paper. A survey of county emergency management directors in Wisconsin focused upon their awareness of such monuments and their attitudes regarding the effectiveness of disaster markers and commemoration in communicating hazard risk to the public, both residents and visitors. Emergency managers held disparate views regarding the effectiveness of the markers among the public, although managers in counties with markers tended to hold a higher opinion of their effectiveness in communicating hazard risk and to be more willing to commemorate future disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the tanker driver hazard awareness on chemical exposure is important to ensure that they are fortified with the appropriate information regarding the risk of their occupation. This present study was conducted to determine the awareness of the petrol tanker driver on the chemical exposure during transportation petroleum product. The assessment on hazardous awareness of the petrol tank driver was conducted through questionnaire survey. Wherein, the questionnaire was designed with considering the variables of age of the driver, working experience, working hours in a day and knowledge on chemical hazard presence in the petroleum oil. A reliability test of Cronbach's Alpha was performed to validate the questionnaire and the Chi-Square test was conducted to determine the correlation among the studied variables. The findings of the present study revealed that the drivers who are frequently come into direct contact with petrol cannot identify the spillage had occurred during working. The study identified that there is an urgency to conduct training on safe handling of petroleum oil in order to eliminate the risk of chemical hazards exposure to the tanker driver.

In mountainous areas in recent decades urbanisation has expanded to areas where low ground adjoins mountainsides that are unstable in a number of respects. Periurbanisation in mountain basins with unstable sides poses specific problems that local players have to address. The Lavanchon basin (southeast of Grenoble), which is subject to very rapid urban growth combined with particularly dynamic mountainsides, is representative of the way activity is being brought into closer contact with potential hazards. A diachronic study of changes in land use between 1956 and 2001 shows how valley infrastructures at the bottom of mountainsides have become increasingly dense. In this context, a survey was carried out among a number of residents in the Lavanchon basin in an attempt to evaluate the degree of awareness that the population has of the natural hazards to which it is exposed. The results show that slightly more than half of the population surveyed was aware of the problem of natural hazards being present in the area, with most inhabitants being more concerned about industrial and pollution hazards. New residents were unaware of or were unwilling to accept the reality of hazards. The low incidence of significant natural events, the effectiveness of the protective structures built, the absence of information provided by the public authorities and the division of the basin between several management bodies appear to have engendered a feeling of safety from natural phenomena. The geographical distribution of appreciation of the hazard clearly shows a distinction between those inhabitants living on the low ground and those at the bottom of the mountainsides, and this corresponds fairly closely with the historical and current location of the main potentially hazardous events that have occurred.

In mountainous areas in recent decades urbanisation has expanded to areas where low ground adjoins mountainsides that are unstable in a number of respects. Periurbanisation in mountain basins with unstable sides poses specific problems that local players have to address. The Lavanchon basin (southeast of Grenoble), which is subject to very rapid urban growth combined with particularly dynamic mountainsides, is representative of the way activity is being brought into closer contact with potential hazards. A diachronic study of changes in land use between 1956 and 2001 shows how valley infrastructures at the bottom of mountainsides have become increasingly dense. In this context, a survey was carried out among a number of residents in the Lavanchon basin in an attempt to evaluate the degree of awareness that the population has of the natural hazards to which it is exposed. The results show that slightly more than half of the population surveyed was aware of the problem of natural hazards being present in the area, with most inhabitants being more concerned about industrial and pollution hazards. New residents were unaware of or were unwilling to accept the reality of hazards. The low incidence of significant natural events, the effectiveness of the protective structures built, the absence of information provided by the public authorities and the division of the basin between several management bodies appear to have engendered a feeling of safety from natural phenomena. The geographical distribution of appreciation of the hazard clearly shows a distinction between those inhabitants living on the low ground and those at the bottom of the mountainsides, and this corresponds fairly closely with the historical and current location of the main potentially hazardous events that have occurred.

Background: Welding is a manufacturing industry where workers could be exposed to several hazards. However, there is a dearth of studies clarifying the situation in Ethiopia. The present study determined the level of awareness of occupational hazards and associated factors among welding employees at Lideta Sub-City, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods: A work site-based cross-sectional study was conducted among welding employees Lideta Sub-City, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from April to May 2015. Stratified sampling followed by simple random sampling techniques was used to select the study participants. A pilot tested and structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Multivariable analyses were employed to see the effect of explanatory variables on workers' awareness of occupational hazards. Results: According to our criteria of awareness 86.5 % of surveyed workers were aware of occupational hazards. A higher work experience, presence of work regulation, job satisfaction, being married, being single, and a higher educational status were factors significantly associated with workers' awareness of occupational hazards. Conclusion: This study revealed that the level of awareness of occupational hazards among welders was high. However, this does not mean that there will be no need for further strengthening of the safety measures as significant proportions of the workers still had low awareness. Interventions to boost workers awareness of occupational hazards should focus on areas, such as provision of safety trainings, promotion of safety advocacy, and enforcement of appropriate workplace safety regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Food poisoning attributable to the home generates a large disease burden, yet is an unregulated and largely unobserved domain. Investigating food safety awareness and routine practices is fraught with difficulties. The purpose of this paper is to develop and apply a new survey tool to elicit awareness of food hazards. Data generated by the approach are analysed to investigate the impact of oberservable heterogeneity on food safety awareness. Design/methodology/approach – The authors develop a novel Watch-and-Click survey tool to assess the level of awareness of a set of hazardous food safety behaviours in the domestic kitchen. Participants respond to video footage stimulus, in which food hazards occur, via mouse clicks/screen taps. This real-time response data is analysed via estimation of count and logit models to investigate how hazard identification patterns vary over observable characteristics. Findings – User feedback regarding the Watch-and-Click tool approach is extremely positive. Substantive results include significantly higher hazard awareness among the under 60s. People who thought they knew more than the average person did indeed score higher but people with food safety training/experience did not. Vegetarians were less likely to identify four of the five cross-contamination hazards they observed. Originality/value – A new and engaging survey tool to elicit hazard awareness with real-time scores and feedback is developed, with high levels of user engagement and stakeholder interest. The approach may be applied to elicit hazard awareness in a wide range of contexts including education, training and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Hazard awareness skills of young-novice drivers are receptive to training. Yet, there is no consensus on an optimal training program or acceptable measures to assess intervention effectiveness. The current study aimed to develop a driving Simulator based Hazard Perception Test (S-HPT) for assessing changes in awareness of hazards among trained young-novice driver, relative to a control group, and a group of experienced drivers (gold standard). Two urban environments were chosen for testing; residential district with narrow roads, and business district with wider roads. Fourteen scenarios consisting of potential situations known to differentiate between untrained young-novice and experienced drivers (e.g., limited field of view) with and without materialized situations were created. Data from 39 young-novice and 6 experienced drivers was analyzed. Using an allocation algorithm each young participant was assigned to one of three training interventions (AAHPT-Active, Hybrid or RAPT) or control. Driving speed was chosen as the measure of analysis since it indicates whether drivers have spotted a hazard, and what they chose to do to avoid it. It was sampled every 3 meters, approximately 400 times per scenario per driver group. A respective curve was fitted for each group. Differences in speed among driver groups were examined and comparisons between potentially hazardous scenarios and materialized ones were made. Results revealed that scenarios that required braking but not to a complete stop were the most diagnostic. The use of two environments demonstrated differences in group behaviours that would have not been seen if utilizing only one environment. Use of two comparisons, to control and to experienced drivers was reassuring as the results complemented. Where the resemblance of trainees was higher to control, they tended to resemble the experienced group less. The Active trainees bore more resemblance to the control in the residential scenarios while the RAPT and Hybrid bore more resemblance to the control in the business district scenarios. To conclude, generation of a variety of scenes in multiple traffic environments with- and without materialized hazards is a promising way for hazard awareness simulator test development. Group-related metrics and analyses are essential to investigate which conditions discriminate among driver groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe the development, implementation, and first analyses of the performance of a debris-flow warning system for the Illgraben catchment and debris fan area. The Illgraben catchment (9.5 km2), located in the Canton of Valais, Switzerland, in the Rhone River valley, is characterized by frequent and voluminous sediment transport and debris-flow activity, and is one of the most active debris-flow catchments in the Alps. It is the site of an instrumented debris-flow observation station in operation since the year 2000. The residents in Susten (municipality Leuk), tourists, and other land users, are exposed to a significant hazard. The warning system consists of four modules: community organizational planning (hazard awareness and preparedness), event detection and alerting, geomorphic catchment observation, and applied research to facilitate the development of an early warning system based on weather forecasting. The system presently provides automated alert signals near the active channel prior to (5–15 min) the arrival of a debris flow or flash flood at the uppermost frequently used channel crossing. It is intended to provide data to support decision-making for warning and evacuation, especially when unusually large debris flows are expected to leave the channel near populated areas. First-year results of the detection and alert module in comparison with the data from the independent debris-flow observation station are generally favorable. Twenty automated alerts (alarms) were issued, which triggered flashing lights and sirens at all major footpaths crossing the channel bed, for three debris flows and 16 flood flows. Only one false alarm was issued. The major difficulty we encountered is related to the variability and complexity of the events (e.g., events consisting of multiple surges) and can be largely solved by increasing the duration of the alarm. All of the alarms for hazardous events were produced by storms with a rainfall duration and intensity larger than the threshold for debris-flow activity that was defined in an earlier study, supporting our intention to investigate the use of rainfall forecasts to increase the time available for warning and implementation of active countermeasures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), the disaster management headquarters of the Government of Jamaica, understands that the best approach to take in effectively protecting children during emergency situations is to create a culture of risk reduction in which all involved are aware of their local hazards and are actively involved in reducing the resulting risks. This includes the promotion of disaster risk education in schools and also the twin effort of integrating children's needs into the Comprehensive Disaster Management framework. This field report describes the efforts of the ODPEM in protecting Jamaican children in emergency situations. This was and continues to be achieved through two main approaches: building a culture of prevention in and through schools and integrating children's rights into disaster management and response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]