WorldWideScience

Sample records for future-oriented disaster planning

  1. Hospital organizational response to the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island: implications for future-oriented disaster planning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maxwell, C.

    1982-01-01

    The 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island (TMI) near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, caused severe organizational problems for neighboring health care institutions. Dauphin County, just north of TMI, contained four hospitals ranging in distance from 9.5 to 13.5 miles from the stricken plant. Crash plans put into effect within 48 hours of the initial incident successfully reduced hospital census to below 50 per cent of capacity, but retained bedridden and critically ill patients within the risk-zone. No plans existed for area-wide evacuation of hospitalized patients. Future-oriented disaster planning should include resource files of host institution bed capacity and transportation capabilities for the crash evacuation of hospitalized patients during non-traditional disasters

  2. Beyond Disaster Preparedness: Building a Resilience-Oriented Workforce for the Future.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madrigano, Jaime; Chandra, Anita; Costigan, Tracy; Acosta, Joie D

    2017-12-13

    Enhancing citizens' and communities' resilience is critical to adapt successfully to ongoing challenges faced by communities, as well as acute shocks resulting from disasters. While significant progress has been made in this area, several research and practice gaps remain. A crucial next step to advance resilience is the development of a resilience-oriented workforce. This narrative review examines existing literature to determine key components of a resilience-oriented workforce, with a focus on organizational structures, training and education, and leadership models. Reviewed articles spanned a variety of study types, including needs assessments of existing workforce, program evaluations, and reviews/commentaries. A resilience-oriented workforce spans many disciplines and training programs will need to reflect that. It requires a collaborative organizational model that promotes information sharing structures. Leadership models should foster a balance between workforce autonomy and operation as a collective entity. Optimal strategies to develop a resilience-oriented workforce have yet to be realized and future research will need to collect and synthesize data to promote and evaluate the growth of this field.

  3. Beyond Disaster Preparedness: Building a Resilience-Oriented Workforce for the Future

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jaime Madrigano

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Enhancing citizens’ and communities’ resilience is critical to adapt successfully to ongoing challenges faced by communities, as well as acute shocks resulting from disasters. While significant progress has been made in this area, several research and practice gaps remain. A crucial next step to advance resilience is the development of a resilience-oriented workforce. This narrative review examines existing literature to determine key components of a resilience-oriented workforce, with a focus on organizational structures, training and education, and leadership models. Reviewed articles spanned a variety of study types, including needs assessments of existing workforce, program evaluations, and reviews/commentaries. A resilience-oriented workforce spans many disciplines and training programs will need to reflect that. It requires a collaborative organizational model that promotes information sharing structures. Leadership models should foster a balance between workforce autonomy and operation as a collective entity. Optimal strategies to develop a resilience-oriented workforce have yet to be realized and future research will need to collect and synthesize data to promote and evaluate the growth of this field.

  4. Nuclear disasters: current plans and future directions for oncologists.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goffman, Thomas E

    2008-01-01

    To show that there is a significant role for oncologists in the event of a terrorist nuclear disaster. Professionals need data on current political issues regarding a nuclear attack already put in place by the administration and the military. Review of what actually occurs during a fission bomb's explosion helps to point out what medical care will be most needed. The author contends that those trained in the oncologies could play a major part. Modern-day America. Potential civilian survivors. Large gaps noted in statewide disaster plans in the public domain. Oncologists must get involved now in disaster planning; statewide plans are necessary throughout the nation; the public needs to know the basics of what to do in the advent of a nuclear bomb explosion.

  5. Beyond Disaster Preparedness: Building a Resilience-Oriented Workforce for the Future

    OpenAIRE

    Jaime Madrigano; Anita Chandra; Tracy Costigan; Joie D. Acosta

    2017-01-01

    Enhancing citizens’ and communities’ resilience is critical to adapt successfully to ongoing challenges faced by communities, as well as acute shocks resulting from disasters. While significant progress has been made in this area, several research and practice gaps remain. A crucial next step to advance resilience is the development of a resilience-oriented workforce. This narrative review examines existing literature to determine key components of a resilience-oriented workforce, with a focu...

  6. A comparative study in disaster planning in selected countries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mahmode M

    2007-11-01

    Full Text Available Background: Assessment of different strategic in disaster planning in selected countries. According to the international report indicating that IRAN is among the seven countries most susceptible to disaster, experiencing 31 known disasters out of 40 in the world, occurrence of 1536 moderate to severe earthquake, during 1370-80 and 712 other disasters at the same period it seems necessary to design a disaster plan."nMethods: This research is a comparative-descriptive and case based study in which the researcher used random sampling process in selecting the statistical society from both developed and developing countries. In this goal oriented research the necessary information are extracted from valid global reports, articles and many questionnaires which were subjected to scientific analysis."nResults: Studying different countries (which includes: Canada, Japan, India, USA, Turkey, Pakistan and Iran shows that there is a direct relationship between the level of countries development and their success in disaster planning and management (including preventive measures and confrontation. In most of the studied countries, decentralized planning caused many professional planners participate in different levels of disaster management which ultimately led to development of efficient and realistic plans which in turn decreased the catastrophic effects of disasters dramatically. The results of the aforementioned countries showed that a balanced approach to disaster plan with investment in prophylactic area is very important."nConclusion: As our country uses a centralized strategy for disaster management which has proven its ineffectiveness, the researcher suggests that we should change our approach in disaster management and let our planners participate from all levels include: provincial, rural and etc. This will led to a reality based planning and using all potential capacities in disaster management. According to this study it will be possible to use

  7. A regional, market oriented governance for disaster management: A new planning approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blackstone, Erwin A; Hakim, Simon; Meehan, Brian

    2017-10-01

    This paper proposes a regional competitive governance and management of response and recovery from disasters. It presents problems experienced in major disasters, analyzes the failures, and suggests how a competitive system that relies on private and volunteer regional leaders, personnel, and capital can improve preparation, response and recovery efforts over the existing government system. A Public Choice approach is adopted to explain why government often fails, and how regional governance may be socially more efficient than the existing federal- state-local funded and managed disaster system. The paper suggests that the federal role might change from both funding and supplying aid in disasters to merely funding disaster recovery efforts. When a disaster occurs, available businesses and government resources in the region can be utilized under a competitive system. These resources could replace existing federal and state inventories and emergency personnel. An independent regionally controlled and managed council, which also develops its own financial resources, and local volunteer leaders are key for success. The paper suggests a new planning method that utilizes the statistical Factor Analysis methodology to derive an efficient organizational and functional model to confront disasters. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. A Study of the Planning and Designing of the Built Environment under the Green Transit-Oriented Development

    OpenAIRE

    Wann-Ming Wey

    2016-01-01

    In recent years, the problems of global climate change and natural disasters have induced the concerns and attentions of environmental sustainability issues for the public. Aside from the environmental planning efforts done for human environment, Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) has been widely used as one of the future solutions for the sustainable city development. In order to be more consistent with the urban sustainable development, the development of the built environment planning base...

  9. a Task-Oriented Disaster Information Correlation Method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Linyao, Q.; Zhiqiang, D.; Qing, Z.

    2015-07-01

    With the rapid development of sensor networks and Earth observation technology, a large quantity of disaster-related data is available, such as remotely sensed data, historic data, case data, simulated data, and disaster products. However, the efficiency of current data management and service systems has become increasingly difficult due to the task variety and heterogeneous data. For emergency task-oriented applications, the data searches primarily rely on artificial experience based on simple metadata indices, the high time consumption and low accuracy of which cannot satisfy the speed and veracity requirements for disaster products. In this paper, a task-oriented correlation method is proposed for efficient disaster data management and intelligent service with the objectives of 1) putting forward disaster task ontology and data ontology to unify the different semantics of multi-source information, 2) identifying the semantic mapping from emergency tasks to multiple data sources on the basis of uniform description in 1), and 3) linking task-related data automatically and calculating the correlation between each data set and a certain task. The method goes beyond traditional static management of disaster data and establishes a basis for intelligent retrieval and active dissemination of disaster information. The case study presented in this paper illustrates the use of the method on an example flood emergency relief task.

  10. The impact of disasters on small business disaster planning: a case study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flynn, David T

    2007-12-01

    A major flood in 1997 forced the evacuation of Grand Forks, North Dakota and caused damage of USD 1 billion. Despite this recent disaster there is only marginal evidence of an increase in disaster recovery planning by businesses that experienced the flood. This finding is consistent with the results of other business-related disaster research. Statistical tests of survey results from 2003 indicate that there is a significantly higher rate of disaster recovery planning in businesses started since the 1997 flood than in businesses started before the flood and still in business. Such an outcome indicates a need for public policy actions emphasizing the importance of disaster planning. Improved disaster planning is an aid to business recovery and the results demonstrate the need for more widespread efforts to improve disaster recovery planning on the part of smaller businesses, even in areas that have recently experienced disasters.

  11. 32 CFR 536.19 - Disaster claims planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Disaster claims planning. 536.19 Section 536.19... AGAINST THE UNITED STATES The Army Claims System § 536.19 Disaster claims planning. All ACOs will prepare... requirements related to disaster claims planning. ...

  12. Education issues in disaster medicine: summary and action plan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Armour, S J; Bastone, P; Birnbaum, M; Garrett, C; Greenough, P G; Manni, C; Ninomiya, N; Renderos, J; Rottman, S; Sahni, P; Shih, C L; Siegel, D; Younggren, B

    2001-01-01

    Change must begin with education. Theme 8 explored issues that need attention in Disaster Medicine education. Details of the methods used are provided in the introductory paper. The chairs moderated all presentations and produced a summary that was presented to an assembly of all of the delegates. The chairs then presided over a workshop that resulted in the generation of a set of action plans that then were reported to the collective group of all delegates. Main points developed during the presentations and discussion included: (1) formal education, (2) standardized definitions, (3) integration, (4) evaluation of programs and interventions, (5) international cooperation, (6) identifying the psychosocial consequences of disaster, (7) meaningful research, and (8) hazard, impact, risk and vulnerability analysis. Three main components of the action plans were identified as evaluation, research, and education. The action plans recommended that: (1) education on disasters should be formalized, (2) evaluation of education and interventions must be improved, and (3) meaningful research should be promulgated and published for use at multiple levels and that applied research techniques be the subject of future conferences. The one unanimous conclusion was that we need more and better education on the disaster phenomenon, both in its impacts and in our response to them. Such education must be increasingly evidence-based.

  13. System i Disaster Recovery Planning

    CERN Document Server

    Dolewski, Richard

    2008-01-01

    Mapping out all the preparations necessary for an effective disaster recovery plan and its safeguard-a continuous maintenance program-this guide is aimed at IT managers of small and medium businesses. The opening section covers the initial steps of auditing vulnerability, ranking essential IT functions, and reviewing the storage of tape backups, with the following discussion focused on the elements of the plan itself. The plan includes a mission statement, a definition of disaster, the assignment of staff to teams, methods of compensating for human error, and standards for documenting the step

  14. An Example of City Disaster Plan in the Context of Integrated Disaster Management with Un sufficient Legal Structure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kepekci, D.

    2007-01-01

    Disaster management of a city, in coherent, stable and true manner, were realized by understanding and organizing of the disaster plan. When we consider the earthquake hazard of Marmara Region, it was investigated by the scientific studies how -a world city- Istanbul were effected this earthquake. When we consider the scientific data and we take a base the current legal structure of our country, the aim of the disaster plan is to provide the fist and emergency aid for the citizens when the destructive earthquake were occurred and effected the general life. This disaster plan includes base of the coordination and helping each other of the activity which all institution and organizations will do during possible disaster. The aims of making of plan is to provide the cooperation and collaboration between before the disaster and to act urgently during the disaster, and to provide the following necessary activity. This necessary activity as main headlines are; the providing of communication and transportation; regulation of traffic; rescue; emergency medical aid, to transportation patient and injured people to the hospitals; to put out fire; to provide security and public order; eating, dressing, heating and lighting studies; to provide temporary housing; the burial of dead citizens; to remove wreckage; to repair and to re-provide the electrical, water and canalization construction. In this study, it will mainly be presented Istanbul city disaster plan. Disaster plan of this city were produced by the intensive and sacrificial efforts with Turkish legal system. After that, disaster plan must updated as soon as possible. However government must regulate current legal system ( or the body of current law) related disaster plan. City disaster plan, which even construct well, include only the operations after the disaster. Before disaster, methods of preventive precaution against the disaster must add the plan with applicable legal system

  15. Modeling the impact of future development and public conservation orientation on landscape connectivity for conservation planning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lechner, Alex Mark; Brown, Greg; Raymond, Christopher Mark

    2015-01-01

    aspects of conservation planning. Objectives We present an approach for characterizing the potential effects of public conservation orientation and projected future development land use scenarios on landscape connectivity. Methods Using public participation GIS techniques (mail-based surveys linked...... to a mapping component), we classified spatially explicit conservation values and preferences into a conservation orientation index consisting of positive, negative, or neutral scores. Connectivity was then modeled using a least-cost path and graph-network approach for a range of conservation orientation...... and development scenarios in the Lower Hunter region, Australia. Scenarios were modelled through either adding vegetation (positive orientation) or removing vegetation (negative orientation, development). Results Scenarios that included positive conservation orientation link the isolated eastern and western...

  16. Translating disaster resilience into spatial planning practice in South Africa: Challenges and champions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Willemien van Niekerk

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available It is highly likely that hazards and extreme climatic events will occur more frequently in the future and will become more severe – increasing the vulnerability and risk of millions of poor urbanites in developing countries. Disaster resilience aims to reduce disaster losses by equipping cities to withstand, absorb, adapt to or recover from external shocks. This paper questions whether disaster resilience is likely to be taken up in spatial planning practices in South Africa, given its immediate developmental priorities and challenges. In South Africa, issues of development take precedence over issues of sustainability, environmental management and disaster reduction. This is illustrated by the priority given to ‘servicing’ settlements compared to the opportunities offered by ‘transforming’ spaces through post-apartheid spatial planning. The City of Durban’s quest in adapting to climate change demonstrates hypothetically that if disaster resilience were to be presented as an issue distinct from what urban planners are already doing, then planners would see it as insignificant as compared to addressing the many developmental backlogs and challenges. If, however, it is regarded as a means to secure a city’s development path whilst simultaneously addressing sustainability, then disaster resilience is more likely to be translated into spatial planning practices in South Africa.

  17. Complete self-sufficiency planning: designing and building disaster-ready hospitals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brands, Chad K; Hernandez, Raquel G; Stenberg, Arnold; Carnes, Gary; Ellen, Jonathan; Epstein, Michael; Strouse, Timothy

    2013-01-01

    The need for healthcare systems and academic medical centers to be optimally prepared in the event of a disaster is well documented. Events such as Hurricane Katrina demonstrate a major gap in disaster preparedness for at-risk medical institutions. To address this gap, we outline the components of complete self-sufficiency planning in designing and building hospitals that will function at full operational capacity in the event of a disaster. We review the processes used and outcomes achieved in building a new critical access, freestanding children's hospital in Florida. Given that hurricanes are the most frequently occurring natural disaster in Florida, the executive leadership of our hospital determined that we should be prepared for worst-case scenarios in the design and construction of a new hospital. A comprehensive vulnerability assessment was performed. A building planning process that engaged all of the stakeholders was used during the planning and design phases. Subsequent executive-level review and discussions determined that a disaster would require the services of a fully functional hospital. Lessons learned from our own institution's previous experiences and those of medical centers involved in the Hurricane Katrina disaster were informative and incorporated into an innovative set of hospital design elements used for construction of a new hospital with full operational capacity in a disaster. A freestanding children's hospital was constructed using a new framework for disaster planning and preparedness that we have termed complete self-sufficiency planning. We propose the use of complete self-sufficiency planning as a best practice for disaster preparedness in the design and construction of new hospital facilities.

  18. RE-PLAN: An Extensible Software Architecture to Facilitate Disaster Response Planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    O’Neill, Martin; Mikler, Armin R.; Indrakanti, Saratchandra; Tiwari, Chetan; Jimenez, Tamara

    2014-01-01

    Computational tools are needed to make data-driven disaster mitigation planning accessible to planners and policymakers without the need for programming or GIS expertise. To address this problem, we have created modules to facilitate quantitative analyses pertinent to a variety of different disaster scenarios. These modules, which comprise the REsponse PLan ANalyzer (RE-PLAN) framework, may be used to create tools for specific disaster scenarios that allow planners to harness large amounts of disparate data and execute computational models through a point-and-click interface. Bio-E, a user-friendly tool built using this framework, was designed to develop and analyze the feasibility of ad hoc clinics for treating populations following a biological emergency event. In this article, the design and implementation of the RE-PLAN framework are described, and the functionality of the modules used in the Bio-E biological emergency mitigation tool are demonstrated. PMID:25419503

  19. [The Hospital Emergency Plan: Important Tool for Disaster Preparedness].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wurmb, Thomas; Scholtes, Katja; Kolibay, Felix; Rechenbach, Peer; Vogel, Ulrich; Kowalzik, Barbara

    2017-09-01

    Hospitals need to be prepared for any kind of disaster. The terrorist attacks and mass shootings that took place in Europe in recent years impressively demonstrated the capability of hospitals to manage such challenging and disastrous events. To be adequately prepared, the hospital emergency plan is a very important tool. In this article we describe the entire process of drafting the emergency plan. We discuss the theoretical background as well as different models of disaster planning and we give important practical hints and tips for those in charge of the hospital disaster planning. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

  20. Cloud Computing dan Kaitannya dengan Disaster Recovery Planning

    OpenAIRE

    Artha, Emilya Ully; Utami, Ema

    2011-01-01

    Disaster recovery planning if it is associated with contuinity bussiness plan will be a link with data and information held by an organization or company. If interference occurs, it can paralyze business continuity company. It takes data replication to maintain data availability in the event of a disaster at any time

  1. GIS and Geodatabase Disaster Risk for Spatial Planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hendriawan Nur, Wawan; Kumoro, Yugo; Susilowati, Yuliana

    2018-02-01

    The spatial planning in Indonesia needs to consider the information on the potential disaster. That is because disaster is a serious and detrimental problem that often occurs and causes casualties in some areas in Indonesia as well as inhibits the development. Various models and research were developed to calculate disaster risk assessment. GIS is a system for assembling, storing, analyzing, and displaying geographically referenced disaster. The information can be collaborated with geodatabases to model and to estimate disaster risk in an automated way. It also offers the possibility to customize most of the parameters used in the models. This paper describes a framework which can improve GIS and Geodatabase for the vulnerability, capacity or disaster risk assessment to support the spatial planning activities so they can be more adaptable. By using this framework, GIS application can be used in any location by adjusting variables or calculation methods without changing or rebuilding system from scratch.

  2. Organizational Behavior in Disasters and Implications for Disaster Planning. Volume 1, Number 2

    Science.gov (United States)

    1986-07-01

    the personal challenges presented by the disaster. There may be expectations of panic, but what almost always occurs is rational behavior . For many...Similarly, there may be expectations of disorder, but what appears is a great deal of prosocial instead of antisocial behavior . To inexperienced...FEMA 104/July 1986 (5-1 Organizational Behavior in Disasters and IMpliCations for Disaster Planning - ii;~1COPBy Enrico L. Quarante~l , Ph. D

  3. An Observation Task Chain Representation Model for Disaster Process-Oriented Remote Sensing Satellite Sensor Planning: A Flood Water Monitoring Application

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chao Yang

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available An accurate and comprehensive representation of an observation task is a prerequisite in disaster monitoring to achieve reliable sensor observation planning. However, the extant disaster event or task information models do not fully satisfy the observation requirements for the accurate and efficient planning of remote-sensing satellite sensors. By considering the modeling requirements for a disaster observation task, we propose an observation task chain (OTChain representation model that includes four basic OTChain segments and eight-tuple observation task metadata description structures. A prototype system, namely OTChainManager, is implemented to provide functions for modeling, managing, querying, and visualizing observation tasks. In the case of flood water monitoring, we use a flood remote-sensing satellite sensor observation task for the experiment. The results show that the proposed OTChain representation model can be used in modeling process-owned flood disaster observation tasks. By querying and visualizing the flood observation task instances in the Jinsha River Basin, the proposed model can effectively express observation task processes, represent personalized observation constraints, and plan global remote-sensing satellite sensor observations. Compared with typical observation task information models or engines, the proposed OTChain representation model satisfies the information demands of the OTChain and its processes as well as impels the development of a long time-series sensor observation scheme.

  4. Risk management and disaster recovery planning for online libraries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uzwyshyn, Ray

    2015-01-01

    This article presents an overview of risk management and disaster recovery planning for online libraries. It is suitable for a broad audience interested in online libraries and research centers in universities and colleges. It outlines risk mitigation strategies, and disaster recover planning for online resource-centered information systems.

  5. Towards a national burns disaster plan | Rogers | South African ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The International Society for Burns Injuries (ISBI) has published guidelines for the management of multiple or mass burns casualties, and recommends that 'each country has or should have a disaster planning system that addresses its own particular needs. The need for a national burns disaster plan integrated with ...

  6. Future orientation: a construct with implications for adolescent health and wellbeing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Sarah R Lindstrom; Blum, Robert W; Cheng, Tina L

    2014-01-01

    Multidisciplinary research has supported a relationship between adolescent future orientation (the ability to set future goals and plans) and positive adolescent health and development outcomes. Many preventive strategies - for example, contracepting, exercising - are based on taking actions in the present to avoid unwanted or negative future consequences. However, research has been hampered by unclear and often divergent conceptualizations of the future orientation construct. The present paper aims to integrate previous conceptual and operational definitions into a conceptual framework that can inform programs and services for youth and efforts to evaluate future orientation as a target for intervention. Recommendations focus on furthering the study of the construct through measurement synthesis as well as studies of the normative development of future orientation. Also suggested is the need to pair environmental intervention strategies with individual level efforts to improve future orientation in order to maximize benefits.

  7. Utilizing Strategic and Operational Methods for Whole-Community Disaster Planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Franks, Stevee; Seaton, Ellen

    2017-12-01

    Analysis of response and recovery efforts to disasters over the past 2 decades has identified a consistent gap that plagues the nation in regard to persons with access and functional needs. This gap can be highlighted by Hurricane Katrina, where the majority of those killed were a part of the access and functional needs population. After a disaster, many individuals with access and functional needs require assistance recovering but often have difficulty accessing services and resources. These difficulties are due to a combination of issues, such as health problems and the disruption of community support services. We sought to help bridge this gap by focusing on strategic and operational methods used while planning for the whole community. This article highlights the many partnerships that must be fostered for successful whole-community planning. These partnerships include, but are not limited to, local government departments, health agencies, nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations, and other volunteer organizations. We showcase these methods by using a developmental Post-Disaster Canvassing Plan to highlight planning methods that may aid jurisdictions across the United States in disaster planning for the whole community. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:741-746).

  8. Disaster and Contingency Planning for Scientific Shared Resource Cores.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mische, Sheenah; Wilkerson, Amy

    2016-04-01

    Progress in biomedical research is largely driven by improvements, innovations, and breakthroughs in technology, accelerating the research process, and an increasingly complex collaboration of both clinical and basic science. This increasing sophistication has driven the need for centralized shared resource cores ("cores") to serve the scientific community. From a biomedical research enterprise perspective, centralized resource cores are essential to increased scientific, operational, and cost effectiveness; however, the concentration of instrumentation and resources in the cores may render them highly vulnerable to damage from severe weather and other disasters. As such, protection of these assets and the ability to recover from a disaster is increasingly critical to the mission and success of the institution. Therefore, cores should develop and implement both disaster and business continuity plans and be an integral part of the institution's overall plans. Here we provide an overview of key elements required for core disaster and business continuity plans, guidance, and tools for developing these plans, and real-life lessons learned at a large research institution in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.

  9. Disaster and Contingency Planning for Scientific Shared Resource Cores

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilkerson, Amy

    2016-01-01

    Progress in biomedical research is largely driven by improvements, innovations, and breakthroughs in technology, accelerating the research process, and an increasingly complex collaboration of both clinical and basic science. This increasing sophistication has driven the need for centralized shared resource cores (“cores”) to serve the scientific community. From a biomedical research enterprise perspective, centralized resource cores are essential to increased scientific, operational, and cost effectiveness; however, the concentration of instrumentation and resources in the cores may render them highly vulnerable to damage from severe weather and other disasters. As such, protection of these assets and the ability to recover from a disaster is increasingly critical to the mission and success of the institution. Therefore, cores should develop and implement both disaster and business continuity plans and be an integral part of the institution’s overall plans. Here we provide an overview of key elements required for core disaster and business continuity plans, guidance, and tools for developing these plans, and real-life lessons learned at a large research institution in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. PMID:26848285

  10. Time orientation, planning horizons and responsibility into the future

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Svenson, O.; Nilsson, G.

    1988-01-01

    Subjects of four categories (social science students, engineering students, retired people and nuclear waste experts) were asked about past events, planning, risks and future time with emphasis on energy related issues and in particular questions concerning spent nuclear waste. Among, the results reported it was found that events in the past were located more or less correctly and that events further back systematically too close to the present. Today's responsibility into the future was judged to cover 3 to 6 generations ahead and an adequate planning horizon for a local community to be on the average 11 to 14 years. Adequate planning horizons for the handling of spent nuclear fuel were judged to be from 100 to 500 years. The responsibility for effects of today's decisions was judged to be from about 100 to 300 years into the future for environmental pollution and from about 50 to 600 years for nuclear waste. However, non-negliqable proportions of the subjects choose a more moral standpoint and gave answers indicating that responsibility had to be unlimited. Some sex differences were found and an interaction with age offered as a hypothesis to be investigated in the future. Interrelations between clusters of questions revealed some links from past time and planning to judgements of environmental and nuclear power related risks. (orig.)

  11. Future-Oriented LCA

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Olsen, Stig Irving; Borup, Mads; Andersen, Per Dannemand

    2018-01-01

    LCA is often applied for decision-making that concerns actions reaching near or far into the future. However, traditional life cycle assessment methodology must be adjusted for the prospective and change-oriented purposes, but no standardised way of doing this has emerged yet. In this chapter some...... challenges are described and some learnings are derived. Many of the future-oriented LCAs published so far perform relatively short-term prediction of simple comparisons. But for more long-term time horizons foresight methods can be of help. Scenarios established by qualified experts about future...... technological and economic developments are indispensable in future technology assessments. The uncertainties in future-oriented LCAs are to a large extent qualitative and it is important to emphasise that LCA of future technologies will provide a set of answers and not ‘the’ answer....

  12. Evaluation of Pre-disaster Planning of Bengawan Solo River Flood Bojonegoro Regency Year 2014

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Enov Sayu Mimanggar Mirahesti

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Early year of 2014 flood was ranked first in the natural disasters with 69 incidences. Bengawan Solo floods is an annual natural disastersin Bojonegoro. Study’s results in 2011 showed that RHA activities was not maximum that pre-disaster activities should be evaluated. Based on management functions, planning is the very first step. Evaluation of pre-disaster planning is the earliest thing to do to minimize the disasters impact. This study aimed to evaluate activities of floods pre-disaster planning in Bojonegoro year 2014. Data were collected by interview anddocument study. Data were analyzed descriptively. The results showed that based on input components, SOP and facilities had met the standard, while the staff, the type of data, and funds had’nt metthe standard yet. Based on process component, contingency planning had been done according to the standard. Both geomedic mapping and identification of social and economic in the process of activities planning of prevention, mitigation, and disaster response preparedness actions didn’t conduct. Based on the output component, the health department already had a contingency plan, but didn’t have geomedic maps and prevention, mitigation, and disaster response preparedness actions plan. This study concluded that pre-disaster planning activities of Bojonegoro Regency Health Office wasn’t good. The suggestion given are control SOP, increase the staff amount, complete thedata types, allocate funds, make budgettaryplanning, provide vehicles, conduct identification of social and economic, give training to staffs, and make outline of the geomedicmap and prevention, mitigation, and disaster response preparedness actions plan. Keywords: planning, pre-disaster, floods

  13. A taxonomy of prospection: introducing an organizational framework for future-oriented cognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Szpunar, Karl K; Spreng, R Nathan; Schacter, Daniel L

    2014-12-30

    Prospection--the ability to represent what might happen in the future--is a broad concept that has been used to characterize a wide variety of future-oriented cognitions, including affective forecasting, prospective memory, temporal discounting, episodic simulation, and autobiographical planning. In this article, we propose a taxonomy of prospection to initiate the important and necessary process of teasing apart the various forms of future thinking that constitute the landscape of prospective cognition. The organizational framework that we propose delineates episodic and semantic forms of four modes of future thinking: simulation, prediction, intention, and planning. We show how this framework can be used to draw attention to the ways in which various modes of future thinking interact with one another, generate new questions about prospective cognition, and illuminate our understanding of disorders of future thinking. We conclude by considering basic cognitive processes that give rise to prospective cognitions, cognitive operations and emotional/motivational states relevant to future-oriented cognition, and the possible role of procedural or motor systems in future-oriented behavior.

  14. Connect the Dots in Disaster Planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knapp, Jolene; Benton, Kathy; Calhoun, Terry

    2002-01-01

    In the second article in a series on the implications of September 11 to colleges and universities, executives at the Society for College and University Planning outline an integrated approach to preparing for disasters. (EV)

  15. A taxonomy of prospection: Introducing an organizational framework for future-oriented cognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Szpunar, Karl K.; Spreng, R. Nathan; Schacter, Daniel L.

    2014-01-01

    Prospection—the ability to represent what might happen in the future—is a broad concept that has been used to characterize a wide variety of future-oriented cognitions, including affective forecasting, prospective memory, temporal discounting, episodic simulation, and autobiographical planning. In this article, we propose a taxonomy of prospection to initiate the important and necessary process of teasing apart the various forms of future thinking that constitute the landscape of prospective cognition. The organizational framework that we propose delineates episodic and semantic forms of four modes of future thinking: simulation, prediction, intention, and planning. We show how this framework can be used to draw attention to the ways in which various modes of future thinking interact with one another, generate new questions about prospective cognition, and illuminate our understanding of disorders of future thinking. We conclude by considering basic cognitive processes that give rise to prospective cognitions, cognitive operations and emotional/motivational states relevant to future-oriented cognition, and the possible role of procedural or motor systems in future-oriented behavior. PMID:25416592

  16. Future Orientation among Students Exposed to School Bullying and Cyberbullying Victimization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Låftman, Sara B; Alm, Susanne; Sandahl, Julia; Modin, Bitte

    2018-03-27

    Future orientation can be defined as an individual's thoughts, beliefs, plans, and hopes for the future. Earlier research has shown adolescents' future orientation to predict outcomes later in life, which makes it relevant to analyze differences in future orientation among youth. The aim of the present study was to analyze if bullying victimization was associated with an increased likelihood of reporting a pessimistic future orientation among school youth. To be able to distinguish between victims and bully-victims (i.e., students who are both bullies and victims), we also took perpetration into account. The data were derived from the Stockholm School Survey performed in 2016 among ninth grade students (ages 15-16 years) ( n = 5144). Future orientation and involvement in school bullying and in cyberbullying were based on self-reports. The statistical method used was binary logistic regression. The results demonstrated that victims and bully-victims of school bullying and of cyberbullying were more likely to report a pessimistic future orientation compared with students not involved in bullying. These associations were shown also when involvement in school bullying and cyberbullying were mutually adjusted. The findings underline the importance of anti-bullying measures that target both school bullying and cyberbullying.

  17. Regional approach to building operational level capacity for disaster planning: the case of the Eastern Africa region.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bazeyo, W; Mayega, R W; Orach, G C; Kiguli, J; Mamuya, S; Tabu, J S; Sena, L; Rugigana, E; Mapatano, M; Lewy, D; Mock, N; Burnham, G; Keim, M; Killewo, J

    2013-06-01

    The Eastern Africa region is regularly affected by a variety of disasters ranging from drought, to human conflict and population displacement. The magnitude of emergencies and response capacities is similar across the region. In order to strengthen public health disaster management capacities at the operational level in six countries of the Eastern Africa region, the USAID-funded leadership project worked through the HEALTH Alliance, a network of seven schools of public health from six countries in the region to train district-level teams. To develop a sustainable regional approach to building operational level capacity for disaster planning. This project was implemented through a higher education leadership initiative. Project activities were spear-headed by a network of Deans and Directors of public health schools within local universities in the Eastern Africa region. The leadership team envisioned a district-oriented systems change strategy. Pre-service and in-service curricula were developed regionally and district teams were formed to attend short training courses. Project activities began with a situational analysis of the disaster management capacity at national and operational levels. The next steps were chronologically the formation of country training teams and training of trainers, the development of a regional disaster management training curriculum and training materials, the cascading of training activities in the region, and the incorporation of emerging issues into the training curriculum. An evaluation model included the analysis of preparedness impact of the training program. The output from the district teams was the creation of individual district-level disaster plans and their implementation. This 4-year project focused on building operational level public health emergency response capacity, which had not previously been part of any national program. Use of the all-hazard approach rather than a scenario-based contingency planning led to the

  18. A statistical study of weather-related disasters. Past, present and future

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Visser, H.; Bouwman, A.; Petersen, A.; Ligtvoet, W.

    2012-07-15

    Disasters such as floods, storms, heatwaves and droughts may have serious implications for human health and the economic development of countries. One of the main findings of this report is that disaster burdens are dominated by economic and demographic developments, rather than climate change. Furthermore, disaster burden appears to be spread unequally over rich and poor countries. In Chapter 2 the background of the three regions used throughout this report is described: OECD, BRIICS (Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa and remaining countries. Furthermore, an overview of the disaster databases is given, along with definitions of disaster terminology. The statistical treatment of trends in disaster data is shortly exemplified. Chapter 3 gives on overview of the results for disaster burden and trends therein on a global scale. Results are split-up as for different disaster types. In Chapters 4 and 5 the same analysis is performed, but now split-up for three regions. In Chapter 4, disaster burdens are quantified, while analyses of trends in disaster burdens are given in Chapter 5. Here, the analyses are confined to weather-related disaster events only. In Chapter 6 the trend patterns found in Chapter 5, are explained as far as possible. Here, changes in wealth, changes in population, the role of climate change and changes due to adaptation are treated in separate sections. Chapter 7 shortly deals with communicational aspects of disasters: the attribution of individual disasters to climate change and results in the literature which are contradictory to results presented here. Chapters 3 through 7 deal with historical data on disaster burden. In the subsequent Chapters 8 and 9 the future of disaster burden will be dealt with. Chapter 8 gives a short overview of the future of disasters as presented in the literature. In Chapter 9 a PBL case study for flooding on a global scale is given, with predictions for people at risk and economic losses at

  19. Environmental Scanning, Futures Research, Strategic Foresight and Organizational Future Orientation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rohrbeck, René; Bade, Manuel

    to adjacent research disciplines. Through such integration and linkage research should produce better recommendations for managers on how to build an organizational future orientation, drive organizational adaptation, and make their firms robust towards external discontinuous change.......In this paper we explore the current understanding on how firms explore future changes and trends as well as plan their managerial responses. We review literature in four research streams: (1) environmental scanning, (2) futures research, (3) peripheral vision, and (4) corporate/strategic foresight....... Through the analysis of more than 250 articles we (a) trace the evolution over time, (b) highlight the linkages between the different research streams, and (c) give recommendations for future research. Overall we call for more cross-fertilization of the different research streams and a stronger linkage...

  20. Support system development for evacuation plan decision in nuclear plant disaster

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fujita, Masahiko; Takayama, Jun-ichi; Nakayama, Sho-ichiro; Ushiba, Takashi

    2011-01-01

    These days, our interest in nuclear plant accidents has increased, and civic actions for them have also been activated. Therefore, improvement of the disaster prevention planning to nuclear plant accidents is requested. In this study, we developed a microscopic traffic simulation system for evacuation plan near the nuclear plant as a system which supports to examine the disaster prevention planning, and applied the system to Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant area. Furthermore, the risk of each region near the nuclear plant disaster from the viewpoint of wind direction and the population was considered, the importance of each evacuation simulation was examined. As a result, we found that the present plan Kashiwazaki-Kariwa made has the problem on evacuation routes and others. (author)

  1. Future Orientation among Students Exposed to School Bullying and Cyberbullying Victimization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sara B. Låftman

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Future orientation can be defined as an individual’s thoughts, beliefs, plans, and hopes for the future. Earlier research has shown adolescents’ future orientation to predict outcomes later in life, which makes it relevant to analyze differences in future orientation among youth. The aim of the present study was to analyze if bullying victimization was associated with an increased likelihood of reporting a pessimistic future orientation among school youth. To be able to distinguish between victims and bully-victims (i.e., students who are both bullies and victims, we also took perpetration into account. The data were derived from the Stockholm School Survey performed in 2016 among ninth grade students (ages 15–16 years (n = 5144. Future orientation and involvement in school bullying and in cyberbullying were based on self-reports. The statistical method used was binary logistic regression. The results demonstrated that victims and bully-victims of school bullying and of cyberbullying were more likely to report a pessimistic future orientation compared with students not involved in bullying. These associations were shown also when involvement in school bullying and cyberbullying were mutually adjusted. The findings underline the importance of anti-bullying measures that target both school bullying and cyberbullying.

  2. Adolescents' future orientation and nonmedical use of prescription drugs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steiger, Rena M; Stoddard, Sarah A; Pierce, Jennifer

    2017-02-01

    How adolescents think about their future (i.e., future orientation) impacts their risk-taking behavior. The purpose of the present analysis was to explore whether future orientation (future planning, perceived risk to future goals, and positive future expectations) was associated with nonmedical use of stimulants and analgesics in a sample of high school students. Information on future orientation and nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) were collected using a paper-and-pencil survey from a sample of 9th-12th grade students in a Midwestern school. Higher perceived risk to future goals and positive future expectations were associated with a lower likelihood of self-reported nonmedical use of stimulants (n=250; OR=0.46, 95% CI: 0.26, 0.83; OR=0.15, 95% CI: 0.05, 0.47, respectively). Only higher perceived risk to future goals was associated with a lower likelihood of self-reported nonmedical use of analgesics (n=250; OR=0.40, 95% CI: 0.24, 0.68). In a follow-up analysis limited to students who endorsed alcohol or marijuana use, perceived risk to future goals remained associated with a lower likelihood of nonmedical use of stimulants and analgesics. Results suggest that risk perception might be a salient protective factor against both nonmedical use of stimulants and analgesics. Overall, the differential impact of conceptualizations of future orientation might depend on the class of prescription drug used, demonstrating a need to consider prescription drugs individually in the development of future studies and interventions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Social media and disasters: a functional framework for social media use in disaster planning, response, and research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Houston, J Brian; Hawthorne, Joshua; Perreault, Mildred F; Park, Eun Hae; Goldstein Hode, Marlo; Halliwell, Michael R; Turner McGowen, Sarah E; Davis, Rachel; Vaid, Shivani; McElderry, Jonathan A; Griffith, Stanford A

    2015-01-01

    A comprehensive review of online, official, and scientific literature was carried out in 2012-13 to develop a framework of disaster social media. This framework can be used to facilitate the creation of disaster social media tools, the formulation of disaster social media implementation processes, and the scientific study of disaster social media effects. Disaster social media users in the framework include communities, government, individuals, organisations, and media outlets. Fifteen distinct disaster social media uses were identified, ranging from preparing and receiving disaster preparedness information and warnings and signalling and detecting disasters prior to an event to (re)connecting community members following a disaster. The framework illustrates that a variety of entities may utilise and produce disaster social media content. Consequently, disaster social media use can be conceptualised as occurring at a number of levels, even within the same disaster. Suggestions are provided on how the proposed framework can inform future disaster social media development and research. © 2014 2014 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2014.

  4. Study of information-orientation carry-out plan in energy sector

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kang, T W [Korea Energy Economics Institute, Euiwang (Korea, Republic of)

    1998-04-01

    Carrying out an information-orientation plan in the energy sector is indispensable if Korea is to survive in this unlimited competition age and global management system. It is also for maximizing the management efficiency of national energy resources as well as increasing the development of related industries and national welfare. The management of the energy resources sector of Korea, which is becoming diversified escaping from the past simple quantitative management of supplier-orientation, requires versatile and ample high-class information management system and high-level decision support system. In order to satisfy these requests, this study investigated and analyzed overall policies of the energy sector for carrying out information-orientation, neighborhood environment, organizational chart, information transfer method, the current condition of information-orientation, problems and improvements, demand of information-orientation of the future, and also reviewed the information-orientation status of advanced countries. Based on these, an information-orientation carryout plan in the energy sector is broken into three stages of `establishment of information transfer system`, `development of database`, and `establishment of decision support system` and presented per detailed work. It advised manpower, equipment and budget implementation plan, and a development schedule plan required for carrying out information-orientation as well as overall environmental build-up, and policy recommendation for the successful implementation of information-orientation. 24 refs., 27 figs., 15 tabs.

  5. Disaster recovery plan for Automation Technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Owens, M.J.

    1997-06-01

    Automation Technology provides a multitude of data processing and network services to the Environmental Restoration Contract (ERC). These services include: personal computers, local and wide area networks, and Internet and intranet support and services. ERC employees and client personnel receive these services primarily from the Data Center located on the ground floor in the Bechtel Corporate Center at 3350 George Washington Way, Richland, Washington. Centralized databases, server-based software, and network services for the Bechtel Local Area Network reside on servers located in the Data Center. The data communication circuits supported in this center allow for the transmission of business information to and from all project locations in the Hanford Site complex. The loss of one or more of these functions would seriously impact the ability of the ERC to conduct business and bring a virtual standstill to many ERC employees'' activities. Upon declaration of disaster by the Contingency Manager and the Disaster Recovery Coordinator, the disaster recovery plan will be implemented. 24 tabs

  6. Natural Disasters: Planning for Psychological First Aid.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wynn, Stephanie T

    Natural disasters leave survivors suffering physically, psychologically, and spiritually. An EF4 tornado on April 27, 2011, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, known as April's Fury, raised the question of how mental health practitioners (MHPs) might respond to address psychological needs, rather than being exclusively assigned to offer physical support immediately following a disaster. This article proposes planning ahead for MHPs to provide psychological first aid (PFA) in the immediate aftermath of a catastrophe. Combating psychological issues early will hopefully help reduce the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or prolonged grief disorder (PGD) in survivors.

  7. Disaster Response and Planning for Libraries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kahn, Miriam B.

    Providing a customized disaster response plan to assist libraries in quick recovery, this resource also outlines step to minimize damage and protect materials before trouble strikes. The first section of the book, "Response," contains information how to handle small jobs in-house and suggestions for working with contractors--with an…

  8. Media framing of natural disasters in Kwazulu-Natal province: Impact of contigency plans

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bethuel Sibongiseni Ngcamu

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available This study explores how the media frame disaster contingency plans which include preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery of the KwaZulu-Natal province before, during and in the aftermath of natural disasters. The province has been stricken by natural disasters. Although newspapers report the disasters they fail to give details of disaster contingency plans that should be available to those who are susceptible to, and the victims of disasters. Based on a content analysis of 114 online newspaper articles between 2000 and 2013 to examine how the media framed the KZN government’s disaster contingency plans. This study concludes that the highest occurrence of disasters (71% was from 2011 onwards as compared to previous years, and most of these were associated with areas that are susceptible to floods (34%. The findings of the study highlight that the media placed an emphasis on disaster response (41% over preparedness (24% and mitigation (7%. The outcomes suggest that newspaper organisations need to appoint a designated reporter responsible for disaster management issues. This is relevant because this study conveys findings that have the potential to persuade government and newspaper organisations to collaborate and to ensure that their officials are multi-skilled and able to cover all phases of disaster management in their articles, in order for these to be understood at all levels of society. This study further adds to the growing body of knowledge regarding quality journalism that meets its objectives.

  9. Plan of disaster prevention in district of Shizuoka Prefecture countermeasures to nuclear power. 1984 ed.

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1984-01-01

    Based on the basic act for disaster countermeasures, this plan aimes at establishing the necessary system concerning the countermeasures for preventing the disaster due to the release of a large quantity of radioactive substances from the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station, Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc., determining the measures to be taken for disaster prevention, and striving for the safety of inhabitants by executing the deskworks and services of the disaster prevention related to nuclear power synthetically and purposefully. The general matters concerning the disaster prevention in the district of Shizuoka Prefecture are determined in the ''Plan of disaster prevention in the district of Shizuoka Prefecture (General countermeasures)'', but in view of the peculiarity of nuclear power disaster, the peculiar matters are to be determined in this plan. The general rules on the works of respective disaster prevention organizations, the countermeasures for preventing nuclear power disaster, the emergency countermeasures to nuclear power disaster, the countermeasures to Tokai earthquakes and the countermeasures for restoration after nuclear power disaster are stipulated. (Kako, I.)

  10. Natural disaster management: experience of an academic institution after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Ecuador.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cordero-Reyes, A M; Palacios, I; Ramia, D; West, R; Valencia, M; Ramia, N; Egas, D; Rodas, P; Bahamonde, M; Grunauer, M

    2017-03-01

    This case study describes the implementation of an academic institution's disaster management plan. Case study. USFQ's Medical School developed a six-phase disaster relief plan consisting of: induction, establishing a base camp, crisis management and mental health aid, creation of multidisciplinary teams and multi-agency teams, and reconstruction. Each phase uses a community-oriented approach to foster survivor autonomy and recovery. Our methodology facilitated the successful implementation of multidisciplinary interventions to manage the earthquake's aftermath on the personal, community and regional levels, treated and prevented psychological and physical morbidity among survivors and promoted healthy living conditions and independence. A multidisciplinary response team that addresses medical needs, mental health, education, food, nutrition and sanitation is highly effective in contributing to timely, effective relief efforts. The short- and long-term solutions we describe could be applicable to other academic centres' interventions in future disaster scenarios around the world. Copyright © 2016 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. A Century of Australian Natural Disasters and How to Reduce the Toll from Future Events

    Science.gov (United States)

    McAneney, J.

    2014-12-01

    This study reviews Australian experience of natural disasters over the last century and considers how to reduce this nation's vulnerability to such events in the future. In line with global experience, the cost of Australian weather-related natural disasters has been increasing, while loss of life has decreased, with extreme heat events responsible for more fatalities than all other natural perils combined, baring epidemics. However when disaster costs arising from historical events are normalised to current day exposure, no long-term trend emerges. Moreover the frequency of these losses shows no sign of increasing since 1950. In other words, the rising cost of natural disasters can be firmly sheeted home to the fact that there are now more of us living in vulnerable places with more to lose. In view of the above, emergency management and government risk management and strategic planning should focus on plausible large event scenarios, whatever their cause. If we wish to reduce disaster losses, land-use planning has to become risk-informed and building codes need to consider potential economic impacts, rather than just life safety. Insurers can play a role by pricing risk correctly and sending clear signals to homeowners (and governments) to stimulate risk-reducing behaviours. The tools to achieve fine-grained risk assessments are increasingly available. The success of the regulated use of the building code in tropical cyclone-prone regions in Australia and the performance of modern seismic building codes in New Zealand, shows what can be achieved when there is a demonstrated need and political will.

  12. Lessons from disaster: Creating a business continuity plan that really works.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hatton, Tracy; Grimshaw, Eleanor; Vargo, John; Seville, Erica

    Business Continuity Planning (BCP) is well established as a key plank in an organisation's risk management process. But how effective is BCP when disaster strikes? This paper examines the experiences of organisations following the 2010-11 Canterbury, New Zealand earthquakes. The study finds that BCP was helpful for all organisations interviewed but more attention is needed on the management of societal and personal impacts; development of employee resilience, identification of effective crisis leaders; right-sizing plans and planning to seize opportunities post-disaster.

  13. An Exploratory Qualitative Inquiry of Key Indicators on IT Disaster Recovery Planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gardner, Brian

    2016-01-01

    Disaster recovery planning is a crucial component to maintaining a business's economic stability. However, it is unclear how key performance indicators (KPIs) are perceived in the emergency medical service (EMS) industry during the disaster recover planning process. The problem addressed in this study was to understand KPIs and their components.…

  14. Case Study of Resilient Baton Rouge: Applying Depression Collaborative Care and Community Planning to Disaster Recovery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robin Keegan

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available Background: Addressing behavioral health impacts of major disasters is a priority of increasing national attention, but there are limited examples of implementation strategies to guide new disaster responses. We provide a case study of an effort being applied in response to the 2016 Great Flood in Baton Rouge. Methods: Resilient Baton Rouge was designed to support recovery after major flooding by building local capacity to implement an expanded model of depression collaborative care for adults, coupled with identifying and responding to local priorities and assets for recovery. For a descriptive, initial evaluation, we coupled analysis of documents and process notes with descriptive surveys of participants in initial training and orientation, including preliminary comparisons among licensed and non-licensed participants to identify training priorities. Results: We expanded local behavioral health service delivery capacity through subgrants to four agencies, provision of training tailored to licensed and non-licensed providers and development of advisory councils and partnerships with grassroots and government agencies. We also undertook initial efforts to enhance national collaboration around post-disaster resilience. Conclusion: Our partnered processes and lessons learned may be applicable to other communities that aim to promote resilience, as well as planning for and responding to post-disaster behavioral health needs.

  15. Healthcare logistics in disaster planning and emergency management: A perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    VanVactor, Jerry D

    2017-12-01

    This paper discusses the role of healthcare supply chain management in disaster mitigation and management. While there is an abundance of literature examining emergency management and disaster preparedness efforts across an array of industries, little information has been directed specifically toward the emergency interface, interoperability and unconventional relationships among civilian institutions and the US Department of Defense (US DoD) or supply chain operations involved therein. To address this imbalance, this paper provides US DoD healthcare supply chain managers with concepts related to communicating and planning more effectively. It is worth remembering, however, that all disasters are local - under the auspice of tiered response involving federal agencies, the principal responsibility for responding to domestic disasters and emergencies rests with the lowest level of government equipped and able to deal with the incident effectively. As such, the findings are equally applicable to institutions outside the military. It also bears repeating that every crisis is unique: there is no such thing as a uniform response for every incident. The role of the US DoD in emergency preparedness and disaster planning is changing and will continue to do so as the need for roles in support of a larger effort also continues to change.

  16. Affect, risk perception and future optimism after the tsunami disaster

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel Vastfjall

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Environmental events such as natural disasters may influence the public's affective reactions and decisions. Shortly after the 2004 Tsunami disaster we assessed how affect elicited by thinking about this disaster influenced risk perceptions and future time perspective in Swedish undergraduates not directly affected by the disaster. An experimental manipulation was used to increase the salience of affect associated with the disaster. In Study 1 we found that participants reminded about the tsunami had a sense that their life was more finite and included fewer opportunities than participants in the control condition (not reminded about the tsunami. In Study 2 we found similar effects for risk perceptions. In addition, we showed that manipulations of ease-of-thought influenced the extent to which affect influenced these risk perceptions, with greater ease of thoughts being associated with greater perceived risks.

  17. School District Information Technology Disaster Recovery Planning: An Explanatory Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gray, Shaun L.

    2017-01-01

    Despite research and practitioner articles outlining the importance information technology disaster plans (ITDRPs) to organizational success, barriers have impeded the process of disaster preparation for Burlington County New Jersey school districts. The purpose of this explanatory qualitative case study was to understand how technology leader…

  18. Draft Updates to the Planning for Natural Disaster Debris Guidance and to Related Documents

    Science.gov (United States)

    EPA is requesting comment on the draft update of the Planning for Natural Disaster Debris Guidance, along with two other documents. This Guidance is an update of the Planning for Natural Disaster Debris guidance that EPA published in March 2008.

  19. Natural disasters and the lung.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robinson, Bruce; Alatas, Mohammad Fahmi; Robertson, Andrew; Steer, Henry

    2011-04-01

    As the world population expands, an increasing number of people are living in areas which may be threatened by natural disasters. Most of these major natural disasters occur in the Asian region. Pulmonary complications are common following natural disasters and can result from direct insults to the lung or may be indirect, secondary to overcrowding and the collapse in infrastructure and health-care systems which often occur in the aftermath of a disaster. Delivery of health care in disaster situations is challenging and anticipation of the types of clinical and public health problems faced in disaster situations is crucial when preparing disaster responses. In this article we review the pulmonary effects of natural disasters in the immediate setting and in the post-disaster aftermath and we discuss how this could inform planning for future disasters. © 2011 The Authors. Respirology © 2011 Asian Pacific Society of Respirology.

  20. Planning for post disaster recovery: Lesson learnt from flood events in Kelantan Malaysia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rani, Wan Nurul Mardiah Wan Mohd; Nifa, Faizatul Akmar Abdul; Ismail, Mohd Noorizhar; Khalid, Khairin Norhashidah

    2017-10-01

    As the frequency of disaster occurrence increases, the world cities today are getting more difficult in terms of the management of the event. One of the most discussed issues today is the management of the post-disaster recovery that involves several stages such as the planning, management of multiple stakeholders, restoration, reconstruction and delivery. It is important to note that input from related stakeholders is necessary to make the right decision during this most critical period. In the process of building back after a disaster, it is important to ensure the newly constructed infrastructures are built to be more resilient and able to withstand a certain level of disaster recurrence. Elements of disaster risk reduction should be incorporated in the planning, redesign, construction and the operation of the built environment. In Malaysia, the disaster management has been the responsibility of the Disaster Management and Relief Committee that consists of agencies at the central, state and local levels. This is to ensure that all aspects are being considered and to be more effective in managing the situation.

  1. The contribution of ineffective urban planning practices to disaster and disaster risks accumulation in urban areas: the case of former Kunduchi quarry site in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Benedict F. Malele

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available This study examined the link between urban planning practices and disaster risks. The study used the former Kunduchi Quarry Site within the City of Dar es Salaam to demonstrate how laxity in enforcing the laid down planning rules, regulations and procedures facilitates the accumulation and occurrence of disaster risks and disasters in urban areas. This undermines one of the central roles of urban planning, which is to protect the lives of people from disaster risks and disasters. In exploring this, the study specifically focused on understanding the rules, regulations and procedures of planning in Tanzania; the extent to which they are followed and, where they are not followed, their implications for disaster risks and disasters; the coping initiatives adopted by local communities to reduce risks and their level of success or failure; and finally the drawing of lessons and recommendations for disaster risk reduction in urban areas. Strongly emerging from this study is the finding that although planning rules and regulations do exist, they are not enforced. As a result urban communities suffer from disaster risks and disasters caused by unregulated activities. The study analyzed the coping initiatives that urban communities apply to reduce disaster risks in their areas. It noted that, while a range of “coping” responses could be observed, these are not lasting solutions to the disaster risks being faced. Sustainable solutions seem to be known by the local community but they are not adopted for fear of compromising or undermining their existing livelihood strategies.

  2. Inclusion of Disaster Resiliency in City/Neighborhood Comprehensive Plans

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-09-01

    phenomena or, in other words, the “impact of our behaviors toward places, thus influencing whether and how we might participate in local planning efforts...why resiliency from natural disasters must be included in all comprehensive plans . To prove the importance of this theory , I used GIS to locate...or pasture.270 Clarke County’s plan supports the theory that hazard mitigation inclusion in comprehensive plans is due to areas with flooding

  3. Disaster Recovery Planning as part of Business Continuity Management

    OpenAIRE

    Pinta, Jan

    2011-01-01

    Nowadays, a well functioning ICT infrastructure belongs to the most critical factors of companies across all branches of business. An importance of ensuring the continued operation of information systems, or the rapid recovery of the systems in the case of emergency, has increased. These needs require creating business continuity management plan and disaster recovery planning. This paper describes the creation of emergency and recovery plans and setting recovery objectives significantly affec...

  4. The dampening effect of employees' future orientation on cyberloafing behaviors: the mediating role of self-control.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Heyun; Zhao, Huanhuan; Liu, Jingxuan; Xu, Yan; Lu, Hui

    2015-01-01

    Previous studies on reducing employees' cyberloafing behaviors have primarily examined the external control factors but seldomly taken individual internal subjective factors into consideration. Future orientation, an important individual factor, is defined as the extent to which one plans for future time and considers future consequences of one's current behavior. To explore further whether and how employees' future orientation can dampen their cyberloafing behaviors, two studies were conducted to examine the relationship between employees' future orientation and cyberloafing behaviors. The mediation effect of employees' objective and subjective self-control between them was also examined. In Study 1, a set of questionnaires was completed, and the results revealed that the relationship between employees' future orientation and cyberloafing behaviors was negative, and objective self-control mediated the relationship. Next, we conducted a priming experiment (Study 2) to examine the causal relationship and psychological mechanism between employees' future orientation and cyberloafing behaviors. The results demonstrated that employees' future-orientation dampened their attitudes and intentions to engage in cyberloafing, and subjective self-control mediated this dampening effect. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are also discussed.

  5. Food selection criteria for disaster response planning in urban societies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wien, Michelle; Sabaté, Joan

    2015-05-12

    Nutrition professionals that have menu planning and disaster management responsibilities should consider factors that have transcended from ancient to current times, in addition to recognizing societal trends that have led to our current increased vulnerability in the event of a disaster. Hence, we proceeded to develop a set of "Disaster Response Diets" (DRDs) for use in urban societies inclusive of the aforementioned considerations. A three-phase multidimensional approach was used to identify food groups suitable for creating a set of DRDs. Phase One consisted of calculating the percent daily nutrient intake and Drewnowski's naturally nutrient rich (NNR) score for an individual or mean composite for one serving of food from 11 specific food groups. In Phase Two, in addition to nutrient density, the 11 food groups were evaluated and scored based on the following DRD planning criteria: storage and handling properties, preparation ease and, cultural acceptance/individual tolerance. During Phase Three, three DRDs were developed based upon the data retrieved from Phases one and two. In Phase One, the NNR scores ranged from 2.1 for fresh fruits to 28.1 for dry cereals, a higher score indicating a higher nutrient density. During Phase Two, a maximum score of 12 was possible based on appropriateness for a disaster situation. Five plant-based food groups (dry cereals, nuts, dried fruits, grains and legumes) achieved a score ranging between 7 and 12, whereas the five fresh food groups were deemed ineligible due to sanitation and perishability concerns. During Phase Three, three DRDs (milk-inclusive, milk-free and Grab-and-Go) were developed as benchmarks for disaster response planning. Plant-based DRDs are universally acceptable and tolerated across cultures and religions. Therefore, we suggest nutrition professionals consider using a plant-based approach for creating DRDs for public health institutions and organizations.

  6. Technology disaster response and recovery planning a LITA guide

    CERN Document Server

    Mallery, Mary

    2015-01-01

    Featuring contributions from librarians who offer hard-won advice gained from personal experience, this compendium leads readers through a step-by-step process of creating a library technology disaster response and recovery plan.

  7. Field note from Pakistan floods: Preventing future flood disasters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcus Oxley

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Unusually heavy monsoon rains in Northern Pakistan have caused disproportionate levels of extreme flooding and unprecedented flood losses across the entire Indus River basin. Extensive land use changes and environmental degradation in the uplands and lowlands of the river basin together with the construction of a “built environment” out of balance with the functioning, capacities, scale and limits of the local ecosystems have exposed millions of people to an increased risk of extreme #ooding. The catastrophic nature of the August #ooding provides a unique opportunity to fundamentally change Pakistan’s current socio-economic development path by incorporating disaster risk reduction and climate change measures into the post-disaster recovery process to rebuild a safer, more resilient nation. In January 2005 one hundred and sixty-eight nations adopted the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA2005-2015 to bring about a “substantial reduction in disaster losses” by 2015. Despite this global initiative a series of major disasters, including the recent flooding in Pakistan, all indicate that we are not on track to achieve the substantial reduction of disaster losses. The following fieldnote considers what can be done to accelerate progress towards implementation of the Hyogo Framework, drawing on insights and lessons learnt from the August flooding to understand how Pakistan and neighbouring countries can prevent a repeat of such catastrophic disasters in future years.

  8. Towards More Nuanced Classification of NGOs and Their Services to Improve Integrated Planning across Disaster Phases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vivian L. Towe

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs are being integrated into U.S. strategies to expand the services that are available during health security threats like disasters. Identifying better ways to classify NGOs and their services could optimize disaster planning. We surveyed NGOs about the types of services they provided during different disaster phases. Survey responses were used to categorize NGO services as core—critical to fulfilling their organizational mission—or adaptive—services implemented during a disaster based on community need. We also classified NGOs as being core or adaptive types of organizations by calculating the percentage of each NGO’s services classified as core. Service types classified as core were mainly social services, while adaptive service types were those typically relied upon during disasters (e.g., warehousing, food services, etc.. In total, 120 NGOs were classified as core organizations, meaning they mainly provided the same services across disaster phases, while 100 NGOs were adaptive organizations, meaning their services changed. Adaptive NGOs were eight times more likely to report routinely participating in disaster planning as compared to core NGOs. One reason for this association may be that adaptive NGOs are more aware of the changing needs in their communities across disaster phases because of their involvement in disaster planning.

  9. Planning for chronic disease medications in disaster: perspectives from patients, physicians, pharmacists, and insurers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carameli, Kelley A; Eisenman, David P; Blevins, Joy; d'Angona, Brian; Glik, Deborah C

    2013-06-01

    Recent US disasters highlight the current imbalance between the high proportion of chronically ill Americans who depend on prescription medications and their lack of medication reserves for disaster preparedness. We examined barriers that Los Angeles County residents with chronic illness experience within the prescription drug procurement system to achieve recommended medication reserves. A mixed methods design included evaluation of insurance pharmacy benefits, focus group interviews with patients, and key informant interviews with physicians, pharmacists, and insurers. Most prescriptions are dispensed as 30-day units through retail pharmacies with refills available after 75% of use, leaving a monthly medication reserve of 7 days. For patients to acquire 14- to 30-day disaster medication reserves, health professionals interviewed supported 60- to 100-day dispensing units. Barriers included restrictive insurance benefits, patients' resistance to mail order, and higher copay-ments. Physicians, pharmacists, and insurers also varied widely in their preparedness planning and collective mutual-aid plans, and most believed pharmacists had the primary responsibility for patients' medication continuity during a disaster. To strengthen prescription drug continuity in disasters, recommendations include the following: (1) creating flexible drug-dispensing policies to help patients build reserves, (2) training professionals to inform patients about disaster planning, and (3) building collaborative partnerships among system stakeholders.

  10. Stories after disaster survival: Preparing, heeding warnings, and self-reliance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Killian, Timothy S; Moon, Zola K; McNeill, Charleen C; Person-Michener, Joanna; Garrison, M E Betsy

    The purpose of the study was to examine the content of stories told by people personally impacted by disasters. Semistructured, qualitative interviews. Northwest part of a mid-south state. Fourteen disaster survivors who were recruited through their attendance at an emergency preparedness-related fair. Interview schedule based on previous research using the family resilience framework. Three themes emerged: prior emergency preparation, heeding warnings of impending disaster, and rural self-reliance. Participants had made prior emergency preparedness plans, but their personal experiences led to them adjusting their plans, or making more relevant plans for future disasters. Participants expressed the importance of sharing their experiences with family and community members, expressing hope that others would learn, vicariously rather than first-hand, from their experiences.

  11. The dampening effect of employees’ future orientation on cyberloafing behaviors: the mediating role of self-control

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Heyun; Zhao, Huanhuan; Liu, Jingxuan; Xu, Yan; Lu, Hui

    2015-01-01

    Previous studies on reducing employees’ cyberloafing behaviors have primarily examined the external control factors but seldomly taken individual internal subjective factors into consideration. Future orientation, an important individual factor, is defined as the extent to which one plans for future time and considers future consequences of one’s current behavior. To explore further whether and how employees’ future orientation can dampen their cyberloafing behaviors, two studies were conducted to examine the relationship between employees’ future orientation and cyberloafing behaviors. The mediation effect of employees’ objective and subjective self-control between them was also examined. In Study 1, a set of questionnaires was completed, and the results revealed that the relationship between employees’ future orientation and cyberloafing behaviors was negative, and objective self-control mediated the relationship. Next, we conducted a priming experiment (Study 2) to examine the causal relationship and psychological mechanism between employees’ future orientation and cyberloafing behaviors. The results demonstrated that employees’ future-orientation dampened their attitudes and intentions to engage in cyberloafing, and subjective self-control mediated this dampening effect. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are also discussed. PMID:26483735

  12. The dampening effect of employees’ future orientation on cyberloafing behaviors: The mediating role of self-control

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heyun eZhang

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Previous studies on reducing employees’ cyberloafing behaviors have primarily examined the external control factors but seldomly taken individual internal subjective factors into consideration. Future orientation, an important individual factor, is defined as the extent to which one plans for future time and considers future consequences of one’s current behavior. To explore further whether and how employees’ future orientation can dampen their cyberloafing behaviors, two studies were conducted to examine the relationship between employees’ future orientation and cyberloafing behaviors. The mediation effect of employees’ objective and subjective self-control between them was also examined. In Study 1, a set of questionnaires was completed, and the results revealed that the relationship between employees’ future orientation and cyberloafing behaviors was negative, and objective self-control mediated the relationship. Next, we conducted a priming experiment (Study 2 to examine the causal relationship and psychological mechanism between employees’ future orientation and cyberloafing behaviors. The results demonstrated that employees’ future-orientation dampened their attitudes and intentions to engage in cyberloafing, and subjective self-control mediated this dampening effect. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are also discussed.

  13. Why natural disaster planning scenarios are often so disastrously wrong.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Verosub, K. L.

    2017-12-01

    Taken together the four hurricanes that impacted the United States in the summer of 2017 demonstrate the difficulties involved in trying to plan for any natural disaster, not simply a major hurricane. They also highlight the extraordinary degree to which small and/or random variations in initial conditions can have enormous consequences on the outcome of an event and on the ability of a society to respond to it. For example, if Harvey had been moving faster, it would have meant less rainfall and hence less flooding in the Houston area whereas a slight change in the path of Irma would have significantly affected which portions of the Florida peninsula would have experienced greater or lesser devastation. In the case of Marie, hurricane intensity and path as well as the terrain in Puerto Rico and the inherent state of its infrastructure greatly complicated relief and recovery efforts there. An additional factor that makes planning scenarios so difficult to develop is that major natural disasters can often be analyzed as a sequence of events. At each juncture in the sequence, the event might evolve along two or more very different pathways, which can lead to different outcomes. Sometimes, as with Nate, an event evolves more or less "as expected" and the planning scenario does what it was supposed to do, namely, help people respond to the event. But to a much greater extent than is usually recognized, small or random variations can drive an event off its expected trajectory and into a response realm that "no one could have foreseen." Even worse is when those small or random variations allow an event to bifurcate and follow two or more different pathways simultaneously, leading to a cascading disaster that totally overwhelms whatever planning and preparation has been put in place. Perhaps the main lessons to be learned from these storms is that planning for any disaster requires greater recognition of the importance of small or random factors and greater appreciation of

  14. Planning for chemical disasters at Point Lisas, Trinidad and Tobago

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mathur, M.N.

    1995-01-01

    No major chemical disaster has taken place so far in Trinidad and Tobago. Even so, in view of the numerous hazards that the various chemical handling plants deal with at Point Lisas, the country has to be prepared to deal with chemical disasters. The country's emergency preparedness plan for chemical disasters aims to localize the emergency, if possible, eliminate it and minimize the effects of the accident on people and property. The hazards of ammonia, hydrogen, chlorine, hydrocarbons and methanol release can have devastating effects on the workers and the residents in the vicinity of the plants. The Emergency Plan identifies an Emergency Co-ordinating Officer who would take command of the off-site activities and coordinate the activities of Works Management, Local Authority, Police, Fire Services, Defence Force, Health Authority and Factory Inspectorate. Resources of fire fighting, medical treatment, telecommunications, waste management and public education have to be enhanced immediately. In the long term a new fire station and a new county hospital have to be built, some housing settlements have to be phased out and non-essential staff relocated

  15. Resilience in disaster research

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dahlberg, Rasmus; Johannessen-Henry, Christine Tind; Raju, Emmanuel

    2015-01-01

    This paper explores the concept of resilience in disaster management settings in modern society. The diversity and relatedness of ‘resilience’ as a concept and as a process are reflected in its presentation through three ‘versions’: (i) pastoral care and the role of the church for victims...... of disaster trauma, (ii) federal policy and the US Critical Infrastructure Plan, and (iii) the building of resilient communities for disaster risk reduction practices. The three versions aim to offer characteristic expressions of resilience, as increasingly evident in current disaster literature....... In presenting resilience through the lens of these three versions, the article highlights the complexity in using resilience as an all-encompassing word. The article also suggests the need for understanding the nexuses between risk, vulnerability, and policy for the future of resilience discourse....

  16. Phenomenology of future-oriented mind-wandering episodes

    OpenAIRE

    David eStawarczyk; Helena eCassol; Arnaud eD'Argembeau

    2013-01-01

    Recent research suggests that prospective and non-prospective forms of mind-wandering possess distinct properties, yet little is known about what exactly differentiates between future-oriented and non-future-oriented mind-wandering episodes. In the present study, we used multilevel exploratory factor analyses to examine the factorial structure of various phenomenological dimensions of mind-wandering, and we then investigated whether future-oriented mind-wandering episodes differ from other cl...

  17. Best Buy: Planning for Disaster

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sachs, Adam; Ellis, Kerry; Sachs, Adam

    2008-01-01

    When a 1981 tornado in Minnesota revolutionized the retail approach of Sound of Music, which later changed its name to the now very familiar Best Buy, those who founded the company never imagined that a series of hurricanes twenty years later would also help give it a cutting-edge lead in customer service and disaster planning. That original "Tornado Sale'' introduced low prices in a "no-frills" environment that gave the company higher sales than the industry average and paved the way to a new business model. But before Best Buy could find the silver lining of these new storm clouds., it needed to survive them by planning for the destructive weather that plagued Florida during the summer of 2004. Having seen the power of listening to its employees and customers, Best Buy now seeks to capture their thoughts and feedback about other elements of the business.

  18. Business Continuity Planning for Nursing Schools: Preparation for Potential Disasters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zerwic, Julie J; Rosen, Denise

    2016-01-01

    Nursing schools are vulnerable to disasters, ranging from pandemics to weather emergencies, fires, and acts of terrorism. To ensure minimal disruptions to teaching, provision of care, research, and other critical missions, nursing faculty and administrative leaders should develop a business continuity plan. The business continuity plan can help faculty, students, and administration identify critical functions and alternative plans if an emergency occurs. We offer our experience as a guide for other nursing schools.

  19. Understanding the Association Between School Climate and Future Orientation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindstrom Johnson, Sarah; Pas, Elise; Bradshaw, Catherine P

    2016-08-01

    Promoting students' future orientation is inherently a goal of the educational system. Recently, it has received more explicit attention given the increased focus on career readiness. This study aimed to examine the association between school climate and adolescents' report of future orientation using data from youth (N = 27,698; 49.4 % female) across 58 high schools. Three-level hierarchical linear models indicated that perceptions of available emotional and service supports, rules and consequences, and parent engagement were positively related to adolescents' future orientation. Additionally, the school-level average future orientation was significantly related to individuals' future orientation, indicating a potential influence of contextual effects on this construct. Taken together, these findings suggest that interventions targeting school climate may hold promise for promoting future orientation.

  20. Becoming Resilient: Disaster Planning and Recovery: NREL Experts Assist Before and After a Disaster (Fact Sheet)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hotchkiss, E.

    2014-08-01

    This fact sheet provides information on how private industry; federal, state, and local governments; non-profit organizations; and communities can utilize NREL's expertise, tools, and innovations to incorporate energy efficiency and renewable energy into the planning, recovery, and rebuilding stages of disaster.

  1. Emergency Response Planning to Reduce the Impact of Contaminated Drinking Water during Natural Disasters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Natural disasters can be devastating to local water supplies affecting millions of people. Disaster recovery plans and water industry collaboration during emergencies protect consumers from contaminated drinking water supplies and help facilitate the repair of public water system...

  2. Rural Community Disaster Preparedness and Risk Perception in Trujillo, Peru.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stewart, Matthew; Grahmann, Bridget; Fillmore, Ariel; Benson, L Scott

    2017-08-01

    Introduction Disasters will continue to occur throughout the world and it is the responsibility of the government, health care systems, and communities to adequately prepare for potential catastrophic scenarios. Unfortunately, low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) are especially vulnerable following a disaster. By understanding disaster preparedness and risk perception, interventions can be developed to improve community preparedness and avoid unnecessary mortality and morbidity following a natural disaster. Problem The purpose of this study was to assess disaster preparedness and risk perception in communities surrounding Trujillo, Peru. After designing a novel disaster preparedness and risk perception survey based on guidelines from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC; Geneva, Switzerland), investigators performed a cross-sectional survey of potentially vulnerable communities surrounding Trujillo, Peru. Data were entered and analyzed utilizing the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap; Harvard Catalyst; Boston, Massachusetts USA) database. A total of 230 study participants were surveyed, composed of 37% males, 63% females, with ages ranging from 18-85 years old. Those surveyed who had previously experienced a disaster (41%) had a higher perception of future disaster occurrence and potential disaster impact on their community. Overall, the study participants consistently perceived that earthquakes and infection had the highest potential impact of all disasters. Twenty-six percent of participants had an emergency supply of food, 24% had an emergency water plan, 24% had a first aid kit at home, and only 20% of the study participants had an established family evacuation plan. Natural and man-made disasters will remain a threat to the safety and health of communities in all parts of the world, especially within vulnerable communities in LMICs; however, little research has been done to identify disaster perception

  3. DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF GEO-PROCESSING MODELS FOR THE AUTOMATIC GENERATION OF REMEDIATION PLAN AND NAVIGATION DATA TO USE IN INDUSTRIAL DISASTER REMEDIATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. Lucas

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available This paper introduces research done on the automatic preparation of remediation plans and navigation data for the precise guidance of heavy machinery in clean-up work after an industrial disaster. The input test data consists of a pollution extent shapefile derived from the processing of hyperspectral aerial survey data from the Kolontár red mud disaster. Three algorithms were developed and the respective scripts were written in Python. The first model aims at drawing a parcel clean-up plan. The model tests four different parcel orientations (0, 90, 45 and 135 degree and keeps the plan where clean-up parcels are less numerous considering it is an optimal spatial configuration. The second model drifts the clean-up parcel of a work plan both vertically and horizontally following a grid pattern with sampling distance of a fifth of a parcel width and keep the most optimal drifted version; here also with the belief to reduce the final number of parcel features. The last model aims at drawing a navigation line in the middle of each clean-up parcel. The models work efficiently and achieve automatic optimized plan generation (parcels and navigation lines. Applying the first model we demonstrated that depending on the size and geometry of the features of the contaminated area layer, the number of clean-up parcels generated by the model varies in a range of 4% to 38% from plan to plan. Such a significant variation with the resulting feature numbers shows that the optimal orientation identification can result in saving work, time and money in remediation. The various tests demonstrated that the model gains efficiency when 1/ the individual features of contaminated area present a significant orientation with their geometry (features are long, 2/ the size of pollution extent features becomes closer to the size of the parcels (scale effect. The second model shows only 1% difference with the variation of feature number; so this last is less interesting for

  4. Future Time Orientation and Student Expectations: An Empirical Investigation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amyx, Douglas; Bristow, Dennis

    2004-01-01

    Navajo and Anglo college students' time orientation scores from the Future Time Orientation (FTO) Scale (Bristol & Amyx, 1996) were analyzed and compared. Anglo students were found to be significantly more future time oriented in two of the three dimensions: temporal distance and involvement with time. Future time orientation was used to explain…

  5. Planning cultural heritage protection is easier than managing an actual disaster

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zdena Rosická

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Efficient preparedness is easier to carry out comparing to dealing with consequences of disasters, anthropogenic incidents and other emergencies. Most disasters are water related, i.e. the result of flooding due to high water, water used to extinguish the fire, etc. Cultural heritage as a whole is exposed to attack from natural weathering processes, pollutants as well as water-origin disasters, fires, arson, theft, landslides or extreme weather events. In case of a disaster or any other emergency, unfortunately, no one can afford to wait for all the data and information to be entirely completed in order to make conclusions and survive a disastrous attack. When a disaster occurs and a historical object is affected, decisions must me made fast about rescue priorities, which items to save and which to sacrifice; there must be available priority lists, working guides for salvage teams as well as a disaster plan, updated lists of human resources, suppliers and service providers, lists of types and number of vehicles including passable roads available in case the movable cultural heritage evacuation becomes urgent. Emergency-response officials must be trained in measures to ensure relevant handling, conservation and care.

  6. Disasters And Minimum Health Standards In Disaster Response

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sibel GOGEN

    Full Text Available Millions of people are affected by natural or man made disasters all over the world. The number of people affected by disasters increase globally, due to global climate changes, increasing poverty, low life standards, inappropriate infrastructure, lack of early response systems, abuse of natural sources, and beside these, nuclear weapons, wars and conflicts, terrorist actions, migration, displacement and population movements. 95 % of life loss due to disasters are in the underdeveloped or developing countries. Turkey is a developing country, highly affected by disasters. For coping with disasters, not only national action plans, but also International Action Plans and cooperations are needed. Since all the disasters have direct and indirect effects on health, applications of minimal health standarts in disaster response, will reduce the morbidity and mortality rates. In this paper, water supplies and sanitation, vector control, waste control, burial of corpses, nutrition and minimum health standards in disaster response, are reviewed. [TAF Prev Med Bull 2004; 3(12.000: 296-306

  7. Disasters can happen to anybody: The case of Korea

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ha, Kyoo-Man

    2016-01-01

    In Korea, there is a pervasive feeling of invincibility to the point that people and organizations do not believe that disasters can strike them. This has impact on the level of preparedness for disasters. This study aims to delve into how Korea has to change its governmental policies/practices with some private partners' efforts to mitigate disaster risks. A case study was utilized as the major methodology by comparing exclusive management with inclusive management. These two approaches have been comparatively analyzed via four variables, namely the central government, the local governments, the incident commander, and other stakeholders. The major finding is that Korea's practices and policies have to evolve from the current exclusive management into future-oriented inclusive management. Moreover, the importance of communication, cooperation, collaboration, and multi-discipline coordination is discussed. Additionally, the problem of reductionism and equal participation among all stakeholders, as well as the resistance from vested interests, are recognized and elaborated for Korea and the international community. - Highlights: • Only a few stakeholders in Korea believe that disaster can happen to anyone. This study aims to delve into how Korea has to change its current practices to mitigate disaster risks. • To compare exclusive management with inclusive management, we have examined four comparative variables, namely the central government's policy, local government's strategy, the incident commander's post, and other stakeholders' efforts. • The major finding is that Korea's practices and policies have to evolve from the current exclusive management into future-oriented inclusive management.

  8. Disasters can happen to anybody: The case of Korea

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ha, Kyoo-Man, E-mail: ha1999@hotmail.com

    2016-02-15

    In Korea, there is a pervasive feeling of invincibility to the point that people and organizations do not believe that disasters can strike them. This has impact on the level of preparedness for disasters. This study aims to delve into how Korea has to change its governmental policies/practices with some private partners' efforts to mitigate disaster risks. A case study was utilized as the major methodology by comparing exclusive management with inclusive management. These two approaches have been comparatively analyzed via four variables, namely the central government, the local governments, the incident commander, and other stakeholders. The major finding is that Korea's practices and policies have to evolve from the current exclusive management into future-oriented inclusive management. Moreover, the importance of communication, cooperation, collaboration, and multi-discipline coordination is discussed. Additionally, the problem of reductionism and equal participation among all stakeholders, as well as the resistance from vested interests, are recognized and elaborated for Korea and the international community. - Highlights: • Only a few stakeholders in Korea believe that disaster can happen to anyone. This study aims to delve into how Korea has to change its current practices to mitigate disaster risks. • To compare exclusive management with inclusive management, we have examined four comparative variables, namely the central government's policy, local government's strategy, the incident commander's post, and other stakeholders' efforts. • The major finding is that Korea's practices and policies have to evolve from the current exclusive management into future-oriented inclusive management.

  9. How Do High School Seniors See Their Future? Parental and Peer Influences on Their Personal and Professional Plans

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Iovu Mihai-Bogdan

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Statement of problem: Future orientation is a multidimensional and multistage phenomenon. Studies have indicated that how adolescents anticipate and plan for their future is greatly influenced by the particular context in which they are placed, but most of the research in this area has been conducted with adolescents from western cultures. Aim: This study examined the personal (getting married, moving with the partner, having a child and professional (having a job, starting a business future planning of adolescents in contemporary Romania and its relation with adolescents’ background and with parents and friends support. Method: We administered a questionnaire measuring their future orientation and support from parents and friends to 3524 high school seniors from Romania. Results: Adolescents’ personal future planning varies across different life domains. Females were more likely to plan moving with the partner and getting married, while males were more likely to plan a career option. Family had an effect on professional plans, but the effect is negative, while friends were positive associated with all the future planning

  10. The Rapid Disaster Evaluation System (RaDES): A Plan to Improve Global Disaster Response by Privatizing the Assessment Component.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iserson, Kenneth V

    2017-09-01

    Emergency medicine personnel frequently respond to major disasters. They expect to have an effective and efficient management system to elegantly allocate available resources. Despite claims to the contrary, experience demonstrates this rarely occurs. This article describes privatizing disaster assessment using a single-purposed, accountable, and well-trained organization. The goal is to achieve elegant disaster assessment, rather than repeatedly exhorting existing groups to do it. The Rapid Disaster Evaluation System (RaDES) would quickly and efficiently assess a postdisaster population's needs. It would use an accountable nongovernmental agency's teams with maximal training, mobility, and flexibility. Designed to augment the Inter-Agency Standing Committee's 2015 Emergency Response Preparedness Plan, RaDES would provide the initial information needed to avoid haphazard and overlapping disaster responses. Rapidly deployed teams would gather information from multiple sources and continually communicate those findings to their base, which would then disseminate them to disaster coordinators in a concise, coherent, and transparent way. The RaDES concept represents an elegant, minimally bureaucratic, and effective rapid response to major disasters. However, its implementation faces logistical, funding, and political obstacles. Developing and maintaining RaDES would require significant funding and political commitment to coordinate the numerous agencies that claim to be performing the same tasks. Although simulations can demonstrate efficacy and deficiencies, only field tests will demonstrate RaDES' power to improve interagency coordination and decrease the cost of major disaster response. At the least, the RaDES concept should serve as a model for discussing how to practicably improve our current chaotic disaster responses. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Future Orientation in Times of Threat and Challenge: How Resilient Adolescents Construct Their Future

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seginer, Rachel

    2008-01-01

    Drawing on the importance of future orientation for adolescent development this analysis presents a model describing how future orientation is affected by high challenge (or resilience) in the face of political violence. The analysis consists of three parts. The first two present future orientation conceptualization and the psychological processes…

  12. Land Use Planning and Disaster: A European Perspective From Spain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juli Ponce

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available The study deals with the role of EU and EU Member States in relation to disasters and land use planning. It considers how land use planning can evaluate and manage risks to avoid disasters, paying special attention to the European use of precautionary principle, sometimes explained with the sentence “Better safe than Sorry”. The analysis uses especially, but not only, the example of the Spanish legal system taking into account its inclusion in the more general EU legal system. The study also considers public responsibility in preventing disasters and possible consequences of maladministration when taking planning decisions, using real Spanish cases. Finally, the article explores the possibilities of planning as a tool to prevent disasters in relation to two specific areas: location of nuclear plants and new developments regarding the prevention of crime and terrorist attacks by means of urban planning (the so called Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. El estudio analiza el papel de la Unión Europea (UE y los Estados miembros de la UE en relación con los desastres y la planificación del uso del suelo. Se describe cómo la planificación del uso del suelo puede evaluar y gestionar los riesgos para evitar desastres, prestando especial atención al uso europeo del principio de precaución, a veces resumido en la frase “Más vale prevenir que curar”. El análisis utiliza especialmente, pero no sólo, el ejemplo del sistema jurídico español, teniendo en cuenta su inclusión en el sistema legal general de la UE. El estudio también tiene en cuenta la responsabilidad pública en la prevención de desastres y las posibles consecuencias de la mala administración cuando se toman decisiones de planificación, a través de casos reales españolas. Por último, el artículo explora las posibilidades de la planificación como una herramienta para prevenir desastres en relación a dos áreas específicas: la ubicación de centrales

  13. The Observed Longitudinal Relationship between Future Orientation and Substance Use Among a Cohort of Youth with Serious Criminal Offenses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brooks, Merrian; Miller, Elizabeth; Abebe, Kaleab; Mulvey, Edward

    2018-03-06

    Future orientation (FO), an essential construct in youth development, encompassing goals, expectations for life, and ability to plan for the future. This study uses a multidimensional measure of future orientation to assess the relationship between change in future orientation and change in substance use over time. Data were from the Pathways to Desistence study. Justice involved youth (n = 1,354), ages 14 to 18 at time of recruitment, completed interviews every six months for three years. Multiple measures were chosen a priori as elements of future orientation. After evaluating the psychometrics of a new measure for future orientation, we ran mixed effects cross-lagged panel models to assess the relationship between changes in future orientation and substance use (tobacco, marijuana, hard drugs, and alcohol). There was a significant bidirectional relationship between future orientation and all substance use outcomes. Adjusted models accounted for different sites, sex, age, ethnicity, parental education, and proportion of time spent in a facility. In adjusted models, higher levels of future orientation resulted in smaller increases in substance use at future time points. Future orientation and substance use influence each other in this sample of adolescent offenders. Treating substance use disorders is also likely to increase future orientation, promoting positive youth development more generally. This study expands our understanding of the longitudinal relationship between changes in future orientation and changes in levels of substance use in a sample of justice involved youth with high levels of substance use, a group of considerable clinical and policy interest.

  14. International conference. Mental health consequences of the Chernobyl disaster: current state and future prospects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nyagu, A.I.

    1995-01-01

    Proceedings of the International Conference on the mental health consequences of the Chernobyl disaster: current state and future prospects was introduced.The questions connected with: 1. Mental health disorders biological basis after ionizing radiation influence; 2. Psychiatric aspects of the Chernobyl disaster; 3. Social stress following contradictory information: ways for its overcoming; 4. Rehabilitation and prophylactic measures for mental and nervous disorders. Psycho social rehabilitation of survivors; 5. Psychosomatic effects and somato-neurological consequences of the Chernobyl disaster; 6. Psychosomatic health of children and adolescents survivors of the Chernobyl disaster; 7. Brain damage as result of prenatal irradiation

  15. Republic of Senegal Disaster Preparedness and Response Exercise: Lessons Learned and Progress Toward Key Goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morton Hamer, Melinda J; Jordan, John J; Reed, Paul L; Greulich, Jane D; Gaye, Dame B; Beadling, Charles W

    2017-04-01

    The Republic of Senegal Disaster Preparedness and Response Exercise was held from June 2-6, 2014, in Dakar, Senegal. The goal was to assist in familiarizing roles and responsibilities within 3 existing plans and to update the National Disaster Management Strategic Work Plan. There were 60 participants in the exercise, which was driven by a series of evolving disaster scenarios. During the separate Disaster Management Strategic Work Plan review, participants refined a list of projects, including specific tasks to provide a "road map" for completing each project, project timelines, and estimated resource requirements. Project staff administered a survey to conference participants. A total of 86% of respondents had improved knowledge of Senegal disaster plans as a result of the exercise. A total of 89% of respondents had a better understanding of their ministry's role in disaster response, and 92% had a better understanding of the role of the military during a pandemic. Participants also generated ideas for disaster management system improvement in Senegal through a formal "gap analysis." Participants were in strong agreement that the exercise helped them to better understand the contents of their disaster response plans, build relationships across ministerial lines, and effectively enhance future disaster response efforts. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:183-189).

  16. DOE Hanford Network Upgrades and Disaster Recovery Exercise Support the Cleanup Mission Now and into the Future

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Eckman, Todd J.; Hertzel, Ali K.; Lane, James J.

    2013-11-07

    ; and, Select set of production applications and data. The primary objective of the exercise was to test COOP around the emergency operations at Hanford to provide information on capabilities and dependencies of the current system to insure improved focus of emergency, safety and security capacity in a disaster situation. The integration of the DR test into the ET-50 project allowed the testing of COOP at Hanford and allowed the lessons learned to be defined. These lessons learned have helped improve the understanding of Hanford's COOP capabilities and will be critical for future planning. With the completion of the Hanford Federal Cloud network upgrades and the disaster recovery exercise, the MSA has a clearer path forward for future technology implementations as well as network improvements to help shape the usability and reliability of the Hanford network in support of the cleanup mission.

  17. DOE Hanford Network Upgrades and Disaster Recovery Exercise Support the Cleanup Mission Now and into the Future

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eckman, Todd J.; Hertzel, Ali K.; Lane, James J.

    2013-01-01

    and data. The primary objective of the exercise was to test COOP around the emergency operations at Hanford to provide information on capabilities and dependencies of the current system to insure improved focus of emergency, safety and security capacity in a disaster situation. The integration of the DR test into the ET-50 project allowed the testing of COOP at Hanford and allowed the lessons learned to be defined. These lessons learned have helped improve the understanding of Hanford's COOP capabilities and will be critical for future planning. With the completion of the Hanford Federal Cloud network upgrades and the disaster recovery exercise, the MSA has a clearer path forward for future technology implementations as well as network improvements to help shape the usability and reliability of the Hanford network in support of the cleanup mission

  18. Fit between Future Thinking and Future Orientation on Creative Imagination

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chiu, Fa-Chung

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of the current study is to investigate the impact of future thinking, and the fit between future thinking and future orientation on creative thinking. In Study 1, 83 undergraduates were randomly assigned to three groups: 50-year future thinking, 5-year future thinking, and the present-day thinking. First, the priming tasks, in which…

  19. Holistic Disaster Risk Evaluation for the Urban Risk Management Plan of Manizales, Colombia

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Martha Liliana Carre(n)o; Omar-Darío Cardona; Alex H.Barbat; Dora Catalina Suarez; María del Pilar Perez; Lizardo Narvaez

    2017-01-01

    Disaster risk depends on both the physical vulnerability and a wide range of social,economic,and environmental aspects of a society.For a better risk understanding,a holistic or integrated perspective was considered when risk was assessed for the city of Manizales,Colombia.This assessment accounts not only for the expected physical damage and loss,but also for the socioeconomic vulnerability factors that favor secondorder effects in a disaster.This comprehensive approach allows the identification of different aspects related to physical vulnerability,social fragility,and lack of resilience that can be improved,thus enhancing integrated disaster risk management actions.The outcomes of this comprehensive assessment are currently being used as input to update the disaster risk management plan of Manizales.

  20. How Adolescents Construct Their Future: The Effect of Loneliness on Future Orientation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seginer, Rachel; Lilach, Efrat

    2004-01-01

    This study examined the effect of loneliness, gender, and two dimensions of prospective life domains on adolescent future orientation. Future orientation was studied in four prospective domains: social relations, marriage and family, higher education and work and career. These domains are described in terms of two dimensions: theme (relational vs.…

  1. Disaster waste management: A review article

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brown, Charlotte; Milke, Mark; Seville, Erica

    2011-01-01

    Depending on their nature and severity, disasters can create large volumes of debris and waste. The waste can overwhelm existing solid waste management facilities and impact on other emergency response and recovery activities. If poorly managed, the waste can have significant environmental and public health impacts and can affect the overall recovery process. This paper presents a system overview of disaster waste management based on existing literature. The main literature available to date comprises disaster waste management plans or guidelines and isolated case studies. There is ample discussion on technical management options such as temporary storage sites, recycling, disposal, etc.; however, there is little or no guidance on how these various management options are selected post-disaster. The literature does not specifically address the impact or appropriateness of existing legislation, organisational structures and funding mechanisms on disaster waste management programmes, nor does it satisfactorily cover the social impact of disaster waste management programmes. It is envisaged that the discussion presented in this paper, and the literature gaps identified, will form a basis for future comprehensive and cohesive research on disaster waste management. In turn, research will lead to better preparedness and response to disaster waste management problems.

  2. Natural disasters and dialysis care in the Asia-Pacific.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gray, Nicholas A; Wolley, Martin; Liew, Adrian; Nakayama, Masaaki

    2015-12-01

    The impact of natural disasters on the provision of dialysis services has received increased attention in the last decade following Hurricane Katrina devastating New Orleans in 2005. The Asia-Pacific is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes, tsunami, typhoons (also known as cyclones and hurricanes) or storms and flooding. These events can seriously interrupt provision of haemodialysis with adverse effects for patients including missed dialysis, increased hospitalization and post-traumatic stress disorder. Furthermore, haemodialysis patients may need to relocate and experience prolonged periods of displacement from family and social supports. In contrast to haemodialysis, most literature suggests peritoneal dialysis in a disaster situation is more easily managed and supported. It has become apparent that dialysis units and patients should be prepared for a disaster event and that appropriate planning will result in reduced confusion and adverse outcomes should a disaster occur. Numerous resources are now available to guide dialysis units, patients and staff in preparation for a possible disaster. This article will examine the disaster experiences of dialysis units in the Asia-Pacific, the impact on patients and staff, methods employed to manage during the disaster and suggested plans for reducing the impact of future disasters. © 2015 Asian Pacific Society of Nephrology.

  3. It gets better: future orientation buffers the development of hopelessness and depressive symptoms following emotional victimization during early adolescence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamilton, Jessica L; Connolly, Samantha L; Liu, Richard T; Stange, Jonathan P; Abramson, Lyn Y; Alloy, Lauren B

    2015-04-01

    Research consistently has linked hopelessness to a range of negative outcomes, including depression, during adolescence. Although interpersonal stressors such as familial and peer emotional victimization have been found to contribute to hopelessness, less research has examined whether adolescents with a greater tendency to think about and plan for the future (i.e., future orientation) are protected against the development of hopelessness, particularly in the context of negative events. Thus, the current study evaluated whether peer and familial emotional victimization predicted increases in hopelessness more strongly among adolescents with a weaker future orientation than those with a stronger orientation towards the future, and whether hopelessness in turn predicted increases in depression. In a diverse sample of 259 early adolescents (54% female; 51% African American; Mage = 12.86 years), both peer and familial emotional victimization predicted increases in hopelessness more strongly among adolescents with weaker future orientations than among those with stronger future orientations. Further, moderated mediation analyses revealed that hopelessness significantly mediated the relationship between emotional victimization and increases in depressive symptoms more strongly among adolescents with weaker orientations towards the future compared to those with stronger future orientations. These findings indicate that adolescents' tendency to think about the future may impact whether emotional victimization induces hopelessness and ultimately depressive symptoms during early adolescence. Results have important implications regarding intervention and prevention of depression during the critical developmental period of adolescence.

  4. Is your automated system disaster proof?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baird, P.W.; Priest, S.A.

    1990-01-01

    Disaster-proofing a system has four basic steps: (1) development of a disaster recovery plan; (2) creation and enforcement of procedures for developing and maintaining off-site back-ups for data, vital records, and documentation; (3) a performance test of the disaster recovery plan; and (4) the on-going maintenance of a plans currency and the periodic testing of the plant. The development of a complete disaster recovery plan has many elements: the operating environment for the system; the criteria under which an off-site recovery would be initiated; the back-up schedule and locations of all data; vital records and documentation; the steps required to recover the system; and any modifications necessitated by the off-site operating environment. Creation and enforcement of procedures for developing and maintaining current backups for all data, vital records, and documentation in a designated off-site location represent the second and most crucial step for ensuring an automated system can successfully survive a disaster. To effectively test any plan, a disaster scenario must be developed and performed by a disaster recovery team required to recover and operate the system in the off-site environment using nothing more than the disaster recovery plan and off-site information and data. Finally, the last step for ensuring that a system can survive a disaster is the maintenance of the plans currency and the continued performance of disaster recovery tests. As the environment surrounding a system changes a disaster recovery plan must be updated to reflect these changes. Equally important to the maintenance of currency is the on-going performance of disaster recovery tests on a periodic basis

  5. Environmental management and emergency preparedness plan for Tsunami disaster along Indian coast

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P Chandramohan

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The 26 December 2004 Tsunami generated by the submarine earthquake in Andaman Sea with the magnitude of 9.2 Richter scale triggered the worst destruction, widespread inundation and extensive damage in terms of life and property along the Tamil Nadu coast and Andaman Nicobar Group of Islands. The shoreline features like dunes, vegetation and steepness of beaches played vital role in attenuating the impact of Tsunami from destruction. While the low-level Marina beach experienced minimum inundation, the coast between Adyar and Cooum was inundated heavily. As the present generation of India was not aware of Tsunami, the emergency plan and preparedness were zero and so the loss of human life was huge. In this article, the authors describe the Tsunami occurred in India on 26 December 2004 and its impacts on morphology. The appropriate Emergency Preparedness plan and the Disaster Management Plan in case of reoccurrence of such natural disaster are discussed.

  6. Public Comment Period Open for the Draft Update to the Planning for Natural Disaster Debris Guidance and to Related Documents

    Science.gov (United States)

    EPA is requesting comment on the draft Planning for Natural Disaster Debris Guidance, and two other documents. The Guidance is an update of the Planning for Natural Disaster Debris guidance that EPA published in March 2008.

  7. Creation of inpatient capacity during a major hospital relocation: lessons for disaster planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jen, Howard C; Shew, Stephen B; Atkinson, James B; Rosenthal, J Thomas; Hiatt, Jonathan R

    2009-09-01

    To identify tools to aid the creation of disaster surge capacity using a model of planned inpatient census reduction prior to relocation of a university hospital. Prospective analysis of hospital operations for 1-week periods beginning 2 weeks (baseline) and 1 week (transition) prior to move day; analysis of regional hospital and emergency department capacity. Large metropolitan university teaching hospital. Hospital census figures and patient outcomes. Census was reduced by 36% from 537 at baseline to 345 on move day, a rate of 18 patients/d (P emergency operations was unchanged. Hospital admissions were decreased by 42%, and the adjusted discharges per occupied bed were increased by 8% (both P capacity to absorb new patients was limited. During a period in which southern California population grew by 8.5%, acute care beds fell by 3.3%, while Los Angeles County emergency departments experienced a 13% diversion rate due to overcrowding. Local or regional disasters of any size can overwhelm the system's ability to respond. Our strategy produced a surge capacity of 36% without interruption of emergency department and trauma services but required 3 to 4 days for implementation, making it applicable to disasters and mass casualty events with longer lead times. These principles may aid in disaster preparedness and planning.

  8. Planning Emergency Shelters for Urban Disaster Resilience: An Integrated Location-Allocation Modeling Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laijun Zhao

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available In recent years, extreme natural hazards threaten cities more than ever due to contemporary society’s high vulnerability in cities. Hence, local governments need to implement risk mitigation and disaster operation management to enhance disaster resilience in cities. Transforming existing open spaces within cities into emergency shelters is an effective method of providing essential life support and an agent of recovery in the wake of disasters. Emergency shelters planning must identify suitable locations for shelters and reasonably allocate evacuees to those shelters. In this paper, we first consider both the buildings’ post-disaster condition and the human choice factor that affect evacuees’ decision, and propose a forecasting method to estimate the time-varying shelter demand. Then we formulate an integrated location-allocation model that is used sequentially: an emergency shelter location model to satisfy the time-varying shelter demand in a given urban area with a goal of minimizing the total setup cost of locating the shelters and an allocation model that allocates the evacuees to shelters with a goal of minimizing their total evacuation distance. We also develop an efficient algorithm to solve the model. Finally, we propose an emergency shelters planning based on a case study of Shanghai, China.

  9. Moxie matters: associations of future orientation with active life expectancy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laditka, Sarah B; Laditka, James N

    2017-10-01

    Being oriented toward the future has been associated with better future health. We studied associations of future orientation with life expectancy and the percentage of life with disability. We used the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (n = 5249). Participants' average age in 1968 was 33.0. Six questions repeatedly measured future orientation, 1968-1976. Seven waves (1999-2011, 33,331 person-years) measured disability in activities of daily living for the same individuals, whose average age in 1999 was 64.0. We estimated monthly probabilities of disability and death with multinomial logistic Markov models adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, childhood health, and education. Using the probabilities, we created large populations with microsimulation, measuring disability in each month for each individual, age 55 through death. Life expectancy from age 55 for white men with high future orientation was age 77.6 (95% confidence interval 75.5-79.0), 6.9% (4.9-7.2) of those years with disability; results with low future orientation were 73.6 (72.2-75.4) and 9.6% (7.7-10.7). Comparable results for African American men were 74.8 (72.9-75.3), 8.1 (5.6-9.3), 71.0 (69.6-72.8), and 11.3 (9.1-11.7). For women, there were no significant differences associated with levels of future orientation for life expectancy. For white women with high future orientation 9.1% of remaining life from age 55 was disabled (6.3-9.9), compared to 12.4% (10.2-13.2) with low future orientation. Disability results for African American women were similar but statistically significant only at age 80 and over. High future orientation during early to middle adult ages may be associated with better health in older age.

  10. Are master plans effective in limiting development in China's disaster-prone areas?

    OpenAIRE

    Kim, Saehoon; Rowe, Peter G.

    2013-01-01

    The effectiveness of urban master plans in limiting development in a disaster-prone area of China was empirically investigated by measuring cities’ land-cover changes against their master plans. If a master plan serves as guidance for urban polices that reduce property loss from earthquakes, floods, landslides,land subsidence, and rises in sea level, it will substantially limit urban development in areas at risk from environmental hazards. An environmental risk map weighted toward valuable...

  11. The future of future-oriented cognition in non-humans: theory and the empirical case of the great apes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Osvath, Mathias; Martin-Ordas, Gema

    2014-11-05

    One of the most contested areas in the field of animal cognition is non-human future-oriented cognition. We critically examine key underlying assumptions in the debate, which is mainly preoccupied with certain dichotomous positions, the most prevalent being whether or not 'real' future orientation is uniquely human. We argue that future orientation is a theoretical construct threatening to lead research astray. Cognitive operations occur in the present moment and can be influenced only by prior causation and the environment, at the same time that most appear directed towards future outcomes. Regarding the current debate, future orientation becomes a question of where on various continua cognition becomes 'truly' future-oriented. We question both the assumption that episodic cognition is the most important process in future-oriented cognition and the assumption that future-oriented cognition is uniquely human. We review the studies on future-oriented cognition in the great apes to find little doubt that our closest relatives possess such ability. We conclude by urging that future-oriented cognition not be viewed as expression of some select set of skills. Instead, research into future-oriented cognition should be approached more like research into social and physical cognition. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

  12. Handling Emergency Management in [an] Object Oriented Modeling Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tokgoz, Berna Eren; Cakir, Volkan; Gheorghe, Adrian V.

    2010-01-01

    It has been understood that protection of a nation from extreme disasters is a challenging task. Impacts of extreme disasters on a nation's critical infrastructures, economy and society could be devastating. A protection plan itself would not be sufficient when a disaster strikes. Hence, there is a need for a holistic approach to establish more resilient infrastructures to withstand extreme disasters. A resilient infrastructure can be defined as a system or facility that is able to withstand damage, but if affected, can be readily and cost-effectively restored. The key issue to establish resilient infrastructures is to incorporate existing protection plans with comprehensive preparedness actions to respond, recover and restore as quickly as possible, and to minimize extreme disaster impacts. Although national organizations will respond to a disaster, extreme disasters need to be handled mostly by local emergency management departments. Since emergency management departments have to deal with complex systems, they have to have a manageable plan and efficient organizational structures to coordinate all these systems. A strong organizational structure is the key in responding fast before and during disasters, and recovering quickly after disasters. In this study, the entire emergency management is viewed as an enterprise and modelled through enterprise management approach. Managing an enterprise or a large complex system is a very challenging task. It is critical for an enterprise to respond to challenges in a timely manner with quick decision making. This study addresses the problem of handling emergency management at regional level in an object oriented modelling environment developed by use of TopEase software. Emergency Operation Plan of the City of Hampton, Virginia, has been incorporated into TopEase for analysis. The methodology used in this study has been supported by a case study on critical infrastructure resiliency in Hampton Roads.

  13. When a disaster strikes without warning: how effective is your response plan?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steiner, P J

    2001-01-01

    When an outside high-pressure natural gas line was cut near the intakes to a hospital's ventilation system, gas was quickly dispersed throughout the building. The facility's disaster management plan faced a real-life test.

  14. Prospect of future housing and risk of psychological distress at 1 year after an earthquake disaster.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakaya, Naoki; Nakamura, Tomohiro; Tsuchiya, Naho; Narita, Akira; Tsuji, Ichiro; Hozawa, Atsushi; Tomita, Hiroaki

    2016-04-01

    Since the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, many of the affected have been forced to live in temporary housing or at a relative's house. Special attention needs to be paid to the negative health impacts resulting from such changes in living conditions. This study examined the association between future housing prospects and the risk of psychological distress 1 year after the earthquake. In 2012, a questionnaire was completed by a cross-sectional study of people aged 20 years or older living in Shichigahama Town, Miyagi, northeastern Japan, an area that had been severely inundated by the tsunami. Future housing prospects post-earthquake were classified into four categories: already settled in permanent housing, moving to new housing, under consideration, or unable to make any plans. Psychological distress was evaluated using the Kessler 6 scale, defined as ≥5 points out of 24. We performed multiple logistic regression analyses adjusted for potential confounding factors. Of the 3614 individuals studied, subjects whose future housing was under consideration (odds ratio [OR] = 2.1, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.6-2.7, P prospects were under consideration and those who were unable to make any future housing plans were at a higher risk of psychological distress 1 year after the earthquake disaster. © 2015 The Authors. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences © 2015 Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.

  15. Disaster waste management: a review article.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Charlotte; Milke, Mark; Seville, Erica

    2011-06-01

    Depending on their nature and severity, disasters can create large volumes of debris and waste. The waste can overwhelm existing solid waste management facilities and impact on other emergency response and recovery activities. If poorly managed, the waste can have significant environmental and public health impacts and can affect the overall recovery process. This paper presents a system overview of disaster waste management based on existing literature. The main literature available to date comprises disaster waste management plans or guidelines and isolated case studies. There is ample discussion on technical management options such as temporary storage sites, recycling, disposal, etc.; however, there is little or no guidance on how these various management options are selected post-disaster. The literature does not specifically address the impact or appropriateness of existing legislation, organisational structures and funding mechanisms on disaster waste management programmes, nor does it satisfactorily cover the social impact of disaster waste management programmes. It is envisaged that the discussion presented in this paper, and the literature gaps identified, will form a basis for future comprehensive and cohesive research on disaster waste management. In turn, research will lead to better preparedness and response to disaster waste management problems. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. A Look At The Upper Level Planning System And Its Management Through Disaster Management In Turkey

    OpenAIRE

    Kanlı, İ. Bakır

    2003-01-01

    In this study the planning and management systems in our country have been examined in the scope of disaster management and in a trio system relationship. The systems’ points of handicap have been established in the frame of reason-result and suggestions have been made regarding the reconstruction of the system. It is very important that the planning system work efficiently in a hierarchical structure to reduce the effects of disasters. Our cities will be much healthier and safer places when ...

  17. Age Differences in Future Orientation and Delay Discounting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steinberg, Laurence; Graham, Sandra; O'Brien, Lia; Woolard, Jennifer; Cauffman, Elizabeth; Banich, Marie

    2009-01-01

    Age differences in future orientation are examined in a sample of 935 individuals between 10 and 30 years using a delay discounting task as well as a new self-report measure. Younger adolescents consistently demonstrate a weaker orientation to the future than do individuals aged 16 and older, as reflected in their greater willingness to accept a…

  18. Challenges of the New Zealand healthcare disaster preparedness prior to the Canterbury earthquakes: a qualitative analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al-Shaqsi, Sultan; Gauld, Robin; Lovell, Sarah; McBride, David; Al-Kashmiri, Ammar; Al-Harthy, Abdullah

    2013-03-15

    Disasters are a growing global phenomenon. New Zealand has suffered several major disasters in recent times. The state of healthcare disaster preparedness in New Zealand prior to the Canterbury earthquakes is not well documented. To investigate the challenges of the New Zealand healthcare disaster preparedness prior to the Canterbury earthquakes. Semi-structured interviews with emergency planners in all the District Health Boards (DHBs) in New Zealand in the period between January and March 2010. The interview protocol revolved around the domains of emergency planning adopted by the World Health Organization. Seventeen interviews were conducted. The main themes included disinterest of clinical personnel in emergency planning, the need for communication backup, the integration of private services in disaster preparedness, the value of volunteers, the requirement for regular disaster training, and the need to enhance surge capability of the New Zealand healthcare system to respond to disasters. Prior to the Canterbury earthquakes, healthcare disaster preparedness faced multiple challenges. Despite these challenges, New Zealand's healthcare response was adequate. Future preparedness has to consider the lessons learnt from the 2011 earthquakes to improve healthcare disaster planning in New Zealand.

  19. Lifetime oriented maintenance planning in the Netherlands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Straub, A.

    2003-01-01

    In this paper we set up a framework for lifetime oriented maintenance planning as an outcome and input for strategic housing stock management. The maintenance planning holds maintenance activities and costs in the longer term. We consider the maintenance planning as a tool to calculate and implement

  20. The Great East Japan Earthquake: a need to plan for post-disaster surveillance in developed countries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jeffrey Partridge

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available After a devastating earthquake and tsunami struck north-eastern Japan in March 2011, the public health system, including the infectious disease surveillance system, was severely compromised. While models for post-disaster surveillance exist, they focus predominantly on developing countries during the early recovery phase. Such models do not necessarily apply to developed countries, which differ considerably in their baseline surveillance systems. Furthermore, there is a need to consider the process by which a surveillance system recovers post-disaster. The event in Japan has highlighted a need to address these concerns surrounding post-disaster surveillance in developed countries.In May 2011, the World Health Organization convened a meeting where post-disaster surveillance was discussed by experts and public health practitioners. In this paper, we describe a post-disaster surveillance approach that was discussed at the meeting, based on what had actually occurred and what may have been, or would be, ideal. Briefly, we describe the evolution of a surveillance system as it returns to the pre-existing system, starting from an event-based approach during the emergency relief phase, a syndromic approach during the early recovery phase, an enhanced sentinel approach during the late recovery phase and a return to baseline during the development phase. Our aim is not to recommend a specific model but to encourage other developed countries to initiate their own discussions on post-disaster surveillance and develop plans according to their needs and capacities. As natural disasters will continue to occur, we hope that developing such plans during the “inter-disaster” period will help mitigate the surveillance challenges that will arise post-disaster.

  1. EDs in the Midwest and South activate disaster plans as deadly tornadoes sweep through the region.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-05-01

    Hospitals in the Midwest and South activated their disaster plans in early March to deal with a phalanx of powerful tornadoes that leveled several small towns and killed at least two dozen people. Some hospitals had to activate plans for both internal and external disasters as their own facilities were threatened. One small critical-access hospital in West Liberty, KY, sustained significant damage and had to evacuate its patients to another facility. All the hospitals credit their disaster plans and practice drills with helping them to manage the crisis as efficiently as possible. Morgan County ARH Hospital in West Liberty, KY, went for several days without an operational lab or radiology department, but staff kept the ED open for absolute emergencies. Margaret Mary Community Hospital (MMCH) in Batesville, IN, received six tornado victims, but it was prepared for many more. Administrators credit advanced warning of the storms with helping them to prepare effectively, as well as to coordinate their response with other hospitals in the area. As a level 1 trauma center, the University of Louisville Hospital in Louisville, KY, received all the most seriously injured patients in the region, even while the facility itself was under a tornado warning. Staff had to route families away from the glassed-in waiting room to the basement until the tornado warning had passed. At one point during the crisis, there were 90 patients in the hospital's ED even though the department is only equipped with 29 beds. Administrators at Huntsville Hospital in Huntsville, AL, encouraged colleagues to take advantage of smaller-scale emergencies to activate parts of their disaster plans, and to focus disaster preparation drills on their hospital's top hazard vulnerabilities.

  2. The relationship between an orientation to the future and an orientation to the past: The role of future clarity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moss, Simon A; Wilson, Samuel G; Irons, Melanie; Naivalu, Carmen

    2017-12-01

    Some research shows that people who often contemplate their future tend to be healthier. Yet the burgeoning literature on mindfulness demonstrates that people who are more attuned to their immediate experiences also enjoy many benefits. To reconcile these principles, many scholars recommend that people should distribute their attention, somewhat evenly, across the past, present, and future-but have not clarified how people should achieve this goal. We test the possibility that people who perceive their future as vivid and certain, called future clarity, might be able to both orient their attention to the future as well as experience mindfulness. Specifically, future clarity could diminish the inclination of people to reach decisions prematurely and dismiss information that contradicts these decisions, called need for closure-tendencies that diminish consideration of future consequences and mindfulness, respectively. In this cross-sectional study, 194 participants completed measures of mindfulness, consideration of future consequences, need for closure, and future clarity. Consistent with hypotheses, future clarity was positively associated with both mindfulness and consideration of future consequences. Need for closure partly mediated these relationships. Accordingly, interventions that empower people to shape and to clarify their future might generate the benefits of both mindfulness and a future orientation. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  3. InaSAFE applications in disaster preparedness

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pranantyo, Ignatius Ryan; Fadmastuti, Mahardika; Chandra, Fredy

    2015-04-01

    Disaster preparedness activities aim to reduce the impact of disasters by being better prepared to respond when a disaster occurs. In order to better anticipate requirements during a disaster, contingency planning activities can be undertaken prior to a disaster based on a realistic disaster scenario. InaSAFE is a tool that can inform this process. InaSAFE is a free and open source software that estimates the impact to people and infrastructure from potential hazard scenarios. By using InaSAFE, disaster managers can develop scenarios of disaster impacts (people and infrastructures affected) to inform their contingency plan and emergency response operation plan. While InaSAFE provides the software framework exposure data and hazard data are needed as inputs to run this software. Then InaSAFE can be used to forecast the impact of the hazard scenario to the exposure data. InaSAFE outputs include estimates of the number of people, buildings and roads are affected, list of minimum needs (rice and clean water), and response checklist. InaSAFE is developed by Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) and the Australian Government, through the Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction (AIFDR), in partnership with the World Bank - Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR). This software has been used in many parts of Indonesia, including Padang, Maumere, Jakarta, and Slamet Mountain for emergency response and contingency planning.

  4. Structuring Disaster Recovery Infrastructure Decisions: Lessons from Boulder County's 2013 Flood Recovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clavin, C.; Petropoulos, Z.

    2017-12-01

    Recovery phase decision making processes, as compared to mitigation and response phase decision making processes, require communities make significant financial and capital decisions in the months after a disaster. Collectively, these investments may significantly contribute to the resilience of a community to future hazards. Pre-disaster administrative decisions are well-established within existing planning processes. Post-event recovery requires community decision makers to quickly evaluate technical proposals and manage significant recovery financial resources to ensure their community rebuilds in a manner that will be more resilient to future events. These technical and administrative hurdles in the aftermath of a disaster create a challenging atmosphere to make sound, scientifically-informed decisions leading to resilient recovery. In September 2013, a 1,000-year rain event that resulted in flooding throughout the Front Range of Colorado, significantly impacting Boulder County. While the event is long past, disaster recovery efforts still continue in parts of Boulder County. Boulder County officials formed a county collaborative that adapted the NIST Community Resilience Planning Guide for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems to facilitate a goals-based multi-criteria decision making process. Rather than use hazard-based information to guide infrastructure design, the county's decision process established time-to-recovery goals for infrastructure systems that were used as criteria for project design. This presentation explores the decision-making process employed by Boulder County to specify design standards for resilient rebuilding of infrastructure systems and examine how this infrastructure planning model could be extrapolated to other situations where there is uncertainty regarding future infrastructure design standards.

  5. Preparing for Disaster: Taking the Lead

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colber, Judith

    2008-01-01

    In this article, Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness describes disasters in relation to five phases that may serve as a helpful framework for planning disaster response: (1) before the disaster (pre-disaster); (2) during the disaster (intra-disaster); (3) immediately after the disaster (immediate…

  6. Energy-oriented planning of enterprises. Energieorientierte Unternehmensplanung

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hoffmann, H

    1983-01-01

    The book first of all analysis, from an energy point of view, the planning field, which can be characterized by factors relating to the enterprise, environmental factors and the basic business policy pursued. Chapter 2 deals with the enterprise parameters that form the object of planning. Different variables of action are pointed out: aims, strategies (and/or stratetic paths), and actions related to certain areas of function. The aims to be fixed are closely connected with the basic business policy and are discussed in this context. In the part dealing with strategies, particular attention is paid to the efficiency-oriented path ''rational energy utilization'' and the effectiveness-oriented path ''energy-oriented product and market design''. Both strategic framework concepts are viewed in close relation to the aims envisaged, the basic business policy and the environmental and business analysis, and are worked out in this connection. The general strategy discussion covering all sectors is followed by a detailed analysis of the action potential specific to certain areas of function. The physical transformation stages procurement, production and sale are chosen as areas of function to be investigated. Finally the book discusses questions related to the realization of energy concepts. These are, besides implementation conditions and control tasks, resistances encountered and the limits of energy-oriented planning.

  7. Rapid Visual Site Analysis for Post-disaster Landscape Planning: Expanding the Range of Choice in a Tsunami-affected Town in Japan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James Wescoat

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Problem statement In post-disaster situations, it is often necessary to undertake rapid visual site reconnaissance to characterise patterns of damage and identify reconstruction opportunities and constraints. Rapid visual site analysis can occur over a period of hours to days rather than weeks to months. The time constraint is often necessary to assess the viability of initial reconstruction scenarios and help broaden the range of choice among site planning options. Rapid assessment can also minimise the use of scarce local post-disaster resources during the initial reconnaissance phases of planning. Because it involves visual methods rather than equipment-intensive survey techniques, it serves as an initial scoping of alternatives. It may follow emergency shelter response planning methods (for example, Sphere Project, 2011, ch 4 and be followed by more comprehensive site mapping and screening. This action–research project reviews the literature on post-disaster site analysis with an emphasis on the tsunami-affected area of north-eastern Japan. Because research on rapid visual site analysis in post-disaster contexts is limited, we combined field-based site analysis methods, adapted for post-disaster planning, with visual methods for assessing seismic and tsunami hazards.

  8. A memory advantage for past-oriented over future-oriented performance feedback.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nash, Robert A; Winstone, Naomi E; Gregory, Samantha E A; Papps, Emily

    2018-03-05

    People frequently receive performance feedback that describes how well they achieved in the past, and how they could improve in future. In educational contexts, future-oriented (directive) feedback is often argued to be more valuable to learners than past-oriented (evaluative) feedback; critically, prior research led us to predict that it should also be better remembered. We tested this prediction in six experiments. Subjects read written feedback containing evaluative and directive comments, which supposedly related to essays they had previously written (Experiments 1-2), or to essays another person had written (Experiments 3-6). Subjects then tried to reproduce the feedback from memory after a short delay. In all six experiments, the data strongly revealed the opposite effect to the one we predicted: despite only small differences in wording, evaluative feedback was in fact recalled consistently better than directive feedback. Furthermore, even when adult subjects did recall directive feedback, they frequently misremembered it in an evaluative style. These findings appear at odds with the position that being oriented toward the future is advantageous to memory. They also raise important questions about the possible behavioral effects and generalizability of such biases, in terms of students' academic performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  9. Self-Esteem and Future Orientation Predict Adolescents' Risk Engagement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackman, Danielle M.; MacPhee, David

    2017-01-01

    This study's purpose was to examine the relations among future orientation, self-esteem, and later adolescent risk behaviors, and to compare two mediational models involving self-esteem versus future orientation as mediators. An ethnically diverse sample of 12- to 14-year-olds (N = 862, 54% female, 53% ethnic minority) was assessed longitudinally.…

  10. Future planning - utopia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boernke, F.

    1978-01-01

    Our life develops as the anticipation of future. Everything we wish, hope, plan and carry out and think is or should be related to future and will have its effects in future. The certainty may spread that it is a necessary obligation to learn to find out our actual being more clearly to be able to develop a thinking and acting that is directed to future that has also a total of responsability as its essence. We will later atone for the failed outlooks into future or for only moderate or uncompleted starts of planning. For this reason we should consider that future does not come for its own, not without our demands, not without our acting. Only if our reflection and aspiration, thinking and acting is done with moderate and circumspect sense in the right way it will be a good fundamental for the future. (orig.) [de

  11. Do Savings Mediate Changes in Adolescents' Future Orientation and Health-Related Outcomes? Findings From Randomized Experiment in Uganda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karimli, Leyla; Ssewamala, Fred M

    2015-10-01

    This present study tests the proposition that an economic strengthening intervention for families caring for AIDS-orphaned adolescents would positively affect adolescent future orientation and psychosocial outcomes through increased asset accumulation (in this case, by increasing family savings). Using longitudinal data from the cluster-randomized experiment, we ran generalized estimating equation models with robust standard errors clustering on individual observations. To examine whether family savings mediate the effect of the intervention on adolescents' future orientation and psychosocial outcomes, analyses were conducted in three steps: (1) testing the effect of intervention on mediator; (2) testing the effect of mediator on outcomes, controlling for the intervention; and (3) testing the significance of mediating effect using Sobel-Goodman method. Asymmetric confidence intervals for mediated effect were obtained through bootstrapping-to address the assumption of normal distribution. Results indicate that participation in a matched Child Savings Account (CSA) program improved adolescents' future orientation and psychosocial outcomes by reducing hopelessness, enhancing self-concept, and improving adolescents' confidence about their educational plans. However, the positive intervention effect on adolescent future orientation and psychosocial outcomes was not transmitted through saving. In other words, participation in the matched CSA program improved adolescent future orientation and psychosocial outcomes regardless of its impact on reported savings. Further research is necessary to understand exactly how participation in economic strengthening interventions, for example, those that employ matched CSAs, shape adolescent future orientation and psychosocial outcomes: what, if not savings, transmits the treatment effect and how? Copyright © 2015 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Assessing Disaster Preparedness Among Select Children's Summer Camps in the United States and Canada.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Megan; Sielaff, Alan; Bradin, Stuart; Walker, Kevin; Ambrose, Michael; Hashikawa, Andrew

    2017-08-01

    substantial proportion of camps were missing critical components of disaster planning. Future interventions must focus on developing summer camp-specific disaster plans, increasing partnerships, and reassessing national disaster plans to include summer camp settings.

  13. Future Orientation and School Bullying Among Adolescents in Rural China

    OpenAIRE

    Shu Ling Gao; Ko Ling Chan

    2015-01-01

    This study examined the relations among future orientation, school bonding, and school bullying perpetration behaviors. Data were collected from 677 seventh- to ninth-grade adolescents in an area in Southwest China. Specifically, students completed the Future-Orientation Questionnaire, the Psychological Sense of School Membership scale, and the Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire to assess their future orientatio...

  14. Chinese nurses' relief experiences following two earthquakes: implications for disaster education and policy development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wenji, Zhou; Turale, Sue; Stone, Teresa E; Petrini, Marcia A

    2015-01-01

    Disasters require well trained nurses but disaster nursing education is very limited in China and evidence is urgently required for future planning and implementation of specialized disaster education. This describes the themes arising from narratives of Chinese registered nurses who worked in disaster relief after two major earthquakes. In-depth interviews were held with 12 registered nurses from Hubei Province. Riessman's narrative inquiry method was used to develop individual stories and themes, and socio-cultural theory informed this study. Five themes emerged: unbeatable challenges; qualities of a disaster nurse; mental health and trauma; poor disaster planning and co-ordination; and urgently needed disaster education. Participants were challenged by rudimentary living conditions, a lack of medical equipment, earthquake aftershocks, and cultural differences in the people they cared for. Participants placed importance on the development of teamwork abilities, critical thinking skills, management abilities of nurses in disasters, and the urgency to build a better disaster response system in China in which professional nurses could more actively contribute their skills and knowledge. Our findings concur with previous research and emphasize the urgency for health leaders across China to develop and implement disaster nursing education policies and programs. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Disaster mitigation: initial response.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kennedy, George; Richards, Michael; Chicarelli, Michael; Ernst, Amy; Harrell, Andrew; Stites, Danniel

    2013-01-01

    The objective of this review is to stimulate the reader's considerations for developing community disaster mitigation. Disaster mitigation begins long before impact and is defined as the actions taken by a community to eliminate or minimize the impact of a disaster. The assessment of vulnerabilities, the development of infrastructure, memoranda of understanding, and planning for a sustainable response and recovery are parts of the process. Empowering leadership and citizens with knowledge of available resources through the planning and development of a disaster response can strengthen a community's resilience, which can only add to the viability and quality of life enjoyed by the entire community.

  16. STEPS OF THE DESIGN OF CLOUD ORIENTED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT IN THE STUDY OF DATABASES FOR FUTURE TEACHERS OF INFORMATICS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oleksandr M. Kryvonos

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available The article describes the introduction of cloud services in the educational process of the discipline «Databases» of future teachers of informatics and the design of the cloud oriented learning environment on their basis. An analysis of the domestic experience of forming a cloud oriented learning environment of educational institutions is carried out, given interpretation of concepts «cloud oriented distance learning system», «cloud oriented learning environment in the study of databases», «the design of the cloud oriented learning environment in the study of databases for future teachers of informatics». The following stages of designing COLE are selected and described: targeted, conceptual, meaningful, component, introductory, appraisal-generalization. The structure of the educational interaction of subjects in the study of databases in the conditions of the COLE is developed by the means of the cloud oriented distance learning system Canvas, consisting of communication tools, joint work, and planning of educational events, cloud storages.

  17. Fear of Terrorism and Preparedness in New York City 2 Years After the Attacks: Implications for Disaster Planning and Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boscarino, Joseph A.; Adams, Richard E.; Figley, Charles R.; Galea, Sandro; Foa, Edna B.

    2009-01-01

    Objectives To help improve disaster planning and research, we studied psychosocial predictors of terrorism fear and preparedness among New York City residents after the World Trade Center disaster (WTCD). Method We conducted a random cross-sectional survey of 1,681 adults interviewed 2 years after the WTCD. Participants were living in New York City at the time of the attack and exposed to ongoing terrorist threats. Results We found 44.9 percent (95% confidence interval [CI] = 41.9−47.9) of residents were concerned about future attacks and 16.9 percent (95% CI = 14.7−19.3) reported a fear level of “10” on a 10-point analog scale. Furthermore, 14.8 percent (95% CI = 12.8−17.0) reported they had made some plans for a future attack, a significant increase from the previous year. In addition, although 42.6 percent (95% CI = 39.6−45.7) indicated that they would likely wait for evacuation instructions following a chemical, biological, or nuclear attack, 34.4 percent (95% CI = 31.5−37.3) reported they would evacuate immediately against official advice. Predictors of high terrorism fear in a multivariate model included Hispanic ethnicity (odds ratio [OR] = 2.0, P = .006), lower education (OR = 4.4, P terrorism threats, terrorism fear and preparedness were related to socioeconomic factors, mental health status, terrorism exposure levels, and exposure to stressful life events. PMID:17041297

  18. Disaster Vulnerability in South Korea under a Gender Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, Gunhui

    2017-04-01

    The most affected natural disaster has been flooding in South Korea, however, many unexpected natural disasters cause by snow or drought have become severe due to the climate change. Therefore it is very important to analyze disaster vulnerability under the unexpected climate condition. When the natural disaster happens, in many cases, female was more damaged than male because of the cultural and physical limitations. Disaster is never gender neutral. For example, four times as many female as male died in Indonesia tsunami. Therefore, it is very important to consider gender sensitivity in the disaster vulnerability to mitigate effects on the female. In this study, the current disaster management guideline in South Korea is investigated in the gender perspective and compared to the other countries. As a result, gender analysis in the disaster preparedness and response is not implemented in South Korea. Thus, the gender balanced disaster management guideline is newly proposed. Also, the disaster vulnerability considering gendered factors are evaluated and analyzed in the urban area. Acknowledgement This research was supported by Support Program for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and future Planning(No. 2016H1C3A1903202)

  19. Opioid Substitution Treatment Planning in a Disaster Context: Perspectives from Emergency Management and Health Professionals in Aotearoa/New Zealand

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Denise Blake

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Opioid Substitution Treatment (OST is a harm reduction strategy enabling opiate consumers to avoid withdrawal symptoms and maintain health and wellbeing. Some research shows that within a disaster context service disruptions and infrastructure damage affect OST services, including problems with accessibility, dosing, and scripts. Currently little is known about planning for OST in the reduction and response phases of a disaster. This study aimed to identify the views of three professional groups working in Aotearoa/New Zealand about OST provision following a disaster. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 service workers, health professionals, and emergency managers in OST and disaster planning fields. Thematic analysis of transcripts identified three key themes, namely “health and wellbeing”, “developing an emergency management plan”, and “stock, dose verification, and scripts” which led to an overarching concept of “service continuity in OST preparedness planning”. Participants viewed service continuity as essential for reducing physical and psychological distress for OST clients, their families, and wider communities. Alcohol and drug and OST health professionals understood the specific needs of clients, while emergency managers discussed the need for sufficient preparedness planning to minimise harm. It is concluded that OST preparedness planning must be multidisciplinary, flexible, and inclusive.

  20. Opioid Substitution Treatment Planning in a Disaster Context: Perspectives from Emergency Management and Health Professionals in Aotearoa/New Zealand

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blake, Denise; Lyons, Antonia

    2016-01-01

    Opioid Substitution Treatment (OST) is a harm reduction strategy enabling opiate consumers to avoid withdrawal symptoms and maintain health and wellbeing. Some research shows that within a disaster context service disruptions and infrastructure damage affect OST services, including problems with accessibility, dosing, and scripts. Currently little is known about planning for OST in the reduction and response phases of a disaster. This study aimed to identify the views of three professional groups working in Aotearoa/New Zealand about OST provision following a disaster. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 service workers, health professionals, and emergency managers in OST and disaster planning fields. Thematic analysis of transcripts identified three key themes, namely “health and wellbeing”, “developing an emergency management plan”, and “stock, dose verification, and scripts” which led to an overarching concept of “service continuity in OST preparedness planning”. Participants viewed service continuity as essential for reducing physical and psychological distress for OST clients, their families, and wider communities. Alcohol and drug and OST health professionals understood the specific needs of clients, while emergency managers discussed the need for sufficient preparedness planning to minimise harm. It is concluded that OST preparedness planning must be multidisciplinary, flexible, and inclusive. PMID:27834915

  1. Linking the actors and policies throughout the disaster management cycle by "Agreement on Objectives" – a new output-oriented management approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Greiving

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Current management of disaster risks is often fragmented due to a lack of coordination between involved actors, i.e. civil protection and spatial planning – a phenomenon which is known as the "problem of interplay". This paper presents an output-oriented risk management approach ("parametric governance". Here, the modality of the achievement of objectives remains in the hands of the given addressees. This implies a shift from a top-down to a more collaborative, process-oriented form of decision-making. The approach has been successfully applied in two hazard cases and three administrative contexts: (a the City of Dortmund (Germany facing flash floods, (b East Attica region (Greece facing forest fires, and (c Lazio Region (Italy also facing forest fires. As proved by the applications of the concept, a dialogue among experts, stakeholders, and decision-makers is indispensable in order to guarantee inclusion of all diverse and competing values, opinions, and claims. Moreover, a structured communication path is needed to meet the requirements of a risk governance process. Finally, a win-win-situation among the involved actors has to be created to reach an agreement on common goals and actions to achieve them in due time.

  2. Business continuity and disaster management within the public service in relation to a national development plan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferguson, Cliff

    2018-01-01

    Within South Africa, few public service departments understand the concepts of business continuity management (BCM) and what it takes to implement a well-constructed business continuity plan. Likewise, few of these entities understand the purpose of designing and maintaining resilient systems that are immune to incidents. This paper discusses the integration of the South African Disaster Management Act 2002, the Disaster Management Framework and the National Development Plan, linking these to BCM, through a resilience period model, as a means for the implementation of resilience strategies. The goals of the National Development Plan are outlined with a view to how resilience can be achieved in each. A resilience period model has been advocated for the implementation of projects within the public sector in order to provide continuity and sustainability.

  3. Post-Disaster Social Justice Group Work and Group Supervision

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bemak, Fred; Chung, Rita Chi-Ying

    2011-01-01

    This article discusses post-disaster group counseling and group supervision using a social justice orientation for working with post-disaster survivors from underserved populations. The Disaster Cross-Cultural Counseling model is a culturally responsive group counseling model that infuses social justice into post-disaster group counseling and…

  4. Security and privacy preserving approaches in the eHealth clouds with disaster recovery plan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sahi, Aqeel; Lai, David; Li, Yan

    2016-11-01

    Cloud computing was introduced as an alternative storage and computing model in the health sector as well as other sectors to handle large amounts of data. Many healthcare companies have moved their electronic data to the cloud in order to reduce in-house storage, IT development and maintenance costs. However, storing the healthcare records in a third-party server may cause serious storage, security and privacy issues. Therefore, many approaches have been proposed to preserve security as well as privacy in cloud computing projects. Cryptographic-based approaches were presented as one of the best ways to ensure the security and privacy of healthcare data in the cloud. Nevertheless, the cryptographic-based approaches which are used to transfer health records safely remain vulnerable regarding security, privacy, or the lack of any disaster recovery strategy. In this paper, we review the related work on security and privacy preserving as well as disaster recovery in the eHealth cloud domain. Then we propose two approaches, the Security-Preserving approach and the Privacy-Preserving approach, and a disaster recovery plan. The Security-Preserving approach is a robust means of ensuring the security and integrity of Electronic Health Records, and the Privacy-Preserving approach is an efficient authentication approach which protects the privacy of Personal Health Records. Finally, we discuss how the integrated approaches and the disaster recovery plan can ensure the reliability and security of cloud projects. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Blueprints for Disaster: Balancing Secrecy and Transparency of Government Continuity Plans

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-09-01

    ISO/IEC 31010:2009; COSO 2004; and OCEG “Red Book” 2.0: 2009. Institute of Risk Management , “ Risk Management Standards,” accessed June 26, 2015...Information Act (FOIA), protective security, risk management , Presidential Policy Directive 21 (PPD-21), National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD...BLUEPRINTS FOR DISASTER: BALANCING SECRECY AND TRANSPARENCY OF GOVERNMENT CONTINUITY PLANS Stephen Scott Vollbrecht State Risk Manager for

  6. Are larks future-oriented and owls present-oriented? Age- and sex-related shifts in chronotype-time perspective associations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nowack, Kati; van der Meer, Elke

    2013-12-01

    The chronotype (morningness/eveningness) relates to individual differences in circadian preferences. Time perspective (past, present, future) refers to the preference to rely on a particular temporal frame for decision-making processes and behavior. First evidence suggests that future time perspective is associated with greater morningness and present time perspective with greater eveningness. However, little is known about how chronotype-time perspective relationships may alter over the life span. This present study investigated links between chronotype and time perspective more thoroughly by taking age and sex into account as well. Seven hundred six participants aged between 17 and 74 completed German adaptations of the Morningness--Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) and Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI). Controlling for age and sex, relationships between morningness and future time perspective as well as between eveningness and present time perspective were replicated. These findings were supported by significant associations between time perspective and midpoint of sleep. Future time perspective was linked to earlier midpoints of sleep, indicating an early chronotype. Present time perspective was associated with later midpoints of sleep, indicating a late chronotype. However, age and sex had an impact on the chronotype-time perspective relationships. In all age groups, male larks were more future-oriented and less present-oriented, male owls more present-oriented and less future-oriented. The same conclusion could be drawn for female adolescents and young adults. For female adults above 30, there was no interrelationship between morningness and future time perspective but between eveningness and past time perspective. Female adult owls were more present-oriented as well as more past-oriented. Female adult larks were less present-oriented and less past-oriented. Findings are discussed in the light of neuroendocrine and serotonergic functioning.

  7. Time perspective and attitude-behaviour consistency in future-oriented behaviours.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rabinovich, Anna; Morton, Thomas; Postmes, Tom

    2010-03-01

    The authors propose that the salience of a distant-future time perspective, compared to a near-future time perspective, should increase attitude-behaviour and attitude-intention consistency for future-oriented behaviours. To test this prediction, time perspective was experimentally manipulated in three studies. Across studies, participants in the distant-future time perspective condition demonstrated a strong positive relationship between attitudes towards future-oriented behaviours (saving and environmental protection) and corresponding intentions, as well as between attitudes and behaviour. In the near-future time perspective condition, the relationship between attitudes and intentions and attitudes and behaviour was significantly weaker than in the distant-future time perspective condition. The theoretical implications of these results and suggestions for future research are discussed.

  8. PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS IMPLEMENTATION PERSONALLY ORIENTED APPROACH WHILE PREPARING TEACHERS FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olena Shuryn

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available The pedagogical aspects of the implementation of the personality oriented approach in training future technology teachers are considered. The theoretical analysis of scientific studies in the area of professional training of the future teacher, the technology teacher in particular, is carried out. The dictionary interpretation of the personality oriented approach is analyzed. The study of the substantiation of this method in scientific works has been carried out. The main positions for understanding of the essence of personality oriented education are outlined, namely ensuring the disclosure of the individuality of each student, his abilities, inclinations, interests, value orientations and subjective experience; Realization of the educational process taking into account personal abilities of students; Creation of conditions for self-development, self-expression and self-improvement of future specialists; Deeper, holistic understanding of the student's personality in the educational process. The features of personality oriented education are determined. The emphasis is made on the principle of natural conformity as the basic principle of personality oriented education. There have been determined the basic tasks and the initial provisions of the construction of the personality oriented system of education, which envisages the creation of a suitable educational environment, democratization of the teacher-student relations, as well as the activation of each student in order to develop his personal and professional abilities and qualities, strengthening his subjective functions. The criteria of effective organization of personality oriented education are outlined. The approaches of personality oriented education, namely individual, social-psychological, age, activity, system-psychological, multilevel, differentiated and subjective-personal, are defined. There have been highlighted the main methodical components of the personality oriented training

  9. Assessment of disaster preparedness among emergency departments in Italian hospitals: a cautious warning for disaster risk reduction and management capacity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paganini, Matteo; Borrelli, Francesco; Cattani, Jonathan; Ragazzoni, Luca; Djalali, Ahmadreza; Carenzo, Luca; Della Corte, Francesco; Burkle, Frederick M Jr; Ingrassia, Pier Luigi

    2016-08-15

    Since the 1990s, Italian hospitals are required to comply with emergency disaster plans known as Emergency Plan for Massive Influx of Casualties. While various studies reveal that hospitals overall suffer from an insufficient preparedness level, the aim of this study was to better determine the preparedness level of Emergency Departments of Italian hospitals by assessing the knowledge-base of emergency physicians regarding basic disaster planning and procedures. A prospective observational study utilized a convenience sample of Italian Emergency Departments identified from the Italian Ministry of Health website. Anonymous telephone interviews were conducted of medical consultants in charge at the time in the respective Emergency Departments, and were structured in 3 parts: (1) general data and demographics, (2) the current disaster plan and (3) protocols and actions of the disaster plan. Eighty-five Emergency Departments met inclusion criteria, and 69 (81 %) agreed to undergo the interview. Only 45 % of participants declared to know what an Emergency Plan for Massive Influx of Casualties is, 41 % believed to know who has the authority to activate the plan, 38 % knew who is in charge of intra-hospital operations. In Part 3 physicians revealed a worrisome inconsistency in critical content knowledge of their answers. Results demonstrate a poor knowledge-base of basic hospital disaster planning concepts by Italian Emergency Department physicians-on-duty. These findings should alert authorities to enhance staff disaster preparedness education, training and follow-up to ensure that these plans are known to all who have responsibility for disaster risk reduction and management capacity.

  10. Schools As Post-Disaster Shelters: Planning and Management Guidelines for Districts and Sites.

    Science.gov (United States)

    California State Office of Emergency Services, Sacramento.

    This guidebook outlines a method for preparing school facilities and personnel in the event that schools are needed for disaster shelters. It serves as a blueprint for planning and preparedness. Chapter 1 provides descriptions of actual incidents in which California schools served as emergency shelters. Chapter 2 describes schools' legal…

  11. "On solid ground": family and school connectedness promotes adolescents' future orientation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crespo, Carla; Jose, Paul E; Kielpikowski, Magdalena; Pryor, Jan

    2013-10-01

    The present study investigated the role of connectedness to the family and school contexts on future orientation of New Zealand adolescents. Participants were 1774 young people (51.9% female) aged between 9 and 16 years at time 1 of the study, who reported their connectedness to family and school and their perceptions of future orientation at three times of measurement one year apart. Structural equation modelling was used to test the combined role of family and school connectedness on future orientation over time. Findings supported a multiple mediation model in that adolescents' connectedness to family and school predicted more positive perceptions of future orientation both directly and indirectly via the effect of the context variables on each other. Copyright © 2013 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. New Map Symbol System for Disaster Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marinova, Silvia T.

    2018-05-01

    In the last 10 years Bulgaria was frequently affected by natural and man-made disasters that caused considerable losses. According to the Bulgarian Disaster Management Act (2006) disaster management should be planned at local, regional and national level. Disaster protection is based on plans that include maps such as hazard maps, maps for protection, maps for evacuation planning, etc. Decision-making and cooperation between two or more neighboring municipalities or regions in crisis situation are still rendered difficult because the maps included in the plans differ in scale, colors, map symbols and cartographic design. To improve decision-making process in case of emergency and to reduce the number of human loss and property damages disaster management plans at local and regional level should be supported by detailed thematic maps created in accordance with uniform contents, map symbol system and design. The paper proposes a new symbol system for disaster management that includes a four level hierarchical classification of objects and phenomena according to their type and origin. All objects and phenomena of this classification are divided into five categories: disasters; infrastructure; protection services and infrastructure for protection; affected people and affected infrastructure; operational sites and activities. The symbols of these categories are shown with different background colors and shapes so that they are identifiable. All the symbols have simple but associative design. The new symbol system is used in the design of a series of maps for disaster management at local and regional level.

  13. The Development of Future Orientation is Associated with Faster Decline in Hopelessness during Adolescence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mac Giollabhui, Naoise; Nielsen, Johanna; Seidman, Sam; Olino, Thomas M; Abramson, Lyn Y; Alloy, Lauren B

    2018-01-05

    Hopelessness is implicated in multiple psychological disorders. Little is known, however, about the trajectory of hopelessness during adolescence or how emergent future orientation may influence its trajectory. Parallel process latent growth curve modelling tested whether (i) trajectories of future orientation and hopelessness and (ii) within-individual change in future orientation and hopelessness were related. The study was comprised of 472 adolescents [52% female, 47% Caucasian, 47% received free lunch] recruited at ages 12-13 who completed measures of future orientation and hopelessness at five annual assessments. The results indicate that a general decline in hopelessness across adolescence occurs quicker for those experiencing faster development of future orientation, when controlling for age, sex, low socio-economic status in addition to stressful life events in childhood and adolescence. Stressful childhood life events were associated with worse future orientation at baseline and negative life events experienced during adolescence were associated with both an increase in the trajectory of hopelessness as well as a decrease in the trajectory of future orientation. This study provides compelling evidence that the development of future orientation during adolescence is associated with a faster decline in hopelessness.

  14. a Task-Driven Disaster Data Link Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qiu, L. Y.; Zhu, Q.; Gu, J. Y.; Du, Z. Q.

    2015-08-01

    With the rapid development of sensor networks and Earth observation technology, a large quantity of disaster-related data is available, such as remotely sensed data, historic data, cases data, simulation data, disaster products and so on. However, the efficiency of current data management and service systems has become increasingly serious due to the task variety and heterogeneous data. For emergency task-oriented applications, data searching mainly relies on artificial experience based on simple metadata index, whose high time-consuming and low accuracy cannot satisfy the requirements of disaster products on velocity and veracity. In this paper, a task-oriented linking method is proposed for efficient disaster data management and intelligent service, with the objectives of 1) putting forward ontologies of disaster task and data to unify the different semantics of multi-source information, 2) identifying the semantic mapping from emergency tasks to multiple sources on the basis of uniform description in 1), 3) linking task-related data automatically and calculating the degree of correlation between each data and a target task. The method breaks through traditional static management of disaster data and establishes a base for intelligent retrieval and active push of disaster information. The case study presented in this paper illustrates the use of the method with a flood emergency relief task.

  15. Health after disaster: A perspective of psychological/health reactions to disaster

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ursula Martin

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Superstorm Sandy, which affected millions of people in 2012, was a disaster in structural, financial, medical, and emotional terms. Many survivors experienced post-storm health psychology impacts. Depression levels increased by 25%, and physician visits were elevated by a significant amount. Clearly, large-scale disasters have a profound effect on the physical and emotional health of survivors. Understanding these effects can improve future disaster relief programs and policies. Exploration of post-disaster issues can inform government entities and non-government organizations to assist communities and individuals left in the aftermath of natural disasters.

  16. Does Promotion Orientation Help Explain Why Future-Orientated People Exercise and Eat Healthy?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milfont, Taciano L; Vilar, Roosevelt; Araujo, Rafaella C R; Stanley, Robert

    2017-01-01

    A study with United States undergraduate students showed individuals high in concern with future consequences engage in exercise and healthy eating because they adopt a promotion orientation, which represents the extent to which individuals are inclined to pursue positive gains. The present article reports a cross-cultural replication of the mediation findings with undergraduate samples from Brazil and New Zealand. Promotion orientation mediated the association between concern with future consequences and exercise attitudes in both countries, but the associations for healthy eating were not replicated-which could be explained by distinct obesity prevalence and eating habits in these socio-cultural contexts. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of the findings for promoting health behavior.

  17. Does Promotion Orientation Help Explain Why Future-Orientated People Exercise and Eat Healthy?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Taciano L. Milfont

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available A study with United States undergraduate students showed individuals high in concern with future consequences engage in exercise and healthy eating because they adopt a promotion orientation, which represents the extent to which individuals are inclined to pursue positive gains. The present article reports a cross-cultural replication of the mediation findings with undergraduate samples from Brazil and New Zealand. Promotion orientation mediated the association between concern with future consequences and exercise attitudes in both countries, but the associations for healthy eating were not replicated—which could be explained by distinct obesity prevalence and eating habits in these socio-cultural contexts. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of the findings for promoting health behavior.

  18. Indispensable disaster countermeasures and resiliency in the age of complex disasters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hirose, Hirotada

    2012-01-01

    We live in the age of complex disasters. One disaster brings about new disaster in succession like dominoes. Disaster chain does not always stand in a line and propagate in two-dimensional extend to focus on social fragility. Later disaster would cause larger damages. The East Japan disaster was a typical complex one derived from hazards of earthquakes, tsunamis and reactor accidents, which would have significant effects on Japanese society for the future. Disaster countermeasures and resilience were important especially for 'slow onset type disaster' such as tsunami or reactor accident, which had lead-time to cause damage after initiation of hazard. Hazard simulation was beneficial for disaster countermores but not well developed to use for hazard prediction. It would be wrong and eventually lose public's trust to appear safe in uncertain state of disaster not so as to cause panic to the society. When facing a danger, people enter a 'normal bias' state and fail to adequately prepare for a disaster. People could not respond without imagination of disaster. It was highly important for coping with a disaster to perceive a hazard definitely in the age of complex disasters. (T. Tanaka)

  19. Enhancing Global Health Security: US Africa Command's Disaster Preparedness Program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morton Hamer, Melinda J; Reed, Paul L; Greulich, Jane D; Beadling, Charles W

    2018-03-07

    US Africa Command's Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP), implemented by the Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Assistance Medicine, partnered with US Government agencies and international organizations to promote stability and security on the African continent by engaging with African Partner Nations' (PN) civil and military authorities to improve disaster management capabilities. From 2008 to 2015, DPP conducted disaster preparedness and response programming with 17 PNs. DPP held a series of engagements with each, including workshops, strategic planning, developing preparedness and response plans, tabletop exercises, and prioritizing disaster management capability gaps identified through the engagements. DPP partners collected data for each PN to further capacity building efforts. Thus far, 9 countries have completed military pandemic plans, 10 have developed national pandemic influenza plans, 9 have developed military support to civil authorities plans, and 11 have developed disaster management strategic work plans. There have been 20 national exercises conducted since 2009. DPP was cited as key in implementation of Ebola response plans in PNs, facilitated development of disaster management agencies in DPP PNs, and trained nearly 800 individuals. DPP enhanced PNs' ability to prepare and respond to crises, fostering relationships between international agencies, and improving civil-military coordination through both national and regional capacity building. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;page 1 of 11).

  20. Motivational Antecedents of Preventive Proactivity in Late Life: Linking Future Orientation and Exercise1

    OpenAIRE

    Kahana, Eva; Kahana, Boaz; Zhang, Jianping

    2005-01-01

    Future orientation is considered as a motivational antecedent of late-life proactivity. In a panel study of 453 old-old adults, we linked future orientation to exercise, a key component of late-life proactivity. Findings based on hierarchical linear modeling reveal that future orientation at baseline predicts changes in exercise during the subsequent four years. Whereas exercise behavior generally declined over time, future orientation and female gender were associated with smaller decline. T...

  1. Future land use plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1995-01-01

    The US Department of Energy's (DOE) changing mission, coupled with the need to apply appropriate cleanup standards for current and future environmental restoration, prompted the need for a process to determine preferred Future Land Uses for DOE-owned sites. DOE began the ''Future Land Use'' initiative in 1994 to ensure that its cleanup efforts reflect the surrounding communities' interests in future land use. This plan presents the results of a study of stakeholder-preferred future land uses for the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), located in central Long Island, New York. The plan gives the Laboratory's view of its future development over the next 20 years, as well as land uses preferred by the community were BNL ever to cease operations as a national laboratory (the post-BNL scenario). The plan provides an overview of the physical features of the site including its history, topography, geology/hydrogeology, biological inventory, floodplains, wetlands, climate, and atmosphere. Utility systems and current environmental operations are described including waste management, waste water treatment, hazardous waste management, refuse disposal and ground water management. To complement the physical descriptions of the site, demographics are discussed, including overviews of the surrounding areas, laboratory population, and economic and non-economic impacts

  2. Future land use plan

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1995-08-31

    The US Department of Energy`s (DOE) changing mission, coupled with the need to apply appropriate cleanup standards for current and future environmental restoration, prompted the need for a process to determine preferred Future Land Uses for DOE-owned sites. DOE began the ``Future Land Use`` initiative in 1994 to ensure that its cleanup efforts reflect the surrounding communities` interests in future land use. This plan presents the results of a study of stakeholder-preferred future land uses for the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), located in central Long Island, New York. The plan gives the Laboratory`s view of its future development over the next 20 years, as well as land uses preferred by the community were BNL ever to cease operations as a national laboratory (the post-BNL scenario). The plan provides an overview of the physical features of the site including its history, topography, geology/hydrogeology, biological inventory, floodplains, wetlands, climate, and atmosphere. Utility systems and current environmental operations are described including waste management, waste water treatment, hazardous waste management, refuse disposal and ground water management. To complement the physical descriptions of the site, demographics are discussed, including overviews of the surrounding areas, laboratory population, and economic and non-economic impacts.

  3. System-level planning, coordination, and communication: care of the critically ill and injured during pandemics and disasters: CHEST consensus statement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dichter, Jeffrey R; Kanter, Robert K; Dries, David; Luyckx, Valerie; Lim, Matthew L; Wilgis, John; Anderson, Michael R; Sarani, Babak; Hupert, Nathaniel; Mutter, Ryan; Devereaux, Asha V; Christian, Michael D; Kissoon, Niranjan

    2014-10-01

    System-level planning involves uniting hospitals and health systems, local/regional government agencies, emergency medical services, and other health-care entities involved in coordinating and enabling care in a major disaster. We reviewed the literature and sought expert opinions concerning system-level planning and engagement for mass critical care due to disasters or pandemics and offer suggestions for system-planning, coordination, communication, and response. The suggestions in this chapter are important for all of those involved in a pandemic or disaster with multiple critically ill or injured patients, including front-line clinicians, hospital administrators, and public health or government officials. The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) consensus statement development process was followed in developing suggestions. Task Force members met in person to develop nine key questions believed to be most relevant for system-planning, coordination, and communication. A systematic literature review was then performed for relevant articles and documents, reports, and other publications reported since 1993. No studies of sufficient quality were identified upon which to make evidence-based recommendations. Therefore, the panel developed expert opinion-based suggestions using a modified Delphi process. Suggestions were developed and grouped according to the following thematic elements: (1) national government support of health-care coalitions/regional health authorities (HC/RHAs), (2) teamwork within HC/RHAs, (3) system-level communication, (4) system-level surge capacity and capability, (5) pediatric patients and special populations, (6) HC/RHAs and networks, (7) models of advanced regional care systems, and (8) the use of simulation for preparedness and planning. System-level planning is essential to provide care for large numbers of critically ill patients because of disaster or pandemic. It also entails a departure from the routine, independent system and

  4. OSM-ORIENTED METHOD OF MULTIMODAL ROUTE PLANNING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    X. Li

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available With the increasing pervasiveness of basic facilitate of transportation and information, the need of multimodal route planning is becoming more essential in the fields of communication and transportation, urban planning, logistics management, etc. This article mainly described an OSM-oriented method of multimodal route planning. Firstly, it introduced how to extract the information we need from OSM data and build proper network model and storage model; then it analysed the accustomed cost standard adopted by most travellers; finally, we used shortest path algorithm to calculate the best route with multiple traffic means.

  5. Temporal Doppler Effect and Future Orientation: Adaptive Function and Moderating Conditions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gan, Yiqun; Miao, Miao; Zheng, Lei; Liu, Haihua

    2017-06-01

    The objectives of this study were to examine whether the temporal Doppler effect exists in different time intervals and whether certain individual and environmental factors act as moderators of the effect. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we examined the existence of the temporal Doppler effect and the moderating effect of future orientation among 139 university students (Study 1), and then the moderating conditions of the temporal Doppler effect using two independent samples of 143 and 147 university students (Studies 2 and 3). Results indicated that the temporal Doppler effect existed in all of our studies, and that future orientation moderated the temporal Doppler effect. Further, time interval perception mediated the relationship between future orientation and the motivation to cope at long time intervals. Finally, positive affect was found to enhance the temporal Doppler effect, whereas control deprivation did not influence the effect. The temporal Doppler effect is moderated by the personality trait of future orientation and by the situational variable of experimentally manipulated positive affect. We have identified personality and environmental processes that could enhance the temporal Doppler effect, which could be valuable in cases where attention to a future task is necessary. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  6. Future planning in preschool children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moffett, Lillie; Moll, Henrike; FitzGibbon, Lily

    2018-05-01

    The capacity to plan ahead and provide the means for future ends is an important part of human practical reasoning. When this capacity develops in ontogeny is the matter of an ongoing debate. In this study, 4- and 5-year-olds performed a future planning task in which they had to create the means (a picture of a particular object, e.g., a banana) that was necessary to address a future end (of completing a game in which such a picture was missing). Children of both ages drew more targets than children in a control condition in which there was no future end to be pursued. Along with prior findings, the results suggest a major progression in children's future thinking between 3 and 5 years. Our findings expand on prior knowledge by showing that young children cannot only identify the probate means to future ends but determine such ends and create the means to achieve them, thus offering compelling evidence for future planning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  7. Academic Responses to Fukushima Disaster.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yasui, Kiyotaka; Kimura, Yuko; Kamiya, Kenji; Miyatani, Rie; Tsuyama, Naohiro; Sakai, Akira; Yoshida, Koji; Yamashita, Shunichi; Chhem, Rethy; Abdel-Wahab, May; Ohtsuru, Akira

    2017-03-01

    Since radiation accidents, particularly nuclear disasters, are rarer than other types of disasters, a comprehensive radiation disaster medical curriculum for them is currently unavailable. The Fukushima compound disaster has urged the establishment of a new medical curriculum in preparation for any future complex disaster. The medical education will aim to aid decision making on various health risks for workers, vulnerable people, and residents addressing each phase in the disaster. Herein, we introduce 3 novel educational programs that have been initiated to provide students, professionals, and leaders with the knowledge of and skills to elude the social consequences of complex nuclear disasters. The first program concentrates on radiation disaster medicine for medical students at the Fukushima Medical University, together with a science, technology, and society module comprising various topics, such as public risk communication, psychosocial consequences of radiation anxiety, and decision making for radiation disaster. The second program is a Phoenix Leader PhD degree at the Hiroshima University, which aims to develop future leaders who can address the associated scientific, environmental, and social issues. The third program is a Joint Graduate School of Master's degree in the Division of Disaster and Radiation Medical Sciences at the Nagasaki University and Fukushima Medical University.

  8. FUTURE SHIP ENGINEERS’ TRAINING BY MEANS OF PROFESSIONALLY ORIENTED DISCIPLINES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Уляна Ляшенко

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The article represents the problem of future ship engineers’ training by means of professionally oriented disciplines. This paper focuses on the effectiveness of future specialists’ training in case of implementation the author’s methods in the educational process of teaching (based on competence, person-oriented, module-rating, technological, activity, communicative approaches in accordance with cognitive-enriching, reproductive-activity and professional-creative stages. Leading principles of teaching(scientific approach, systematic and sequence approach, accessibility, conscious approach and activity, connection with life, individual approach and corresponding pedagogical conditions (implementation of holistic integrated approach while teaching professionally oriented disciplines; positive motivation of cadets’ professional interest through the contents, forms and means of educational activity of marine engineers’ professional training are defined; functioning mechanisms of interdisciplinary integration in the process of studying professionally oriented disciplines are disclosed. The author of the article grounds the purposefulness of implementation of the mentioned author’s methods in educational process as it will make the process of ship engineers’ professional training more effective and will allow to use the acquired professional knowledge and in the future professional activity.

  9. A PUBLIC PLATFORM FOR GEOSPATIAL DATA SHARING FOR DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Balbo

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents a case study scenario of setting up a Web platform based on GeoNode. It is a public platform called MASDAP and promoted by the Government of Malawi in order to support development of the country and build resilience against natural disasters. A substantial amount of geospatial data has already been collected about hydrogeological risk, as well as several other-disasters related information. Moreover this platform will help to ensure that the data created by a number of past or ongoing projects is maintained and that this information remains accessible and useful. An Integrated Flood Risk Management Plan for a river basin has already been included in the platform and other data from future disaster risk management projects will be added as well.

  10. The current state of affairs for disaster planning for a nuclear terrorist attack.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goffman, Thomas E

    2009-01-01

    The author presents current thinking on the effects of an atomic bomb blast from a medical point of view and will argue that current US Federal plans for a nuclear disaster are simply crude, insufficient, disarticulated, and principally relies on martial law as a means of crowd control. The simple physics of a fusion reaction bomb is discussed along with the plans of other countries, apparently "secret"American plans, which show a poor knowledge of the physics of nuclear bombs as well as poor insight into what will be needed to help the maximum number of citizens. An alternative plan involving computer modeling and educating the public to the effects of a fission explosion are presented. The key issue of statewide planning is discussed, as the Federal government has dumped medical problems on "the local level."

  11. Living in the Past, Present, and Future: Measuring Temporal Orientation With Language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Gregory; Schwartz, H Andrew; Sap, Maarten; Kern, Margaret L; Weingarten, Evan; Eichstaedt, Johannes C; Berger, Jonah; Stillwell, David J; Kosinski, Michal; Ungar, Lyle H; Seligman, Martin E P

    2017-04-01

    Temporal orientation refers to individual differences in the relative emphasis one places on the past, present, or future, and it is related to academic, financial, and health outcomes. We propose and evaluate a method for automatically measuring temporal orientation through language expressed on social media. Judges rated the temporal orientation of 4,302 social media messages. We trained a classifier based on these ratings, which could accurately predict the temporal orientation of new messages in a separate validation set (accuracy/mean sensitivity = .72; mean specificity = .77). We used the classifier to automatically classify 1.3 million messages written by 5,372 participants (50% female; ages 13-48). Finally, we tested whether individual differences in past, present, and future orientation differentially related to gender, age, Big Five personality, satisfaction with life, and depressive symptoms. Temporal orientations exhibit several expected correlations with age, gender, and Big Five personality. More future-oriented people were older, more likely to be female, more conscientious, less impulsive, less depressed, and more satisfied with life; present orientation showed the opposite pattern. Language-based assessments can complement and extend existing measures of temporal orientation, providing an alternative approach and additional insights into language and personality relationships. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  12. Future orientation and suicide ideation and attempts in depressed adults ages 50 and over.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirsch, Jameson K; Duberstein, Paul R; Conner, Kenneth R; Heisel, Marnin J; Beckman, Anthony; Franus, Nathan; Conwell, Yeates

    2006-09-01

    The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that future orientation is associated with lower levels of suicide ideation and lower likelihood of suicide attempt in a sample of patients in treatment for major depression. Two hundred two participants (116 female, 57%) ages 50-88 years were recruited from inpatient and outpatient settings. All were diagnosed with major depression using a structured diagnostic interview. Suicide ideation was assessed with the Scale for Suicide Ideation (both current and worst point ratings), and a measure of future orientation was created to assess future expectancies. The authors predicted that greater future orientation would be associated with less current and worst point suicide ideation, and would distinguish current and lifetime suicide attempters from nonattempters. Hypotheses were tested using multivariate logistic regression and linear regression analyses that accounted for age, gender, hopelessness, and depression. As hypothesized, higher future orientation scores were associated with lower current suicidal ideation, less intense suicidal ideation at its worst point, and lower probability of a history of attempted suicide after accounting for covariates. Future orientation was not associated with current attempt status. Future orientation holds promise as a cognitive variable associated with decreased suicide risk; a better understanding of its putative protective role is needed. Treatments designed to enhance future orientation might decrease suicide risk.

  13. The 2015 Nepal earthquake disaster: lessons learned one year on.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, M L; Lee, A C K; Cartwright, C; Marahatta, S; Karki, J; Simkhada, P

    2017-04-01

    The 2015 earthquake in Nepal killed over 8000 people, injured more than 21,000 and displaced a further 2 million. One year later, a national workshop was organized with various Nepali stakeholders involved in the response to the earthquake. The workshop provided participants an opportunity to reflect on their experiences and sought to learn lessons from the disaster. One hundred and thirty-five participants took part and most had been directly involved in the earthquake response. They included representatives from the Ministry of Health, local and national government, the armed forces, non-governmental organizations, health practitioners, academics, and community representatives. Participants were divided into seven focus groups based around the following topics: water, sanitation and hygiene, hospital services, health and nutrition, education, shelter, policy and community. Facilitated group discussions were conducted in Nepalese and the key emerging themes are presented. Participants described a range of issues encountered, some specific to their area of expertize but also more general issues. These included logistics and supply chain challenges, leadership and coordination difficulties, impacts of the media as well as cultural beliefs on population behaviour post-disaster. Lessons identified included the need for community involvement at all stages of disaster response and preparedness, as well as the development of local leadership capabilities and community resilience. A 'disconnect' between disaster management policy and responses was observed, which may result in ineffective, poorly planned disaster response. Finding time and opportunity to reflect on and identify lessons from disaster response can be difficult but are fundamental to improving future disaster preparedness. The Nepal Earthquake National Workshop offered participants the space to do this. It garnered an overwhelming sense of wanting to do things better, of the need for a Nepal-centric approach

  14. The future orientation of foresters: An exploratory research among Dutch foresters into the prerequisite for strategic planning in forestry

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hoogstra, M.A.; Schanz, H.

    2008-01-01

    The importance of strategic planning as an instrument to cope with the uncertain future has been long recognized, especially in forestry which is characterized by its relationship with the distant future. Surprisingly, the question to what extent the future is indeed considered in forestry

  15. Time perspective and attitude-behaviour consistency in future-oriented behaviours

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rabinovich, A.; Morton, T.; Postmes, T.

    The authors propose that the salience of a distant-future time perspective, compared to a near-future time perspective, should increase attitude-behaviour and attitude-intention consistency for future-oriented behaviours. To test this prediction, time perspective was experimentally manipulated in

  16. Future-oriented technology analysis: Its potential to address disruptive transformations

    OpenAIRE

    Gagnin, Cristiano; Havas, Attila; Saritas, Ozcan

    2011-01-01

    This paper reflects on the potential of future-oriented analysis (FTA) to address major change and to support decision-makers and other stakeholders in anticipating and dealing with transformations. It does so by critically reflecting on the selected papers for this special issue as well as on the discussions that took place at the fourth Seville International Conference on Future-oriented Technology Analysis. Considering the potential roles of FTA in enabling a better understanding of co...

  17. Environmental implications for disaster preparedness: lessons learnt from the Indian Ocean Tsunami.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Srinivas, Hari; Nakagawa, Yuko

    2008-10-01

    The impact of disasters, whether natural or man-made, not only has human dimensions, but environmental ones as well. Environmental conditions may exacerbate the impact of a disaster, and vice versa, disasters tend to have an impact on the environment. Deforestation, forest management practices, or agriculture systems can worsen the negative environmental impacts of a storm or typhoon, leading to landslides, flooding, silting, and ground/surface water contamination. We have only now come to understand these cyclical causes and impacts and realize that taking care of our natural resources and managing them wisely not only assures that future generations will be able to live in sustainable ways, but also reduces the risks that natural and man-made hazards pose to people living today. Emphasizing and reinforcing the centrality of environmental concerns in disaster management has become a critical priority, requiring the sound management of natural resources as a tool to prevent disasters and lessen their impacts on people, their homes, and livelihoods. As the horrors of the Asian tsunami of December 2004 continue to be evaluated, and people in the region slowly attempt to build a semblance of normalcy, we have to look to the lessons learnt from the tsunami disaster as an opportunity to prepare ourselves better for future disasters. This article focuses on findings and lessons learnt on the environmental aspects of the tsunami, and its implications on disaster preparedness plans. This article essentially emphasizes the cyclical interrelations between environments and disasters, by studying the findings and assessments of the recent Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that struck on 26 December 2004. It specifically looks at four key affected countries--Maldives, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Thailand.

  18. An HIT Solution for Clinical Care and Disaster Planning: How One health Center in Joplin, MO Survived a Tornado and Avoided a Health Information Disaster.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shin, Peter; Jacobs, Feygele

    2012-01-01

    Since taking office, President Obama has made substantial investments in promoting the diffusion of health information technology (IT). The objective of the national health IT program is, generally, to enable health care providers to better manage patient care through secure use and sharing of health information. Through the use of technologies including electronic health records, providers can better maintain patient care information and facilitate communication, often improving care outcomes. The recent tornado in Joplin, MO highlights the importance of health information technology in the health center context, and illustrates the importance of secure electronic health information systems as a crucial element of disaster and business continuity planning. This article examines the experience of a community health center in the aftermath of the major tornado that swept through the American Midwest in the spring of 2011, and provides insight into the planning for disaster survival and recovery as it relates to patient records and health center data.

  19. Future orientation and competence to stand trial: the fragility of competence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kivisto, Aaron J; Moore, Todd M; Fite, Paula A; Seidner, Bruce G

    2011-01-01

    The current study examined the direct, indirect, and interactive effects of age, intellectual ability, psychiatric symptomatology, and future orientation on juvenile adjudicative competence utilizing a secondary sample of 927 youth from the MacArthur Juvenile Adjudicative Competence Study. Consistent with previous research, age, intellectual ability, and future orientation were found to be positively associated with competence, and psychiatric symptomatology was weakly negatively related to competence. Tests of indirect effects revealed that the development of an orientation toward future consequences partially explains the relationship between age and the capacity to reason about legal decision-making. Further, tests of invariance revealed that the competence of immature adolescents is particularly "fragile," in that smaller deficits in cognitive abilities appear to pose greater problems in youths regarding their adjudicative competence than in their more mature peers. Findings are discussed in regard to forensic practice as well as for future research.

  20. The Australian Natural Disaster Resilience Index

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thoms, Martin

    2016-04-01

    The Australian Natural Disaster Resilience Index Martin Thoms, Melissa Parsons, Phil Morley Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre, Geography and Planning, University of New England, Armidale NSW 2351, Australia. Natural hazard management policy directions in Australia - and indeed internationally - are increasingly being aligned to ideas of resilience. Resilience to natural hazards is the ability of individuals and communities to cope with disturbance and adversity and to maintain adaptive behaviour. Operationalizing the measurement and assessment of disaster resilience is often undertaken using a composite index, but this exercise is yet to be undertaken in Australia. The Australian Natural Disaster Resilience Index is a top-down, national scale assessment of the resilience of communities to natural hazards. Resilience is assessed based on two sets of capacities: coping and adaptive capacities. Coping capacity relates to the factors influencing the ability of a community to prepare for, absorb and recover from a natural hazard event. Adaptive capacity relates to the arrangements and processes that enable adjustment through learning, adaptation and transformation. Indicators are derived under themes of social character, economic capital, infrastructure and planning, emergency services, community capital, information and engagement and governance/leadership/policy, using existing data sets (e.g. census data) or evaluation of policy and procedure (e.g. disaster management planning). A composite index of disaster resilience is then computed for each spatial division, giving national scale coverage. The results of the Australian Natural Disaster Resilience Index will be reported in a State of Disaster Resilience report, due in 2018. The index is co-designed with emergency service agencies, and will support policy development, planning, community engagement and emergency management.

  1. Geographic Information System Technology Leveraged for Crisis Planning, Emergency, Response, and Disaster Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ross, A.; Little, M. M.

    2013-12-01

    NASA's Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) is piloting the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology that can be leveraged for crisis planning, emergency response, and disaster management/awareness. Many different organizations currently use GIS tools and geospatial data during a disaster event. ASDC datasets have not been fully utilized by this community in the past due to incompatible data formats that ASDC holdings are archived in. Through the successful implementation of this pilot effort and continued collaboration with the larger Homeland Defense and Department of Defense emergency management community through the Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data Working Group (HIFLD WG), our data will be easily accessible to those using GIS and increase the ability to plan, respond, manage, and provide awareness during disasters. The HIFLD WG Partnership has expanded to include more than 5,900 mission partners representing the 14 executive departments, 98 agencies, 50 states (and 3 territories), and more than 700 private sector organizations to directly enhance the federal, state, and local government's ability to support domestic infrastructure data gathering, sharing and protection, visualization, and spatial knowledge management.The HIFLD WG Executive Membership is lead by representatives from the Department of Defense (DoD) Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas' Security Affairs - OASD (HD&ASA); the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), National Protection and Programs Directorate's Office of Infrastructure Protection (NPPD IP); the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Integrated Working Group - Readiness, Response and Recovery (IWG-R3); the Department of Interior (DOI) United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Geospatial Program (NGP), and DHS Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

  2. Future orientation and health quality of life in primary care: vitality as a mediator.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirsch, Jameson K; Molnar, Danielle; Chang, Edward C; Sirois, Fuschia M

    2015-07-01

    Temporal perspective, including views about future goals, may influence motivational processes related to health. An adaptive sense of future orientation is linked to better health, but little research has examined potential underlying factors, such as vitality. In a sample of 101 primary care patients, we examined whether belief in the changeability of the future was related to mental and physical energization and, in turn, to health-related quality of life. Participants were working, uninsured primary care patients, who completed self-report measures of future orientation, vitality, and health-related quality of life. Mediation models, covarying age, sex, and race/ethnicity indicated that vitality significantly mediated the association between future orientation and the outcomes of general health, mental health, social functioning, bodily pain, and role limitations due to emotional and physical reasons. Vitality exerted an indirect-only effect on the relation between future orientation and physical functioning. Our findings suggest that adaptive beliefs about the future may promote, or allow access to, physical and mental energy and, in turn, may result in better mental and physical health functioning. Individual-level and public health interventions designed to promote future orientation and vitality may beneficially influence quality of life and well-being.

  3. Future time orientation and temperament: exploration of their relationship to primary and secondary psychopathy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bjørnebekk, Gunnar; Gjesme, Torgrim

    2009-08-01

    The present study combines Lykken's theory about the role of reward sensitivity and punishment insensitivity in the development of antisocial behavior with Gjesme's theory of future time orientation. 158 adolescents comprised a target group of 79 adolescents who had defined behavioral problems and a matched referential group of 79 adolescents who did not have notable behavioral problems. The results suggest that attributes related to primary psychopathy are associated with a relatively weak or hyporeactive behavioral inhibition system, behavioral approach reactivity, and low future time orientation. Moreover, attributes related to secondary psychopathy are related to an overly sensitive (hyper-reactive) behavioral approach system and low future time orientation. Robust positive associations for behavioral approach reactivity and low future time orientation with primary and secondary psychopathy suggest that high behavioral approach/low future time orientation may represent a core feature common to the two factors of psychopathy.

  4. Blaming for a better future: future orientation and associated intolerance of personal uncertainty lead to harsher reactions toward innocent victims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bal, Michèlle; van den Bos, Kees

    2012-07-01

    People are often encouraged to focus on the future and strive for long-term goals. This noted, the authors argue that this future orientation is associated with intolerance of personal uncertainty, as people usually cannot be certain that their efforts will pay off. To be able to tolerate personal uncertainty, people adhere strongly to the belief in a just world, paradoxically resulting in harsher reactions toward innocent victims. In three experiments, the authors show that a future orientation indeed leads to more negative evaluations of an innocent victim (Study 1), enhances intolerance of personal uncertainty (Study 2), and that experiencing personal uncertainty leads to more negative evaluations of a victim (Study 3). So, while a future orientation enables people to strive for long-term goals, it also leads them to be harsher toward innocent victims. One underlying mechanism causing these reactions is intolerance of personal uncertainty, associated with a future orientation.

  5. Future-oriented tweets predict lower county-level HIV prevalence in the United States.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ireland, Molly E; Schwartz, H Andrew; Chen, Qijia; Ungar, Lyle H; Albarracín, Dolores

    2015-12-01

    Future orientation promotes health and well-being at the individual level. Computerized text analysis of a dataset encompassing billions of words used across the United States on Twitter tested whether community-level rates of future-oriented messages correlated with lower human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) rates and moderated the association between behavioral risk indicators and HIV. Over 150 million tweets mapped to U.S. counties were analyzed using 2 methods of text analysis. First, county-level HIV rates (cases per 100,000) were regressed on aggregate usage of future-oriented language (e.g., will, gonna). A second data-driven method regressed HIV rates on individual words and phrases. Results showed that counties with higher rates of future tense on Twitter had fewer HIV cases, independent of strong structural predictors of HIV such as population density. Future-oriented messages also appeared to buffer health risk: Sexually transmitted infection rates and references to risky behavior on Twitter were associated with higher HIV prevalence in all counties except those with high rates of future orientation. Data-driven analyses likewise showed that words and phrases referencing the future (e.g., tomorrow, would be) correlated with lower HIV prevalence. Integrating big data approaches to text analysis and epidemiology with psychological theory may provide an inexpensive, real-time method of anticipating outbreaks of HIV and etiologically similar diseases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  6. Planning in emergencies and disasters

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    surgical training - although this mainly comprises the clinical aspect of it. A disaster is a large-scale emergency and thus involves many other disciplines other than medical. In the last .... old, refugees and migrants .... Thought should be put into the preservation, dignity ... especially rescue workers and volunteers, working in.

  7. Caring about Tomorrow: Future Orientation, Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carmi, Nurit

    2013-01-01

    Almost any pro-environmental behavior arouses a temporal conflict, as protecting long-term interests requires the sacrifice of short-term ones. Similarly, many health promoting behaviors may involve present discomfort for the sake of future well-being. In both contexts, health or environmental, developed future orientation (FO) is required to…

  8. Planned obsolescence publishing, technology, and the future of the academy

    CERN Document Server

    Fitzpatrick, Kathleen

    2011-01-01

    Academic institutions are facing a crisis in scholarly publishing at multiple levels: presses are stressed as never before, library budgets are squeezed, faculty are having difficulty publishing their work, and promotion and tenure committees are facing a range of new ways of working without a clear sense of how to understand and evaluate them. Planned Obsolescence is both a provocation to think more broadly about the academy’s future and an argument for reconceiving that future in more communally-oriented ways. Facing these issues head-on, Kathleen Fitzpatrick focuses on the technological changes—especially greater utilization of internet publication technologies, including digital archives, social networking tools, and multimedia—necessary to allow academic publishing to thrive into the future. But she goes further, insisting that the key issues that must be addressed are social and institutional in origin. Springing from original research as well as Fitzpatrick’s own hands-on experiments in ne...

  9. Public opinion on Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hirose, Hirotada

    2013-01-01

    This article showed trend of public opinion on nuclear power after Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, for which the survey had been done five times under the same method and inquiries. Most unreliable source of information at disaster was government ministries and offices, whose unreliability sharply increased from 20% to about 50% after 3 months later and one year later after March 11 and reliability after 2 year and 5 months later (August 2013) was not high and almost comparable with unreliability of 27%. Nuclear disaster was most serious cause of Great East Japan earthquake disaster (60%) and not entirely ended due to such increase of contaminated water. Public opinion survey in August 2013 showed nuclear power stoppage totaled about 80% with immediate of about 30% and phaseout of about 50%, and possibility of occurrence of another nuclear accident comparable with Fukushima disaster was almost 80% with a belief not only earthquakes, tsunamis, terrorism but also human errors might initiate nuclear disaster if nuclear power restarted. Future most serious disaster would be earthquake (50%) and nuclear disaster (35%). Nuclear accident preparedness of government and local government was not enough (58% and 24%) and nothing (33% and 24%). Residents within UPZ (Urgent Protection action Planning Zone) of 30 km radius could not evacuate safely (57%) and entirely (22%). If government and local government encouraged damaged residents to come home with declaration of safety for evacuation area of nuclear accident, damaged residents might not return almost (46%) and entirely (9%). Notwithstanding people's strong feeling against nuclear power, LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) promoting nuclear power won an overwhelming victory at the election of House of Councilors in July 2013. Public opinion survey in August 2013 showed most important issue of voters was party's image (25%), economic measures (20%) and candidate's personality (13%), and nuclear power policy was only 5%. (T

  10. Summary remarks and future prospects for on-line nuclear orientation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krane, K.S.; Hamilton, J.H.

    1984-01-01

    Results from various groups which use on-line low temperature nuclear orientation techniques are presented. Several nuclear parameters have been successfully studied: rotational levels, nuclear deformation, and decay modes. Future prospects include multiparameter analysis, relaxation and pre-orientation, new separators, and alpha decay studies. 33 refs., 5 figs

  11. Disaster Metrics: A Comprehensive Framework for Disaster Evaluation Typologies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, Diana F; Spencer, Caroline; Boyd, Lee; Burkle, Frederick M; Archer, Frank

    2017-10-01

    Introduction The frequency of disasters is increasing around the world with more people being at risk. There is a moral imperative to improve the way in which disaster evaluations are undertaken and reported with the aim of reducing preventable mortality and morbidity in future events. Disasters are complex events and undertaking disaster evaluations is a specialized area of study at an international level. Hypothesis/Problem While some frameworks have been developed to support consistent disaster research and evaluation, they lack validation, consistent terminology, and standards for reporting across the different phases of a disaster. There is yet to be an agreed, comprehensive framework to structure disaster evaluation typologies. The aim of this paper is to outline an evolving comprehensive framework for disaster evaluation typologies. It is anticipated that this new framework will facilitate an agreement on identifying, structuring, and relating the various evaluations found in the disaster setting with a view to better understand the process, outcomes, and impacts of the effectiveness and efficiency of interventions. Research was undertaken in two phases: (1) a scoping literature review (peer-reviewed and "grey literature") was undertaken to identify current evaluation frameworks and typologies used in the disaster setting; and (2) a structure was developed that included the range of typologies identified in Phase One and suggests possible relationships in the disaster setting. No core, unifying framework to structure disaster evaluation and research was identified in the literature. The authors propose a "Comprehensive Framework for Disaster Evaluation Typologies" that identifies, structures, and suggests relationships for the various typologies detected. The proposed Comprehensive Framework for Disaster Evaluation Typologies outlines the different typologies of disaster evaluations that were identified in this study and brings them together into a single

  12. From Leaders, For Leaders: Advice From the Lived Experience of Leaders in Community Health Sector Disaster Recovery After Hurricanes Irene and Sandy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Craddock, Hillary A; Walsh, Lauren; Strauss-Riggs, Kandra; Schor, Kenneth

    2016-08-01

    Hurricanes Sandy and Irene damaged and destroyed homes, businesses, and infrastructure, and recovery after these storms took years. The goal of this article was to learn from the lived experience of local-level decision-makers actively involved in the long-term disaster recovery process after Hurricanes Irene and Sandy. Respondents provided professional recommendations, based on their experience, to assist other organizations in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from disasters. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with professionals actively involved in recovery from Hurricane Irene or Hurricane Sandy in 5 different communities. Transcripts were qualitatively analyzed. Respondents' advice fell into 5 main categories: planning and evaluation, education and training, fundraising and donations management, building relationships, and disaster behavioral health. The lived experience of those in disaster recovery can provide guidance for planning, education, and training both within and outside their communities in order to better respond to and recover from future disasters. These data help to facilitate a community of practice by compiling and sharing the lived experience of leaders who experienced large-scale disasters, and the outcomes of this analysis help to show what areas of planning require special attention in the phases of preparedness, response, and recovery. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;10:623-630).

  13. Keyword: help! Online resources for disaster preparedness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hart, Amadie H; Cushman, Margaret J

    2002-01-01

    Health care organizations such as home care agencies should have post-disaster contingency plans in place that include contacts with the local, county, or state emergency management office, local branch of the Red Cross, and a clearly identified point person within the agency to coordinate disaster response efforts. Home care agencies must plan for the far-reaching effects that disasters can have on people in the community. This article provides some online resources to help you, your organization, and your family prepare for unexpected events.

  14. Future orientation and smoking cessation: secondary analysis of data from a smoking cessation trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beenstock, Jane; Lindson-Hawley, Nicola; Aveyard, Paul; Adams, Jean

    2014-10-01

    To examine the association between future orientation (how individuals consider and value outcomes in the future) and smoking cessation at 4 weeks and 6 months post quit-date in individuals enrolled in a smoking cessation study. Cohort analysis of randomized controlled trial data. UK primary care. Adults aged ≥18 years smoking ≥15 cigarettes daily, prepared to quit in the next 2 weeks. Future orientation was measured prior to quitting and at 4 weeks post-quitting using the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale. Smoking cessation at 4 weeks and 6 months was confirmed biochemically. Those lost to follow-up were assumed to not be abstinent. Potential confounders adjusted for were: age, gender, educational attainment, nicotine dependence and longest previous period quit. A total of 697 participants provided data at baseline; 422 provided information on future orientation at 4 weeks. There was no evidence of an association between future orientation at baseline and abstinence at 4 weeks [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 1.05, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.80-1.38] or 6 months (aOR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.60-1.20). There was no change in future orientation from baseline to 4 weeks and no evidence that the change differed between those who were and were not quit at 4 weeks (adjusted regression coefficient = -0.04, 95% CI = -0.16 to 0.08). In smokers who are prepared to quit in the next 2 weeks, the extent of future orientation is unlikely to be a strong predictor of quitting over 4 weeks or 6 months and any increase in future orientation following quitting is likely to be small. © 2014 Society for the Study of Addiction.

  15. Rotorcraft Use in Disaster Relief and Mass Casualty Incidents - Case Studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    1990-06-01

    Disaster Relief and Mass 6. Performing Organization Code C asuallty Incidents- C ase Studies 8._P rfo minOr ani ati nR porNo 7. Author (s) 8...disaster planning process; and 3) produce a color video tape promoting the need for and the use of rotorcraft and heliports in disaster relief. 17...disaster prepaLedness ageicies for use in the integration of local helicopter assets into the disaster planning process; and 3) produce a color video tape

  16. An UAV scheduling and planning method for post-disaster survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, G. Q.; Zhou, X. G.; Yin, J.; Xiao, Q. Y.

    2014-11-01

    Annually, the extreme climate and special geological environments lead to frequent natural disasters, e.g., earthquakes, floods, etc. The disasters often bring serious casualties and enormous economic losses. Post-disaster surveying is very important for disaster relief and assessment. As the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) remote sensing with the advantage of high efficiency, high precision, high flexibility, and low cost, it is widely used in emergency surveying in recent years. As the UAVs used in emergency surveying cannot stop and wait for the happening of the disaster, when the disaster happens the UAVs usually are working at everywhere. In order to improve the emergency surveying efficiency, it is needed to track the UAVs and assign the emergency surveying task for each selected UAV. Therefore, a UAV tracking and scheduling method for post-disaster survey is presented in this paper. In this method, Global Positioning System (GPS), and GSM network are used to track the UAVs; an emergency tracking UAV information database is built in advance by registration, the database at least includes the following information, e.g., the ID of the UAVs, the communication number of the UAVs; when catastrophe happens, the real time location of all UAVs in the database will be gotten using emergency tracking method at first, then the traffic cost time for all UAVs to the disaster region will be calculated based on the UAVs' the real time location and the road network using the nearest services analysis algorithm; the disaster region is subdivided to several emergency surveying regions based on DEM, area, and the population distribution map; the emergency surveying regions are assigned to the appropriated UAV according to shortest cost time rule. The UAVs tracking and scheduling prototype is implemented using SQLServer2008, ArcEnginge 10.1 SDK, Visual Studio 2010 C#, Android, SMS Modem, and Google Maps API.

  17. Coping Skills Help Explain How Future-Oriented Adolescents Accrue Greater Well-Being Over Time.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chua, Li Wen; Milfont, Taciano L; Jose, Paul E

    2015-11-01

    Adolescents who endorse greater levels of future orientation report greater well-being over time, but we do not know the mechanism by which this happens. The present longitudinal study examined whether both adaptive as well as maladaptive coping strategies might explain how future orientation leads to ill-being and well-being over time in young New Zealanders. A sample of 1,774 preadolescents and early adolescents (51.9 % female) aged 10-15 years at Time 1 completed a self-report survey three times with 1 year intervals in between. Longitudinal mediation path models were constructed to determine whether and how maladaptive and adaptive coping strategies at Time 2 functioned as mediators between future orientation at Time 1 and ill-being and well-being at Time 3. Results showed that future orientation predicted lower maladaptive coping, which in turn predicted lower substance use and self-harming behavior. All three well-being outcomes (i.e., happiness with weight, vitality, and sleep) were consistently predicted by future orientation, and all three pathways were mediated by both lower maladaptive and higher adaptive coping strategies (with the exception of happiness with weight, which was mediated only by lower maladaptive coping). The results suggest that several pathways by which future orientation leads to greater well-being occurs through an increased use of adaptive coping, a decreased use of maladaptive coping, or both.

  18. Strategic Planning: Shaping Future Success

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-09-01

    fielding, the PM may also be planning for future increments , sustainment and other long-term ef- forts. Strategic planning can help the PM position these...introduced the Planning, Programming, and Budgeting System (PPBS) to the DoD. Prior to that, the DoD’s budget - ing focused on areas such as overhead

  19. Library as safe haven disaster planning, response, and recovery a how-to-do-it manual for librarians

    CERN Document Server

    Halsted, Deborah D; Wilson, Daniel T

    2014-01-01

    Libraries have always played a special role in times of disaster by continuing to provide crucial information and services. The Stafford Act of 2011, a federal government directive, designates libraries as among the temporary facilities delivering essential services, making a Continuity of Operations Plan imperative for libraries. Peppered with informative first-person narratives from librarians recounting emergency situations, Halsted, Clifton, and Wilson cover such topics as:An eight-step approach to developing a risk assessment planHow to draft a one-page service continuity planInformation

  20. Civic consciousness: A viable concept for advancing students’ ability to orient themselves to possible futures?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Johan Sandahl

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available In history didactics the concept of historical consciousness has become an important theoretical framework in developing a meaningful history education. One significant aspect of historical consciousness is to give students a “usable past” to orient to possible futures. Previous research has shown that history is important when students think about the future but that their use of history in meaning-making is simplistic and based on present-day-thinking. Much research has focused on advancing students’ ability to use history in orientation to possible futures, but less attention has been focused on contemporary studies and its role in the process of orientation. By introducing a tentative concept, civic consciousness, the issue of students’ orientation is explored by studying students’ perspectives on democracy in past-present-future. The data consists of 142 narratives and reveals a pattern of normative stances, process orientation and action orientation. These aspects are considered to be important components of civic consciousness and these have implications for how social studies educators should address the challenges of preparing students for the future.

  1. Waiting for Disasters: A Risk Reduction Assessment of Technological Disasters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rovins, Jane; Winningham, Sam

    2010-05-01

    This session provides a risk reduction/mitigation assessment of natural hazards causation of technological disasters and possible solution. People use technology in an attempt to not only control their environment but nature itself in order to make them feel safe and productive. Most strategies for managing hazards followed a traditional planning model i.e. study the problem, identify and implement a solution, and move on to the next problem. This approach is often viewed as static model and risk reduction is more of an upward, positive, linear trend. However, technological disasters do not allow risk reduction action to neatly fit this upward, positive, linear trend with actual or potential threats to the environment and society. There are different types of technological disasters, including industrial accidents; pipeline ruptures; accidents at power, water and heat supply systems and other lines of communication; sudden collapse of buildings and mines; air crashes; shipwrecks; automobile and railway accidents to name a few. Natural factors can play an essential role in triggering or magnifying technological disasters. They can result from the direct destruction of given technical objects by a hazardous natural process such as the destruction of an atomic power plant or chemical plant due to an earthquake. Other examples would include the destruction of communications or infrastructure systems by heavy snowfalls, strong winds, avalanches. Events in the past ten years clearly demonstrate that natural disasters and the technological disasters that accompany them are not problems that can be solved in isolation and risk reduction can play an important part. Risk reduction was designed to head off the continuing rising financial and structural tolls from disasters. All Hazard Risk Reduction planning was supposed to include not only natural, but technological, and human-made disasters as well. The subsequent disaster risk reduction (DRR) indicators were to provide the

  2. Disaster Mitigation Towards Sustainable Development in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    El-Atrash, Ahmad A.; Salem, Hilmi S.; Isaac, Jad E.

    2008-01-01

    Due to political, economical and social conditions dominating the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT; consisting of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip), the Palestinian people and government in the OPT face a multitude of challenges, in relation to governance, development, sustainability, and natural disasters. In this paper, several interventions that form the basis of some present and future Palestinian developmental and planning dilemmas are tackled. Among the challenges the Palestinian people facing are natural disasters. Such disasters have caused enormous losses and have set back economic progress in developed and undeveloped countries alike. On the Palestinian arena, the water shortages, the environmental degradation, and the land and natural resources' depletion, which all go hand in hand with the political conflict in the Middle East, are perceived to be the most significant anthropogenic disasters currently affecting the Palestinian people in the OPT. In addition, natural disasters are significantly considered a potential threat to the OPT's population. Earthquakes in the region are considered a major hazard, with low probability but high adverse impacts. Adding to this, the proposed Red Sea-Dead Sea Conveyance that will bring about two billion cubic meter of saline water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea will be potentially, if constructed, a huge source of induced earthquakes. Moreover, the future looks not so promising; due to the rapid population growth and the way the cities are developing in the OPT, as more than 50% of the Palestinian population lives in what is defined as ''hazard-prone'' areas. These areas are particularly vulnerable, because of their dependence on complex infrastructures. Moreover, the lack of knowledgeable professionals and technical capabilities in the OPT, in regard to disaster-sound management, is another reason for the current chaotic situation

  3. Relationship between Future Time Orientation and Item Nonresponse on Subjective Probability Questions: A Cross-Cultural Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Sunghee; Liu, Mingnan; Hu, Mengyao

    2017-06-01

    Time orientation is an unconscious yet fundamental cognitive process that provides a framework for organizing personal experiences in temporal categories of past, present and future, reflecting the relative emphasis given to these categories. Culture lies central to individuals' time orientation, leading to cultural variations in time orientation. For example, people from future-oriented cultures tend to emphasize the future and store information relevant for the future more than those from present- or past-oriented cultures. For survey questions that ask respondents to report expected probabilities of future events, this may translate into culture-specific question difficulties, manifested through systematically varying "I don't know" item nonresponse rates. This study drew on the time orientation theory and examined culture-specific nonresponse patterns on subjective probability questions using methodologically comparable population-based surveys from multiple countries. The results supported our hypothesis. Item nonresponse rates on these questions varied significantly in the way that future-orientation at the group as well as individual level was associated with lower nonresponse rates. This pattern did not apply to non-probability questions. Our study also suggested potential nonresponse bias. Examining culture-specific constructs, such as time orientation, as a framework for measurement mechanisms may contribute to improving cross-cultural research.

  4. Customer orientation and future market focus in NSD

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hillebrand, B.; Kemp, R.; Nijssen, E.J.

    2011-01-01

    Purpose – The aim of this paper is to investigate the differential effect of customer orientation and future market focus on organization inertia and firm innovativeness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the business-to-business service industry. It is motivated by the observation that

  5. Psychiatric and medical disorders in the after math of the uttarakhand disaster: assessment, approach, and future challenges.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Channaveerachari, Naveen Kumar; Raj, Aneel; Joshi, Suvarna; Paramita, Prajna; Somanathan, Revathi; Chandran, Dhanya; Kasi, Sekar; Bangalore, N Roopesh; Math, Suresh Bada

    2015-01-01

    To present the descriptive data on the frequency of medical and psychiatric morbidity and also to discuss various pertinent issues relevant to the disaster management, the future challenges and psychosocial needs of the 2013 floods in Uttarakhand, India. Observation was undertaken by the disaster management team of National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in the worst affected four districts of Uttarakhand. Qualified psychiatrists diagnosed the patients using the International Classification of Diseases-10 criteria. Data were collected by direct observation, interview of the survivors, group sessions, individual key-informant interview, individual session, and group interventions. Patients with physical health problems formed the majority of treatment seekers (39.6%) in this report. Only about 2% had disaster induced psychiatric diagnoses. As was expected, minor mental disorders in the form of depressive disorders and anxiety disorders formed majority of the psychiatric morbidity. Substance use disorders appear to be very highly prevalent in the community; however, we were not able to assess the morbidity systematically. The mental health infrastructure and manpower is abysmally inadequate. There is an urgent need to implement the National Mental Health Program to increase the mental health infrastructure and services in the four major disaster-affected districts.

  6. Self-Determination and Personal Identity in University Students: The Mediating Role of Future Orientation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Mingming; Kam, Chester Chun Seng

    2018-05-17

    In this study, we sought to extend the research on self-determination, future orientation, and personal identity construction by integrating the theories on self-determination and future orientation to provide a conceptual framework for understanding the relations between personal identity and the following individual characteristics: Hope, optimism, awareness of self, and perceived choice. 191 university students in China responded surveys in hardcopies on an individual basis. Our SEM results revealed that proximal future orientation influenced the mechanisms through which distal psychological traits affected identity construction. Specifically, hope mediated the effects of self-awareness on the participants' personal identity ratings (b = .45, p identity. This study suggested an extended framework through which we could understand how the interaction between future orientation and self-determination can predict personal identity. The findings have significant implications for interventions in educational settings.

  7. Methodology identification in mass disasters

    OpenAIRE

    Ampudia García, Omar

    2014-01-01

    Major disasters in Perul ack from a treatment plan and adapt to the current reality. Were rare and limited to natural disasters such as major earthquakes, floods, torrential rains, erupting volcanoes, and so on.At first these disasters were limited to certain geographic areas ingeneral,but with the advancement of science and technology these events have soared alarming lyas rail crashes, plane crashes, car crashes going at high speed,and if we add the attacks by fundamentalist groups with car...

  8. Natural Disasters and Cholera Outbreaks: Current Understanding and Future Outlook.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jutla, Antarpreet; Khan, Rakibul; Colwell, Rita

    2017-03-01

    Diarrheal diseases remain a serious global public health threat, especially for those populations lacking access to safe water and sanitation infrastructure. Although association of several diarrheal diseases, e.g., cholera, shigellosis, etc., with climatic processes has been documented, the global human population remains at heightened risk of outbreak of diseases after natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, or droughts. In this review, cholera was selected as a signature diarrheal disease and the role of natural disasters in triggering and transmitting cholera was analyzed. Key observations include identification of an inherent feedback loop that includes societal structure, prevailing climatic processes, and spatio-temporal seasonal variability of natural disasters. Data obtained from satellite-based remote sensing are concluded to have application, although limited, in predicting risks of a cholera outbreak(s). We argue that with the advent of new high spectral and spatial resolution data, earth observation systems should be seamlessly integrated in a decision support mechanism to be mobilize resources when a region suffers a natural disaster. A framework is proposed that can be used to assess the impact of natural disasters with response to outbreak of cholera, providing assessment of short- and long-term influence of climatic processes on disease outbreaks.

  9. Optimal Orientation Planning and Control Deviation Estimation on FAST Cable-Driven Parallel Robot

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hui Li

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available The paper is devoted theoretically to the optimal orientation planning and control deviation estimation of FAST cable-driven parallel robot. Regarding the robot characteristics, the solutions are obtained from two constrained optimizations, both of which are based on the equilibrium of the cabin and the attention on force allocation among 6 cable tensions. A kind of control algorithm is proposed based on the position and force feedbacks. The analysis proves that the orientation control depends on force feedback and the optimal tension solution corresponding to the planned orientation. Finally, the estimation of orientation deviation is given under the limit range of tension errors.

  10. Pediatric disaster preparedness of a hospital network in a large metropolitan region.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferrer, Rizaldy R; Balasuriya, Darshi; Iverson, Ellen; Upperman, Jeffrey S

    2010-01-01

    We describe pediatric-related emergency experiences and responses, disaster preparation and planning, emergency plan execution and evaluation, and hospital pediatric capabilities and vulnerabilities among a disaster response network in a large urban county in the West Coast of the United States. Using semistructured key informant interviews, the authors conducted qualitative research between March and April 2008. Eleven hospitals and a representative from the community clinic association agreed to participate (86 percent response rate) and a total of 22 key informant interviews were completed. Data were analyzed using ATLAS.ti.v.5.0, a qualitative analytical software program. Although hospitals have infrastructure to respond in the event of a large-scale disaster, well-established disaster preparedness plans have not fully accounted for the needs of children. The general hospitals do not anticipate a surge of pediatric victims in the event of a disaster, and they expect that children will be transported to a children's hospital as their conditions become stable. Even hospitals with well-established disaster preparedness plans have not fully accounted for the needs of children during a disaster. Improved communication between disaster network hospitals is necessary as incorrect information still persists.

  11. "Women and children first". Introducing a gender strategy into disaster preparedness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meyers, M

    1994-02-01

    Women have been included in development strategies, but women's issues and women's involvement have been missing from centrally planned government programs of disaster relief. The axiom of putting women and children first has been lost in the maelstrom of immediate need planning without consideration of consequences. The UN developed a training manual and seminars for disaster management. Included in one of the UN manuals are directives that emphasized priorities for nine main components of disaster relief: 1) vulnerability assessment, 2) planning, 3) institutional framework, 4) information systems, 5) resource base, 6) warning systems, 7) response mechanisms, 8) public education and training, and 9) rehearsals. Gender issues should be addressed for each of these components. The question of whether gender was included in a disaster assessment must be answered. Male planners may not be sufficiently informed of how women are affected; therefore, women need to be consulted at the planning stage. A national ministry of women should be involved in disaster relief planning. Women's needs and coping strategies must be accounted for in data-gathering instruments. Emergency supplies must include gynecological and obstetric supplies. The media must be able to reach women and children with disaster warnings. Relief plans must consider whether women will be unduly burdened by the strategy. The inclusion of women in disaster relief efforts not only helps women in crises but helps to break down gender inequalities and imbalances in general.

  12. Post-disaster psychosocial services across Europe: The TENTS project

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Witteveen, A. B.; Bisson, J. I.; Ajdukovic, D.

    2012-01-01

    At present post-disaster activities and plans seem to vary widely. An adequate estimation of the availability of post-disaster psychosocial services across Europe is needed in order to compare them with recently developed evidence-informed psychosocial care guidelines. Here we report on the results...... of a cross-sectional web-based survey completed in 2008 by two hundred and eighty-six representatives of organizations involved in psychosocial responses to trauma and disaster from thirty-three different countries across Europe. The survey addressed planning and delivery of psychosocial care after disaster......, methods of screening and diagnosis, types of interventions used, and other aspects of psychosocial care after trauma. The findings showed that planning and delivery of psychosocial care was inconsistent across Europe. Countries in East Europe seemed to have less central coordination of the post...

  13. Strategic planning for marketers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, I

    1978-12-01

    The merits of strategic planning as a marketing tool are discussed in this article which takes the view that although marketers claim to be future-oriented, they focus too little attention on long-term planning and forecasting. Strategic planning, as defined by these authors, usually encompasses periods of between five and twenty-five years and places less emphasis on the past as an absolute predictor of the future. It takes a more probabilistic view of the future than conventional marketing strategy and looks at the corporation as but one component interacting with the total environment. Inputs are examined in terms of environmental, social, political, technological and economic importance. Because of its futuristic orientation, an important tenant of strategic planning is the preparation of several alternative scenarios ranging from most to least likely. By planning for a wide-range of future market conditions, a corporation is more able to be flexible by anticipating the course of future events, and is less likely to become a captive reactor--as the authors believe is now the case. An example of strategic planning at General Elecric is cited.

  14. Administrative issues involved in disaster management in India.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaur, Jagdish

    2006-12-01

    India as a country is vulnerable to a number of disasters, from earthquakes to floods. Poor and weaker members of the society have always been more vulnerable to various types of disasters. Disasters result in unacceptably high morbidity and mortality amongst the affected population. Damage to infrastructure and reduction in revenues from the affected region due to low yield add to the economic losses. Poor co-ordination at the local level, lack of early-warning systems, often very slow responses, paucity of trained dedicated clinicians, lack of search and rescue facilities and poor community empowerment are some of the factors, which have been contributing to poor response following disasters in the past. The first formal step towards development of policies relating to disaster care in India was the formulation of the National Disaster Response Plan (NDRP) which was formulated initially by the Government of India for managing natural disasters only. However, this was subsequently amended to include man-made disasters as well. It sets the scene for formulating state and district level plans in all states to bring cohesiveness and a degree of uniform management in dealing with disasters. A National Disaster Management Authority has been constituted which aims to provide national guidelines and is headed by the Prime Minister of India. It is the highest decision-making body for the management of disasters in the country. The authority has the responsibility for co-ordinating response and post-disaster relief and rehabilitation. Each state is required to set up Disaster Management Authorities and District Disaster Management Committees for co-ordination and close supervision of activities and efforts related to the management of disasters.

  15. Towards "DRONE-BORNE" Disaster Management: Future Application Scenarios

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanzi, Tullio Joseph; Chandra, Madhu; Isnard, Jean; Camara, Daniel; Sebastien, Olivier; Harivelo, Fanilo

    2016-06-01

    Information plays a key role in crisis management and relief efforts for natural disaster scenarios. Given their flight properties, UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) provide new and interesting perspectives on the data gathering for disaster management. A new generation of UAVs may help to improve situational awareness and information assessment. Among the advantages UAVs may bring to the disaster management field, we can highlight the gain in terms of time and human resources, as they can free rescue teams from time-consuming data collection tasks and assist research operations with more insightful and precise guidance thanks to advanced sensing capabilities. However, in order to be useful, UAVs need to overcome two main challenges. The first one is to achieve a sufficient autonomy level, both in terms of navigation and interpretation of the data sensed. The second major challenge relates to the reliability of the UAV, with respect to accidental (safety) or malicious (security) risks. This paper first discusses the potential of UAV in assisting in different humanitarian relief scenarios, as well as possible issues in such situations. Based on recent experiments, we discuss the inherent advantages of autonomous flight operations, both lone flights and formation flights. The question of autonomy is then addressed and a secure embedded architecture and its specific hardware capabilities is sketched out. We finally present a typical use case based on the new detection and observation abilities that UAVs can bring to rescue teams. Although this approach still has limits that have to be addressed, technically speaking as well as operationally speaking, it seems to be a very promising one to enhance disaster management efforts activities.

  16. Forum 'North Rhine-Westphalia fit for the future'.- Energy sources seminar - the local governments' contribution to establishing a future-oriented energy policy 'from below'. Proceedings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Naegel, W.

    1997-01-01

    On October 9, 1997, a seminar on energy sources was held in Duesseldorf within the framework of the programme of the academy for nature conservation and environmental protection (NUA) of North Rhine-Westphalia. The topic of the meeting, 'local governments' contributions to establishing a future-oriented energy policy from below' gathered representatives and lecturers from local authorities, electric utilities, planning and consultancy firms, political bodies and environmental associations. Papers presented to the seminar have been indexed and analysed for separate retrieval from the database. (orig./CB) [de

  17. The orientation of disaster donations: differences in the global response to five major earthquakes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Jiuchang; Marinova, Dora

    2016-07-01

    This study analyses the influence of gift giving, geographical location, political regime, and trade openness on disaster donation decisions, using five severe earthquakes that occurred between 2008 and 2012 as case studies. The results show that global disaster donation is not dominated by only philanthropy or trade interests, and that the determinants of donation decisions vary with the scale of the natural disaster and the characteristics of the disaster-affected countries. While gift giving exists in the case of middle-size earthquakes, political regimes play a very important part in the overall donation process. Countries with higher perceived corruption may donate more frequently, but those that are more democratic may be more generous in their donations. Generosity based on geographical proximity to the calamity is significant in the decision-making process for most natural disasters, yet it may have a negative effect on donations in Latin America and the Caribbean. © 2016 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2016.

  18. Auditory N1 reveals planning and monitoring processes during music performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mathias, Brian; Gehring, William J; Palmer, Caroline

    2017-02-01

    The current study investigated the relationship between planning processes and feedback monitoring during music performance, a complex task in which performers prepare upcoming events while monitoring their sensory outcomes. Theories of action planning in auditory-motor production tasks propose that the planning of future events co-occurs with the perception of auditory feedback. This study investigated the neural correlates of planning and feedback monitoring by manipulating the contents of auditory feedback during music performance. Pianists memorized and performed melodies at a cued tempo in a synchronization-continuation task while the EEG was recorded. During performance, auditory feedback associated with single melody tones was occasionally substituted with tones corresponding to future (next), present (current), or past (previous) melody tones. Only future-oriented altered feedback disrupted behavior: Future-oriented feedback caused pianists to slow down on the subsequent tone more than past-oriented feedback, and amplitudes of the auditory N1 potential elicited by the tone immediately following the altered feedback were larger for future-oriented than for past-oriented or noncontextual (unrelated) altered feedback; larger N1 amplitudes were associated with greater slowing following altered feedback in the future condition only. Feedback-related negativities were elicited in all altered feedback conditions. In sum, behavioral and neural evidence suggests that future-oriented feedback disrupts performance more than past-oriented feedback, consistent with planning theories that posit similarity-based interference between feedback and planning contents. Neural sensory processing of auditory feedback, reflected in the N1 ERP, may serve as a marker for temporal disruption caused by altered auditory feedback in auditory-motor production tasks. © 2016 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

  19. Prediction of future urban growth using CA-Markov for urban sustainability planning of Banda Aceh, Indonesia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Achmad, A.; Irwansyah, M.; Ramli, I.

    2018-03-01

    Banda Aceh experienced rapid growth, both physically, socially, and economically, after the Tsunami that devastated it the end of December in 2004. Hence policy controls are needed to direct the pattern of urban growth to achieve sustainable development for the future. The purpose of this paper is to generate a growth model for Banda Aceh using the CA-Markov process. By knowing the changes in land use between 2005 and 2009 from the results of previous research, simulations for 2013, 2019 and 2029 using the application of Idrisi@Selva. CA-Markov models were prepared to determine the quantity of changes. The simulation results showed that, after the Tsunami, the City of Banda Aceh tended to grow towards the coast. For the control of the LUC, the Banda Aceh City government needs to prepare comprehensive and detailed maps and inventory of LUC for the city to provide basic data and information needed for monitoring and evaluation that can be done effectively and efficiently. An institution for monitoring and evaluation of the urban landscape and the LUC should be formed immediately. This institution could consist of representatives from government, academia, community leaders, the private sector and other experts. The findings from this study can be used to start the monitoring and evaluation of future urban growth. Especially for the coastal areas, the local government should immediately prepare special spatial coastal area plans to control growth in those areas and to ensure that the economic benefits from disaster mitigation and coastal protection are preserved. For the development of the city in the future, it is necessary to achieve a balance between economic development, and social welfare with environmental protection and disaster mitigation. iIt will become a big challenge to achieve sustainable development for the future.

  20. Managing anaesthetic provision for global disasters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Craven, R M

    2017-12-01

    The numbers of people affected by large-scale disasters has increased in recent decades. Disasters produce a huge burden of surgical morbidity at a time when the affected country is least able to respond. For this reason an international disaster response is often required. For many years this disaster response was not coordinated. The response consisted of what was available not what was needed and standards of care varied widely producing a healthcare lottery for the affected population. In recent years the World Health organisation has initiated the Emergency Medical Team programme to coordinate the response to disasters and set minimum standards for responding teams. Anaesthetists have a key role to play in Level 2 Surgical Field Hospitals. The disaster context produces a number of logistical challenges that directly impact on the anaesthetist requiring adaptation of anaesthetic techniques from their everyday practice. The context in which they will be working and the wider scope of practice that will be expected from them in the field mandates that deploying anaesthetists should be trained for disaster response. There have been significant improvements in recent years in the speed of response, equipment availability, coordination and training for disasters. Future challenges include increasing local disaster response capacity, agreeing international standards for training and improving data collection to allow for future research and improvement in disaster response. The goal of this review article is to provide an understanding of the disaster context and what logistical challenges it provides. There has been a move during the last decade from a globally uncoordinated, unregulated response, with no consensus on standards, to a globally coordinated response through the World Health Organisation (WHO). A classification system for responding Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) and a set of agreed minimum standards has been defined. This review outlines the scope of

  1. Financial services and disaster risk finance; Examples from the community level

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Warner, K.; Bouwer, L.M.; Ammann, W.

    2007-01-01

    Increased attention has recently been given to the possible role of financial services in the management of natural disaster risk. Local communities have been at the forefront of developing innovative disaster risk finance strategies and implementing risk-oriented incentive programs. In view of

  2. Anticipating and Communicating Plausible Environmental and Health Concerns Associated with Future Disasters: The ShakeOut and ARkStorm Scenarios as Examples

    Science.gov (United States)

    Plumlee, G. S.; Morman, S. A.; Alpers, C. N.; Hoefen, T. M.; Meeker, G. P.

    2010-12-01

    toward a more quantitative, predictive approach to understanding the potential sources, types, environmental behavior, and health implications of HM predicted to result from these disaster scenarios. Although only a first step, this qualitative approach will help enhance planning for, mitigation of, and resilience to environmental-health consequences of future disasters. This qualitative approach also requires careful communication to stakeholders that does not sensationalize or overstate potential problems, but rather conveys plausible impacts and next steps to improve understanding of potential risks and their mitigation.

  3. Oriented-strand-board- the wave of the future- for the building trade

    Science.gov (United States)

    Linda Ashton

    1984-01-01

    Move over, plywood. Oriented-strand board is here. It's less expensive. It's as durable. It has as many uses. And it is the wave of the future. "Oriented-strand board is a direct substitute for plywood" said Jerry Buckner, plant manager for the Martco oriented-strand board plant in Lemoyen. OSB, as it is commonly called, is a structural panel made...

  4. The Role of Religious Beliefs and Institutions in Disaster Management: A Case Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kyoo-Man Ha

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Religion in Korea has been shaped by its followers to a degree, but the role of religion in Korea has been largely unexamined. This study examines the role of religion and the incorporation of religious beliefs and institutions in the field of disaster management. In doing so, the study examines how three religions—Christianity, Buddhism, and Confucianism—operate in Korea, in particular in terms of both care-oriented management and mitigation-oriented management approaches. While utilizing descriptive research as a methodology, policy measures have been suggested with the support of theological perspectives. Despite some difficulties in making a generalization, the major finding is that religion has a role to play in supplementing care-oriented management, with mitigation-oriented management approaches, by better grasping the nature of a disaster and its effective management while responding to regional culture. In addition, the Ministry of Public Safety and Security, local governments, and other government institutions must play new roles in incorporating religion in disaster management.

  5. Validation of a Framework for Measuring Hospital Disaster Resilience Using Factor Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shuang Zhong

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Hospital disaster resilience can be defined as “the ability of hospitals to resist, absorb, and respond to the shock of disasters while maintaining and surging essential health services, and then to recover to its original state or adapt to a new one.” This article aims to provide a framework which can be used to comprehensively measure hospital disaster resilience. An evaluation framework for assessing hospital resilience was initially proposed through a systematic literature review and Modified-Delphi consultation. Eight key domains were identified: hospital safety, command, communication and cooperation system, disaster plan, resource stockpile, staff capability, disaster training and drills, emergency services and surge capability, and recovery and adaptation. The data for this study were collected from 41 tertiary hospitals in Shandong Province in China, using a specially designed questionnaire. Factor analysis was conducted to determine the underpinning structure of the framework. It identified a four-factor structure of hospital resilience, namely, emergency medical response capability (F1, disaster management mechanisms (F2, hospital infrastructural safety (F3, and disaster resources (F4. These factors displayed good internal consistency. The overall level of hospital disaster resilience (F was calculated using the scoring model: F = 0.615F1 + 0.202F2 + 0.103F3 + 0.080F4. This validated framework provides a new way to operationalise the concept of hospital resilience, and it is also a foundation for the further development of the measurement instrument in future studies.

  6. Innovative classification of methods of the Future-oriented Technology Analysis

    OpenAIRE

    HALICKA, Katarzyna

    2016-01-01

    In the era characterized by significant dynamics of the environment traditional methods of anticipating the future, assuming the immutability of the factors affecting the forecasted phenomenon, may be in the long term ineffective. The modern approach of predicting the future of technology, taking into account the multidimensionality of the environment, is, among other things, the Future-Oriented Technology Analysis (FTA). Designing the FTA research procedure is a complex process, both in orga...

  7. Desastres, ordem social e planejamento em defesa civil: o contexto brasileiro Disasters, social order and civil defense planning: the Brazilian context

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Norma Valencio

    2010-12-01

    discourse and the civil defense practices in the Brazilian context. First of all, it describes the main approaches of the sociology of disasters: the minimal consensus, the polarity and dichotomy, and shows one approach about the relationship between unequal development, vulnerability and civil defense planning. The present situation in Brazilian cities is of restriction to land access and it results in an increase in disasters. If changes do not occur in State's planning, with the adoption of new strategies explicitly formulated to break up the ideological point of view that subjects the poor groups, the disasters will continue happening. In the present structural dimension of planning, the Brazilian civil defense system classifies the vulnerable groups without considering social complexity. Disasters do not completely destroy the existing social systems, but they are capable of maintaining continuous processes of social indifference. Thus, the paper concludes by emphasizing the development of a participatory agenda in civil defense planning and decision-making processes.

  8. Social ecological factors associated with future orientation of children affected by parental HIV infection and AIDS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Xiuyun; Fang, Xiaoyi; Chi, Peilian; Heath, Melissa Allen; Li, Xiaoming; Chen, Wenrui

    2016-07-01

    From a social ecological perspective, this study examined the effects of stigma (societal level), trusting relationships with current caregivers (familial level), and self-esteem (individual level) on future orientation of children affected by HIV infection and AIDS. Comparing self-report data from 1221 children affected by parental HIV infection and AIDS and 404 unaffected children, affected children reported greater stigma and lower future orientation, trusting relationships, and self-esteem. Based on structural equation modeling, stigma experiences, trusting relationships, and self-esteem had direct effects on future orientation, with self-esteem and trusting relationships partially mediating the effect of stigma experiences on children's future orientation. Implications are discussed. © The Author(s) 2014.

  9. The Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project — A Community-Level, Public Health Initiative to Build Community Disaster Resilience

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Eisenman

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Public health officials need evidence-based methods for improving community disaster resilience and strategies for measuring results. This methods paper describes how one public health department is addressing this problem. This paper provides a detailed description of the theoretical rationale, intervention design and novel evaluation of the Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project (LACCDR, a public health program for increasing community disaster resilience. The LACCDR Project utilizes a pretest–posttest method with control group design. Sixteen communities in Los Angeles County were selected and randomly assigned to the experimental community resilience group or the comparison group. Community coalitions in the experimental group receive training from a public health nurse trained in community resilience in a toolkit developed for the project. The toolkit is grounded in theory and uses multiple components to address education, community engagement, community and individual self-sufficiency, and partnerships among community organizations and governmental agencies. The comparison communities receive training in traditional disaster preparedness topics of disaster supplies and emergency communication plans. Outcome indicators include longitudinal changes in inter-organizational linkages among community organizations, community member responses in table-top exercises, and changes in household level community resilience behaviors and attitudes. The LACCDR Project is a significant opportunity and effort to operationalize and meaningfully measure factors and strategies to increase community resilience. This paper is intended to provide public health and academic researchers with new tools to conduct their community resilience programs and evaluation research. Results are not yet available and will be presented in future reports.

  10. 76 FR 43237 - Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Establishment of Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-07-20

    ... have a choice of health plans to fit their needs. Exchanges will give individuals and small businesses... Protection and Affordable Care Act; Establishment of Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) Program... implement the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) program, which provides loans to foster the...

  11. Disaster mitigation science for Earthquakes and Tsunamis -For resilience society against natural disasters-

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaneda, Y.; Takahashi, N.; Hori, T.; Kawaguchi, K.; Isouchi, C.; Fujisawa, K.

    2017-12-01

    thrust earthquakes around Nankai/Ryukyu subduction zone', and `SATREPS project of earthquake and tsunami disaster mitigation in the Marmara region and disaster education in Turkey'. Furthermore, we have to progress the natural disaster mitigation science against destructive natural disaster in the near future.

  12. Promotion orientation explains why future-oriented people exercise and eat healthy: evidence from the two-factor consideration of future consequences-14 scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joireman, Jeff; Shaffer, Monte J; Balliet, Daniel; Strathman, Alan

    2012-10-01

    The authors extended research linking individual differences in consideration of future consequences (CFC) with health behaviors by (a) testing whether individual differences in regulatory focus would mediate that link and (b) highlighting the value of a revised, two-factor CFC-14 scale with subscales assessing concern with future consequences (CFC-Future) and concern with immediate consequences (CFC-Immediate) proper. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the revised CFC-14 scale supported the presence of two highly reliable factors (CFC-Future and CFC-Immediate; αs from .80 to .84). Moreover, structural equation modeling showed that those high in CFC-Future engage in exercise and healthy eating because they adopt a promotion orientation. Future use of the two-factor CFC-14 scale is encouraged to shed additional light on how concern with future and concern with immediate consequences (proper) differentially impact the way people resolve a host of intertemporal dilemmas (e.g., health, financial, and environmental behavior).

  13. Adolescents' Religiousness and Substance Use Are Linked via Afterlife Beliefs and Future Orientation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holmes, Christopher J; Kim-Spoon, Jungmeen

    2017-10-01

    Although religiousness has been identified as a protective factor against adolescent substance use, processes through which these effects may operate are unclear. The current longitudinal study examined sequential mediation of afterlife beliefs and future orientation in the relation between adolescent religiousness and cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use. Participants included 131 adolescents (mean age at Time 1 = 12 years) at three time points with approximately two year time intervals. Structural equation modeling indicated that higher religiousness at Time 1 was associated with higher afterlife beliefs at Time 2. Higher afterlife beliefs at Time 2 were associated with higher future orientation at Time 2, which in turn was associated with lower use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana at Time 3. Our findings highlight the roles of afterlife beliefs and future orientation in explaining the beneficial effects of religiousness against adolescent substance use.

  14. Psychological well-being in primary survivors of Uttarakhand disaster in India

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Srikant Sharma

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: After the 2004 Tsunami, India faced the worst natural disaster in Uttarakhand causing devastating floods and landslides. Besides the material harm, the disaster also has a massive impact on individual′s mental health, and the impact is perceived more in developing countries due to being densely populated with limited resources. The current study is an attempt to evaluate the psychological impact and its risk factors in Uttarakhand disaster. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted after 1 month of disaster in the primary survivors. All the included subjects were administered the semi-structured proforma for assessing the sociodemographic profile and the assessment instruments: Impact of events scale-revised (IES-R, depression anxiety stress scale and life orientation test-revised (LOT-R. Data were imputed and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 17.0.1 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA. Results: About 58% subjects had posttraumatic stress disorder and significantly severe levels of depression, anxiety, and stress were noted in 45.3%, 57%, and 44.2% subjects, respectively. A physical illness was present in 36% subjects. Loss of at least one family member was reported by 12.8% subjects. LOT-R scores were negatively correlated to IES-R. Conclusion: Psychological morbidity in the immediate post-disaster period is high. Higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress with development of negative outlook regarding their future is observed with increasing age. Increasing age, lower educational levels, physical illness, loss of a family member, and pessimistic expectations were associated with adverse psychological sequelae.

  15. Disaster preparedness of dialysis patients for Hurricanes Gustav and Ike 2008.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kleinpeter, Myra A

    2009-01-01

    Hurricanes Katrina and Rita resulted in massive devastation of the Gulf Coast at Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas during 2005. Because of those disasters, dialysis providers, nephrologists, and dialysis patients used disaster planning activities to work to mitigate the morbidity and mortality associated with the 2005 hurricane season for future events affecting dialysis patients. As Hurricane Gustav approached, anniversary events for Hurricane Katrina were postponed because of evacuation orders for nearly the entire Louisiana Gulf Coast. As part of the hurricane preparation, dialysis units reviewed the disaster plans of patients, and patients made preparation for evacuation. Upon evacuation, many patients returned to the dialysis units that had provided services during their exile from Hurricane Katrina; other patients went to other locations as part of their evacuation plan. Patients uniformly reported positive experiences with dialysis providers in their temporary evacuation communities, provided that those communities did not experience the effects of Hurricane Gustav. With the exception of evacuees to Baton Rouge, patients continued to receive their treatments uninterrupted. Because of extensive damage in the Baton Rouge area, resulting in widespread power losses and delayed restoration of power to hospitals and other health care facilities, some patients missed one treatment. However, as a result of compliance with disaster fluid and dietary recommendations, no adverse outcomes occurred. In most instances, patients were able to return to their home dialysis unit or a nearby unit to continue dialysis treatments within 4 - 5 days of Hurricane Gustav. Hurricane Ike struck the Texas Gulf Coast near Galveston, resulting in devastation of that area similar to the devastation seen in New Orleans after Katrina. The storm surge along the Louisiana Gulf Coast resulted in flooding that temporarily closed coastal dialysis units. Patients were prepared and experienced

  16. Explaining why larks are future-oriented and owls are present-oriented: self-control mediates the chronotype-time perspective relationships.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milfont, Taciano L; Schwarzenthal, Miriam

    2014-05-01

    Recent studies provide evidence for the chronotype-time perspective relationships. Larks are more future-oriented and owls are more present-oriented. The present study expands this initial research by examining whether the associations are replicable with other time perspective measures, and whether self-control explains the observed relationships. Chronotype was assessed with the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire and the basic associations with the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory were replicated in a sample of 142 New Zealand students, but not with other measures. Self-control mediated the influence of morningness on both future time perspective and delay of gratification. Implications of the findings are discussed.

  17. Managing Post-Disaster Needs Assessments (PDNA)

    OpenAIRE

    Jones, Brett

    2010-01-01

    This knowledge note provides an overview of the post-disaster assessment process, extracting lessons learned in the East Asia Pacific Region (EAP) and presenting best practices from recent assessments. The note explains the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) methodology, and outlines: (i) the assessment triggers, (ii) key steps in assessment planning, and (iii) dos and don'ts in assessm...

  18. The Future of Electricity Resource Planning

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kahrl, Fredrich [Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc., San Francisco, CA (United States); Mills, Andrew [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Lavin, Luke [Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc., San Francisco, CA (United States); Ryan, Nancy [Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc., San Francisco, CA (United States); Olsen, Arne [Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc., San Francisco, CA (United States); Schwartz, Lisa [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

    2016-09-14

    Electricity resource planning is the process of identifying longer-term investments to meet electricity reliability requirements and public policy goals at a reasonable cost. Resource planning processes provide a forum for regulators, electric utilities, and electricity industry stakeholders to evaluate the economic, environmental, and social benefits and costs of different investment options. By facilitating a discussion on future goals, challenges and strategies, resource planning processes often play an important role in shaping utility business decisions. Resource planning emerged more than three decades ago in an era of transition, where declining electricity demand and rising costs spurred fundamental changes in electricity industry regulation and structure. Despite significant changes in the industry, resource planning continues to play an important role in supporting investment decision making. Over the next two decades, the electricity industry will again undergo a period of transition, driven by technological change, shifting customer preferences and public policy goals. This transition will bring about a gradual paradigm shift in resource planning, requiring changes in scope, approaches and methods. Even as it changes, resource planning will continue to be a central feature of the electricity industry. Its functions — ensuring the reliability of high voltage (“bulk”) power systems, enabling oversight of regulated utilities and facilitating low-cost compliance with public policy goals — are likely to grow in importance as the electricity industry enters a new period of technological, economic and regulatory change. This report examines the future of electricity resource planning in the context of a changing electricity industry. The report examines emerging issues and evolving practices in five key areas that will shape the future of resource planning: (1) central-scale generation, (2) distributed generation, (3) demand-side resources, (4

  19. Nuclear disasters and their consequences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bastian, T.

    1986-01-01

    The book is intended to serve as a source of information and a line of orientation for all people afraid of or angry about the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. The author describes the effects of nuclear disasters that might happen as a result of military or 'peaceful' application of nuclear energy; he explains the situation people will have to cope with, gives advice on protective means and methods and topical information with reference to institutions or authorities where assistance might be available, also including a list of addresses and telephone numbers that has been issued by the governments after the Chernobyl accident. (orig.) [de

  20. Multi-Satellite Observation Scheduling for Large Area Disaster Emergency Response

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niu, X. N.; Tang, H.; Wu, L. X.

    2018-04-01

    an optimal imaging plan, plays a key role in coordinating multiple satellites to monitor the disaster area. In the paper, to generate imaging plan dynamically according to the disaster relief, we propose a dynamic satellite task scheduling method for large area disaster response. First, an initial robust scheduling scheme is generated by a robust satellite scheduling model in which both the profit and the robustness of the schedule are simultaneously maximized. Then, we use a multi-objective optimization model to obtain a series of decomposing schemes. Based on the initial imaging plan, we propose a mixed optimizing algorithm named HA_NSGA-II to allocate the decomposing results thus to obtain an adjusted imaging schedule. A real disaster scenario, i.e., 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, is revisited in terms of rapid response using satellite resources and used to evaluate the performance of the proposed method with state-of-the-art approaches. We conclude that our satellite scheduling model can optimize the usage of satellite resources so as to obtain images in disaster response in a more timely and efficient manner.

  1. Records and Information Disaster Preparedness in Selected ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This study looked at the availability of rules and regulations governing access to and use of records; threats to records management; disaster response plan; extent to which organizations are committed in four major stages of disaster management in organizations in Uganda. In gathering the data, structured questionnaire ...

  2. Nurses' hospital orientation and future research challenges: an integrative review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peltokoski, J; Vehviläinen-Julkunen, K; Miettinen, M

    2016-03-01

    This study aimed to describe the research on registered nurses' orientation processes in specialized hospital settings in order to illustrate directions for future research. The complex healthcare environment and the impact of nursing shortage and turnover make the hospital orientation process imperative. There is a growing recognition regarding research interests to meet the needs for evidence-based, effective and economically sound hospital orientation strategies. An integrative literature review was performed on publications from the period 2000 to 2013 included in the CINAHL and PubMed databases. English-language studies were included. Themes guiding the analysis were definition of the hospital orientation process, research topics, data collection and instruments and research evidence. Narrative synthesis was used. Eleven papers met the inclusion criteria. The conceptualization of orientation process reflected the complexity of the phenomenon. Less attention has been paid to designs to establish correlations or relationships between selected variables and hospital orientation process. The outcomes of hospital orientation programmes were limited primarily to retention and job satisfaction. The research evidence therefore cannot be evaluated as strong. The lack of an evidence-based approach makes it difficult to develop a comprehensive orientation process. Further research should explore interventions that will enhance the quality of hospital orientation practices to improve nurses' retention and job satisfaction. To provide a comprehensive hospital orientation process, hospital administrators have to put in place human resource development strategies along with practice implications and research efforts. Comprehensive hospital orientation benefits and outcomes should be visible to policy makers. © 2016 International Council of Nurses.

  3. Variations in disaster evacuation behavior: public responses versus private sector executive decision-making processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drabek, T E

    1992-06-01

    Data obtained from 65 executives working for tourism firms in three sample communities permitted comparison with the public warning response literature regarding three topics: disaster evacuation planning, initial warning responses, and disaster evacuation behavior. Disaster evacuation planning was reported by nearly all of these business executives, although it was highly variable in content, completeness, and formality. Managerial responses to post-disaster warnings paralleled the type of complex social processes that have been documented within the public response literature, except that warning sources and confirmation behavior were significantly affected by contact with authorities. Five key areas of difference were discovered in disaster evacuation behavior pertaining to: influence of planning, firm versus family priorities, shelter selection, looting concerns, and media contacts.

  4. Health care logistics: who has the ball during disaster?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanvactor, Jerry D

    2011-05-10

    In contemporary organizations, a wide gamut of options is available for sustaining and supporting health care operations. When disaster strikes, despite having tenable plans for routine replenishment and operations, many organizations find themselves ill-prepared, ill-equipped, and without effective mechanisms in place to sustain operations during the immediate aftermath of a crisis. Health care operations can be abruptly halted due to the non-availability of supply. The purpose of this work is to add to a necessary, growing body of works related specifically to health care logistics preparedness and disaster mitigation. Logistics management is a specialized genre of expertise within the health care industry and is largely contributive to the success or failure of health care organizations. Logistics management requires extensive collaboration among multiple stakeholders-internal and external to an organization. Effective processes and procedures can be largely contributive to the success or failure of organizational operations. This article contributes to the closure of an obvious gap in professional and academic literature related to disaster health care logistics management and provides timely insight into a potential problem for leaders industry-wide. One critical aspect of disaster planning is regard for competent logistics management and the effective provision of necessary items when they are needed most. In many communities, there seems to be little evidence available regarding health care logistics involvement in disaster planning; at times, evidence of planning efforts perceptibly end at intra-organizational doors within facilities. Strategic planners are being continually reminded that health care organizations serve a principal role in emergency preparedness planning and must be prepared to fulfill the associated possibilities without notification. The concern is that not enough attention is being paid to repeated lessons being observed in disasters and

  5. Support for Resilient Communications in Future Disaster Management

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jones, Valerie M.; Karagiannis, Georgios; Heemstra de Groot, S.M.; Gelenbe, Erol; Lent, Ricardo; Sakellari, Georgia

    2011-01-01

    Disasters are often accompanied by damage to critical infrastructure, including (wireless) communications infrastructure. Our solution for emergency communications is based on advanced networks: Generalized Access Networks (GANs), Body Area Networks (BANs) and Vehicular Networks, to support dynamic,

  6. Radiation accident/disaster

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kida, Yoshiko; Hirohashi, Nobuyuki; Tanigawa, Koichi

    2013-01-01

    Described are the course of medical measures following Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP) Accident after the quake and tsunami (Mar. 11, 2011) and the future task for radiation accident/disaster. By the first hydrogen explosion in FNPP (Mar. 12), evacuation of residents within 20 km zone was instructed, and the primary base for measures of nuclear disaster (Off-site Center) 5 km afar from FNPP had to work as a front base because of damage of communicating ways, of saving of injured persons and of elevation of dose. On Mar. 13, the medical arrangement council consisting from stuff of Fukushima Medical University (FMU), National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Nuclear Safety Research Association and Prefectural officers was setup in residents' hall of Fukushima City, and worked for correspondence to persons injured or exposed, where communication about radiation and between related organizations was still poor. The Off-site Center's head section moved to Prefectural Office on Mar. 15 as headquarters. Early in the period, all residents evacuated from the 20 km zone, and in-hospital patients and nursed elderly were transported with vehicles, >50 persons of whom reportedly died mainly by their base diseases. The nation system of medicare for emergent exposure had consisted from the network of the primary to third facilities; there were 5 facilities in the Prefecture, 3 of which were localized at 4-9 km distance from FNPP and closed early after the Accident; and the secondary facility of FMU became responsible to all exposed persons. There was no death of workers of FNPP. Medical stuff also measured the ambient dose at various places near FNPP, having had risk of exposure. At the Accident, the important system of command, control and communication was found fragile and measures hereafter should be planned on assumption of the worst scenario of complete damage of the infrastructure and communication. It is desirable for Disaster Medical Assistance Team which

  7. Disaster recovery: mitigating loss through documentation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boisvert, Sue

    2011-01-01

    Flood, fire, tornado, hurricane. Whatever the cause, natural or man-made, the result on an organization can be devastating. Planning and preparation for disaster must include significant attention to disaster recovery. The ability to produce documentation of what existed, what was damaged, recovery costs and income losses will be essential to the claims adjustment process. This article discusses strategies for creating a historical record, leveraging contemporaneous incident command documentation and working with contractors to identify and record disaster-related expenses. © 2011 American Society for Healthcare Risk Management of the American Hospital Association.

  8. These lives will not be lost in vain: organizational learning from disaster in US coal mining

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Madsen, P.M. [Brigham Young University, Provo, UT (United States). Marriott School Management

    2009-09-15

    The stated purpose of the investigations that invariably follow industrial, transportation, and mining disasters is to learn from those tragedies to prevent future tragedies. But does prior experience with disaster make organizations more capable of preventing future disasters? Do organizations learn from disasters experienced by other organizations? Do organizations learn differently from rare disasters than they do from common minor accidents? In its present state, the organizational safety literature is poorly equipped to answer these questions. The present work begins to address this gap by empirically examining how prior organizational experience with disaster affects the likelihood that organizations will experience future disasters. It approaches the issue in the context of fatal U.S. coal mining accidents from 1983 to 2006. The analysis demonstrates that organizations do learn to prevent future disasters through both direct and vicarious experience with disaster. It also indicates that the mechanisms through which organizations learn from disasters differ from those through which they learn from minor accidents.

  9. Science-Driven Approach to Disaster Risk and Crisis Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ismail-Zadeh, A.

    2014-12-01

    Disasters due to natural extreme events continue to grow in number and intensity. Disaster risk and crisis management requires long-term planning, and to undertake that planning, a science-driven approach is needed to understand and assess disaster risks and to help in impact assessment and in recovery processes after a disaster. Science is used in assessments and rapid modeling of the disaster impact, in forecasting triggered hazards and risk (e.g., a tsunami or a landslide after a large earthquake), in contacts with and medical treatment of the affected population, and in some other actions. At the stage of response to disaster, science helps to analyze routinely the disaster happened (e.g., the physical processes led to this extreme event; hidden vulnerabilities; etc.) At the stage of recovery, natural scientists improve the existing regional hazard assessments; engineers try to use new science to produce new materials and technologies to make safer houses and infrastructure. At the stage of disaster risk mitigation new scientific methods and approaches are being developed to study natural extreme events; vulnerability of society is periodically investigated, and the measures for increasing the resilience of society to extremes are developed; existing disaster management regulations are improved. At the stage of preparedness, integrated research on disaster risks should be developed to understand the roots of potential disasters. Enhanced forecasting and early warning systems are to be developed reducing predictive uncertainties, and comprehensive disaster risk assessment is to be undertaken at local, regional, national and global levels. Science education should be improved by introducing trans-disciplinary approach to disaster risks. Science can help society by improving awareness about extreme events, enhancing risk communication with policy makers, media and society, and assisting disaster risk management authorities in organization of local and regional

  10. Review: Health Management in Disasters with Focusing on Rehabilitation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hamid Reza Khankeh

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available Disasters should never be considered as routine. Disasters of any kind—natural or manmade—clearly disrupt the normal functioning of any community and frequently overwhelm both personal and community resources. In the post-disaster context, following the initial shock of the disaster, returning lives and livelihoods to normalcy becomes a primary concern of the affected communities and nations. Traditionally, this has been known as the recovery and rehabilitation phase, where "normalcy" refers to the return of the community to the state it was in prior to the disaster event. Rehabilitation is this process of returning the community to “normal” that may extend for many years and involves the physical, social and economic components of the community. Disasters can take on a life of their own, therefore being prepared is the single most effective way to improve outcomes. Proper pre-event planning and providing mechanisms for resource coordination are critical which will be resulted a successful response. It should focus on increasing the participation of civil authorities in order to reestablish local authorities. In order to develop safer communities with fewer deaths, physical injuries, and psycho-social trauma following disasters, health systems must be capable of providing a coordinated response during disasters and of delivering effective mitigation and preparedness programs before disaster impact. The health sector has a vested interest and a key role in this process. In addition, prior to the occurrence of disasters, national, provincial, and local planning should be blueprinted by managers. The public must be educated regarding the importance of individual and family preparation for disaster

  11. Palestinian Youth of the Intifada: PTSD and Future Orientation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lavi, Tamar; Solomon, Zahava

    2005-01-01

    Objective: To assess the nature of chronic exposure to terror and its psychological and cognitive toll on Palestinian youths, as is reflected in posttraumatic symptoms, future orientation, and attitudes toward peace. Method: In the summer of 2001, 245 Palestinian and 300 Israeli-Palestinian adolescents in the sixth to ninth grades were assessed…

  12. Perceptions of disaster preparedness among older people in South Korea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yoo, Myoungran; Lee, Mijung; Tullmann, Dorothy

    2016-03-01

    Older people are a major vulnerable population. During disasters, given their physical frailty, lower social status, loss of medications and medical care, the vulnerability of older people increases. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of older people in Korea on various aspects of disaster preparedness to better understand their special needs and to facilitate appropriate disaster planning. The study was qualitative and used focus group interviews with 12 older people in one major city and one rural area of South Korea. Four themes were identified by the analysis of the interviews: defenceless state, reality of accepting limitations, strong will to live, importance of disaster preparedness governmental efforts for the older people. Findings indicated that preparation of shelters and transportation was critical to help older people survive in times of disasters and suggested that there should be active involvement of the government in terms of disaster planning, managing and preparing older people for disasters. In addition, healthy older people can be assets to disaster relief efforts by providing practical and emotional support for the most fragile older people. Older people can also provide knowledge of their special needs to the government to improve their disaster response policy. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  13. The relationship between future orientation and street substance use among Texas alternative school students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peters, R J; Tortolero, Susan R; Johnson, Regina Jones; Addy, Robert C; Markham, Christine M; Escobar-Chaves, S Liliana; Lewis, Holly; Yacoubian, George S

    2005-01-01

    Self-reported substance use data were collected from 963 alternative school students in grades 7-12 who were surveyed through the Safer Choices 2 study in Houston, Texas. Data were collected between October 2000 and March 2001. Logistic regression analyses indicated that lower levels of future orientation was significantly associated (OR = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.81-0.97) with thirty-day substance use after controlling for age and gender. In addition, lower levels of future orientation was found to have a significant association with students' lifetime substance use (OR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.87-.99) after controlling for age, race, and gender. While the relationships tested in this study are exploratory, they provide evidence for an important connection between future orientation and substance use among adolescents attending alternative schools.

  14. Flood disaster preparedness: a retrospect from Grand Forks, North Dakota.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siders, C; Jacobson, R

    1998-01-01

    Natural disasters often come without warning. The clinical, financial, and business risks can be enormous. Grand Forks' (ND) healthcare systems experienced a flooding disaster of unprecedented proportions in April of 1997. Planned and practiced disaster and evacuation procedures can significantly reduce a healthcare facilities' risk to life, health, and safety. This article retrospectively analyzes disaster preparation and the complete evacuation of the facilities' patients.

  15. Hospital disaster emergency preparedness: A study of Onandjokwe ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This study explored disaster emergency preparedness at Onandjokwe Lutheran Hospital in Northern Namibia. It utilized quantitative and qualitative research methods, using a self-administered questionnaire, semi-structured key informant interviews, and a hospital disaster plan checklist. A stratified sample of 120 ...

  16. A Future-Oriented, Globally Based Curriculum Model for Industrial Technology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hacker, Michael

    1982-01-01

    Presents a future-oriented curriculum approach for industrial technology programs. Major global issues provide the basic structure for curriculum development. These issues include energy management, resource management, technological advancement, and international relations. Rationales for industrial technology are discussed and a curriculum…

  17. Plastic Surgery Response in Natural Disasters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, Susan; Zimmerman, Amanda; Gaviria, Andres; Dayicioglu, Deniz

    2015-06-01

    Disasters cause untold damage and are often unpredictable; however, with proper preparation, these events can be better managed. The initial response has the greatest impact on the overall success of the relief effort. A well-trained multidisciplinary network of providers is necessary to ensure coordinated care for the victims of these mass casualty disasters. As members of this network of providers, plastic surgeons have the ability to efficiently address injuries sustained in mass casualty disasters and are a valuable member of the relief effort. The skill set of plastic surgeons includes techniques that can address injuries sustained in large-scale emergencies, such as the management of soft-tissue injury, tissue viability, facial fractures, and extremity salvage. An approach to disaster relief, the types of disasters encountered, the management of injuries related to mass casualty disasters, the role of plastic surgeons in the relief effort, and resource management are discussed. In order to improve preparedness in future mass casualty disasters, plastic surgeons should receive training during residency regarding the utilization of plastic surgery knowledge in the disaster setting.

  18. Disaster Response Regional Architectures: Assessing Future Possibilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-09-01

    and Artificial Intelligence to make sense of information quickly by training algorithms to automatically identify all relevant images and pictures...as avian influenza and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), cybersecurity , and disaster management (Jackson, 2015). Since its inception in...By February 22, GoF had received sufficient intelligence to warrant a request for interna- tional assistance. All security sectors were on standby

  19. A report on disaster prevention trainings of nuclear energy, in fiscal year 2000

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nomura, Tamotsu; Katagiri, Hiromi; Akiyama, Takashi; Kikuchi, Masayuki

    2001-05-01

    Trainings on nuclear disaster prevention are often planned and practiced since early times at the nuclear energy relating organizations on many courses. A training carried out in fiscal year 2000 by the Emergent Assistance and Training Center in the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute is decided to a portion on disaster prevention measure at a viewpoint of 'Crisis Management' which is essential element in present disaster prevention measure to fall short at present. In concrete, a crisis management training for nuclear disaster prevention (senior and business courses), an emergent publicity response training, and a disaster prevention training planning training were designed and decided. These trainings were established according to experiences accumulated by inter-company crisis management learning, and were constructed by containing items relating to respective special knowledge, conditions on chemical plants and disaster prevention measure system in U.S.A. and Europe, and so on. Here was described on design and practice of training plan, and practice of the trainings. (G.K)

  20. Disaster Management: Mental Health Perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Math, Suresh Bada; Nirmala, Maria Christine; Moirangthem, Sydney; Kumar, Naveen C

    2015-01-01

    Disaster mental health is based on the principles of 'preventive medicine' This principle has necessitated a paradigm shift from relief centered post-disaster management to a holistic, multi-dimensional integrated community approach of health promotion, disaster prevention, preparedness and mitigation. This has ignited the paradigm shift from curative to preventive aspects of disaster management. This can be understood on the basis of six 'R's such as Readiness (Preparedness), Response (Immediate action), Relief (Sustained rescue work), Rehabilitation (Long term remedial measures using community resources), Recovery (Returning to normalcy) and Resilience (Fostering). Prevalence of mental health problems in disaster affected population is found to be higher by two to three times than that of the general population. Along with the diagnosable mental disorders, affected community also harbours large number of sub-syndromal symptoms. Majority of the acute phase reactions and disorders are self-limiting, whereas long-term phase disorders require assistance from mental health professionals. Role of psychotropic medication is very limited in preventing mental health morbidity. The role of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) in mitigating the mental health morbidity appears to be promising. Role of Psychological First Aid (PFA) and debriefing is not well-established. Disaster management is a continuous and integrated cyclical process of planning, organising, coordinating and implementing measures to prevent and to manage disaster effectively. Thus, now it is time to integrate public health principles into disaster mental health.

  1. Knowledge-Oriented Physics-Based Motion Planning for Grasping Under Uncertainty

    OpenAIRE

    Ud Din, Muhayy; Akbari, Aliakbar; Rosell Gratacòs, Jan

    2017-01-01

    Grasping an object in unstructured and uncertain environments is a challenging task, particularly when a collision-free trajectory does not exits. High-level knowledge and reasoning processes, as well as the allowing of interaction between objects, can enhance the planning efficiency in such environments. In this direction, this study proposes a knowledge-oriented physics-based motion planning approach for a hand-arm system that uses a high-level knowledge-based reasoning to partition the wor...

  2. Rebuilding sustainable communities for children and families after disaster: recommendations from symposium participants in response to the April 27th, 2011 tornadoes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rush, S Craig; Houser, Rick; Partridge, Ashley

    2015-02-01

    Tuscaloosa, Alabama experienced a significant disaster, an EF4 tornado with 190 mile an hour winds on April 27, 2011. Fifty-two people were killed and more than 5,000 homes were severely damaged. Twelve percent of the city was destroyed and 7,000 people were immediately unemployed. This was a disaster of significant proportion and impacted everyone in the community of over 80,000. In an effort to address the needs of the community after this disaster a symposium was organized with a focus on helping children and families. More than 40 professionals and community members attended the symposium which was led by an international expert on disaster. Recommendations were established and distributed to the community and governmental organizations. The process for planning and implementing the symposium also may serve as a model for addressing future disasters.

  3. Temporary disaster debris management site identification using binomial cluster analysis and GIS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grzeda, Stanislaw; Mazzuchi, Thomas A; Sarkani, Shahram

    2014-04-01

    An essential component of disaster planning and preparation is the identification and selection of temporary disaster debris management sites (DMS). However, since DMS identification is a complex process involving numerous variable constraints, many regional, county and municipal jurisdictions initiate this process during the post-disaster response and recovery phases, typically a period of severely stressed resources. Hence, a pre-disaster approach in identifying the most likely sites based on the number of locational constraints would significantly contribute to disaster debris management planning. As disasters vary in their nature, location and extent, an effective approach must facilitate scalability, flexibility and adaptability to variable local requirements, while also being generalisable to other regions and geographical extents. This study demonstrates the use of binomial cluster analysis in potential DMS identification in a case study conducted in Hamilton County, Indiana. © 2014 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2014.

  4. Satellites, tweets, forecasts: the future of flood disaster management?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dottori, Francesco; Kalas, Milan; Lorini, Valerio; Wania, Annett; Pappenberger, Florian; Salamon, Peter; Ramos, Maria Helena; Cloke, Hannah; Castillo, Carlos

    2017-04-01

    Floods have devastating effects on lives and livelihoods around the world. Structural flood defence measures such as dikes and dams can help protect people. However, it is the emerging science and technologies for flood disaster management and preparedness, such as increasingly accurate flood forecasting systems, high-resolution satellite monitoring, rapid risk mapping, and the unique strength of social media information and crowdsourcing, that are most promising for reducing the impacts of flooding. Here, we describe an innovative framework which integrates in real-time two components of the Copernicus Emergency mapping services, namely the European Flood Awareness System and the satellite-based Rapid Mapping, with new procedures for rapid risk assessment and social media and news monitoring. The integrated framework enables improved flood impact forecast, thanks to the real-time integration of forecasting and monitoring components, and increases the timeliness and efficiency of satellite mapping, with the aim of capturing flood peaks and following the evolution of flooding processes. Thanks to the proposed framework, emergency responders will have access to a broad range of timely and accurate information for more effective and robust planning, decision-making, and resource allocation.

  5. Australasian disasters of national significance: an epidemiological analysis, 1900-2012.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bradt, David A; Bartley, Bruce; Hibble, Belinda A; Varshney, Kavita

    2015-04-01

    A regional epidemiological analysis of Australasian disasters in the 20th century to present was undertaken to examine trends in disaster epidemiology; to characterise the impacts on civil society through disaster policy, practice and legislation; and to consider future potential limitations in national disaster resilience. A surveillance definition of disaster was developed conforming to the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) criteria (≥10 deaths, ≥100 affected, or declaration of state emergency or appeal for international assistance). The authors then applied economic and legislative inclusion criteria to identify additional disasters of national significance. The surveillance definition yielded 165 disasters in the period, from which 65 emerged as disasters of national significance. There were 38 natural disasters, 22 technological disasters, three offshore terrorist attacks and two domestic mass shootings. Geographic analysis revealed that states with major population centres experienced the vast majority of disasters of national significance. Timeline analysis revealed an increasing incidence of disasters since the 1980s, which peaked in the period 2005-2009. Recent seasonal bushfires and floods have incurred the highest death toll and economic losses in Australasian history. Reactive hazard-specific legislation emerged after all terrorist acts and after most disasters of national significance. Timeline analysis reveals an increasing incidence in natural disasters over the past 15 years, with the most lethal and costly disasters occurring in the past 3 years. Vulnerability to disaster in Australasia appears to be increasing. Reactive legislation is a recurrent feature of Australasian disaster response that suggests legislative shortsightedness and a need for comprehensive all-hazards model legislation in the future. © 2015 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine.

  6. Disaster Preparedness Among University Students in Guangzhou, China: Assessment of Status and Demand for Disaster Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tan, Yibing; Liao, Xiaolan; Su, Haihao; Li, Chun; Xiang, Jiagen; Dong, Zhaoyang

    2017-06-01

    This study had 2 aims. First, we evaluated the current levels of disaster preparedness among university students in southern China. Second, we assessed students' demands for future disaster education. In addition, we examined the influence of demographic factors on current disaster preparedness status and demand. A cross-sectional design was used. The data were collected from 1893 students in 10 universities in the Guangzhou Higher Education Mega (GHEM) center. A self-administered questionnaire developed for this study was administered to assess the current status and demand for disaster education. The results are based on 1764 valid questionnaires. Among the participants, 77.8% reported having had disaster education experiences before, 85.5% indicated their desire for a systematic disaster course, and 75.4% expressed their willingness to take such a course upon its availability. The total mean score for demand for disaster course content (5-point Likert scale) was 4.17±0.84, with items relating to rescue skills given the highest scores. These results suggested that students had high desires for disaster preparedness knowledge, especially knowledge concerning rescue skills. We observed significant differences in disaster education experiences between male and female students and across programs, school years, and home locations. Furthermore, we observed significant differences in demand for disaster course content between male and female students and across universities, student programs, years of school, and students' majors. A systematic disaster course focused on rescue skills is needed by all types of universities. To improve the disaster education system in universities, disaster drills should be performed on a semester basis as a refresher and to enhance disaster preparedness. The government and universities should support building a simulated disaster rescue center and recruit faculty from the emergency department, especially those who have had disaster

  7. Performance of district disaster management teams after undergoing an operational level planners' training in Uganda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orach, Christopher Garimol; Mayega, Roy William; Woboya, Vincent; William, Bazeyo

    2013-06-01

    Uganda is vulnerable to several natural, man-made and a hybrid of disasters including drought, famine, floods, warfare, and disease outbreaks. We assessed the district disaster team's performance, roles and experiences following the training. The disasters most commonly experienced by the district teams were epidemics of diseases in humans (7 of 12), animals (epizoonotics) (3 of 12) and crops (3 of 12); hailstorms and floods (3 of 12). The capabilities viewed most useful for management of disasters were provision of health care services (9/12) and response management (8 of 12). The capability domains most often consulted during the disasters were general response management (31%), health services (29%) and water and sanitation (17%). The skills areas perceived to be vital following the training were response to epidemics 10/12, disaster management planning 8/12, hazards and vulnerability analysis 7/12 and principles of disaster planning 7/12 respectively. Main challenges mentioned by district teams were inadequacy of finance and logistics, lack of commitment by key partners towards disaster preparedness and response. The most common disaster experienced disasters related to outbreaks of diseases in man, animals and crops. The most frequently applied capabilities were response management and provision of emergency health services. The activities most frequently implemented following disaster management teams training were conducting planning meetings, refinement of plans and dissemination of skills gained. The main challenges were related to limited budget allocations and legal frameworks for disaster management that should be addressed by both central and local governments.

  8. Renovating animal facilities to withstand disasters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cartwright, Jim; Contratto, Jim; Gould, Nathan; Freeman, William

    2013-10-01

    In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, new attention has been drawn to planning for and mitigating the effects of disasters on laboratory animal facilities. A number of design approaches and solutions can be easily incorporated into a new vivarium, enhancing its ability to withstand and recover from a disaster. Renovating a vivarium poses special challenges, however. Existing conditions in the project area may dictate which approaches or solutions are feasible, and retrofitting is often more complex and expensive than incorporating the same features into new construction. The authors explain how project design teams can evaluate the types of disasters that a renovated facility will need to address and develop a design strategy that responds to these disasters in the most effective way.

  9. Role of Actors and Gender Factor in Disaster Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gundogdu, Oguz; Isik, Ozden; Ozcep, Ferhat; Goksu, Goksel

    2014-05-01

    In Turkey, the discussions in the modern sense about disaster management begun after the 1992 Erzincan and the 1995 Dinar earthquakes, faulting in terms of features and effects. These earthquakes are "Urban Earthquakes'' with effects and faulting charectristics, and have led to radical changes in terms of disaster and disaster management. Disaster Management, to become a science in the world, but with the 1999 Izmit and Duzce earthquakes in Turkey has begun to take seriously on the agenda. Firstly, such as Civil Defense and Red Crescent organizations, by transforming its own, have entered into a new organizing effort. By these earthquakes, NGO's have contributed the search-rescue efforts in the field and to the process of normalization of life. Because "the authority and responsibilities" of NGO's could not be determined, and could not be in planning and scenario studies, we faced the problems. Thus, to the citizens of our country-specific "voluntary" has not benefited enough from the property. The most important development in disaster management in 2009, the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) has been the establishment. However, in terms of coordination and accreditation to the target point has been reached yet. Another important issue in disaster management (need to be addressed along with disaster actors) is the role of women in disasters. After the Golcuk Earthquake, successful field works of women and women's victimization has attracted attention in two different directions. Gender-sensitive policies should be noted by the all disaster actors due to the importance of the mitigation, and these policies should take place in laws, regulations and planning.

  10. Shelter planning based on self-saving concepts in urban residential districts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Buri Qi

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available With increasing population density in Asia, the potential higher risk was resulted from the residential districts with the higher plot ratio, especially in some megapolis (eg. Beijing and Shanghai. Presently it is more difficult for the rescue operation during the disasters because of the decreasing safe space among the buildings as a result of higher buildings and denser the district. Thus, an immediate self-saving action is more important than before during the disaster in the residential districts, and its realization depends on the reasonable shelter planning and its management system. In this study, the factors related to the self-saving were analyzed and concluded by the related the literatures retrieval and case study, and the case study was done by the in-depth interview and questionnaires in three different residential districts in Shanghai. It was found that the following factors related to the self-saving should be considered in the shelters planning: the distribution of the shelters including their space accessibility and area, evacuation passageways, the facilities of the disaster prevention (such as fire hydrant and guide signs and subsidiary facilities (such as vegetation for the disaster prevention, the social cohesion, awareness of the self-saving and disaster prevention. Simultaneously, the shelters planning countermeasures based on the self-saving were proposed, which provided some theoretical bases for the study  and plan of the security residential districts in future.

  11. Satellite Application for Disaster Management Information Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okpanachi, George

    Abstract Satellites are becoming increasingly vital to modern day disaster management activities. Earth observation (EO) satellites provide images at various wavelengths that assist rapid-mapping in all phases of the disaster management cycle: mitigation of potential risks in a given area, preparedness for eventual disasters, immediate response to a disaster event, and the recovery/reconstruction efforts follo wing it. Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) assist all the phases by providing precise location and navigation data, helping manage land and infrastructures, and aiding rescue crews coordinate their search efforts. Effective disaster management is a complex problem, because it involves many parameters, which are usually not easy to measure and even identify: Analysis of current situation, planning, optimum resource management, coordination, controlling and monitoring current activities and making quick and correct decisions are only some of these parameters, whose complete list is very long. Disaster management information systems (DMIS) assist disaster management to analyse the situation better, make decisions and suggest further actions following the emergency plans. This requires not only fast and thorough processing and optimization abilities, but also real-time data provided to the DMIS. The need of DMIS for disaster’s real-time data can be satisfied by small satellites data utilization. Small satellites can provide up-to-data, plus a better media to transfer data. This paper suggests a rationale and a framework for utilization of small Satellite data by DMIS. DMIS should be used ‘’before’’, ‘’during’’ and ‘’after’’ the disasters. Data provided by the Small Satellites are almost crucial in any period of the disasters, because early warning can save lives, and satellite data may help to identify disasters before they occur. The paper also presents’ ‘when’’,

  12. A dynamic model for costing disaster mitigation policies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Altay, Nezih; Prasad, Sameer; Tata, Jasmine

    2013-07-01

    The optimal level of investment in mitigation strategies is usually difficult to ascertain in the context of disaster planning. This research develops a model to provide such direction by relying on cost of quality literature. This paper begins by introducing a static approach inspired by Joseph M. Juran's cost of quality management model (Juran, 1951) to demonstrate the non-linear trade-offs in disaster management expenditure. Next it presents a dynamic model that includes the impact of dynamic interactions of the changing level of risk, the cost of living, and the learning/investments that may alter over time. It illustrates that there is an optimal point that minimises the total cost of disaster management, and that this optimal point moves as governments learn from experience or as states get richer. It is hoped that the propositions contained herein will help policymakers to plan, evaluate, and justify voluntary disaster mitigation expenditures. © 2013 The Author(s). Journal compilation © Overseas Development Institute, 2013.

  13. Future orientation and suicide risk in Hungarian college students: Burdensomeness and belongingness as mediators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Edward C; Chang, Olivia D; Martos, Tamás; Sallay, Viola

    2017-01-01

    We tested a model consistent with the notion that perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness mediate the association between future orientation and suicide risk (viz., depressive symptoms and suicide ideation) in college students. The sample was comprised of 195 Hungarian college students. Results indicated that the negative associations found between future orientation and suicide risk outcomes were accounted for by both perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness. The present findings highlight the importance of studying positive future cognitions in suicide risk and provide support for perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness as potential proximal mechanisms associated with heighted suicide risk in adults.

  14. Stealth Disasters and Geoethics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kieffer, Susan W.

    2013-04-01

    for their own lives (autonomy), they have relevant information in useable form. To minimize harm to others and the environment (non-maleficence), we can design and implement sustainable ways to extract resources and dispose of waste. To advance the welfare of humankind (beneficence), we can work with engineers on innovative uses for commodities that are easily-obtained, and on replacements for rare ones. And, we can strive toward social justice by recognizing that social, ethical, legal and political issues regarding resource use may be far more difficult than the geotechnical ones, and work within the (sometimes frustrating) framework for resolution of those issues. Referring back to the four stages of co-existence with natural disasters (preparation, co-existence, recovery, and remediation), the global scope of stealth disasters raises far more geoethical issues than we have encountered with natural disasters. Just as we have learned (e.g., Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy in the U.S.) that inter-agency response is crucial to successful management of natural disasters, we can expect that global cooperation in management and governance will be essential to the management of stealth disasters. It is imperative that research and education of current and future geoscientists in universities recognize the newly developing role of the geosciences in stealth disasters and that we train our students for a future within this context.

  15. Development of SNS Stream Analysis Based on Forest Disaster Warning Information Service System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oh, J.; KIM, D.; Kang, M.; Woo, C.; Kim, D.; Seo, J.; Lee, C.; Yoon, H.; Heon, S.

    2017-12-01

    Forest disasters, such as landslides and wildfires, cause huge economic losses and casualties, and the cost of recovery is increasing every year. While forest disaster mitigation technologies have been focused on the development of prevention and response technologies, they are now required to evolve into evacuation and border evacuation, and to develop technologies fused with ICT. In this study, we analyze the SNS (Social Network Service) stream and implement a system to detect the message that the forest disaster occurred or the forest disaster, and search the keyword related to the forest disaster in advance in real time. It is possible to detect more accurate forest disaster messages by repeatedly learning the retrieved results using machine learning techniques. To do this, we designed and implemented a system based on Hadoop and Spark, a distributed parallel processing platform, to handle Twitter stream messages that open SNS. In order to develop the technology to notify the information of forest disaster risk, a linkage of technology such as CBS (Cell Broadcasting System) based on mobile communication, internet-based civil defense siren, SNS and the legal and institutional issues for applying these technologies are examined. And the protocol of the forest disaster warning information service system that can deliver the SNS analysis result was developed. As a result, it was possible to grasp real-time forest disaster situation by real-time big data analysis of SNS that occurred during forest disasters. In addition, we confirmed that it is possible to rapidly propagate alarm or warning according to the disaster situation by using the function of the forest disaster warning information notification service. However, the limitation of system application due to the restriction of opening and sharing of SNS data currently in service and the disclosure of personal information remains a problem to be solved in the future. Keyword : SNS stream, Big data, Machine

  16. Alcohol Demand, Future Orientation, and Craving Mediate the Relation Between Depressive and Stress Symptoms and Alcohol Problems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soltis, Kathryn E; McDevitt-Murphy, Meghan E; Murphy, James G

    2017-06-01

    Elevated depression and stress have been linked to greater levels of alcohol problems among young adults even after taking into account drinking level. This study attempts to elucidate variables that might mediate the relation between symptoms of depression and stress and alcohol problems, including alcohol demand, future time orientation, and craving. Participants were 393 undergraduates (60.8% female, 78.9% White/Caucasian) who reported at least 2 binge-drinking episodes (4/5+ drinks for women/men, respectively) in the previous month. Participants completed self-report measures of stress and depression, alcohol demand, future time orientation, craving, and alcohol problems. In separate mediation models that accounted for gender, race, and weekly alcohol consumption, future orientation and craving significantly mediated the relation between depressive symptoms and alcohol problems. Alcohol demand, future orientation, and craving significantly mediated the relation between stress symptoms and alcohol problems. Heavy-drinking young adults who experience stress or depression are likely to experience alcohol problems, and this is due in part to elevations in craving and alcohol demand, and less sensitivity to future outcomes. Interventions targeting alcohol misuse in young adults with elevated levels of depression and stress should attempt to increase future orientation and decrease craving and alcohol reward value. Copyright © 2017 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.

  17. Emergency Management for Disasters in Malaysian Hotel Industry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    AlBattat Ahmad Rasmi

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper aims to identify major emergencies that have the potential to place Malaysian hotels in emergency and disaster situations; investigate how hotels were prepared for emergencies, how they manage and overcome emergencies when occurred; and limitations and factors influencing successful emergency planning and adoption emergency management in Malaysian hotels. Face-to-face interview with managers from three, four and five star hotels from different backgrounds: local; regional; and International in Kuala Lumpur, Subang, and Putrajaya are undertaken. The result revealed that Malaysian hotels are exposed to a wide range of natural and man-made disasters. Malaysian hotels lack proactive emergency planning and a lot of constraints which impede successful emergency planning for disasters in the hotel industry in Malaysia, with emphasizing on the relevant authority’s role to demonstrate emergency management to hotels convincing them to adopt such practices, so they can be able to cope with emergencies effectively.

  18. The socioeconomic impact of international aid: a qualitative study of healthcare recovery in post-earthquake Haiti and implications for future disaster relief.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kligerman, Maxwell; Walmer, David; Bereknyei Merrell, Sylvia

    2017-05-01

    We assessed healthcare provider perspectives of international aid four years after the Haiti Earthquake to better understand the impact of aid on the Haitian healthcare system and learn best practices for recovery in future disaster contexts. We conducted 22 semi-structured interviews with the directors of local, collaborative, and aid-funded healthcare facilities in Leogane, Haiti. We coded and analysed the interviews using an iterative method based on a grounded theory approach of data analysis. Healthcare providers identified positive aspects of aid, including acute emergency relief, long-term improved healthcare access, and increased ease of referrals for low-income patients. However, they also identified negative impacts of international aid, including episodes of poor quality care, internal brain drain, competition across facilities, decrease in patient flow to local facilities, and emigration of Haitian doctors to abroad. As Haiti continues to recover, it is imperative for aid institutions and local healthcare facilities to develop a more collaborative relationship to transition acute relief to sustainable capacity building. In future disaster contexts, aid institutions should specifically utilise quality of care metrics, NGO Codes of Conduct, Master Health Facility Lists, and sliding scale payment systems to improve disaster response.

  19. Natural disasters and gender dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roder, Giulia; Tarolli, Paolo

    2016-04-01

    . Men, on the other side, feel more often prepared to overcome the crises, but what emerges from the stress and the losses caused by disasters are different types of violence (self-harm and interpersonal violence). It is therefore necessary to recognize violence and mental health pathologies as part of the negative consequences that occur after natural disasters and that can be part of people's vulnerability if those events recur frequently. Living conditions, demographic, economic attributes, behaviours and beliefs reflect gender power relations in the disaster context. Failing to recognize it, may lead to inefficient community-based risk management plans. Gender dynamics in the disaster context should be the interest not only of non-governmental and/or international organizations. They should be a priority for researchers that have to contribute more in their studies to find a gendered differentiation, without limiting gender to an isolated attribute. This will help public authorities to develop sensitive management plans in order to let the disaster relief an easy process to achieve. This work will contribute to the scientific recognition of gender in the disaster management context, in order to raise further investigations on this topic. World Bank (2010) Natural Hazards, Unnatural Disasters: The Economics of Effective Prevention. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development Reports.

  20. Factors Associated with Discussion of Disasters by Final Year High School Students: An International Cross-sectional Survey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Codreanu, Tudor A; Celenza, Antonio; Alabdulkarim, Ali A Rahman

    2015-08-01

    Introduction The effect on behavioral change of educational programs developed to reduce the community's disaster informational vulnerability is not known. This study describes the relationship of disaster education, age, sex, and country-specific characteristics with students discussing disasters with friends and family, a measure of proactive behavioral change in disaster preparedness. Three thousand eight hundred twenty-nine final year high school students were enrolled in an international, multi-center prospective, cross-sectional study using a pre-validated written questionnaire. In order to obtain information from different educational systems, from countries with different risk of exposure to disasters, and from countries with varied economic development status, students from Bahrain, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Romania, and Timor-Leste were surveyed. Logistic regression analyses examined the relationship between the likelihood of discussing disasters with friends and family (dependent variable) and a series of independent variables (age, gender, participation in school lessons about disasters, existence of a national disaster educational program, ability to list pertinent example of disasters, country's economic group, and disaster risk index) captured by the questionnaire or available as published data. There was no statistically significant relationship between age, awareness of one's surroundings, planning for the future, and foreseeing consequences of events with discussions about potential hazards and risks with friends and/or family. The national educational budget did not have a statistically significant influence. Participants who lived in a low disaster risk and high income Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country were more likely to discuss disasters. While either school lessons or a national disaster education program had a unique, significant contribution to the model, neither had a better

  1. Effective Planning of the Future of the Arctic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sentsov, A.; Bolsunovskaya, Yu; Bolsunovskaya, L.

    2014-08-01

    The problems of the Arctic region have become the most important ones in the world. Political risks hinder the industrial development of the region. This paper addresses the problem of planning and modeling the future of this region. It presents the problems of developing a model of the future due to the ideologies and strategies of two main actors in the Arctic, the United States and the Russian Federation. The effects of a bipolar perception of the future of the region and of the whole world are shown. A model of the effective planning of the future of the Arctic region is proposed.

  2. The Swiss disaster management plan for coping with the aftermath of radiological dispersal devices - ''dirty bomb'' operational concept

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stoffel, F.; Blaettler, M.; Leonardi, A.

    2009-01-01

    In 2007 the Swiss Federal Commission for NRBC Protection released a disaster management plan for coping with the aftermath of radiological dispersal devices. This paper summarises the basic concept and outlines the relevant bodies and agencies as well as their responsibilities. It also sets out the strategy to monitor radioactive contamination and the measures to prevent public radiation exposure. (orig.)

  3. The use of cue familiarity during retrieval failure is affected by past versus future orientation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cleary, Anne M

    2015-01-01

    Cue familiarity that is brought on by cue resemblance to memory representations is useful for judging the likelihood of a past occurrence with an item that fails to actually be retrieved from memory. The present study examined the extent to which this type of resemblance-based cue familiarity is used in future-oriented judgments made during retrieval failure. Cue familiarity was manipulated using a previously-established method of creating differing degrees of feature overlap between the cue and studied items in memory, and the primary interest was in how these varying degrees of cue familiarity would influence future-oriented feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments given in instances of cued recall failure. The present results suggest that participants do use increases in resemblance-based cue familiarity to infer an increased likelihood of future recognition of an unretrieved target, but not to the extent that they use it to infer an increased likelihood of past experience with an unretrieved target. During retrieval failure, the increase in future-oriented FOK judgments with increasing cue familiarity was significantly less than the increase in past-oriented recognition judgments with increasing cue familiarity.

  4. The Development and Coherence of Future-Oriented Behaviors during the Preschool Years

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atance, Cristina M.; Jackson, Laura K.

    2009-01-01

    Although previous research has identified a number of interesting aspects of future thinking in adults, little is known about the developmental trajectory and coherence of future-oriented behaviors during early childhood. The primary goal of this study was to explore these issues by administering a battery of tasks assessing different aspects of…

  5. Quality indicators to self-assess the level of disaster preparedness.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Spijkers, K.F.J.; Slottje, P.; Yzermans, C.J.

    2007-01-01

    Introduction: It impossible to predict when or where a disaster will happen next, or what its cause will be. This presentation describes an instrument that was developed to allow hospitals to self-assess their level of disaster preparedness and to prioritize areas for improvement for future disaster

  6. The relationship between parenting and the economic orientation and behavior of Norwegian adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nyhus, Ellen K; Webley, Paul

    2013-01-01

    Little is known about the economic socialization of children and adolescents and the role of parents in this process. The authors' purpose was to explore the role of parenting in the intergenerational transfer of economic orientation and economic behavior. More specifically, they studied the link between four parenting dimensions (parental warmth-responsiveness, behavioral control, psychological control, autonomy granting), three parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, and neglectful) and adolescents' conscientiousness, future time perspective, and present hedonistic orientation. The authors also studied the relationships between these dispositions and the adolescents' spending preferences and ability to control spending. They used data collected from 14-16-year-olds (n = 597) and their parents (n = 469) in Norway. Results showed that adolescents who perceived their parents as psychologically controlling were less future oriented and conscientious, and were more present hedonistic oriented than others, while adolescents who perceived their parents as responsive, autonomy granting, and controlling of behavior were more future orientated and conscientious than others. Adolescents' scores for conscientiousness and future orientation were negatively associated with preferences for spending and positively with the ability to control spending, while the opposite relationships were found with respect to a present hedonistic orientation. Parental style was also found to be important for the future educational plans of adolescents, and plans for higher education were more frequent among adolescents who characterized their parents as authoritative than among those who perceived their parents as neglectful. Implications of the findings for economic socialization are discussed.

  7. Microsoft SharePoint 2013 disaster recovery guide

    CERN Document Server

    Ward, Peter

    2013-01-01

    The style and approach of the book is an easytoread SharePoint admin guide. This is not a stepbystep instruction book, but rather a guide on how to implement and execute a disaster recovery plan to your SharePoint environment.This book is great for both SharePoint and SQL administrators new to the SharePoint 2013 architecture, and who are looking to get a good grounding in how to use implement a solid disaster recoveryrecovery plan. It's assumed that you have some experience in SharePoint and Windows Server and, as well be familiar with SQL.

  8. Medical Rehabilitation in Natural Disasters: A Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khan, Fary; Amatya, Bhasker; Gosney, James; Rathore, Farooq A; Burkle, Frederick M

    2015-09-01

    To present an evidence-based overview of the effectiveness of medical rehabilitation intervention in natural disaster survivors and outcomes that are affected. A literature search was conducted using medical and health science electronic databases (PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO) up to September 2014. Two independent reviewers selected studies reporting outcomes for natural disaster survivors after medical rehabilitation that addressed functional restoration and participation. Two reviewers independently extracted data and assessed the methodologic quality of the studies using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program's appraisal tools. A meta-analysis was not possible because of heterogeneity among included trials; therefore, a narrative analysis was performed for best evidence synthesis. Ten studies (2 randomized controlled trials, 8 observational studies) investigated a variety of medical rehabilitation interventions for natural disaster survivors to evaluate best evidence to date. The interventions ranged from comprehensive multidisciplinary rehabilitation to community educational programs. Studies scored low on quality assessment because of methodologic limitations. The findings suggest some evidence for the effectiveness of inpatient rehabilitation in reducing disability and improving participation and quality of life and for community-based rehabilitation for participation. There were no data available for associated costs. The findings highlight the need to incorporate medical rehabilitation into response planning and disaster management for future natural catastrophes. Access to rehabilitation and investment in sustainable infrastructure and education are crucial. More methodologically robust studies are needed to build evidence for rehabilitation programs, cost-effectiveness, and outcome measurement in such settings. Copyright © 2015 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine

  9. Disaster Governance for Community Resilience in Coastal Towns: Chilean Case Studies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paula Villagra

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available This study aimed to further our understanding of a characteristic of Community Resilience known as Disaster Governance. Three attributes of Disaster Governance—redundancy, diversity, and overlap—were studied in four coastal towns in southern Chile that are at risk of tsunamis. Overall, we explored how different spatial structures of human settlements influence Disaster Governance. Using the Projective Mapping Technique, the distribution of emergency institutions (N = 32 and uses given to specific sites (e.g., for refuge, sanitary purposes and medical attention were mapped. Content and GIS analyses (Directional Distribution and Kernel Density Index were used to explore the dispersion and concentration of institutions and uses in each town. Disaster Governance was found to be highly influenced by decisions taken during regional, urban, and emergency planning. Governance is better in towns of higher order in the communal hierarchical structure. Most of the emergency institutions were found to be located in central and urban areas, which, in turn, assures more redundancy, overlap, and diversity in governance in the event of a tsunami. Lack of flexibility of emergency plans also limits governance in rural and indigenous areas. While the spatial relationships found in this study indicate that urban sectors have better Disaster Governance than rural and indigenous sectors, the influence of resource availability after tsunamis, the role and responsibility of different levels of governments, and the politics of disaster also play an important role in Disaster Governance for determining Community Resilience. These findings shed light on emergency planning and aspects of the Disaster Management cycle.

  10. Disaster Governance for Community Resilience in Coastal Towns: Chilean Case Studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Villagra, Paula; Quintana, Carolina

    2017-09-14

    This study aimed to further our understanding of a characteristic of Community Resilience known as Disaster Governance. Three attributes of Disaster Governance-redundancy, diversity, and overlap-were studied in four coastal towns in southern Chile that are at risk of tsunamis. Overall, we explored how different spatial structures of human settlements influence Disaster Governance. Using the Projective Mapping Technique, the distribution of emergency institutions (N = 32) and uses given to specific sites (e.g., for refuge, sanitary purposes and medical attention) were mapped. Content and GIS analyses (Directional Distribution and Kernel Density Index) were used to explore the dispersion and concentration of institutions and uses in each town. Disaster Governance was found to be highly influenced by decisions taken during regional, urban, and emergency planning. Governance is better in towns of higher order in the communal hierarchical structure. Most of the emergency institutions were found to be located in central and urban areas, which, in turn, assures more redundancy, overlap, and diversity in governance in the event of a tsunami. Lack of flexibility of emergency plans also limits governance in rural and indigenous areas. While the spatial relationships found in this study indicate that urban sectors have better Disaster Governance than rural and indigenous sectors, the influence of resource availability after tsunamis, the role and responsibility of different levels of governments, and the politics of disaster also play an important role in Disaster Governance for determining Community Resilience. These findings shed light on emergency planning and aspects of the Disaster Management cycle.

  11. Library orientation on videotape: production planning and administrative support.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shedlock, J; Tawyea, E W

    1989-01-01

    New student-faculty-staff orientation is an important public service in a medical library and demands creativity, imagination, teaching skill, coordination, and cooperation on the part of public services staff. The Northwestern University Medical Library (NUML) implemented a video production service in the spring of 1986 and used the new service to produce an orientation videotape for incoming students, new faculty, and medical center staff. Planning is an important function in video production, and the various phases of outlining topics, drafting scripts, matching video sequences, and actual taping of video, voice, and music are described. The NUML orientation videotape demonstrates how reference and audiovisual services merge talent and skills to benefit the library user. Videotape production, however, cannot happen in a vacuum of good intentions and high ideals. This paper also presents the management support and cost analysis needed to make video production services a reality for use by public service departments.

  12. Study of Earthquake Disaster Prediction System of Langfang city Based on GIS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Meng; Zhang, Dian; Li, Pan; Zhang, YunHui; Zhang, RuoFei

    2017-07-01

    In this paper, according to the status of China’s need to improve the ability of earthquake disaster prevention, this paper puts forward the implementation plan of earthquake disaster prediction system of Langfang city based on GIS. Based on the GIS spatial database, coordinate transformation technology, GIS spatial analysis technology and PHP development technology, the seismic damage factor algorithm is used to predict the damage of the city under different intensity earthquake disaster conditions. The earthquake disaster prediction system of Langfang city is based on the B / S system architecture. Degree and spatial distribution and two-dimensional visualization display, comprehensive query analysis and efficient auxiliary decision-making function to determine the weak earthquake in the city and rapid warning. The system has realized the transformation of the city’s earthquake disaster reduction work from static planning to dynamic management, and improved the city’s earthquake and disaster prevention capability.

  13. Hospital planning for weapons of mass destruction incidents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Perry Ronald

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available As terrorists attacks increase in frequency, hospital disaster plans need to be scrutinized to ensure that they take into account issues unique to weapons of mass destruction. This paper reports a review of the literature addressing hospital experiences with such incidents and the planning lessons thus learned. Construction of hospital disaster plans is examined as an ongoing process guided by the disaster planning committee. Hospitals are conceived as one of the components of a larger community disaster planning efforts, with specific attention devoted to defining important linkages among response organizations. This includes the public health authorities, political authorities, prehospital care agencies, and emergency management agencies. A review is completed of six special elements of weapons of mass destruction incidents that should be addressed in hospital disaster plans: incident command, hospital security, patient surge, decontamination, mental health consequences, and communications. The paper closes with a discussion of the importance of training and exercises in maintaining and improving the disaster plan.

  14. Family emergency plan and preparedness among medical practitioners in Zaria, Nigeria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Makama, Jerry Godfrey; Joshua, Istifanus Anekoson; Makama, Elizabeth Jerry

    There has been an increase in the incidence of disasters in many parts of the world. Similarly, Nigeria has witnessed a recent increase of man-made disaster events such as plane crash, fire incidents, flood, and building collapse, including bomb blast orchestrated by terrorists that often create emergency situations. Therefore, the aim of the study was to evaluate family emergency plan and preparedness among medical practitioners in Zaria. This was a cross-sectional descriptive study (May-July, 2013) of medical practitioners in Zaria, Nigeria. The structured questionnaire sought the socio-demographic features of the respondents, the availability of emergency gate(s) in the house, education of safety measures within and outside the house, well-known located shut-off devices for gases, electricity, and water in the house, and written document/policy in the event of disaster. Also, planned orientations/drills/sensitizations, whether there is contact information of family members and supporting agencies. Majority of the respondents were male 56 (80.0 percent) and fall within the age group of 46-50 years (20.0 percent). Only 8.6 percent admitted having an unwritten policy on emergency management in their houses. Similarly, only 8.6 percent do create time to teach their family members on emergency management. Only 27 (38.6 percent) had emergency supplies kits and among this group, water appears to be the most essential component that the respondents had paid attention to, leaving out special items. The communication plans of respondents to likely supportive services/agencies during disaster showed that majority had contact address or have affirmative plans for hospital and ambulance services than for radio and television stations. Family emergency plans and preparedness among medical practitioners in Zaria are extremely low. There is a gap between knowledge of what need to be done to enhance preparedness and internalizing preparedness recommendations in the study area.

  15. Disaster imminent--Hurricane Hugo.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guynn, J B

    1990-04-01

    Response to a disaster situation depends upon the type of circumstances presented. In situations where the disaster is the type that affects the hospital as well as a wide surrounding area directly, the hospital and pharmacy itself may be called upon to continue functioning for some period of time without outside assistance. The ability to function for prolonged periods of time requires the staff to focus on the job at hand and the administrative staff to provide security, compassion, and flexibility. Plans for a disaster of the nature of a hurricane require that attention be paid to staffing, medication inventories, supplies, and services being rendered. Recognition of the singular position occupied by a hospital in the community and the expectations of the local population require that hospitals and the pharmacy department have the ability to respond appropriately.

  16. Analysis of Jordan's Proposed Emergency Communication Interoperability Plan (JECIP) for Disaster Response

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Alzaghal, Mohamad H

    2008-01-01

    ... country. It is essential to build a robust and interoperable Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure before the disaster, which will facilitate patch/restore/reconstruct it when and after the disaster hits...

  17. a Study of Co-Planing Technology of Spaceborne, Airborne and Ground Remote Sensing Detecting Resource, Driven by Disaster Emergency Task

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, F.; Chen, H.; Tu, K.; Wen, Q.; He, J.; Gu, X.; Wang, Z.

    2018-04-01

    Facing the monitoring needs of emergency responses to major disasters, combining the disaster information acquired at the first time after the disaster and the dynamic simulation result of the disaster chain evolution process, the overall plan for coordinated planning of spaceborne, airborne and ground observation resources have been designed. Based on the analysis of the characteristics of major disaster observation tasks, the key technologies of spaceborne, airborne and ground collaborative observation project are studied. For different disaster response levels, the corresponding workflow tasks are designed. On the basis of satisfying different types of disaster monitoring demands, the existing multi-satellite collaborative observation planning algorithms are compared, analyzed, and optimized.

  18. A team approach to preparing for hurricanes and other disasters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kendig, Jim

    2009-01-01

    Applying lessons learned in Hurricane Floyd in 1999, a three-hospital system located on Florida's exposed Space Coast was able to better deal with the devastation caused by hurricanes in 2004 and make changes in its plans to better prepare for the named storms which hit its area in 2008. Each new disaster, the author points out, brings with it new challenges which have to be considered in disaster planning.

  19. International conference. Mental health consequences of the Chernobyl disaster: current state and future prospects; Mezhdunarodnaya konferentsiya `Aktual`nye i prognoziruemye narusheniya psikhicheskogo zdorov`ya posle yadernoj katastrofy v Chernobyle`

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nyagu, A I [eds.

    1996-12-31

    Proceedings of the International Conference on the mental health consequences of the Chernobyl disaster: current state and future prospects was introduced.The questions connected with: 1. Mental health disorders biological basis after ionizing radiation influence; 2. Psychiatric aspects of the Chernobyl disaster; 3. Social stress following contradictory information: ways for its overcoming; 4. Rehabilitation and prophylactic measures for mental and nervous disorders. Psycho social rehabilitation of survivors; 5. Psychosomatic effects and somato-neurological consequences of the Chernobyl disaster; 6. Psychosomatic health of children and adolescents survivors of the Chernobyl disaster; 7. Brain damage as result of prenatal irradiation.

  20. Disaster risk assessment pattern in higher education centers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Omidvari

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Disasters are one of the most important challenges which must be considered by every management system. Higher education centers have high disaster risk because of their risk factors (existence of historical and scientific documents and resources and expensive laboratory equipment in these centers emphasizes the importance of disaster management. Moreover, the existence of young volunteers of human resources in universities urges the necessity of making these people familiar with disaster management rules and responses in emergency conditions. Creating appropriate tools for disaster management assessment makes it correct and precise in higher education systems using the presented conceptual model. The present model was planned so as to cover three phases which exist before, during, and after disaster. Studies were performed in one of the largest higher education centers in Tehran: Science and Research Branch of Islamic Azad University Campus. Results showed high-risk disasters in these centers which must be taken into consideration continuously. The objective of this study was to create appropriate patterns of disaster risk management in these centers.

  1. Challenges Encountered During the Veterinary Disaster Response: An Example from Chile

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elena Garde

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Large-scale disasters have immeasurable effects on human and animal communities. Evaluating and reporting on the response successes and difficulties encountered serves to improve existing preparedness documents and provide support to those in the process of developing plans. Although the majority of disasters occur in low and middle income nations, less than 1% of the disaster literature originates from these countries. This report describes a response to a disease outbreak in domestic dogs in Dichato, Chile following the 2010 earthquake/tsunami. With no national plan coordinating the companion animal response, there was a chaotic approach among animal welfare organizations towards rescue, diagnosis, treatment and record-keeping. Similar to the medical response following the 1985 earthquake near Santiago, we experienced problems within our own teams in maintenance of data integrity and protocol compliance. Loss of infrastructure added complications with transportation, communications and acquisition of supplies. Similar challenges likely occur in most disasters, but can be reduced through pro-active planning at national and local levels. There is sufficient information to support the human and animal welfare benefits of including companion animals in national planning, and lessons learned through this and other experiences can assist planners in the development of comprehensive and locally relevant contingency plans.

  2. Households’ Natural Disaster Preparedness: A View from a Second Class Municipality in a Developing Country

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ricardo T. Bagarinao

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The increasing frequency of natural disasters occurrence and severity of climate change impacts in recent years makes disaster preparedness a vital decision among households especially in developing countries like the Philippines. The study was conducted to characterize households' respondents through the use of selected socio-demographic variables. It also aimed to determine their adoption of pre-determined disaster preparedness plans and if an empirical relationship could be established between the adoption of a plan and the selected household socio-demographic variables. Using a stimulus-response framework, a natural disaster preparedness survey protocol with emphasis on households' preparedness plans was developed and implemented from May-July 2015 in one of the typhoon and flood-prone municipalities in the Philippines. With 577 respondents, the average households in the study site consist of 5 members, are below estimated poverty threshold, and residing in the area for more than 30 years. There is variability on the relationships between the socio-demographic characteristic of the respondents and their decision to adopt disaster preparedness plans. These findings call for the expansion of the current climate change adaptation and disaster risk management programs and initiatives of the municipality to include enhancement of households' capacity to prepare and deal with impacts of natural disasters.

  3. Global or local construction materials for post-disaster reconstruction? Sustainability assessment of 20 post-disaster shelter designs

    OpenAIRE

    Zea Escamilla, E.; Habert, G.

    2015-01-01

    This data article presents the life cycle inventories of 20 transitional shelter solutions. The data was gathered from the reports 8 shelter designs [1]; 10 post-disaster shelter designs [2]; the environmental impact of brick production outside of Europe [3]; and the optimization of bamboo-based post-disaster housing units for tropical and subtropical regions using LCA methodologies [4]. These reports include bill of quantities, plans, performance analysis, and lifespan of the studied shelter...

  4. Travelling without a helmet: tourists' vulnerabilities and responses to disasters in Indonesia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rindrasih, Erda; Hartmann, Thomas; Witte, Patrick; Spit, Tejo; Zoomers, Annelies

    2018-03-13

    Tourists are particularly vulnerable when natural disasters occur in regions that they are visiting. It is assumed that they lack awareness and understanding of the actions that they need to take in such circumstances. This study examines the responses of tourists in times of disaster, building on empirical data collected through large-scale surveys conducted in Bali and Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in 2015. Both are important tourist destinations in the country that have suffered major disasters in recent years. The different types of responses to these events are framed using a grid/group analysis stemming from cultural theory. The study resulted in three key findings: (i) current disaster management planning largely follows a single rationale; (ii) tourists are not a homogeneous group, but rather a complex, diverse, and dynamic body of stakeholders; and (iii) the focus of disaster management planning should shift from a single rationale to a polyrational methodology. Disaster managers need to consider, therefore, these different aspects in the context of preparedness. © 2018 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2018.

  5. A Situational Analysis of Priority Disaster Hazards in Uganda ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Poverty, gender, lack of information, and lack of resilience measures were some of the factors promoting vulnerability to disasters. Conclusion: As Uganda develops a disaster risk reduction and response plan, it ought to prioritize epidemics of infectious diseases, drought/famine, conflicts and environmental degradation as ...

  6. Planning Systems for Distributed Operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maxwell, Theresa G.

    2002-01-01

    This viewgraph representation presents an overview of the mission planning process involving distributed operations (such as the International Space Station (ISS)) and the computer hardware and software systems needed to support such an effort. Topics considered include: evolution of distributed planning systems, ISS distributed planning, the Payload Planning System (PPS), future developments in distributed planning systems, Request Oriented Scheduling Engine (ROSE) and Next Generation distributed planning systems.

  7. Natural and technologic hazardous material releases during and after natural disasters: a review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Young, Stacy; Balluz, Lina; Malilay, Josephine

    2004-04-25

    Natural disasters may be powerful and prominent mechanisms of direct and indirect hazardous material (hazmat) releases. Hazardous materials that are released as the result of a technologic malfunction precipitated by a natural event are referred to as natural-technologic or na-tech events. Na-tech events pose unique environmental and human hazards. Disaster-associated hazardous material releases are of concern, given increases in population density and accelerating industrial development in areas subject to natural disasters. These trends increase the probability of catastrophic future disasters and the potential for mass human exposure to hazardous materials released during disasters. This systematic review summarizes direct and indirect disaster-associated releases, as well as environmental contamination and adverse human health effects that have resulted from natural disaster-related hazmat incidents. Thorough examination of historic disaster-related hazmat releases can be used to identify future threats and improve mitigation and prevention efforts.

  8. Surge capacity principles: care of the critically ill and injured during pandemics and disasters: CHEST consensus statement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hick, John L; Einav, Sharon; Hanfling, Dan; Kissoon, Niranjan; Dichter, Jeffrey R; Devereaux, Asha V; Christian, Michael D

    2014-10-01

    This article provides consensus suggestions for expanding critical care surge capacity and extension of critical care service capabilities in disasters or pandemics. It focuses on the principles and frameworks for expansion of intensive care services in hospitals in the developed world. A companion article addresses surge logistics, those elements that provide the capability to deliver mass critical care in disaster events. The suggestions in this article are important for all who are involved in large-scale disasters or pandemics with injured or critically ill multiple patients, including front-line clinicians, hospital administrators, and public health or government officials. The Surge Capacity topic panel developed 23 key questions focused on the following domains: systems issues; equipment, supplies, and pharmaceuticals; staffing; and informatics. Literature searches were conducted to identify evidence on which to base key suggestions. Most reports were small scale, were observational, or used flawed modeling; hence, the level of evidence on which to base recommendations was poor and did not permit the development of evidence-based recommendations. Therefore, the panel developed expert opinion-based suggestions using a modified Delphi process. Suggestions from the previous task force were also included for validation by the expert panel. This article presents 10 suggestions pertaining to the principles that should guide surge capacity and capability planning for mass critical care, including the role of critical care in disaster planning; the surge continuum; targets of surge response; situational awareness and information sharing; mitigating the impact on critical care; planning for the care of special populations; and service deescalation/cessation (also considered as engineered failure). Future reports on critical care surge should emphasize population-based outcomes as well as logistical details. Planning should be based on the projected number of

  9. Parents’ Participation in a Work-Based Anti-Poverty Program Can Enhance Their Children's Future Orientation: Understanding Pathways of Influence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Purtell, Kelly M.; McLoyd, Vonnie C.

    2012-01-01

    Planning and preparing for life after high school is a central developmental task of American adolescents, and may be even more critical for low-income youth who are less likely to attend a four year college. This study investigates factors that led to the effects of the New Hope Project, a work-based, anti-poverty program directed at parents on youths’ career-related thoughts and planning. The New Hope project was implemented in Milwaukee, WI, during the mid-1990s. 745 families participated (52% male children; 56% African American; 30% Latino, and 15% White non-Hispanic) and half were randomly selected to receive New Hope benefits, which included earnings supplements, job search assistance, and child and health care subsidies for three years. Importantly, effects on youths’ future orientation were found eight years after the program began (five years after benefits ended). The present study investigates what factors sustained these positive impacts over time. Results indicate that parental perceptions of reading performance mediate the effects of New Hope on youths’ cynicism about work. Additionally, parental perceptions of reading performance and youths’ educational expectations mediate the effects of New Hope on boys’ pessimism about future employment. These findings highlight the importance of youths’ educational development to their career-related thoughts and planning. PMID:22878938

  10. Parents' participation in a work-based anti-poverty program can enhance their children's future orientation: understanding pathways of influence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Purtell, Kelly M; McLoyd, Vonnie C

    2013-06-01

    Planning and preparing for life after high school is a central developmental task of American adolescents, and may be even more critical for low-income youth who are less likely to attend a four year college. This study investigates factors that led to the effects of the New Hope Project, a work-based, anti-poverty program directed at parents on youths' career-related thoughts and planning. The New Hope project was implemented in Milwaukee, WI, during the mid-1990s. 745 families participated (52% male children; 56% African American; 30% Latino, and 15% White non-Hispanic) and half were randomly selected to receive New Hope benefits, which included earnings supplements, job search assistance, and child and health care subsidies for 3 years. Importantly, effects on youths' future orientation were found 8 years after the program began (5 years after benefits ended). The present study investigates what factors sustained these positive impacts over time. Results indicate that parental perceptions of reading performance mediate the effects of New Hope on youths' cynicism about work. Additionally, parental perceptions of reading performance and youths' educational expectations mediate the effects of New Hope on boys' pessimism about future employment. These findings highlight the importance of youths' educational development to their career-related thoughts and planning.

  11. Subject-Oriented Approach in the Professional Formation of the Future Music Teacher

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Svetlana V. Karkina

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available The article deals with the possibilities of introducing a subject-oriented approach into the practice of professional education of the future music teacher. Particular attention is paid to the forms and methods used in this field, as well as to the conditions of the modern cultural environment, which allows for the free self-realization of the individual in accordance with his subject needs. Subject-oriented approach is the practice-oriented research. The study identified a number of the most significant components in the preparation of a music teacher, such as individual forms of studies and a number of special methods, which include the method of artistic associations, verbal "allegories", metaphors, the method of heuristic tasks for mastering creative activities. The openness of the musical and pedagogical system has great importance in its ability to respond to changes in the music and educational environment, which includes educational institutions and various cultural institutions: theaters, concert halls, orchestral and choir groups. All that conditions are necessary to ensure the possibility of creative self-realization and self-actualization of future music teachers.

  12. Future Orientation, School Contexts, and Problem Behaviors: A Multilevel Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Pan; Vazsonyi, Alexander T.

    2013-01-01

    The association between future orientation and problem behaviors has received extensive empirical attention; however, previous work has not considered school contextual influences on this link. Using a sample of N = 9,163 9th to 12th graders (51.0% females) from N = 85 high schools of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the…

  13. Israeli Youth in the Second Intifada: PTSD and Future Orientation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Solomon, Zahava; Lavi, Tamar

    2005-01-01

    Objective: To examine the relationship between exposure to political violence and posttraumatic symptoms, future orientation, and attitudes toward peace. Method: A total of 740 boys and girls aged 11.5-15 years from Jerusalem, Gilo, and the Jewish settlements in the disputed territories were assessed in the summer of 2001 using an exposure to…

  14. Risk and Disaster Management: From Planning and Expertise to Smart, Intelligent, and Adaptive Systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benis, Arriel; Notea, Amos; Barkan, Refael

    2018-01-01

    "Disaster" means some surprising and misfortunate event. Its definition is broad and relates to complex environments. Medical Informatics approaches, methodologies and systems are used as a part of Disaster and Emergency Management systems. At the Holon Institute of Technology - HIT, Israel, in 2016 a National R&D Center: AFRAN was established to study the disaster's reduction aspects. The Center's designation is to investigate and produce new approaches, methodologies and to offer recommendations in the fields of disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery and to disseminate disaster's knowledge. Adjoint to the Center a "Smart, Intelligent, and Adaptive Systems" laboratory (SIAS) was established with the goal to study the applications of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Risk and Disaster Management (RDM). In this paper, we are redefining the concept of Disaster, pointing-out how ICT, AI, in the Big Data era, are central players in the RDM game. In addition we show the merit of the Center and lab combination to the benefit of the performed research projects.

  15. Bangkok: Anatomy of a traffic disaster

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Poboon, C.; Kenworthy, J.; Barter, P.

    1995-12-31

    Traditional urban and transport policy which relies on road-base planning has been proven inadequate for tackling Bangkok`s traffic chaos. After employing such policy for more than three decades Bangkok traffic has become a disaster and the city has become notorious world-wide for its traffic congestion and air pollution. The simplistic application of theses largely American models took little consideration if any of the walking city and transit city structure of Bangkok. The policies recommended by the authors rely on the awareness of Bangkok`s unique characteristics and also encompass social and environmental aspects. The worldwide comparison has contributed substantially to more insight in selecting the appropriate measures for Bangkok. The introduction of a mass rapid transit system, water transport improvement, control of car use, provision of infrastructure for walking and cycling, improvement in paratransit together with transit-oriented land use development are believed to be able to work effectively in Bangkok. Nevertheless, institutional improvement including public participation is very necessary to achieve these urban planning and transport strategies. With the combination of these sustainable urban and transport policies, it is possible for Bangkok to be converted into a city for people again, though it will take probably 10 to 20 years or more for substantial improvements.

  16. Well-being, life satisfaction and capabilities of flood disaster victims

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Ootegem, Luc; Verhofstadt, Elsy

    2016-01-01

    The individual well-being of flood disaster victims is examined making use of two concepts: life satisfaction and perceived capabilities in life. These concepts are compared in two samples: a representative sample of Flemish respondents and a specific sample of people that have been the victim of a pluvial flood. Well-being as life satisfaction is found not to be related to past or expected future flooding, whereas well-being as capabilities in life is negatively related to both past and expected future flooding. - Highlights: • Well-being as life satisfaction is not related to past or expected future flooding. • Well-being as capabilities in life is negatively related to flooding. • A disaster can scare people for the future because of the scars that it provokes. • Assess the impact of a disaster not only by monetary damage and life satisfaction.

  17. Well-being, life satisfaction and capabilities of flood disaster victims

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Van Ootegem, Luc, E-mail: Luc.VanOotegem@UGent.be [HIVA–University of Louvain (Belgium); SHERPPA–Ghent University (Belgium); Verhofstadt, Elsy [SHERPPA–Ghent University (Belgium)

    2016-02-15

    The individual well-being of flood disaster victims is examined making use of two concepts: life satisfaction and perceived capabilities in life. These concepts are compared in two samples: a representative sample of Flemish respondents and a specific sample of people that have been the victim of a pluvial flood. Well-being as life satisfaction is found not to be related to past or expected future flooding, whereas well-being as capabilities in life is negatively related to both past and expected future flooding. - Highlights: • Well-being as life satisfaction is not related to past or expected future flooding. • Well-being as capabilities in life is negatively related to flooding. • A disaster can scare people for the future because of the scars that it provokes. • Assess the impact of a disaster not only by monetary damage and life satisfaction.

  18. Mainstreaming disaster resilience into planning practice in South Africa: challenges and champions

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Faling, W

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available has become a mainstream idea in disaster reduction. As vulnerability to disasters progressively increases, an urban risk divide is developing in cities that is unjust, polarised, divided and fragmented. The poor are largely priced out of safe areas...

  19. Foundation for the Future. 2013-2015 Strategic Plan. FY13 Organizational Performance Plan

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats ( SWOT ) Analysis 192013–2015 Strategic Plan tr t ic l The Planning, Policy, and Leadership Support (PPLS...and public cloud mix Conduct government/private market survey to determine future cloud strategy Implement future cloud strategy  Thin Client...Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009, National Security Strategy , and the Digital Government Strategy • Department of Defense, as set forth in the

  20. Scenario planning and nanotechnological futures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Farber, Darryl; Lakhtakia, Akhlesh

    2009-01-01

    Scenario planning may assist us in harnessing the benefits of nanotechnology and managing the associated risks for the good of the society. Scenario planning is a way to describe the present state of the world and develop several hypotheses about the future of the world, thereby enabling discussions about how the world ought to be. Scenario planning thus is not only a tool for learning and foresight, but also for leadership. Informed decision making by experts and political leaders becomes possible, while simultaneously allaying the public's perception of the risks of new and emerging technologies such as nanotechnology. Two scenarios of the societal impact of nanotechnology are the mixed-signals scenario and the confluence scenario. Technoscientists have major roles to play in both scenarios.

  1. Future Orientation, Impulsivity, and Problem Behaviors: A Longitudinal Moderation Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Pan; Vazsonyi, Alexander T.

    2011-01-01

    In the current study, based on a sample of 1,873 adolescents between 11.4 and 20.9 years of age from the first 3 waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we investigated the longitudinal effects of future orientation on levels of and developmental changes in problem behaviors, while controlling for the effects by impulsivity;…

  2. Value orientations of students, future nursery-school teachers: Stability or change

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lazarević Dušanka A.

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available Results are presented of investigations on value orientations of students future nursery-school teachers, as manifested by preferences of certain lifestyles. The aim was to examine if there is stability or change in the desirability of some lifestyles in three generations of students of Higher School for Nursery-School Teacher Training. Examinations were carried out on preferences of the following lifestyles: hedonistic, utilitarian altruistic, aesthetic, orientation to power and social standing, cognitive self-realization and Promethean activism. The obtained results indicate a certain stability in student value profile throughout the study period but also certain changes. In the value profile of future nursery-school teachers self-realization emerges consistently in the examined generations as the most desirable and accepted lifestyle. Then, the tendency to gradually decline was found in aesthetic, utilitarian, cognitive, altruistic Promethean, hedonistic and orientation to power and social standing lifestyles of which the last one consistently occurred in three generations as the least desirable lifestyle. Changes were manifested in the increasing desirability of utilitarian lifestyle from the first to the third generation as well as in gradual decline of desirability degree in self realization and aesthetic lifestyles. Also, the trend of increasing agreement between lifestyle students prefer and their current lifestyle was noticeable.

  3. Psychosocial Rehabilitation: Some Lessons Learned From Natural Disaster in Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fardin Alipour

    2016-01-01

    Conclusion: Lack of awareness of mental and social problems of affected people after disaster is one of the most important barriers in successful and stable rehabilitation. Psychosocial Rehabilitation requires a suitable structure and planning for all stages of disaster management. 

  4. Hospital-related incidents; causes and its impact on disaster preparedness and prehospital organisations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Khorram-Manesh Amir

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background A hospital's capacity and preparedness is one of the important parts of disaster planning. Hospital-related incidents, a new phenomenon in Swedish healthcare, may lead to ambulance diversions, increased waiting time at emergency departments and treatment delay along with deterioration of disaster management and surge capacity. We aimed to identify the causes and impacts of hospital-related incidents in Region Västra Götaland (western region of Sweden. Methods The regional registry at the Prehospital and Disaster Medicine Center was reviewed (2006–2008. The number of hospital-related incidents and its causes were analyzed. Results There were an increasing number of hospital-related incidents mainly caused by emergency department's overcrowdings, the lack of beds at ordinary wards and/or intensive care units and technical problems at the radiology departments. These incidents resulted in ambulance diversions and reduced the prehospital capacity as well as endangering the patient safety. Conclusion Besides emergency department overcrowdings, ambulance diversions, endangering patient s safety and increasing risk for in-hospital mortality, hospital-related incidents reduces and limits the regional preparedness by minimizing the surge capacity. In order to prevent a future irreversible disaster, this problem should be avoided and addressed properly by further regional studies.

  5. Disaster medicine. A guide for medical care in case of disasters. 3. rev. ed.

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Weidringer, J.W.

    2003-01-01

    This guide was first published in 1982. The 2003 edition takes account of new research, of practical experience in natural disasters, and of the organisational plans of the German civil service units. All factors are considered which are important for successful medical care in case of natural disasters, large-scale accidents, and war. Among the new issues that are considered in this volume is the new European situation with regard to national safety, the new German legislation on civil safety, the hazards of an increasingly technological society, and the options and requirements for protection of the population in case of emergencies. After the Chernobyl accident, the focus in the field of nuclear radiation has shifted to radiation protection problems. There are new chapters on stress management during and after emergency shifts which take account of the experience gained in major disasters. (orig.)

  6. Thinking about the future as a way to succeed in the present: a longitudinal study of future orientation and violent behaviors among African American youth.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stoddard, Sarah A; Zimmerman, Marc A; Bauermeister, José A

    2011-12-01

    Previous research has linked higher levels of hopelessness about one's future to violent behavior during adolescence; however, little is known about this relationship over time for adolescents. Using growth curve modeling, we tested the association between future orientation and violent behavior across the high school years of adolescence in a sample of African American youth (n = 681). Variation based on demographic characteristics (i.e., sex, SES, previous violence) was explored. At baseline, differences in violent behavior varied by demographic characteristics. Overall, violent behavior decreased with age. Higher levels of future orientation were associated with greater decreases in violent behavior over time. Demographic characteristics were not associated with change in violent behavior overtime. Our findings suggest that future orientation can act as a promotive factor for at risk African American youth. Interventions that help support the development of future goals and aspirations could play a vital role in violence prevention efforts.

  7. DATA MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK OF DRONE-BASED 3D MODEL RECONSTRUCTION OF DISASTER SITE

    OpenAIRE

    Kim, C.; Moon, H.; Lee, W.

    2016-01-01

    To rescue peoples in the disaster site in time, information acquisition of current feature of collapsed buildings and terrain is quite important for disaster site rescue manager. Based on information about disaster site, they can accurately plan the rescue process and remove collapsed buildings or other facilities. However, due to the harsh condition of disaster areas, rapid and accurate acquisition of disaster site information is not an easy task. There are possibilities of further ...

  8. Future-Oriented Dairy Farmers’ Willingness to Participate in a Sustainability Standard: Evidence from an Empirical Study in Germany

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Henrike Luhmann

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available As a major agricultural subsector, milk production plays an important role in the EU 28. Political decisions such as the abolition of the milk quota system in 2015, highly volatile milk prices, high bargaining power of retailers and fierce international competition have led to challenges for both farmers and dairies and have created a need to improve competitiveness. Furthermore, the dairy sector is increasingly subject to societal demands for higher animal welfare and ecological standards. The concept of sustainability in the form of a production standard can be seen as a means for both dairy farmers and dairies to gain competitive advantages and meet stakeholders’ demands. Farmers’ willingness to participate in a sustainability standard is a key factor for its successful implementation. One attractive target group for such a standard are future-oriented farmers who plan to stay in dairy farming in the long run. This study, therefore, focuses on future-oriented dairy farmers and investigates their willingness to participate in a comprehensive sustainability standard. A hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis is conducted to identify different groups based on their willingness to participate. 211 farmers can be categorized into three different clusters: ‘halfhearted sustainability proponents’, ‘highly dedicated sustainability proponents’ and ‘profit-oriented sustainability refusers’. Further analysis provides insights into the determinants of farmers’ willingness to participate in a sustainability standard. The results of this study provide manifold starting points for deriving managerial implications for the successful implementation of sustainability standards in European dairy farming

  9. Using Human Capital Planning to Predict Future Talent Needs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruse, Donald; Jansen, Karen

    2008-01-01

    Human capital planning is an important tool in predicting future talent needs and sustaining organizational excellence over the long term. This article examines the concept of human capital planning and outlines how institutions can use HCP to identify the type and number of talent needed both now and in the future, recognize and prioritize talent…

  10. The influence of grasping habits and object orientation on motor planning in children and adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jovanovic, Bianca; Schwarzer, Gudrun

    2017-12-01

    We investigated the influence of habitual grasp strategies and object orientation on motor planning in 3-year-olds and 4- to 5-year-old children and adults. Participants were required to rotate different vertically oriented objects around 180°. Usually, adults perform this task by grasping objects with an awkward grip (thumb and index finger pointing downward) at the beginning of the movement, in order to finish it with a comfortable hand position. This pattern corresponds to the well-known end-state comfort effect (ESC) in grasp planning. The presented objects were associated with different habitual grasp orientations that either corresponded with the grasp direction required to reach end-state comfort (downward) or implied a contrary grasp orientation (upward). Additionally, they were presented either in their usual, canonical orientation (e.g., shovel with the blade oriented downward versus cup with its opening oriented upward) or upside down. As dependent variable we analyzed the number of grips conforming to the end-state comfort principle (ESC score) realized in each object type and orientation condition. The number of grips conforming to ESC strongly increased with age. In addition, the extent to which end-state comfort was considered was influenced by the actual orientation of the objects' functional parts. Thus, in all age-groups the ESC score was highest when the functional parts of the objects were oriented downward (shovel presented canonically with blade pointing downward, cup presented upside down) and corresponded to the hand orientation needed to realize ESC. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  11. Rebuilding After Disaster: Going Green from the Ground Up

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    none,

    2009-10-01

    This how-to guide describes ways to turn a disaster into an opportunity to rebuild with greener energy technologies. Covers such topics as the importance of energy, options for communities, instructions for developing an energy plan, and other considerations. This guide is intended for the community leaders who have experienced a disaster.

  12. Stealth and Natural Disasters: Science, Policy and Human Behavior

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kieffer, S. W.

    2008-12-01

    .S., or their counterparts in other places globally. Knowledge of stealth disasters is not universal at the scale now required for global attention. Pre-planning can allay the impacts of stealth disasters, or possibly even prevent them. It is imperative that a new Congress and new Administration be informed of the need to respond to both the near-term natural disasters, and to immediately institute thoughtful planning to ally or prevent the stealth disasters.

  13. Emergency imaging after a mass casualty incident: role of the radiology department during training for and activation of a disaster management plan

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Berger, Ferco H.; Körner, Markus; Bernstein, Mark P.; Sodickson, Aaron D.; Beenen, Ludo F.; McLaughlin, Patrick D.; Kool, Digna R.; Bilow, Ronald M.

    2016-01-01

    In the setting of mass casualty incidents (MCIs), hospitals need to divert from normal routine to delivering the best possible care to the largest number of victims. This should be accomplished by activating an established hospital disaster management plan (DMP) known to all staff through prior

  14. 'Schismo-urbanism': cities, natural disaster, and urban sociology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kammerbauer, Mark

    2013-07-01

    This paper examines a city and a natural disaster, specifically New Orleans, Louisiana, after Hurricane Katrina of August 2005. Recovery here is ongoing and the process of return is incomplete, with long-term dislocation to other cities in the United States, such as Houston, Texas. The question arises as to how planning and stratification influence evacuation and return/dislocation and how they result in a particular practice of adaptation. This interrelated process is conceptually integrated and termed 'schismo-urbanism' and is analysed within a multidimensional theoretical framework to evaluate aspects of urban sociology and natural disasters. Empirical research is based on a quantitative and qualitative mixed-method case study. Data were collected during two rounds of field research in New Orleans and Houston in 2007 and 2009. As a comparative socio-spatial study of affected and receptor communities, it makes a novel theoretical and methodological contribution to research on urban disasters in the context of continuing and rapid social change, and is targeted at disaster researchers, planning theorists and practitioners, and urbanists. © 2013 The Author(s). Journal compilation © Overseas Development Institute, 2013.

  15. Art of disaster preparedness in European union: a survey on the health systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Djalali, Ahmadreza; Della Corte, Francesco; Foletti, Marco; Ragazzoni, Luca; Ripoll Gallardo, Alba; Lupescu, Olivera; Arculeo, Chris; von Arnim, Götz; Friedl, Tom; Ashkenazi, Michael; Fischer, Philipp; Hreckovski, Boris; Khorram-Manesh, Amir; Komadina, Radko; Lechner, Konstanze; Patru, Cristina; Burkle, Frederick M; Ingrassia, Pier Luigi

    2014-12-17

    Naturally occurring and man-made disasters have been increasing in the world, including Europe, over the past several decades. Health systems are a key part of any community disaster management system. The success of preparedness and prevention depends on the success of activities such as disaster planning, organization and training. The aim of this study is to evaluate health system preparedness for disasters in the 27 European Union member countries. A cross-sectional analysis study was completed between June-September 2012. The checklist used for this survey was a modified from the World Health Organization toolkit for assessing health-system capacity for crisis management. Three specialists from each of the 27 European Union countries were included in the survey. Responses to each survey question were scored and the range of preparedness level was defined as 0-100%, categorized in three levels as follows: Acceptable; Transitional; or Insufficient. Response rate was 79.1%. The average level of disaster management preparedness in the health systems of 27 European Union member states was 68% (Acceptable). The highest level of preparedness was seen in the United Kingdom, Luxemburg, and Lithuania. Considering the elements of disaster management system, the highest level of preparedness score was at health information elements (86%), and the lowest level was for hospitals, and educational elements (54%). This survey study suggests that preparedness level of European Union countries in 2012 is at an acceptable level but could be improved. Elements such as hospitals and education and training suffer from insufficient levels of preparedness. The European Union health systems need a collective strategic plan, as well as enough resources, to establish a comprehensive and standardized disaster management strategy plan. A competency based training curriculum for managers and first responders is basic to accomplishing this goal. Disaster medicine; Disaster preparedness

  16. Time orientation and eating behavior: Unhealthy eaters consider immediate consequences, while healthy eaters focus on future health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dassen, Fania C M; Houben, Katrijn; Jansen, Anita

    2015-08-01

    Time orientation could play an important role in eating behavior. The current study investigated whether eating behavior is associated with the Consideration of Future Consequences scale (CFC). Specifically, it was examined whether unhealthy eaters consider the future less and are more concerned with immediate gratification. A related measure of time orientation is delay discounting, a process by which a reinforcer becomes less valuable when considered later in time. Recent research argues that the relation between time orientation and health behaviors is measured best at a behavior-specific level. In the current study, we explored the relationships between CFC and discount rate - both general and food-specific - and their influence on healthy eating. Participants with ages 18 to 60 (N = 152; final sample N = 146) filled in an online questionnaire consisting of the CFC, a food-specific version of the CFC (CFC-food), the Monetary Choice Questionnaire (MCQ) and an adapted MCQ version with snack food as a reinforcer. Self-reported healthy eating was positively related to the future subscale (r = .48, p  .05). In order to predict behavior, measurements of time orientation should thus be tailored to the behavior of interest. Based on current results, shifting one's concern from the immediate consequences of eating to a more future-oriented perspective may present an interesting target for future interventions aimed at promoting healthy eating and reducing overweight. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Latino Disaster Vulnerability: The Dissemination of Hurricane Mitigation Information among Florida's Homeowners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peguero, Anthony A.

    2006-01-01

    When a natural or man-made disaster strikes, there is usually little time for citizens to prepare and protect themselves. In September 2003, the U.S. Department of Homeland Defense implemented a National Response Plan dealing with many forms of disaster. However, when a disaster hits, not all citizens are equally prepared or protected. A sample of…

  18. 11. Strategic planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-05-01

    There are several types of planning processes and plans, including strategic, operational, tactical, and contingency. For this document, operational planning includes tactical planning. This chapter examines the strategic planning process and includes an introduction into disaster response plans. "A strategic plan is an outline of steps designed with the goals of the entire organisation as a whole in mind, rather than with the goals of specific divisions or departments". Strategic planning includes all measures taken to provide a broad picture of what must be achieved and in which order, including how to organise a system capable of achieving the overall goals. Strategic planning often is done pre-event, based on previous experience and expertise. The strategic planning for disasters converts needs into a strategic plan of action. Strategic plans detail the goals that must be achieved. The process of converting needs into plans has been deconstructed into its components and includes consideration of: (1) disaster response plans; (2) interventions underway or planned; (3) available resources; (4) current status vs. pre-event status; (5) history and experience of the planners; and (6) access to the affected population. These factors are tempered by the local: (a) geography; (b) climate; (c) culture; (d) safety; and (e) practicality. The planning process consumes resources (costs). All plans must be adapted to the actual conditions--things never happen exactly as planned.

  19. Hazard responses in the pre-industrial era: vulnerability and resilience of traditional societies to volcanic disasters and the implications for present-day disaster planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sangster, Heather

    2014-05-01

    events and how characteristic methods of coping have developed to enhance resilience, and reduce vulnerability. The aim of this paper is reflective of this research frontier and with the use of Mount Vesuvius, Italy, as a case study, this paper summarises: the characteristics of the eruptions that occurred during the long nineteenth century (i.e. those that occurred in 1794, 1822, 1855, 1861, 1872, 1906 and 1929); the particularities of the societal responses over time and the role of the authorities; and, the important lessons this history holds for the management of present-day disaster planning. In order to reduce disaster susceptibility and increase what is termed, resilience or capacity, the more deep-rooted causes of vulnerability need to be addressed.

  20. Emerging Adulthood among Palestinian Minority in Israel: The Relation between Perceived Career Barriers, Future Orientation and Career Decisions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahajna, Sami

    2017-01-01

    This study examines the relation between perceived career barriers, future orientation and career decisions among young Palestinian-Israeli youth. The study employs a theoretical model that links perceived career barriers and career decisions via variables of future orientation. Three hundred eighty-eight young Palestinian-Israeli women (73.20%)…

  1. Spatial and temporal distribution of geophysical disasters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cvetković Vladimir

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Natural disasters of all kinds (meteorological, hydrological, geophysical, climatological and biological are increasingly becoming part of everyday life of modern human. The consequences are often devastating, to the life, health and property of people, as well to the security of states and the entire international regions. In this regard, we noted the need for a comprehensive investigation of the phenomenology of natural disasters. In addition, it is particularly important to pay attention to the different factors that might correlate with each other to indicate more dubious and more original facts about their characteristics. However, as the issue of natural disasters is very wide, the subject of this paper will be forms, consequences, temporal and spatial distribution of geophysical natural disasters, while analysis of other disasters will be the subject of our future research. Using an international database on natural disasters of the centre for research on the epidemiology of disasters (CRED based in Brussels, with the support of the statistical analysis (SPSS, we tried to point out the number, trends, consequences, the spatial and temporal distribution of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and dry mass movements in the world, from 1900 to 2013.

  2. Advanced software development workstation: Object-oriented methodologies and applications for flight planning and mission operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Izygon, Michel

    1993-01-01

    The work accomplished during the past nine months in order to help three different organizations involved in Flight Planning and in Mission Operations systems, to transition to Object-Oriented Technology, by adopting one of the currently most widely used Object-Oriented analysis and Design Methodology is summarized.

  3. Children's Coping in the Context of Disasters and Terrorism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pfefferbaum, Betty; Noffsinger, Mary A; Wind, Leslie H; Allen, James R

    2014-01-01

    Disasters and terrorism present significant and often overwhelming challenges for children and families worldwide. Individual, family, and social factors influence disaster reactions and the diverse ways in which children cope. This article links conceptualizations of stress and coping to empirical knowledge of children's disaster reactions, identifies limitations in our current understanding, and suggests areas for future study of disaster coping. Coping strategies, developmental trajectories influencing coping, and the interplay between parent and child coping represent critical areas for advancing the field and for informing programs and services that benefit children's preparedness and foster resilience in the face of mass trauma.

  4. Comprehensive analysis of information dissemination in disasters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, N.; Huang, H.; Su, Boni

    2016-11-01

    China is a country that experiences a large number of disasters. The number of deaths caused by large-scale disasters and accidents in past 10 years is around 900,000. More than 92.8 percent of these deaths could be avoided if there were an effective pre-warning system deployed. Knowledge of the information dissemination characteristics of different information media taking into consideration governmental assistance (information published by a government) in disasters in urban areas, plays a critical role in increasing response time and reducing the number of deaths and economic losses. In this paper we have developed a comprehensive information dissemination model to optimize efficiency of pre-warning mechanics. This model also can be used for disseminating information for evacuees making real-time evacuation plans. We analyzed every single information dissemination models for pre-warning in disasters by considering 14 media: short message service (SMS), phone, television, radio, news portals, Wechat, microblogs, email, newspapers, loudspeaker vehicles, loudspeakers, oral communication, and passive information acquisition via visual and auditory senses. Since governmental assistance is very useful in a disaster, we calculated the sensitivity of governmental assistance ratio. The results provide useful references for information dissemination during disasters in urban areas.

  5. A Futures Orientation in the Australian Curriculum: Current Levels of Teacher Interest, Activity and Support in Western Australia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paynter, Mark; Bruce, Neville

    2014-01-01

    The soon to be implemented Australian Curriculum aims to integrate a futures orientation across subject areas. Guidelines and support for this specific initiative are being finalized. Only a little is known about the current teaching of a futures orientation or of secondary teacher interest, understanding and support for this important but…

  6. Measures against radiation disaster/terrorism and radiation emergency medical assistance team

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tominaga, Takako; Akashi, Makoto

    2016-01-01

    The probability of occurrence of radiological terrorism and disaster in Japan is not low. For this reason, preparations for coping with the occurrence of radiological terrorism should be an urgent issue. This paper describes the radiation medical system and the threat of radiological terrorism and disaster in Japan, and introduces the Radiation Emergency Medical Assistance Team (REMAT), one of the radiation accident/disaster response organizations at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences. Radiation exposure medical systems in Japan are constructed only in the location of nuclear facilities and adjacent prefectures. These medical systems have been developed only for the purpose of medical correspondence at the time of nuclear disaster, but preparations are not made by assuming measures against radiological terrorism. REMAT of the National Institute of Radiological Sciences is obligated to dispatch persons to the requesting prefecture to support radiation medical care in case of nuclear disaster or radiation accident. The designation of nuclear disaster orientated hospitals in each region, and the training of nuclear disaster medical staffing team were also started, but preparations are not enough. In addition to enhancing and strengthening experts, specialized agencies, and special forces dealing with radiological terrorism, it is essential to improve regional disaster management capacity and terrorism handling capacity. (A.O.)

  7. Are Women in Turkey Both Risks and Resources in Disaster Management?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Işık, Özden; Özer, Naşide; Sayın, Nurdan; Mishal, Afet; Gündoğdu, Oğuz; Özçep, Ferhat

    2015-01-01

    From a global perspective, the universality of gender-related societal issues is particularly significant. Although gender inequality is considered a sociological problem, the large number of female victims in disasters warrants an assessment of disaster management sciences. In this article, related concepts are discussed based on their relevance sociologically and in disaster management to develop a common terminology and examine this complex topic, which is rooted in different social profiles and anthropological heterogeneity throughout the world. A brief history is discussed, and significant examples are provided from different disasters in Turkey to illustrate why a woman-oriented approach should be adopted when evaluating concepts of gender inequality. Observations of disasters have shown that it is important to apply international standards (humanitarian charter and minimum disaster response standards), especially during periods of response and rehabilitation. Relevant factors related to gender should be included in these standards, such as women’s health and hygiene, which will be discussed in more detail. A woman-based approach is designed in relation to two aspects: risks and resources. Thus, gender-sensitive methods of mitigating and preventing disasters are provided. The main purpose of the article is to contribute to the development of a universal culture that prioritizes gender in disaster management. PMID:26016435

  8. The Effect of Therapy Oriented CT in Radiation Therapy Planning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Sung Kyu; Shin, Sei One; Kim, Myung Se

    1987-01-01

    The success of radiation therapy depends on exact treatment of the tumor with significant high dose for maximizing local control and excluding the normal tissues for minimizing unwanted complications. To achieve these goals, correct estimation of target volume in three dimension, exact dose distribution in tumor and normal critical structures and correction of tissue inhomogeneity are required. The effect of therapy oriented CT (planning CT) were compared with conventional simulation method in necessity of planning change, set dose, and proper distribution of tumor dose. Of 365 new patients examined, planning CT was performed in 104 patients (28%). Treatment planning was changed in 47% of head and neck tumor, 79% of intrathoracic tumor and 63% of abdominal tumor. In breast cancer and musculoskeletal tumors, planning CT was recommended for selection of adequate energy and calculation of exact dose to critical structures such as kidney or spinal cord. The average difference of tumor doses between CT planning and conventional simulation was 10% in intrathoracic and intra-abdominal tumors but 20% in head and neck tumors which suggested that tumor dose may be overestimated in conventional simulation. Although some limitations and disadvantages including the cost and irradiation during CT are still criticizing, our study showed that CT planning is very helpful in radiotherapy planning

  9. Real-time Forensic Disaster Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wenzel, F.; Daniell, J.; Khazai, B.; Mühr, B.; Kunz-Plapp, T.; Markus, M.; Vervaeck, A.

    2012-04-01

    The Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology (CEDIM, www.cedim.de) - an interdisciplinary research center founded by the German Research Centre for Geoscience (GFZ) and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) - has embarked on a new style of disaster research known as Forensic Disaster Analysis. The notion has been coined by the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk initiative (IRDR, www.irdrinternational.org) launched by ICSU in 2010. It has been defined as an approach to studying natural disasters that aims at uncovering the root causes of disasters through in-depth investigations that go beyond the reconnaissance reports and case studies typically conducted after disasters. In adopting this comprehensive understanding of disasters CEDIM adds a real-time component to the assessment and evaluation process. By comprehensive we mean that most if not all relevant aspects of disasters are considered and jointly analysed. This includes the impact (human, economy, and infrastructure), comparisons with recent historic events, social vulnerability, reconstruction and long-term impacts on livelihood issues. The forensic disaster analysis research mode is thus best characterized as "event-based research" through systematic investigation of critical issues arising after a disaster across various inter-related areas. The forensic approach requires (a) availability of global data bases regarding previous earthquake losses, socio-economic parameters, building stock information, etc.; (b) leveraging platforms such as the EERI clearing house, relief-web, and the many sources of local and international sources where information is organized; and (c) rapid access to critical information (e.g., crowd sourcing techniques) to improve our understanding of the complex dynamics of disasters. The main scientific questions being addressed are: What are critical factors that control loss of life, of infrastructure, and for economy? What are the critical interactions

  10. On Line Disaster Response Community: People as Sensors of High Magnitude Disasters Using Internet GIS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kris Kodrich

    2008-05-01

    Full Text Available The Indian Ocean tsunami (2004 and Hurricane Katrina (2005 reveal the coming of age of the on-line disaster response community. Due to the integration of key geospatial technologies (remote sensing - RS, geographic information systems - GIS, global positioning systems – GPS and the Internet, on-line disaster response communities have grown. They include the traditional aspects of disaster preparedness, response, recovery, mitigation, and policy as facilitated by governmental agencies and relief response organizations. However, the contribution from the public via the Internet has changed significantly. The on-line disaster response community includes several key characteristics: the ability to donate money quickly and efficiently due to improved Internet security and reliable donation sites; a computer-savvy segment of the public that creates blogs, uploads pictures, and disseminates information – oftentimes faster than government agencies, and message boards to create interactive information exchange in seeking family members and identifying shelters. A critical and novel occurrence is the development of “people as sensors” - networks of government, NGOs, private companies, and the public - to build rapid response databases of the disaster area for various aspects of disaster relief and response using geospatial technologies. This paper examines these networks, their products, and their future potential.

  11. PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS IN LOCAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT: A PANACEA TO ALL LOCAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT ILLS?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angela van der Berg

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available It is anticipated that the occurrence and intensity of disasters will increase globally and in South Africa where typical disasters include droughts, floods, extreme hailstorms, gales, fires and earthquakes, as well as sinkholes arising from mining activity in dolomitic areas. Disasters such as these result in human suffering and damage to the resources and infrastructure on which South Africans rely for their survival and the maintenance of their quality of life. Section 24 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 affords to everyone the right to an environment that is not harmful to his or her health and well-being. It may be argued that a person's sense of environmental security in relation to the potential risks and dangers of disaster falls within the scope of the protection provided by section 24. The responsibility to intervene for the protection of the interests inherent in the constitutional environmental right lies with the government of South Africa. Disaster management specifically is a functional area of competence of national and provincial government, but practice has shown that the actual implementation of and planning for disaster management happens in the local government sphere. Against the backdrop of these introductory discussions and, given the fact that several municipalities in South Africa are under-resourced, this article very specifically aims to critically discuss and describe from a legal perspective the potential and function of public-private partnerships (PPPs between local government (municipalities and the private sector (such as industries in fulfilling the legally entrenched disaster management mandate of municipalities. Through a critical evaluation of some existing PPPs, this article illustrates that the private sector has a key role to play in assisting municipalities to fulfil their legally entrenched disaster management mandate.

  12. Strategic planning in hospitals in two Australian states: an exploratory study of its practice using planning documentation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jayasuriya, R; Sim, A B

    1998-01-01

    Hospitals are under pressure to respond to new challenges and competition. Many hospitals have used strategic planning to respond to these environmental changes. This exploratory study examines the extent of strategic planning in hospitals in two Australian States, New South Wales and Victoria, using a sample survey. Based on planning documentation, the study indicated that 47% of the hospitals surveyed did not have a strategic or business plan. A significant difference was found in the comprehensiveness of the plans between the two States. Plans from Victorian hospitals had more documented evidence of external/internal analysis, competitor orientation and customer orientation compared with plans from New South Wales hospitals. The paper discusses the limitations of the study and directions for future research.

  13. Prevention of Tetanus Outbreak Following Natural Disaster in Indonesia: Lessons Learned from Previous Disasters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pascapurnama, Dyshelly Nurkartika; Murakami, Aya; Chagan-Yasutan, Haorile; Hattori, Toshio; Sasaki, Hiroyuki; Egawa, Shinichi

    2016-03-01

    In Indonesia, the Aceh earthquake and tsunami in 2004 killed 127,000 people and caused half a million injuries, while the Yogyakarta earthquake in 2006 caused 5,700 deaths and 37,000 injuries. Because disaster-affected areas are vulnerable to epidemic-prone diseases and tetanus is one such disease that is preventable, we systematically reviewed the literature related to tetanus outbreaks following previous two natural disasters in Indonesia. Based on our findings, recommendations for proper vaccination and education can be made for future countermeasures. Using specified keywords related to tetanus and disasters, relevant documents were screened from PubMed, the WHO website, and books. Reports offering limited data and those released before 2004 were excluded. In all, 16 publications were reviewed systematically. Results show that 106 cases of tetanus occurred in Aceh, with a case fatality ratio (CFR) of 18.9%; 71 cases occurred in Yogyakarta, with CFR of 36.6%. For both outbreaks, most patients had been wounded during scavenging or evacuation after the disaster occurred. Poor access to health care because of limited transportation or hospital facilities, and low vaccination coverage and lack of awareness of tetanus risk contributed to delayed treatment and case severity. Tetanus outbreaks after disasters are preventable by increasing vaccination coverage, improving wound care treatment, and establishing a regular surveillance system, in addition to good practices of disaster management and supportive care following national guidelines. Furthermore, health education for communities should be provided to raise awareness of tetanus risk reduction.

  14. Himalayan/Karakoram Disaster After Disaster: The Pain Will Not Be Ending Anytime Soon

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kargel, J. S.; Leonard, G. J.

    2013-12-01

    change for some natural disasters, and little if any role in others. I select a few recent disaster examples (Attabad rockfall, Gayari avalanche, Seti River flood, and Uttarakhand floods) and summarize their relationships to geology and geomorphology, weather, climate change, habitation, and infrastructure development. Disasters are apt to increase in frequency, effects, and geographic spread due to increased habitation and infrastructure development and changing climate. Whether climate change causes glacier shrinkage or growth, glacier-related hazards are affected. Some of these disasters have international cross-cultural, political, economic, and security components and could spiral into further human catastrophes related to international tensions. Improved international cooperation could ease the chances for disasters to trigger additional unintended consequences between nations. Not all development and human uses of the Himalaya/Karakoram are unwise. Furthermore, some people committed to living in risky places have nowhere else to go. Climate change and shifting mountain processes may have winners and losers. All current and future uses of the region should be weighed against the rapidly changing climate and shifting natural hazard landscape. Acknowledgements: Support from NASA/USAID SERVIR Applied Science Team, NASA Science of Terra & Aqua, and USAID Climbers' Science.

  15. The future of hydropower planning modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haas, J.; Zuñiga, D.; Nowak, W.; Olivares, M. A.; Castelletti, A.; Thilmant, A.

    2017-12-01

    Planning the investment and operation of hydropower plants with optimization tools dates back to the 1970s. The focus used to be solely on the provision of energy. However, advances in computational capacity and solving algorithms, dynamic markets, expansion of renewable sources, and a better understanding of hydropower environmental impacts have recently led to the development of novel planning approaches. In this work, we provide a review, systematization, and trend analysis of these approaches. Further, through interviews with experts, we outline the future of hydropower planning modeling and identify the gaps towards it. We classified the found models along environmental, economic, multipurpose and technical criteria. Environmental interactions include hydropeaking mitigation, water quality protection and limiting greenhouse gas emissions from reservoirs. Economic and regulatory criteria consider uncertainties of fossil fuel prices and relicensing of water rights and power purchase agreements. Multipurpose considerations account for irrigation, tourism, flood protection and drinking water. Recently included technical details account for sedimentation in reservoirs and variable efficiencies of turbines. Additional operational considerations relate to hydrological aspects such as dynamic reservoir inflows, water losses, and climate change. Although many of the above criteria have been addressed in detail on a project-to-project basis, models remain overly simplistic for planning large power fleets. Future hydropower planning tools are expected to improve the representation of the water-energy nexus, including environmental and multipurpose criteria. Further, they will concentrate on identifying new sources of operational flexibility (e.g. through installing additional turbines and pumps) for integrating renewable energy. The operational detail will increase, potentially emphasizing variable efficiencies, storage capacity losses due to sedimentation, and the

  16. ESA remote-sensing programme - Present activities and future plans

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Plevin, J [ESA, Directorate of Planning and Future Programmes, Paris, France; Pryke, I [ESA, Directorate of Applications Programmes, Toulouse, France

    1979-02-01

    The present activities and future missions of the ESA program of spaceborne remote sensing of earth resources and environment are discussed. Program objectives have been determined to be the satisfaction of European regional needs by agricultural, land use, water resources, coastal and polar surveys, and meeting the requirements of developing nations in the areas of agricultural production, mineral exploration and disaster warning and assessment. The Earthnet system of data processing centers presently is used for the distribution of remote sensing data acquired by NASA satellites. Remote sensing experiments to be flown aboard Spacelab are the Metric Camera, to test high resolution mapping capabilities of a large format camera, and the Microwave Remote-Sensing Experiment, which operates as a two-frequency scatterometer, a synthetic aperture radar and a passive microwave radiometer. Studies carried out on the definition of future remote sensing satellite systems are described, including studies of system concepts for land applications and coastal monitoring satellites.

  17. Physics Teachers' Future Teaching Plans

    Science.gov (United States)

    Physics Teacher, 2012

    2012-01-01

    There are two sides of the physics teacher turnover equation: teachers leaving and teachers entering. This month we will focus on teachers' future teaching plans. As seen in the figure, about 5% of the 27,000 teachers who taught physics in U.S. high schools in 2008-09 were in their first year of teaching physics (but not necessarily their first…

  18. Designing Online Instruction for Success: Future Oriented Motivation and Self-Regulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidt, Joel T.; Werner, Christian H.

    2007-01-01

    Given the high rate of student drop-out and withdrawal from courses and programs using an online learning format, it is important to consider innovative ways to foster and encourage student success in online environments. One such way is to incorporate aspects of student future orientation into the design of online instruction. This paper presents…

  19. Companion Animals, Natural Disasters and the Law: An Australian Perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Steven

    2012-08-27

    This article examines the regulation of companion animal welfare during disasters, with some context provided by two recent major disaster events in Australia. Important general lessons for improved disaster management were identified in subsequent inquiries. However, the interests of companion animals continue to be inadequately addressed. This is because key assumptions underpinning disaster planning for companion animals-the primacy of human interests over animal interests and that individuals will properly address companion animal needs during times of disaster-are open to question. In particular these assumptions fail to recognise the inherent value of companion animals, underestimate the strong bond shared by some owners and their animals and, at the same time, overestimate the capacity of some owners to adequately meet the needs of their animals.

  20. Time Perspectives and Gambling in Adolescent Boys: Differential Effects of Present- and Future-Orientation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donati, Maria Anna; Sottili, Elena; Morsanyi, Kinga; Primi, Caterina

    2018-06-04

    Adolescent boys are characterised by increased risk-taking behavior, including a relatively high propensity to develop problem gambling habits. The association between gambling and sensitivity to immediately available rewards is well-established, suggesting that gamblers are less influenced by potential future consequences than non-gamblers. Nevertheless, existing studies have considered present- and future-orientation as two ends of the same continuum, and have not investigated the possibility that present and future perspectives might make independent contributions to gambling behavior. In the current study, we adopted Zimbardo's multidimensional approach, which discriminates between not only present and future perspectives, but also between a hedonistic and fatalistic present-orientation (in addition to positive and negative orientations towards the past). The participants were 223 male adolescents (mean age = 16.7 years). We investigated the effects of time perspectives on gambling frequency and gambling problem severity, after taking into account the effects of age, sensation seeking, and gambling-related cognitive distortions. Gambling frequency was significantly predicted by the present fatalistic perspective, and problem gambling was significantly (negatively) related to the future perspective. The present hedonistic and past negative perspectives were also significantly related to both gambling frequency and gambling problems, although they did not explain additional variance in gambling behavior when the effects of the other factors were controlled. Overall, these results offer a fresh perspective on the role of time perspectives in gambling behavior, with potential implications for understanding the origins of gambling problems and the development of novel interventions.

  1. Report focuses on improving resilience to disasters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Showstack, Randy

    2012-08-01

    Disaster resilience is everyone's business,” states a new report that calls for a series of local and national measures to increase resilience in the face of an increasingly costly toll from natural disasters to human lives and the economy. In 2011 natural disasters were responsible for damages in the United States exceeding $55 billion, and costs could increase with more people and structures located in harm's way and with the effects of extreme events, according to the report, Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative, issued by a committee of the U.S. National Academies on 1 August. Among the recommendations is for federal government agencies to incorporate national resilience as an organizing principle to guide federal government actions and programs. The report defines resilience as “the ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, and more successfully adapt to adverse events.”

  2. Pathways to delinquency and substance use among African American youth: Does future orientation mediate the effects of peer norms and parental monitoring?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marotta, Phillip L; Voisin, Dexter R

    2017-10-01

    The following study assessed whether future orientation mediated the effects of peer norms and parental monitoring on delinquency and substance use among 549 African American adolescents. Structural equation modeling computed direct and indirect (meditational) relationships between parental monitoring and peer norms through future orientation. Parental monitoring significantly correlated with lower delinquency through future orientation ( B = -.05, standard deviation = .01, p Future orientation mediated more than quarter (27.70%) of the total effect of parental monitoring on delinquency. Overall findings underscore the importance of strengthening resilience factors for African American youth, especially those who live in low-income communities.

  3. Tsunami disaster risk management capabilities in Greece

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marios Karagiannis, Georgios; Synolakis, Costas

    2015-04-01

    Greece is vulnerable to tsunamis, due to the length of the coastline, its islands and its geographical proximity to the Hellenic Arc, an active subduction zone. Historically, about 10% of all world tsunamis occur in the Mediterranean region. Here we review existing tsunami disaster risk management capabilities in Greece. We analyze capabilities across the disaster management continuum, including prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. Specifically, we focus on issues like legal requirements, stakeholders, hazard mitigation practices, emergency operations plans, public awareness and education, community-based approaches and early-warning systems. Our research is based on a review of existing literature and official documentation, on previous projects, as well as on interviews with civil protection officials in Greece. In terms of tsunami disaster prevention and hazard mitigation, the lack of tsunami inundation maps, except for some areas in Crete, makes it quite difficult to get public support for hazard mitigation practices. Urban and spatial planning tools in Greece allow the planner to take into account hazards and establish buffer zones near hazard areas. However, the application of such ordinances at the local and regional levels is often difficult. Eminent domain is not supported by law and there are no regulatory provisions regarding tax abatement as a disaster prevention tool. Building codes require buildings and other structures to withstand lateral dynamic earthquake loads, but there are no provisions for resistance to impact loading from water born debris Public education about tsunamis has increased during the last half-decade but remains sporadic. In terms of disaster preparedness, Greece does have a National Tsunami Warning Center (NTWC) and is a Member of UNESCO's Tsunami Program for North-eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and connected seas (NEAM) region. Several exercises have been organized in the framework of the NEAM Tsunami Warning

  4. Computational Psychometrics for Modeling System Dynamics during Stressful Disasters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pietro Cipresso

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Disasters can be very stressful events. However, computational models of stress require data that might be very difficult to collect during disasters. Moreover, personal experiences are not repeatable, so it is not possible to collect bottom-up information when building a coherent model. To overcome these problems, we propose the use of computational models and virtual reality integration to recreate disaster situations, while examining possible dynamics in order to understand human behavior and relative consequences. By providing realistic parameters associated with disaster situations, computational scientists can work more closely with emergency responders to improve the quality of interventions in the future.

  5. Disaster Research

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Given the tendency of books on disasters to predominantly focus on strong geophysical or descriptive perspectives and in-depth accounts of particular catastrophes, Disaster Research provides a much-needed multidisciplinary perspective of the area. This book is is structured thematically around key...... approaches to disaster research from a range of different, but often complementary academic disciplines. Each chapter presents distinct approaches to disaster research that is anchored in a particular discipline; ranging from the law of disasters and disaster historiography to disaster politics...... and anthropology of disaster. The methodological and theoretical contributions underlining a specific approach to disasters are discussed and illustrative empirical cases are examined that support and further inform the proposed approach to disaster research. The book thus provides unique insights into fourteen...

  6. D Applications in Disaster Mitigation and Management: Core Results of Ditac Project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaptan, K.; Kavlak, U.; Yilmaz, O.; Celik, O. T.; Manesh, A. K.; Fischer, P.; Lupescu, O.; Ingrassia, P. L.; Ammann, W. J.; Ashkenazi, M.; Arculeo, C.; Komadina, R.; Lechner, K.; Arnim, G. v.; Hreckovski, B.

    2013-08-01

    According to statistical data, natural disasters as well as the number of people affected by them are occurring with increasing frequency compared to the past. This situation is also seen in Europe Union; So, Strengthening the EU capacity to respond to Disasters is very important. This paper represents the baseline results of the FP-7 founded DITAC project, which aims to develop a holistic and highly structured curriculum for responders and strategic crisis managers. Up-to-date geospatial information is required in order to create an effective disaster response plan. Common sources for geospatial information such as Google Earth, GIS databases, and aerial surveys are frequently outdated, or insufficient. This limits the effectiveness of disaster planning. Disaster Management has become an issue of growing importance. Planning for and managing large scale emergencies is complex. The number of both victims and relief workers is large and the time pressure is extreme. Emergency response and triage systems with 2D user interfaces are currently under development and evaluation. Disasters present a number of spatially related problems and an overwhelming quantity of information. 3D user interfaces are well suited for intuitively solving basic emergency response tasks. Such tasks include commanding rescue agents and prioritizing the disaster victims according to the severity of their medical condition. Further, 3D UIs hold significant potential for improving the coordination of rescuers as well as their awareness of relief workers from other organizations. This paper describes the outline of a module in a Disaster Management Course related to 3D Applications in Disaster Mitigation and Management. By doing this, the paper describes the gaps in existing systems and solutions. Satellite imageries and digital elevation data of Turkey are investigated for detecting sites prone to natural hazards. Digital image processing methods used to enhance satellite data and to produce

  7. Pediatric issues in disaster management, part 2: evacuation centers and family separation/reunification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mace, Sharon E; Sharieff, Ghazala; Bern, Andrew; Benjamin, Lee; Burbulys, Dave; Johnson, Ramon; Schreiber, Merritt

    2010-01-01

    Although children and infants are likely to be victims in a disaster and are more vulnerable in a disaster than adults, disaster planning and management has often overlooked the specific needs of pediatric patients. We discuss key components of disaster planning and management for pediatric patients including emergency medical services, hospital/facility issues, evacuation centers, family separation/reunification, children with special healthcare needs, mental health issues, and overcrowding/surge capacity. Specific policy recommendations and an appendix with detailed practical information and algorithms are included. The first part of this three part series on pediatric issues in disaster management addresses the emergency medical system from the field to the hospital and surge capacity including the impact of crowding. The second part addresses the appropriate set up and functioning of evacuation centers and family separation and reunification. The third part deals with special patient populations: the special healthcare needs patient and mental health issues.

  8. A situational analysis of priority disaster hazards in Uganda: findings from a hazard and vulnerability analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mayega, R W; Wafula, M R; Musenero, M; Omale, A; Kiguli, J; Orach, G C; Kabagambe, G; Bazeyo, W

    2013-06-01

    Most countries in sub-Saharan Africa have not conducted a disaster risk analysis. Hazards and vulnerability analyses provide vital information that can be used for development of risk reduction and disaster response plans. The purpose of this study was to rank disaster hazards for Uganda, as a basis for identifying the priority hazards to guide disaster management planning. The study as conducted in Uganda, as part of a multi-country assessment. A hazard, vulnerability and capacity analysis was conducted in a focus group discussion of 7 experts representing key stakeholder agencies in disaster management in Uganda. A simple ranking method was used to rank the probability of occurance of 11 top hazards, their potential impact and the level vulnerability of people and infrastructure. In-terms of likelihood of occurance and potential impact, the top ranked disaster hazards in Uganda are: 1) Epidemics of infectious diseases, 2) Drought/famine, 3) Conflict and environmental degradation in that order. In terms of vulnerability, the top priority hazards to which people and infrastructure were vulnerable were: 1) Conflicts, 2) Epidemics, 3) Drought/famine and, 4) Environmental degradation in that order. Poverty, gender, lack of information, and lack of resilience measures were some of the factors promoting vulnerability to disasters. As Uganda develops a disaster risk reduction and response plan, it ought to prioritize epidemics of infectious diseases, drought/famine, conflics and environmental degradation as the priority disaster hazards.

  9. Experiments Toward the Application of Multi-Robot Systems to Disaster-Relief Scenarios

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-09-01

    EW LiDAR15 with a Dynamixel servo . This Hokuyo LiDAR has a 270◦ field of view, 30-m range, and 1-mm resolution. Accurate state information is achieved...in disaster-relief scenarios. 28 8. References 1. Murphy RR. Disaster robotics. MIT Press ; 2014. 2. Guizzo E. Fukushima robot operator writes tell-all...Control Conference; 28. LaValle SM. Planning algorithms. Cambridge university press ; 2006. 29. Likhachev M. Search-Based Planning Library. https

  10. Medical rehabilitation after natural disasters: why, when, and how?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rathore, Farooq A; Gosney, James E; Reinhardt, Jan D; Haig, Andrew J; Li, Jianan; DeLisa, Joel A

    2012-10-01

    Natural disasters can cause significant numbers of severe, disabling injuries, resulting in a public health emergency and requiring foreign assistance. However, since medical rehabilitation services are often poorly developed in disaster-affected regions and not highly prioritized by responding teams, physical and rehabilitation medicine (PRM) has historically been underemphasized in global disaster planning and response. Recent development of the specialties of "disaster medicine" and "disaster rehabilitation" has raised awareness of the critical importance of rehabilitation intervention during the immediate postdisaster emergency response. The World Health Organization Liaison Sub-Committee on Rehabilitation Disaster Relief of the International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine has authored this report to assess the role of emergency rehabilitation intervention after natural disasters based on current scientific evidence and subject matter expert accounts. Major disabling injury types are identified, and spinal cord injury, limb amputation, and traumatic brain injury are used as case studies to exemplify the challenges to effective management of disabling injuries after disasters. Evidence on the effectiveness of disaster rehabilitation interventions is presented. The authors then summarize the current state of disaster-related research, as well as lessons learned from PRM emergency rehabilitation response in recent disasters. Resulting recommendations for greater integration of PRM services into the immediate emergency disaster response are provided. This report aims to stimulate development of research and practice in the emerging discipline of disaster rehabilitation within organizations that provide medical rehabilitation services during the postdisaster emergency response. Copyright © 2012 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Integrated assessment on the vulnerability of animal husbandry to snow disasters under climate change in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Yanqiang; Wang, Shijin; Fang, Yiping; Nawaz, Zain

    2017-10-01

    Animal husbandry is a dominant and traditional source of livelihood and income in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is the third largest snow covered area in China and is one of the main snow disaster regions in the world. It is thus imperative to urgently address the issue of vulnerability of the animal husbandry sector to snow disasters for disaster mitigation and adaptation under growing risk of these disasters as a result of future climate change. However, there is very few literature reported on the vulnerability of animal husbandry in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. This assessment aims at identifying vulnerability of animal husbandry at spatial scale and to identify the reasons for vulnerability for adaptive planning and disaster mitigation. First, historical snow disaster characteristics have been analyzed and used for the spatial weight for vulnerability assessment. Second, indicator-based vulnerability assessment model and indicator system have been established. We combined risk of snow hazard, sensitivity of livestock to disaster, physical exposure to disaster, and community capacity to adapt to snow disaster in an integrated vulnerability index. Lastly, vulnerability of animal husbandry to snow disaster on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau has been evaluated. Results indicate that high vulnerabilities are mainly concentrated in the eastern and central plateau and that vulnerability decreases gradually from the east to the west. Due to global warming, the vulnerability trend has eased to some extent during the last few decades. High livestock density exposure to blizzard-prone regions and shortages of livestock barn and forage are the main reasons of high vulnerability. The conclusion emphasizes the important role of the local government and community to help local pastoralists for reducing vulnerability to snow disaster and frozen hazard. The approaches presented in this paper can be used for snow disaster mitigation, resilience

  12. Space station evolution: Planning for the future

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diaz, Alphonso V.; Askins, Barbara S.

    1987-06-01

    The need for permanently manned presence in space has been recognized by the United States and its international partners for many years. The development of this capability was delayed due to the concurrent recognition that reusable earth-to-orbit transportation was also needed and should be developed first. While the decision to go ahead with a permanently manned Space Station was on hold, requirements for the use of the Station were accumulating as ground-based research and the data from unmanned spacecraft sparked the imagination of both scientists and entrepreneurs. Thus, by the time of the Space Station implementation decision in the early 1980's, a variety of disciplines, with a variety of requirements, needed to be accommodated on one Space Station. Additional future requirements could be forecast for advanced missions that were still in the early planning stages. The logical response was the development of a multi-purpose Space Station with the ability to evolve on-orbit to new capabilities as required by user needs and national or international decisions, i.e., to build an evolutionary Space Station. Planning for evolution is conducted in parallel with the design and development of the baseline Space Station. Evolution planning is a strategic management process to facilitate change and protect future decisions. The objective is not to forecast the future, but to understand the future options and the implications of these on today's decisions. The major actions required now are: (1) the incorporation of evolution provisions (hooks and scars) in the baseline Space Station; and (2) the initiation of an evolution advanced development program.

  13. Space station evolution: Planning for the future

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diaz, Alphonso V.; Askins, Barbara S.

    1987-01-01

    The need for permanently manned presence in space has been recognized by the United States and its international partners for many years. The development of this capability was delayed due to the concurrent recognition that reusable earth-to-orbit transportation was also needed and should be developed first. While the decision to go ahead with a permanently manned Space Station was on hold, requirements for the use of the Station were accumulating as ground-based research and the data from unmanned spacecraft sparked the imagination of both scientists and entrepreneurs. Thus, by the time of the Space Station implementation decision in the early 1980's, a variety of disciplines, with a variety of requirements, needed to be accommodated on one Space Station. Additional future requirements could be forecast for advanced missions that were still in the early planning stages. The logical response was the development of a multi-purpose Space Station with the ability to evolve on-orbit to new capabilities as required by user needs and national or international decisions, i.e., to build an evolutionary Space Station. Planning for evolution is conducted in parallel with the design and development of the baseline Space Station. Evolution planning is a strategic management process to facilitate change and protect future decisions. The objective is not to forecast the future, but to understand the future options and the implications of these on today's decisions. The major actions required now are: (1) the incorporation of evolution provisions (hooks and scars) in the baseline Space Station; and (2) the initiation of an evolution advanced development program.

  14. Health Management in Disasters in Iran: A Qualitative Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maryam Nakhaei

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Background:  Disaster  management  relies  on  the  prediction  of  problems  and  providing necessary preparations at the right time and place. In this study, researchers intended to explore previous experiences of health disaster management. Materials and Methods: This study conducted using qualitative content analysis method. Participants  were  selected  purposefully  and  data  were  collected  through  interviews, observation, and relevant documents. Results: Transcribed data from 18 interviews, field notes, and other documents were analyzed. In data analysis, “reactive management” was emerged as the main theme. It included some categories such as “exposure shock,” “nondeliberative relief,” “lack of comprehensive health disaster plan,” “lack of preparedness,” and “poor coordination in health service delivery” as well as contextual factors. Conclusion: The results clarified deep perception of participants’ experiences about health management in disasters. The professionals and nonprofessionals’ emotion-based reactions and behaviors, if accompanied with deficiencies in planning and preparedness, can lead to ineffective services and aggravate the damages

  15. Legal preparedness: care of the critically ill and injured during pandemics and disasters: CHEST consensus statement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Courtney, Brooke; Hodge, James G; Toner, Eric S; Roxland, Beth E; Penn, Matthew S; Devereaux, Asha V; Dichter, Jeffrey R; Kissoon, Niranjan; Christian, Michael D; Powell, Tia

    2014-10-01

    Significant legal challenges arise when health-care resources become scarce and population-based approaches to care are implemented during severe disasters and pandemics. Recent emergencies highlight the serious legal, economic, and health impacts that can be associated with responding in austere conditions and the critical importance of comprehensive, collaborative health response system planning. This article discusses legal suggestions developed by the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) Task Force for Mass Critical Care to support planning and response efforts for mass casualty incidents involving critically ill or injured patients. The suggestions in this chapter are important for all of those involved in a pandemic or disaster with multiple critically ill or injured patients, including front-line clinicians, hospital administrators, and public health or government officials. Following the CHEST Guidelines Oversight Committee's methodology, the Legal Panel developed 35 key questions for which specific literature searches were then conducted. The literature in this field is not suitable to provide support for evidence-based recommendations. Therefore, the panel developed expert opinion-based suggestions using a modified Delphi process resulting in seven final suggestions. Acceptance is widespread for the health-care community's duty to appropriately plan for and respond to severe disasters and pandemics. Hospitals, public health entities, and clinicians have an obligation to develop comprehensive, vetted plans for mass casualty incidents involving critically ill or injured patients. Such plans should address processes for evacuation and limited appeals and reviews of care decisions. To legitimize responses, deter independent actions, and trigger liability protections, mass critical care (MCC) plans should be formally activated when facilities and practitioners shift to providing MCC. Adherence to official MCC plans should contribute to protecting

  16. Adolescents' Orientation Toward the Future: Sex Role Differentiation in a Sociocultural Context.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seginer, Rachel

    1988-01-01

    Tested the future orientation of 228 Jewish and Arab adolescents. Results supported the hypothesized instrumental-expressive division between Jewish males and females and the primacy of higher education for Arab females; these gender differences are sustained by the developmental settings of Jewish and Arab adolescents. (Author/BJV)

  17. Implications of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: Man-Made Hazards, Vulnerability Factors, and Risk to Environmental Health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eddy, Christopher; Sase, Eriko

    2015-01-01

    The objective of this article was to examine the environmental health implications of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster from an all-hazards perspective. The authors performed a literature review that included Japanese and international nuclear guidance and policy, scientific papers, and reports on the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island disasters while also considering all-hazards preparedness rubrics in the U.S. The examination of the literature resulted in the following: a) the authors' "All-Hazards Planning Reference Model" that distinguishes three planning categories-Disaster Trigger Event, Man-Made Hazards, and Vulnerability Factors; b) the generalization of their model to other countries; and c) advocacy for environmental health end fate to be considered in planning phases to minimize risk to environmental health. This article discusses inconsistencies in disaster planning and nomenclature existing in the studied materials and international guidance and proposes new opportunity for developing predisaster risk assessment, risk communication, and prevention capacity building.

  18. Water resources management strategy for Pakistan in case of nuclear disaster

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khan, A.M.

    1990-01-01

    In Pakistan, no management strategy existed for combating major disasters. A nuclear disaster involves the emission of insidious radiations which can cause different cancers if ingested with water. The water supplies in Pakistan are managed by local water boards or Water and Power Development Authority. A plant called Karachi Emergency Relief Plant (KERP) has been formulated for overcoming natural and nuclear disasters in Karachi. This plan does not consider the radioactive pollution of water supplies separately. It can be made more effective with certain improvements and used as a model for managing nuclear disasters in other cities of Pakistan. (author)

  19. Rising to the challenges-Reflections on Future-oriented Technology Analysis

    OpenAIRE

    Georghiou, Luke; Cassingena Harper, Jennifer

    2013-01-01

    Drawing upon the presentations made at the fourth conference on Future-oriented Technology Analysis, this essay reflects on the implications of the current period of instability and discontinuity for the practice of FTA or foresight. In the past the demand environment for foresight on research and innovation policy favoured application to priority-setting and articulation of demand. New tendencies include a heightened search for breakthrough science and a focus on grand societal challenges. B...

  20. Introduction to a special section: Impacts and implications of future-oriented technology analysis for policy and decision-making

    OpenAIRE

    Karel Haegeman; Jennifer C Harper; Ron Johnston

    2010-01-01

    Experiences of recent years place a premium, for governments and individuals, on being able to discern the possible shape of the future: what is likely to influence it, and what can be done to prepare for it. This special section is based on selected papers from the Third International Seville Seminar on Future-Oriented Technology Analysis, held 16–17 October 2008 at Seville, Spain, which addressed the challenge of increasing the impact of future-oriented technology analysis on policy and dec...

  1. Australasian emergency nurses' willingness to attend work in a disaster: a survey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arbon, Paul; Ranse, Jamie; Cusack, Lynette; Considine, Julie; Shaban, Ramon Z; Woodman, Richard J; Bahnisch, Laura; Kako, Mayumi; Hammad, Karen; Mitchell, Belinda

    2013-05-01

    The type of disaster, individual demographic factors, family factors and workplace factors, have been identified in the international, multidisciplinary literature as factors that influence a person's willingness to attend and assist in their workplace during a disaster. However, it is unknown if these factors are applicable to Australasian emergency nurses. The research aims to determine the extent to which Australasian emergency nurses are willing to attend their workplace in a disaster. This research was exploratory and descriptive study design, using online and paper based surveys as a means of data collection. Australasian emergency nurses from two Australasian emergency nursing colleges and four Australian hospitals were recruited to participate. Data analysis was conducted using both descriptive and inferential statistics. In total, 451 Australasian emergency nurses participated in this research. Participants were more willing to attend their workplace during a conventional disaster (p ≤ 0.001), if they worked full-time (p = 0.01), had received formal education pertaining to disasters (p ≤ 0.001), had a family disaster plan (p = 0.008), did not have children (p = 0.001) and worked in an environment in which they perceived their colleagues, managers and organisation to be prepared. The factors that influenced Australasian emergency nurses to attend their workplace in a disaster were similar to that described in the international multidisciplinary literature. Of particular note, improving disaster knowledge and skills, having a family disaster plan and improving the perceptions of the nurses' workplace preparedness can enhance the nurses' willingness to assist in a disaster. Copyright © 2013 College of Emergency Nursing Australasia Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Preparation and response in case of natural disasters: Cuban programs and experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mas Bermejo, Pedro

    2006-01-01

    Inadequate preparation for national disasters is frequently particularly devastating in lower income countries. The Cuba's location has a diversity of potential natural disasters, including hurricanes, non-tropical depressions, tropical storms, tropical cyclones, and severe local storms, all with intense rains and winds, earthquakes and droughts. Cuban preparation, at all levels, is geared to these predominant threats. Planning for natural disasters is integral to the political and economic life of Cuba, nationally and locally. On several occasions, United Nations (UN) officials have pointed to Cuba as a model for developing countries preparing for hurricanes and other natural disasters. A global policy for managing the risks of natural disasters could improve continuity of assistance for development and reduce the necessity of humanitarian aid. Planning in advance of disasters is a feasible way of helping people, by reducing expenses of emergencies, recuperation, and reconstruction. As climate changes accelerate, many researchers fear a period of irreversible and uncontrollable change. While the atmosphere continues to warm, it generates more intense rains, more frequent heat waves, and more ferocious storms. Thus, achieving better protection of developing countries from an increasing onslaught of natural disasters will only grow in importance. Even though Cuba's contribution to know-how has been recognized by United Nations' officials, progress toward more adequate preparation worldwide has been slow. To support other countries beyond conveying the lessons, Cuba now offers specially trained personnel to cooperate immediately with any country suffering a natural disaster.

  3. Megacity Indicator System for Disaster Risk Management in Istanbul (MegaIST)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yahya Menteşe, Emin; Kılıç, Osman; Baş, Mahmut; Khazai, Bijan; Ergün Konukcu, Betul; Emre Basmacı, Ahmet

    2017-04-01

    Decision makers need tools to understand the priorities and to set up benchmarks and track progress in their disaster risk reduction activities, so that they can justify their decisions and investments. In this regard, Megacity Indicator System for Disaster Risk Management (MegaIST), is developed in order to be used in disaster risk management studies, for decision makers and managers to establish right strategies and proper risk reduction actions, enhance resource management and investment decisions, set priorities, monitor progress in DRM and validate decisions taken with the aim of helping disaster oriented urban redevelopment, inform investors about risk profile of the city and providing a basis for dissemination and sharing of risk components with related stakeholders; by Directorate of Earthquake and Ground Research of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM). MegaIST achieves these goals by analyzing the earthquake risk in three separate but complementary sub-categories consisting of "urban seismic risk, coping capacity and disaster risk management index" in an integrated way. MegaIST model fosters its analyses by presenting the outputs in a simple and user friendly format benefiting from GIS technology that ensures the adoptability of the model's use. Urban seismic risk analysis includes two components, namely; Physical Risk and Social Vulnerability Analysis. Physical risk analysis is based on the possible physical losses (such as building damage, casualties etc.) due to an earthquake while social vulnerability is considered as a factor that increases the results of the physical losses in correlation with the level of education, health, economic status and disaster awareness/preparedness of society. Coping capacity analysis is carried out with the aim of understanding the readiness of the Municipality to respond and recover from a disaster in Istanbul can be defined both in terms of the Municipality's operational capacities - the capacity of the

  4. Understanding European education landscape on natural disasters - a textbook research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Komac, B.; Zorn, M.; Ciglič, R.; Steinführer, A.

    2012-04-01

    The importance of natural-disaster education for social preparedness is presented. Increasing damage caused by natural disasters around the globe draws attention to the fact that even developed societies must adapt to natural processes. Natural-disaster education is a component part of any education strategy for a sustainably oriented society. The purpose of this article is to present the role of formal education in natural disasters in Europe. To ensure a uniform overview, the study used secondary-school geography textbooks from the collection at the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig, Germany. Altogether, nearly 190 textbooks from 35 European countries were examined. The greatest focus on natural disasters can be found in textbooks published in western Europe (3.8% of pages describing natural disasters), and the smallest in those published in eastern Europe (0.7%). A share of textbook pages exceeding three percent describing natural disasters can also be found in northern Europe (3.6%) and southeast Europe, including Turkey (3.4%). The shares in central and southern Europe exceed two percent (i.e., 2.8% and 2.3%, respectively). The types and specific examples of natural disasters most commonly covered in textbooks as well as the type of natural disasters presented in textbooks according to the number of casualties and the damage caused were analyzed. The results show that the majority of European (secondary-school) education systems are poorly developed in terms of natural-disaster education. If education is perceived as part of natural-disaster management and governance, greater attention should clearly be dedicated to this activity. In addition to formal education, informal education also raises a series of questions connected with the importance of this type of education. Special attention was drawn to the importance of knowledge that locals have about their region because this aspect of education is important in both

  5. Risk Management and Disaster Recovery in Public Libraries in South Australia: A Pilot Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Velasquez, Diane L.; Evans, Nina; Kaeding, Joanne

    2016-01-01

    Introduction: This paper reports the findings of a study of risk management in public libraries. The focus of the research was to determine whether the libraries had a risk management and disaster plan for major disasters. Method: A qualitative study was done to investigate risk management and disaster recovery in public libraries in South…

  6. The issues and challenges of disaster managements: a case study of Pakistan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Qamar-ul-Islam; Anjum, G.A.; Shahzad, M.

    2005-01-01

    Pakistan is prone to floods, earthquakes, droughts and cyclonic storms, floods are by far most frequent hazard and can have devastating effects. With the swelling of the rivers, heavy flooding occurs mostly in the bet lands where great destructions occur to lives and livelihoods. Punjab, North Western Frontier Province and some parts of Sind are also frequently hit by floods. Pakistan also suffers from frequent earthquakes of small and medium magnitudes. The period 1975-2001 records 14 cyclones. The coastal areas of Sind are most vulnerable. The economic losses are heavy with over 75,000 houses destroyed and crops and agricultural land inundation. The provincial governments and the local administration provide relief in calamities. The role of federal government is to assist in terms of resource gaps. There is no disaster management policy except for the National Disaster Plan prepared by Emergency Relief Cell (ERC). However respective plans and planning in the bar and bet lands have been suggested so that challenges of disasters can be controlled. At community levels Citizen Community Boards (CCBs) can play their considerable role to challenges of disasters at union council, tehsil and district level. (author)

  7. Back to the Future

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Damsø, Tue Noa Jacques; Christensen, Thomas Budde; Kjær, Tyge

    2014-01-01

    The article presents a backcasting-based approach to energy planning, and applies this to a case study on the development of an action plan aimed at the complete transition to renewable energy in the Danish Region of Zealand. Through the application of a systemic and target-oriented approach......, a step-by-step backcasting methodology is outlined and utilized. The article highlights the value of the backcasting approach in addressing key limitations of forecasting based planning approaches and underlining the need for flexibility concerning the deep uncertainty associated with energy futures....

  8. Bridging the sanitation gap between disaster relief and development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lai, Ka-Man; Ramirez, Claudia; Liu, Weilong; Kirilova, Darina; Vick, David; Mari, Joe; Smith, Rachel; Lam, Ho-Yin; Ostovari, Afshin; Shibakawa, Akifumi; Liu, Yang; Samant, Sidharth; Osaro, Lucky

    2015-10-01

    By interpreting disasters as opportunities to initiate the fulfilment of development needs, realise the vulnerability of the affected community and environment, and extend the legacy of relief funds and effort, this paper builds upon the concept linking relief, rehabilitation and development (LRRD) in the sanitation sector. It aims to use a composite of case studies to devise a framework for a semi-hypothetical scenario to identify critical components and generic processes for a LRRD action plan. The scenario is based on a latrine wetland sanitation system in a Muslim community. Several sub-frameworks are developed: (i) latrine design; (ii) assessment of human waste treatment; (iii) connective sanitation promotion strategy; and (iv) ecological systems and environmental services for sanitation and development. This scenario illustrates the complex issues involved in LRRD in sanitation work and provides technical notes and references for a legacy plan for disaster relief and development. © 2015 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2015.

  9. Flash flood disasters analysis and evaluation: a case study of Yiyang County in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Haichen; Zhang, Xiaolei; Li, Qing; Qin, Tao; Lei, Xiaohui

    2018-03-01

    Global climate change leads to the more extreme precipitation and more flash flood disasters, which is a serious threat to the mountain inhabitants. To prevent flash flood disasters, China started flash flood disaster control planning and other projects from 2006. Among those measures, non-engineering measures are effective and economical. This paper introduced the framework of flash flood disaster analysis and evaluation in China, followed by a case study of Yiyang County.

  10. Emergency-control planning in the vicinity of large-scale technical plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lindackers, K.H.

    1982-01-01

    In 7 theses, the author shows the most important aspects of disaster control planning: 1) The planning of disaster control measures should not be the object of a licencing procedure. 2) On site allocation or planned determination of sites for potentially hazardous plants it shall be examined whether disaster control measures can be performed sufficiently. 3) Planning of disaster control measures must not be based on detailed accident scenarios. 4) It should be limited to a few day's duration after the accident has occurred. 5) Special attention should be dedicated to the problems of - information and communications, - decision-taking procedures and translation of decicions into action, - practical realization of measures. 6) The bodies charged with planning and implementation must have appropriate personnel and material. 7) Only adequate exercises can guarantee planned disaster control measures to engage under conditions of severity. (HSCH) [de

  11. Motivated prediction of future feelings: effects of negative mood and mood orientation on affective forecasts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buehler, Roger; McFarland, Cathy; Spyropoulos, Vassili; Lam, Kent C H

    2007-09-01

    This article examines the role of motivational factors in affective forecasting. The primary hypothesis was that people predict positive emotional reactions to future events when they are motivated to enhance their current feelings. Three experiments manipulated participants' moods (negative vs. neutral) and orientation toward their moods (reflective vs. ruminative) and then assessed the positivity of their affective predictions for future events. As hypothesized, when participants adopted a reflective orientation, and thus should have been motivated to engage in mood-regulation processes, they predicted more positive feelings in the negative than in the neutral mood condition. This pattern of mood-incongruent affective prediction was not exhibited when participants adopted a ruminative orientation. Additionally, within the negative mood condition, generating affective forecasts had a more positive emotional impact on reflectors than on ruminators. The findings suggest that affective predictions are sometimes driven by mood-regulatory motives.

  12. The clinical application of mobile technology to disaster medicine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Case, Timothy; Morrison, Cecily; Vuylsteke, Alain

    2012-10-01

    Mobile health care technology (mHealth) has the potential to improve communication and clinical information management in disasters. This study reviews the literature on health care and computing published in the past five years to determine the types and efficacy of mobile applications available to disaster medicine, along with lessons learned. Five types of applications are identified: (1) disaster scene management; (2) remote monitoring of casualties; (3) medical image transmission (teleradiology); (4) decision support applications; and (5) field hospital information technology (IT) systems. Most projects have not yet reached the deployment stage, but evaluation exercises show that mHealth should allow faster processing and transport of patients, improved accuracy of triage and better monitoring of unattended patients at a disaster scene. Deployments of teleradiology and field hospital IT systems to disaster zones suggest that mHealth can improve resource allocation and patient care. The key problems include suitability of equipment for use in disaster zones and providing sufficient training to ensure staff familiarity with complex equipment. Future research should focus on providing unbiased observations of the use of mHealth in disaster medicine.

  13. Adolescents' Thoughts about Parents' Jobs and Their Importance for Adolescents' Future Orientation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neblett, Nicole Gardner; Cortina, Kai Schnabel

    2006-01-01

    The current study examined the relation between adolescents' perceptions of their parents' jobs and their future orientation, and tested the role of parental support. Four hundred and fifteen ninth through twelfth graders were surveyed about their parents' job rewards, self-direction, and stressors, as well as their expectations for employment and…

  14. Natural disaster management in India with focus on floods and cyclones

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thattai, Deeptha V.; Sathyanathan, R.; Dinesh, R.; Harshit Kumar, L.

    2017-07-01

    Disasters are of two major kinds, natural and manmade, and affect the community. Natural disasters are caused by natural earth processes like floods, droughts, cyclones, tsunamis, earthquakes and epidemics. Manmade disasters occur due to chemical spills, accidents, terrorism activities etc. India is prone to almost all the major natural disasters. The high population density combined with poor preparedness, planning and management, and rescue and relief measures inevitably lead to huge losses of lives and property every year in the country. This paper analyses the disaster management policy of India and its implementation using two recent case studies - one where a relative degree of success has been achieved (cyclones) and the other where we are still struggling to have even a basic preparedness system in place (floods).

  15. Katrina's Legacy: Processes for Patient Disaster Preparation Have Improved but Important Gaps Remain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Icenogle, Marjorie; Eastburn, Sasha; Arrieta, Martha

    2016-11-01

    Ensuring continuity of care for patients with chronic illness, who are elderly or indigent presents unique challenges after disasters; this population has fewer financial resources, is less likely to evacuate, has limited access to recovery resources and is significantly dependent on charitable and government-funded institutions for care. This study expands a previous investigation of the extent to which healthcare providers in coastal Mississippi and Alabama have made changes to facilitate continued care to these populations after disasters. Key informants representing healthcare and social services organizations serving health-disparate residents of the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast were interviewed regarding disaster preparation planning for the period of 2009-2012. Interview transcripts were qualitatively coded and analyzed for emerging themes using ATLAS.ti software. Participant organizations have implemented changes to ensure continuity of care for patients with chronic illness in case of disasters. Changes include patient assistance with predisaster preparation and training; evacuation planning and assistance; support to find resources in evacuation destinations; equipping patients with prescription information, diagnoses, treatment plans and advance medications when a disaster is imminent; multiple methods for patients to communicate with providers and more mandated medical needs shelters. Patients whose chronic conditions were diagnosed post-Katrina are more likely to underestimate the need to prepare. Further, patients' lack of compliance tends to increase as time passes from disasters. Although changes were implemented, results indicate that these may be inadequate to completely address patient needs. Thus, additional efforts may be needed, underscoring the complexity of adequate disaster preparation among disparate populations. Copyright © 2016 Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. The Oklahoma ice storm, a Y2K disaster that arrived one year later--how two rural hospitals coped and what they learned.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2001-05-01

    An unexpected ice storm last December in southeastern Oklahoma cut off power and water for days in the area and punched holes in the disaster plans of the two hospitals most affected. In this report, hospital officials describe how they fared and tell what they will do in the future to be better prepared for such a worst-case scenario.

  17. Simulating and Communicating Outcomes in Disaster Management Situations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michal Lichter

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available An important, but overlooked component of disaster managment is raising the awareness and preparedness of potential stakeholders. We show how recent advances in agent-based modeling and geo-information analytics can be combined to this effect. Using a dynamic simulation model, we estimate the long run outcomes of two very different urban disasters with severe consequences: an earthquake and a missile attack. These differ in terms of duration, intensity, permanence, and focal points. These hypothetical shocks are simulated for the downtown area of Jerusalem. Outcomes are compared in terms of their potential for disaster mitigation. The spatial and temporal dynamics of the simulation yield rich outputs. Web-based mapping is used to visualize these results and communicate risk to policy makers, planners, and the informed public. The components and design of this application are described. Implications for participatory disaster management and planning are discussed.

  18. Children’s Coping in the Context of Disasters and Terrorism

    Science.gov (United States)

    PFEFFERBAUM, BETTY; NOFFSINGER, MARY A.; WIND, LESLIE H.; ALLEN, JAMES R.

    2014-01-01

    Disasters and terrorism present significant and often overwhelming challenges for children and families worldwide. Individual, family, and social factors influence disaster reactions and the diverse ways in which children cope. This article links conceptualizations of stress and coping to empirical knowledge of children’s disaster reactions, identifies limitations in our current understanding, and suggests areas for future study of disaster coping. Coping strategies, developmental trajectories influencing coping, and the interplay between parent and child coping represent critical areas for advancing the field and for informing programs and services that benefit children’s preparedness and foster resilience in the face of mass trauma. PMID:24683315

  19. Living with disasters: social capital for disaster governance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Melo Zurita, Maria de Lourdes; Cook, Brian; Thomsen, Dana C; Munro, Paul G; Smith, Timothy F; Gallina, John

    2017-10-24

    This paper explores how social networks and bonds within and across organisations shape disaster operations and strategies. Local government disaster training exercises serve as a window through which to view these relations, and 'social capital' is used as an analytic for making sense of the human relations at the core of disaster management operations. These elements help to expose and substantiate the often intangible relations that compose the culture that exists, and that is shaped by preparations for disasters. The study reveals how this social capital has been generated through personal interactions, which are shared among disaster managers across different organisations and across 'levels' within those organisations. Recognition of these 'group resources' has significant implications for disaster management in which conducive social relations have become paramount. The paper concludes that socio-cultural relations, as well as a people-centred approach to preparations, appear to be effective means of readying for, and ultimately responding to, disasters. © 2017 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2017.

  20. Rebuilding After Disaster: Going Green from the Ground Up (Revised) (Brochure)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    2009-10-01

    20-page "how-to" guide describing ways to turn a disaster into an opportunity to rebuild with greener energy technologies. It covers such topics as the importance of energy, options for communities, instructions for developing an energy plan, and other considerations. This guide is intended for the community leaders who have experienced a disaster.

  1. What tourist business managers must learn from disaster research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drabek, Thomas E

    2016-01-01

    Death and social disruption caused by disasters of varying forms will continue to increase in the future. So too will the impacts on tourism, now one of the fastest growing and largest sectors of the worldwide economy. Tourist business managers must implement evidence-based preparedness activities to enhance the survival potential and future profitability of their firms. Drawing upon recent research studies of the tourist industry during times of crisis and the broad social science knowledge base regarding human responses to disaster, seven key lessons are described. Emergency managers must facilitate the incorporation of these lessons into the culture of tourist business managers.

  2. Navigating the Road to Recovery: Assessment of the Coordination, Communication, and Financing of the Disaster Case Management Pilot in Louisiana.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Acosta, Joie; Chandra, Anita; Feeney, Kevin Carter

    2011-01-01

    In 2009, individuals heavily affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were still in need of social services. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided funding to the Louisiana Recovery Authority to implement the Disaster Case Management Pilot (DCMP) in order to help people still living in FEMA temporary housing units in April 2009 move to permanent and secure housing and access services. Despite concerted effort by participating agencies, the implementation of the DCMP was fraught with challenges. As a result, the pilot could not be implemented as intended, leaving the needs of many clients not fully met. This article shares details of a study that documents some of the key challenges in coordination, communication, and financing of the program and offers recommendations for future state and FEMA implementation of disaster case management. In light of these challenges, the authors recommend that federal and state governments review the systems used to identify and locate residents in need of disaster case management; these systems performed poorly in the DCMP, making it difficult to appropriately plan services. The stop and start of recovery initiatives led to serious discontinuities in client recovery, so the authors also recommend that federal and state governments consider a single, longer-term recovery initiative that seamlessly acknowledges the stages of human recovery. Improvements in how federal and state governments identify and locate affected residents, consider needs and vulnerabilities in planning, and ensure continuity of services are critical to ensure high-quality disaster case management.

  3. [Impact of a disaster preparedness training program on health staff].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parra Cotanda, Cristina; Rebordosa Martínez, Mónica; Trenchs Sainz de la Maza, Victoria; Luaces Cubells, Carles

    2016-09-01

    The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a disaster preparedness training program in a Paediatric Emergency Department (PED). A quasi-experimental study was conducted using an anonymous questionnaire that was distributed to health care providers of a PED in a tertiary paediatric hospital. The questions concerned the disaster plan (DP), including theoretical and practical aspects. Questionnaires were distributed and completed in January 2014 (period 1) and November 2014 (period 2). The disaster training program includes theoretical and practical sessions. A total of 110 questionnaires were collected in period 1, and 80 in period 2. Almost three-quarters (71.3%) of PED staff attended the theoretical sessions, and 43.8% attended the practical sessions. The application of this training program significantly improved knowledge about the DP, but no improvement was observed in the practical questions. PED staff felt more prepared to face a disaster after the training program (15.5% vs. 41.8%, Ptraining program improved some knowledge about the disaster plan, but it has not improved responses in practical situations, which may be due to the low attendance at practical sessions and the time between the training program and the questionnaires. Copyright © 2015 Asociación Española de Pediatría. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

  4. Optimism following a tornado disaster.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suls, Jerry; Rose, Jason P; Windschitl, Paul D; Smith, Andrew R

    2013-05-01

    Effects of exposure to a severe weather disaster on perceived future vulnerability were assessed in college students, local residents contacted through random-digit dialing, and community residents of affected versus unaffected neighborhoods. Students and community residents reported being less vulnerable than their peers at 1 month, 6 months, and 1 year after the disaster. In Studies 1 and 2, absolute risk estimates were more optimistic with time, whereas comparative vulnerability was stable. Residents of affected neighborhoods (Study 3), surprisingly, reported less comparative vulnerability and lower "gut-level" numerical likelihood estimates at 6 months, but later their estimates resembled the unaffected residents. Likelihood estimates (10%-12%), however, exceeded the 1% risk calculated by storm experts, and gut-level versus statistical-level estimates were more optimistic. Although people believed they had approximately a 1-in-10 chance of injury from future tornadoes (i.e., an overestimate), they thought their risk was lower than peers.

  5. The role of non-governmental organisations in the management of separated and unaccompanied children, following disasters in Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baradaran Hamid R

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Following disasters, separated and unaccompanied children are among the most vulnerable, therefore international organisations have formed guidelines regarding the management of these children. Guidelines include recommendations for identifying and registering children, tracing family members, reunification and arrangements for interim and durable care. There is a lack of experiential evidence on how these principles are put into practice at operational levels, and whether existing policies were useful. There is a particular lack of empirical evidence from the disaster prone country of Iran. The aim of this study was to describe the role of Non- Governmental Organisations (NGOs in the management of separated and unaccompanied children, following disasters in Iran in order to plan for and provision of future disasters. Findings The Iranian Red Crescent Organisation, Committee Emdad Imam Khomeini (a national organisation unique to Iran that is protected by the government and supported by public contributions and Behzisti (the government welfare organisation in Iran are the main figures involved in the management of separated and unaccompanied children, following disasters in Iran. NGOs are rarely responsible for caring for unaccompanied children, however they provide valuable support including financial assistance, arrangement of educational and extra-curricular activities and psychosocial support. Following the initial chaos after the Bam earthquake, international guidelines on separated and unaccompanied children were largely followed. Conclusions Systems for managing separated and unaccompanied children following disasters in Iran, involving NGOs, are emerging. However, most are yet to be formalised.

  6. ANSTO's future plans for nuclear science and technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blackburne, I.

    2003-01-01

    There are four key themes in ANSTO's future plans for nuclear science and technology: 1) ANSTO plans for the future - within its established 'core business areas', following a rigorous process, and incorporating extensive interaction with organisations around Australia and overseas. 2) The replacement research reactor (RRR) - a Major National Research Facility and the cornerstone of ANSTO's future activities. 3) A number of business development initiatives that have been launched by ANSTO over the past year, under the banner of Good science is good business at ANSTO. 4) ANSTO involvement in the national research priorities that the Prime Minister announced last December, in particular, by pursuing new research in the security and forensics area; its contribution to the 'Safeguarding Australia' national research priority. The Replacement Research Reactor now under construction will make an enormous difference to the work that ANSTO can undertake, and that others can perform using ANSTO's facilities

  7. DigiNotar: Dissecting the First Dutch Digital Disaster

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicole S. van der Meulen

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available In the middle of the night on September 2, 2011, the Dutch Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations held an emergency press conference. DigiNotar, a Certificate Authority (CA, had been electronically ‘broken into’ and as a result intruders had managed to generate falsified certificates. As a CA, DigiNotar issued digital certificates to secure digital communication, but as a result of the breach the authenticity of such certificates could no longer be verified. The Dutch government subsequently revoked its trust in all certificates issued by DigiNotar. This was the beginning of the first digital disaster in the Netherlands. As a pioneering disaster, this article focuses on the implications of DigiNotar as a vital case study for future scenarios of digital disaster management. The main focus of this article is on the underlying ‘weaknesses’ of the DigiNotar incident, which allowed the situation to evolve from a problem into a disaster. These include lack of oversight, lack of security attention and risk awareness and the absence of an effective mitigation strategy. By identifying and subsequently analyzing the underlying problems, this article aims to demonstrate how future situations can be better contained if sufficient attention is granted to these factors and subsequent changes are introduced.

  8. The role of microcredit in reducing women's vulnerabilities to multiple disasters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ray-Bennett, Nibedita S

    2010-01-01

    This article explores the relationship between microcredit and vulnerability reduction for women-headed households in'multiple disasters'. Here multiple disasters are understood as disasters that occur in one specific place and cause severe devastation. The case study covers the super-cyclone in 1999, floods in 2001 and 2003, and drought in 2002 in Orissa, India. The study entailed eight months fieldwork and interviews with several governmental and non-governmental officials and 12 women-headed households from different social castes. The findings suggest that microcredit is a useful tool to replace women's livelihood assets that have been lost in multiple disasters. But inefficient microcredit delivery can cause microdebts and exacerbate caste, class and gender inequalities. It is posited that microcredit delivery cannot achieve vulnerability reduction for women in multiple disasters unless it is complemented by effective financial services, integrated policy planning and disaster management between government, non-governmental organisations and the community.

  9. The Hyogo Framework for Action and its implications for disaster management and reduction in Africa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dejo Olowu

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available At the World Conference on Disaster Reduction, Hyogo, Japan, in January 2005, the international community adopted a 10-year plan to make the world safer from disasters. The resultant Hyogo Framework for Action is the global blueprint for disaster risk reduction with the goal of substantially reducing disaster losses in human lives and socio-economic assets. What is the signi!cance of the HFA for the adoption of disaster prevention, management and risk reduction frameworks in African States? Since 2005, what has been the attitude of African States to the promise of the HFA? In terms of policy and planning, how should African States engage the HFA towards securing human lives and properties against natural and human-induced disasters? With the myriad challenges of mass poverty and underdevelopment across Africa, what implications does the HFA hold for disaster risk reduction and management in African States? This article attempts to address this plethora of questions, drawing on lessons learned in Africa and beyond. The article examines the background of the HFA and its progress in shaping the global policy agenda towards disaster management and reduction. While the article acknowledges some of the inherent weaknesses in the promise of the HFA, it nonetheless accentuates its inimitable implications for broad legal and policy strategies towards ameliorating the usual horrific aftermath of disasters in Africa.

  10. Disasters and vulnerabilities in the Foreman and Kennedy road informal settlements: Biographical influences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bethuel Sibongiseni Ngcamu

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available As the towards the end of the homelands in the post-apartheid South Africa, there was a scramble of poverty stricken African black youth to the most severe vulnerable and disaster prone urban areas in search for formal job opportunities. The main purpose of this empirical study is to investigate the extent in which how the biographical profiles (age, gender, marital status, education levels, occupation (males and females, children and tenure can influence vulnerability and disasters in these informal settlements. A quantitative research design was adopted and a survey method was used, whereby questionnaires were administered by the researcher to a population of 240, whereby, 140 questionnaires were completed generating a response rate of 63.6%. The findings of this study reveals that the majority of the respondents in the Foreman and Kennedy Road informal settlements are black, poverty stricken, unemployed and who are suffered economic difficulties that make them highly vulnerable to disasters. This study will act an advisory role to the decision-makers as the research findings shows that in the foreseeable future in South Africa, informal settlements will be an intergral feature of formal housing, which requires urban planners to include such settlements to housing planning.

  11. Creation of a Collaborative Disaster Preparedness Video for Daycare Providers: Use of the Delphi Model for the Creation of a Comprehensive Disaster Preparedness Video for Daycare Providers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mar, Pamela; Spears, Robert; Reeb, Jeffrey; Thompson, Sarah B; Myers, Paul; Burke, Rita V

    2018-02-22

    Eight million American children under the age of 5 attend daycare and more than another 50 million American children are in school or daycare settings. Emergency planning requirements for daycare licensing vary by state. Expert opinions were used to create a disaster preparedness video designed for daycare providers to cover a broad spectrum of scenarios. Various stakeholders (17) devised the outline for an educational pre-disaster video for child daycare providers using the Delphi technique. Fleiss κ values were obtained for consensus data. A 20-minute video was created, addressing the physical, psychological, and legal needs of children during and after a disaster. Viewers completed an anonymous survey to evaluate topic comprehension. A consensus was attempted on all topics, ranging from elements for inclusion to presentation format. The Fleiss κ value of 0.07 was obtained. Fifty-seven of the total 168 video viewers completed the 10-question survey, with comprehension scores ranging from 72% to 100%. Evaluation of caregivers that viewed our video supports understanding of video contents. Ultimately, the technique used to create and disseminate the resources may serve as a template for others providing pre-disaster planning education. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;page 1 of 5).

  12. Technical Paper on Physical Planning and Monitoring Tools

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vagnby, Bo Hellisen

    and maintenance of such buildings.    Further, the paper outlines a number of physical planning and building tools to guide future planning and design development, and it suggests a range of action-oriented operational evaluation studies in order to improve the physical learning environment....

  13. Planning for a Nondriving Future: Behaviors and Beliefs Among Middle-Aged and Older Drivers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harmon, Annie C; Babulal, Ganesh; Vivoda, Jonathon M; Zikmund-Fisher, Brian J; Carr, David B

    2018-01-01

    Despite the reality of older adults living many years after driving cessation, few prepare for the eventuality; empirically, planning for a nondriving future has not been directly quantified or explored. The following study quantifies 1) the extent of current drivers' planning, 2) specific planning behaviors, 3) beliefs about benefits of planning, 4) drivers' intention to plan more for future transportation needs, and 5) group differences associated with planning. In a predominantly female, black, urban sample of current drivers ages 53-92, fewer than half (42.1%) had planned at all for a nondriving future, with correspondingly low levels of planning behaviors reported. However, over 80% believed planning would help them meet their needs post-cessation and transition emotionally to being a nondriver. Most (85%) intended to plan more in the future as well, indicating further potential openness to the topic. Drivers who planned were older, drove less frequently, limited their driving to nearby places, reported less difficulty believing they would become a nondriver, and expected to continue driving three years less than non-planners. These findings suggest that drivers' perceived nearness to driving cessation impacts planning for future transportation needs, and existing perceived benefits of planning may provide leverage to motivate action.

  14. Minimum initial service package (MISP) for sexual and reproductive health in disasters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lisam, Suchitra

    2014-12-01

    This paper is based on a presentation given at the Evidence Aid Symposium, on 20 September 2014, at Hyderabad, India. The paper provides background about how the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) got conceived as a humanitarian health response that adopts human right approach, based on core principles driven by needs of adolescent girls and women, and having respect for their values, ethics and morals. Good practices across nations documented by Inter-Agency Working Groups (IAWGs) on Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Crisis has supported the provision of essential SRH care services to adolescent girls and women in humanitarian crisis and in disasters. Secondary desk review is used to document the lessons learnt and good practices followed and documents for SRH. These essential SRH care services are to be provided as "Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP)" for implementation at the outset of disaster. The Sphere Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response incorporated the MISP for SRH as a minimum standard of care in disaster response with a goal to reduce mortality, morbidity and disability among populations affected by crises, particularly women and girls. Disaster prone countries are expected to roll out MISP to improve humanitarian response and emergency preparedness systems. The East Europe and Central Asia (EECA) region including India have rolled out MISP starting from 2011 (EECA) and from 2013-2014 onwards in India across cities such as Chennai, Patna, Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata, Faridabad and Calcutta. Across India, through these national and state level trainings, nearly 600 people from NGOs, institutions, and government agencies were developed as national level trainers and resource persons for MISP who could advocate for RH in emergencies, apply core techniques provided in the MISP, apply coordination skills for the implementation of MISP and develop an action plan to integrate RH and Gender Based Violence (GBV) into Disaster

  15. Climate change, natural disasters, and the risk of violent conflict

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Slettebak, Rune Thorkildsen

    2012-07-01

    This PhD project aims to assess the relation between natural disasters triggered by extreme weather events and the risk of violent conflict. The focus on these natural disasters stems from expectations that climate change will increase the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, combined with frequent suggestions that climate change in general and natural disasters in particular can be expected to trigger more violent conflicts. A number of conflict types, ranging from riots to civil war, are tested. Case studies have found examples where environmental factors have contributed to triggering conflict. However, without systematic assessments, we do not know whether these cases are exceptions or parts of a common pattern. Learning more about this is a prime aim of this thesis. As the effects of climate change are still mainly in the future, I turn to the past for learning more about these connections. Although future relations may differ from those in the past, learning from history is considered the best way of increasing our basis of knowledge on what to expect from the future. The thesis tests two opposing theoretical traditions against each other. On one side is the environmental security literature, which holds that environmentally induced adversity is likely to increase the risk of violent conflict. The other, relatively unknown tradition, called disaster sociology, expects adversity to stimulate altruistic behavior and replace past ascribed identities with new 'communities of sufferers' in the disaster aftermath. In a violent conflict setting, this argument is read as that disasters should reduce conflict risk. Four analyses have been conducted. The first has a global coverage, two focus on India and the last one on Indonesia. The first analysis aims to uncover general trends, while the three others use cases where environmentally driven violence is considered particularly likely, and disaggregated analytical designs that should be well

  16. Moments of disaster response in the emergency department (ED).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hammad, Karen S; Arbon, Paul; Gebbie, Kristine; Hutton, Alison

    2017-11-01

    We experience our lives as a series of memorable moments, some good and some bad. Undoubtedly, the experience of participating in disaster response, is likely to stand out as a memorable moment in a nurses' career. This presentation will describe five distinct moments of nursing in the emergency department (ED) during a disaster response. A Hermeneutic Phenomenological approach informed by van Manen underpins the research process. Thirteen nurses from different countries around the world participated in interviews about their experience of working in the ED during a disaster. Thematic analysis resulted in five moments of disaster response which are common to the collective participant experience. The 5 themes emerge as Notification (as a nurse finds out that the ED will be receiving casualties), Waiting (waiting for the patients to arrive to the ED), Patient Arrival (the arrival of the first patients to the ED), Caring for patients (caring for people affected by the disaster) and Reflection (the moment the disaster response comes to an end). This paper provides an in-depth insight into the experience of nursing in the ED during a disaster response which can help generate awareness and inform future disaster preparedness of emergency nurses. Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. The Samarco Disaster in Brazil: challenges for biodiversity conservation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haruf Salmen Espindola

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available On November 5, 2015, Brazil and the world noticed the environmental disaster caused by the disruption of Fundão dam (Samarco / Vale / BHP Billiton in Mariana, Minas Gerais. The disaster's impact was not restricted to dam’s immediately downstream areas, where caused destruction of human settlements, but also impacted waterways, farmland, economic activities, drinking water supply to cities and biodiversity. The State Park of Rio Doce (PERD, the main remnant of the Atlantic Forest from Minas Gerais state faced a threat not predicted in his management plan. So, this article is dedicated to the history and importance of the PERD, to the Samarco/Vale/BHP disaster and to impacts on this Conservation Unit. Therefore, it discusses disaster impacts to human life and biodiversity, because ecological conditions even imply on opportunities and obstacles to Social Processes.

  18. The study of disaster situation awareness based on volunteered geographic information

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Qiansheng; Chen, Zi; Li, Shengming; Luo, Nianxue

    2015-12-01

    As the development of Web 2.0, the social media like microblog, blogs and social network have supplied a bunch of information with locations (Volunteered Geographical Information, VGI).Recent years many cases have shown that, if disaster happened, the cyber citizens will get together very quickly and share the disaster information, this results a bunch of volunteered geographical information about disaster situation which is very valuable for disaster response if this VGIs are used efficiently and properly. This project will take typhoon disaster as case study. In this paper, we study the relations between weibo messages and the real typhoon situation, we proposed an analysis framework for mine the relations between weibo messages distribution and physical space. We found that the number of the weibo messages, key words frequency and spatial temporary distribution of the messages have strong relations with the disaster spread in the real world, and this research results can improve our disaster situation awareness in the future. The achievement of the study will give a method for typhoon disaster situation awareness based on VGI from the bottom up, and will locate the disaster spot and evolution quickly which is very important for disaster response and recover.

  19. From Information to Social Convergence: Discovering Emerging Channels in Major Disasters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pai-Lin Chen

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Disaster communication researchers focused on text reporting and the effects of mass media until the rise of Web 2.0 enabled “emerging channels” to appear during disasters. This study examined alternative channels by analyzing texts reported during Typhoon Morakot in 2009. The result indicated that emerging channels, with limited life cycles, presented comprehensive reporting disasters. Emerging channels provide not only information brokering mechanism but also social convergence. Several research implications are discussed for future research.

  20. Operational Remote Sensing Services in North Eastern Region of India for Natural Resources Management, Early Warning for Disaster Risk Reduction and Dissemination of Information and Services

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raju, P. L. N.; Sarma, K. K.; Barman, D.; Handique, B. K.; Chutia, D.; Kundu, S. S.; Das, R. Kr.; Chakraborty, K.; Das, R.; Goswami, J.; Das, P.; Devi, H. S.; Nongkynrih, J. M.; Bhusan, K.; Singh, M. S.; Singh, P. S.; Saikhom, V.; Goswami, C.; Pebam, R.; Borgohain, A.; Gogoi, R. B.; Singh, N. R.; Bharali, A.; Sarma, D.; Lyngdoh, R. B.; Mandal, P. P.; Chabukdhara, M.

    2016-06-01

    local government bodies for better management, preparing prospective planning, and sustainable use of available resources. The knowledge dissemination is being done through online web portals wherever the internet access is available and as well as offline space based information kiosks, where the internet access is not available or having limited bandwidth availability. This paper presents a systematic and comprehensive study on the remote sensing services operational in NER of India for natural resources management, disaster risk reduction and dissemination of information and services, in addition to outlining future areas and direction of space applications for the region.

  1. Strategy of seismic disaster prevention plan of gas supply system in Great Tehran, Iran

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mohammadi, A.M.; Yousefi Pour, M.R. [Greater Tehran Gas Company, Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Yanou, Y.; Ogawa, Y.; Yamada, H. [Osaka Gas Co. Ltd., Osaka (Japan)

    2004-07-01

    Iran has suffered many devastating earthquakes. Tehran is surrounded by active faults including the North Tehran Fault and the South Ray Fault, making the city extremely vulnerable to large earthquakes. This paper proposes and outlines the basic anti-earthquake measures that would protect Greater Tehran Gas Company's (GTGC) gas supply systems from large earthquakes. Anti-earthquake measures focusing on reinforcing existing facilities and disaster prevention are detailed in this paper. The paper shows step-by-step procedures for the construction of a disaster-prevention system. The paper concludes that: GTGC's gas pipeline networks have high quake-resistance because they include welded steel pipes or polyethylene pipes; a gas remote shutoff system or gas automatic shut-off system should be installed as emergency measures in GTGC's earthquake disaster prevention measures; practical and actual training is also very important for all authorities, experts, engineers and staff involved in earthquake disaster prevention measures. 2 refs., 3 figs.

  2. Blending science and community voices for multi-scale disaster risk ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper documents the experience of CARE International in Ethiopia in facilitating bottom-up approaches to promote community-led disaster risk management and climate change adaptation planning through a participator scenario planning (PSP) methodology. PSP is a coordinated approach which leverages a variety ...

  3. Social capital and disaster preparedness among low income Mexican Americans in a disaster prone area.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reininger, Belinda M; Rahbar, Mohammad H; Lee, Minjae; Chen, Zhongxue; Alam, Sartaj R; Pope, Jennifer; Adams, Barbara

    2013-04-01

    Examination of social capital and its relationship to disaster preparedness has grown in prominence partially due to world-wide need to effectively respond to terrorist attacks, viral epidemics, or natural disasters. Recent studies suggested that social capital may be related to a community's ability to plan for and respond to such disasters. Few studies, however, have examined social capital constructs among low income populations living in disaster prone areas and accounted for the influence of social capital at the individual and community level. We examined social capital as measured by perceived fairness, perceived civic trust, perceived reciprocity and group membership. We undertook a multistage random cluster survey in three coastal counties in Texas (U.S.) noted for their high levels of poverty. Individuals from 3088 households provided data on social capital, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, and self-reported level of preparedness for a hurricane. We used multivariable logistic regression to test potential associations between social capital measures and disaster preparedness. After adjusting for age, gender, marital status, ethnicity, education, employment, household income, acculturation, self-reported health, special needs persons in household, household size, and distance to the shore we found a higher prevalence of preparedness among individuals who reported the highest perception of fairness [AOR = 3.12, 95% CI: (1.86, 5.21)] compared to those individuals who reported lowest perceptions of fairness. We also found a higher prevalence of preparedness [AOR = 2.06; 95% CI: (1.17, 3.62)] among individuals who reported highest perceptions of trust compared to individuals who reported lowest perceptions of trust. Perceived reciprocity and group membership were not associated with preparedness. These results extend previous findings on social capital and disaster preparedness and further characterize social capital's presence among a low

  4. Future Plans for the ACORNE Collaboration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thompson, Lee F

    2007-01-01

    A summary of the future plans for ACORNE collaboration are presented. Of particular note is the intended development of an acoustic calibrator to be deployed in the deep sea above the Rona hydrophone array. Crucial to this goal is work recently completed on the understanding of hydrophone response and the generation of bipolar acoustic signals; this work is presented in detail

  5. Land use planning using transit oriented development concept: Case study: Salaya station

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jarritthai, Supanee; Techpeeraparnich, Wasaporn

    2017-10-01

    The urban sprawl of Bangkok has increased with a motorization rate along with the expansion of the road network to adjacent cities. Nakhonpathom province, located at the southern edge of Bangkok has been affected by the urban sprawl. One of Nakhonpathom's Districts named "Salaya" Salaya has been quickly urbanized due to the establishment of many large academic institutes, such as universities, colleges and high schools as well as many commercial shopping malls. The period of 2013-2017, the Thai government introduced sustainable urban planning policy and promoted the use of public transportation systems. The Light Red Line railway extension of the Bangkok Metro Transit system will soon be constructed and the current Salaya Station will be replaced with new station. Many railway expansion projects will be built, should be designed by using transit-oriented development (TOD) scheme. This paper explores demographic information of the area, the demands of the community and relevant stakeholders for designing of the area using TOD. The proposed land use planning is designed based on the existing condition of the area as much as possible to meet the TOD standard and stakeholders' requirement. The result revealed that the guidelines of transit oriented development concept were of importance not only for planning of urban land use, supporting public transport, but also improving the quality of life.

  6. A spatio-temporal process data model for characterizing marine disasters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jiang, B; Gao, T; Zhang, X; Huang, X

    2014-01-01

    Marine disasters are a more prevalent problem in China than in many other countries. Based on the development of a status quo of China's marine disaster the space-time process model is used. The model uses the ocean's temperature field, salinity field, water density field, surface wind field, wave field and other four-dimensional spatio-temporal quantities. This paper studies that model in detail. This study aims at using the theory to provide support during marine disasters in an effort to prevent or decrease their frequency in the future

  7. Evaluating Partnerships to Enhance Disaster Risk Management using Multi-Criteria Analysis: An Application at the Pan-European Level

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hochrainer-Stigler, Stefan; Lorant, Anna

    2018-01-01

    Disaster risk is increasingly recognized as a major development challenge. Recent calls emphasize the need to proactively engage in disaster risk reduction, as well as to establish new partnerships between private and public sector entities in order to decrease current and future risks. Very often such potential partnerships have to meet different objectives reflecting on the priorities of stakeholders involved. Consequently, potential partnerships need to be assessed on multiple criteria to determine weakest links and greatest threats in collaboration. This paper takes a supranational multi-sector partnership perspective, and considers possible ways to enhance disaster risk management in the European Union by better coordination between the European Union Solidarity Fund, risk reduction efforts, and insurance mechanisms. Based on flood risk estimates we employ a risk-layer approach to determine set of options for new partnerships and test them in a high-level workshop via a novel cardinal ranking based multi-criteria approach. Whilst transformative changes receive good overall scores, we also find that the incorporation of risk into budget planning is an essential condition for successful partnerships.

  8. International Telemedicine/Disaster Medicine Conference: Papers and Presentations

    Science.gov (United States)

    1991-01-01

    The first International Telemedicine/Disaster Medicine Conference was held in Dec. 1991. The overall purpose was to convene an international, multidisciplinary gathering of experts to discuss the emerging field of telemedicine and assess its future directions; principally the application of space technology to disaster response and management, but also to clinical medicine, remote health care, public health, and other needs. This collection is intended to acquaint the reader with recent landmark efforts in telemedicine as applied to disaster management and remote health care, the technical requirements of telemedicine systems, the application of telemedicine and telehealth in the U.S. space program, and the social and humanitarian dimensions of this area of medicine.

  9. Cloud Standby: Disaster Recovery of Distributed Systems in the Cloud

    OpenAIRE

    Lenk , Alexander; Tai , Stefan

    2014-01-01

    International audience; Disaster recovery planning and securing business processes against outtakes have been essential parts of running a company for decades. As IT systems became more important, and especially since more and more revenue is generated over the Internet, securing the IT systems that support the business processes against outages is essential. Using fully operational standby sites with periodically updated standby systems is a well-known approach to prepare against disasters. ...

  10. Setting Foundations for Developing Disaster Response Metrics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abir, Mahshid; Bell, Sue Anne; Puppala, Neha; Awad, Osama; Moore, Melinda

    2017-08-01

    There are few reported efforts to define universal disaster response performance measures. Careful examination of responses to past disasters can inform the development of such measures. As a first step toward this goal, we conducted a literature review to identify key factors in responses to 3 recent events with significant loss of human life and economic impact: the 2003 Bam, Iran, earthquake; the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami; and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Using the PubMed (National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD) database, we identified 710 articles and retained 124 after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. Seventy-two articles pertained to the Haiti earthquake, 38 to the Indian Ocean tsunami, and 14 to the Bam earthquake. On the basis of this review, we developed an organizational framework for disaster response performance measurement with 5 key disaster response categories: (1) personnel, (2) supplies and equipment, (3) transportation, (4) timeliness and efficiency, and (5) interagency cooperation. Under each of these, and again informed by the literature, we identified subcategories and specific items that could be developed into standardized performance measures. The validity and comprehensiveness of these measures can be tested by applying them to other recent and future disaster responses, after which standardized performance measures can be developed through a consensus process. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:505-509).

  11. International Charter `Space and Major Disasters' Collaborations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, B. K.

    2017-12-01

    The International Charter aims at providing a unified system of space data acquisition and delivery to national disaster authorities of countries affected by natural or man-made disasters. Each of the sixteen Member Agencies has committed resources to support the objectives of the Charter and thus helping to mitigate the effects of disasters on human life and property, getting critical information into the hands of the disaster responders so that they can make informed decisions in the wake of a disaster. The Charter Member Agencies work together to provide remotely sensed imagery to any requesting country that is experiencing a natural or man-made disaster. The Space Agencies contribute priority satellite taskings, archive retrievals, and map production, as well as imagery of the affected areas. The imagery is provided at no cost to the affected country and is made available for the immediate response phase of the disaster. The Charter also has agreements with Sentinel Asia to submit activation requests on behalf of its 30+ member countries and the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs (UN OOSA) and United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)/ United Nations Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT) to submit activations on behalf of United Nations relief agencies such as UNICEF and UNOCHA. To further expand accessibility to the Charter Member Agency resources, the Charter has implemented the Universal Access initiative, which allows any country's disaster management authority to submit an application, attend a brief training session, and after successful completion, become an Authorized User able to submit activation requests without assistance from Member Agencies. The data provided by the Charter is used for many purposes including damage assessments, reference maps, evacuation route planning, search and rescue operations, decision maker briefings, scientific evaluations, and other response activities.

  12. Companion Animals, Natural Disasters and the Law: An Australian Perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steven White

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available This article examines the regulation of companion animal welfare during disasters, with some context provided by two recent major disaster events in Australia. Important general lessons for improved disaster management were identified in subsequent inquiries. However, the interests of companion animals continue to be inadequately addressed. This is because key assumptions underpinning disaster planning for companion animals—the primacy of human interests over animal interests and that individuals will properly address companion animal needs during times of disaster—are open to question. In particular these assumptions fail to recognise the inherent value of companion animals, underestimate the strong bond shared by some owners and their animals and, at the same time, overestimate the capacity of some owners to adequately meet the needs of their animals.

  13. WIN Chapters: Milestones and Future Plans

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Castro, P.; Pelegrí, M.

    2015-07-01

    In this paper the WIN Chapters: milestones and future plans are presented. WIN-IAEA has rewarded-in the three last years - to Australia-2014, South-Africa-2013 and Sweden-2012. WIN-Global -specially WiN IAEA- can collaborate a lot with the CTBTO presenting the content of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons actually increasing the signatory members in 2015. Historical decisions on NTP are already affecting WiN IAEA. The research reactors or high flux reactors are important in the field of medical applications and other future applications. In Australia women-scientist of OPAL, can become WiN. Between the OPAL applications there is a production of silicon plates to be used in laptops/mobiles. WIN-Europe activities related with the climatic change and with the academic promotion. 2015 is also a very important year due the celebration of 20th Anniversary of WIN-Spain; plans of this Chapter and Conferences of WIN-Global are presented. In addition there are women working in ITER, in some activities in the EU, China, India, Japan, South Korea, USA and Russia both in the academic (R+D) field and into the Industry. (Author)

  14. Weather, climate and the future : B.C.'s plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2004-12-01

    This plan lays the groundwork for a comprehensive long-term response to climate change in British Columbia (BC). Three key objectives were identified: decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and reducing vulnerability to future climate change; contributing to BC's economic revitalization by improving energy efficiency and supporting development of market opportunities; and ensuring BC's interests are protected in the implementation of national climate policies. A summary of actions was provided in the areas of sustainable energy production and sustainable forest management. Outlines of the government's plans to provide support to the BC Agriculture Council were also provided along with plans concerning infrastructure and the ways in which climate change will be incorporated into transportation planning and investment strategies. A list of government leadership and outreach actions was given, as well as details of water management plans. It was concluded that further policy developments will be required in incremental forest sinks, energy efficiency, bioenergy and fuel cell technology. Improved urban development and performance targets are necessary for public buildings. It was noted that regulatory changes to provide further incentives in these areas are necessary. Partnerships between the private sector, federal, local and regional governments will be essential for the future success of this plan. tabs., figs

  15. A Method for Formulizing Disaster Evacuation Demand Curves Based on SI Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yulei Song

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The prediction of evacuation demand curves is a crucial step in the disaster evacuation plan making, which directly affects the performance of the disaster evacuation. In this paper, we discuss the factors influencing individual evacuation decision making (whether and when to leave and summarize them into four kinds: individual characteristics, social influence, geographic location, and warning degree. In the view of social contagion of decision making, a method based on Susceptible-Infective (SI model is proposed to formulize the disaster evacuation demand curves to address both social influence and other factors’ effects. The disaster event of the “Tianjin Explosions” is used as a case study to illustrate the modeling results influenced by the four factors and perform the sensitivity analyses of the key parameters of the model. Some interesting phenomena are found and discussed, which is meaningful for authorities to make specific evacuation plans. For example, due to the lower social influence in isolated communities, extra actions might be taken to accelerate evacuation process in those communities.

  16. Risk assessment of storm surge disaster based on numerical models and remote sensing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Qingrong; Ruan, Chengqing; Zhong, Shan; Li, Jian; Yin, Zhonghui; Lian, Xihu

    2018-06-01

    Storm surge is one of the most serious ocean disasters in the world. Risk assessment of storm surge disaster for coastal areas has important implications for planning economic development and reducing disaster losses. Based on risk assessment theory, this paper uses coastal hydrological observations, a numerical storm surge model and multi-source remote sensing data, proposes methods for valuing hazard and vulnerability for storm surge and builds a storm surge risk assessment model. Storm surges in different recurrence periods are simulated in numerical models and the flooding areas and depth are calculated, which are used for assessing the hazard of storm surge; remote sensing data and GIS technology are used for extraction of coastal key objects and classification of coastal land use are identified, which is used for vulnerability assessment of storm surge disaster. The storm surge risk assessment model is applied for a typical coastal city, and the result shows the reliability and validity of the risk assessment model. The building and application of storm surge risk assessment model provides some basis reference for the city development plan and strengthens disaster prevention and mitigation.

  17. Demographic Analysis and Planning for the Future. No. 13.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Efird, Cathy M.

    The basic sources and types of demographic data available for future planning for the developmentally disabled are reviewed and a frame work for data organization is suggested. It is explained that future forecasts may be undertaken by the following principles: trend forecasting or extrapolation; scenario construction; models, games, and…

  18. Relationships Between Future Orientation, Impulsive Sensation Seeking, and Risk Behavior Among Adjudicated Adolescents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robbins, Reuben N.; Bryan, Angela

    2004-01-01

    Because of high levels of risk behavior, adjudicated adolescents are at high risk for negative health outcomes such as nicotine and drug addiction and sexually transmitted diseases. The goal of this article is to examine relationships between future orientation and impulsive-sensation-seeking personality constructs to risk behaviors among 300…

  19. The Department of Defense's Role in Disaster Recovery

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Arn, Mark R

    2006-01-01

    ... logistical operations on a moment's notice." This paper will examine the historical role of the armed forces in disaster management, the current response plans as well as existing legislation that employ the Department of Defense (DoD...

  20. Living with risk. A global review of disaster reduction initiatives. Preliminary version

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2002-01-01

    In recent years the world has witnessed an interminable succession of disasters - floods, storms, earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions and wildfires that have claimed many thousands of lives, caused material losses in the tens of billions of dollars, and inflicted a terrible toll on developing countries in particular, where disasters divert attention and resources needed desperately to escape poverty. Communities will always face natural hazards, but today's disasters are often generated by, or at least exacerbated by, human activities. At the most dramatic level, human activities are changing the natural balance of the earth, interfering as never before with the atmosphere, the oceans, the polar ice caps, the forest cover and the natural pillars that make our world a livable home. But we are also putting ourselves in harm's way in less visible ways. At no time in human history have so many people lived in cities clustered around seismically active areas. Destitution and demographic pressure have led more people than ever before to live in flood plains or in areas prone to landslides. Poor land-use planning; environmental mismanagement; and a lack of regulatory mechanisms both increase the risk and exacerbate the effects of disasters. Living with risk: a global review of disaster reduction is the first comprehensive effort by the United Nations system to take stock of disaster reduction initiatives throughout the world. Coordinated by the secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), the report discusses current disaster trends, assesses policies aimed at mitigating the impact of disasters, and offers examples of successful initiatives. It also recommends that risk reduction be integrated into sustainable development at all levels - global, national and local. Most of all, Living with risk shows that we are far from helpless in the face of natural hazards. Early warning and risk reduction measures have been important factors in

  1. [Disaster nursing and primary school teachers' disaster-related healthcare knowledge and skills].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lai, Fu-Chih; Lei, Hsin-Min; Fang, Chao-Ming; Chen, Jiun-Jung; Chen, Bor-An

    2012-06-01

    The World Bank has ranked Taiwan as the 5th highest risk country in the world in terms of full-spectrum disaster risk. With volatile social, economic, and geologic environments and the real threat of typhoons, earthquakes, and nuclear disasters, the government has made a public appeal to raise awareness and reduce the impact of disasters. Disasters not only devastate property and the ecology, but also cause striking and long-lasting impacts on life and health. Thus, healthcare preparation and capabilities are critical to reducing their impact. Relevant disaster studies indicate children as a particularly vulnerable group during a disaster due to elevated risks of physical injury, infectious disease, malnutrition, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Primary school teachers are frontline educators, responders, and rehabilitators, respectively, prior to, during, and after disasters. The disaster prevention project implemented by the Taiwan Ministry of Education provides national guidelines for disaster prevention and education. However, within these guidelines, the focus of elementary school disaster prevention education is on disaster prevention and mitigation. Little guidance or focus has been given to disaster nursing response protocols necessary to handle issues such as post-disaster infectious diseases, chronic disease management, and psychological health and rehabilitation. Disaster nursing can strengthen the disaster healthcare response capabilities of school teachers, school nurses, and children as well as facilitate effective cooperation among communities, disaster relief institutes, and schools. Disaster nursing can also provide healthcare knowledge essential to increase disaster awareness, preparation, response, and rehabilitation. Implementing proper disaster nursing response protocols in Taiwan's education system is critical to enhancing disaster preparedness in Taiwan.

  2. FFTF-cycle 10 program and future plan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kohyama, Akira

    1988-04-01

    Brief outlines are provided of the FFTF cycle 10 program and future plans in consideration. The primary objective of the Japan-US collaboration program is to enable predictions of material behavior in MFRs to be made from data obtained in other irradiation environments. Major program goals are outlined.

  3. The influence of future-oriented technology analysis: addressing the Cassandra challenge

    OpenAIRE

    JOHNSTON Ron; CAGNIN Cristiano

    2011-01-01

    This paper is based on a series of interviews with nine leading researchers conducted during the Future-Oriented Technology Analysis International Conference held in Seville on 16–17 October 2008. Analysis of these interviews paints a picture of FTA as an increasingly important approach being adopted in many countries to address the many challenges which are emerging at this time in human history. From this are drawn implications for the community of FTA practitioners. The biggest challenge i...

  4. Evaluation of Law no. 6306 on Transformation of Areas under Disaster Risk from Perspective of Public Spaces – Gezi Park Case

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sezen Tarakçı

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Throughout history, cities have offered a place for freedom and accommodated differences. Ideological and social developments have taken place in urban spaces where differences, different cultures and ideologies gathered together. Therefore, significant attention should be paid to public-oriented planning and design of urban spaces in the face of social segregation and disintegration experienced in cities. However, cities inTurkeyare mostly transformed under the pressure of international and national capital. The most recent legal instrument governing urban redevelopment, the Law no. 6306 on Transformation of Areas under Disaster Risk contains quite controversial provisions relating to many paradigms. Its uncertainty over public property and public spaces, and the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning as the sole authority in this field leave all the public spaces at “risk”.GeziPark, a ‘saved’ public space in the backdrop of protests, is still exposed to risks of being stripped off its public nature. This study browses through the literature on public spaces and urban redevelopment, while evaluating the Law no. 6306 on Transformation of Areas under Disaster Risk. It goes on to evaluateGeziParkevents, from the perspective of these experiences and the interviews conducted thereafter. The study concludes how actually the aforementioned Law may itself pose risks for our public spaces.

  5. Psychotherapeutic and work-oriented interventions: employment outcomes among young adults with work disability due to a mental disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mattila-Holappa, Pauliina; Joensuu, Matti; Ahola, Kirsi; Koskinen, Aki; Tuisku, Katinka; Ervasti, Jenni; Virtanen, Marianna

    2016-01-01

    We examined the extent to which psychotherapeutic and work-oriented interventions were included in a medical treatment and rehabilitation plan and whether they predicted future employment among young adults with work disability due to a mental disorder. Data were obtained from the treatment and rehabilitation plans of 1163 young adults aged 18‒34 years, who in 2008 were granted fixed-term work disability compensation due to a mental disorder and were followed for 5 years. Forty-six percent had no proposal for psychotherapy or a work-oriented intervention in their treatment and rehabilitation plan, 22 % had a plan for only a psychotherapeutic intervention, 23 % had a plan for only a work-oriented intervention, and 10 % had both types of interventions planned. Having a planned psychotherapeutic intervention (HR = 1.35, 95 % CI 1.07-1.69) and of the work-oriented interventions, planned rehabilitative courses and training (HR = 1.34, 95 % CI 1.03-1.70) predicted quicker entry into competitive employment. Having a plan for both a psychotherapeutic and work-oriented intervention was associated with being employed at the end of the follow-up (OR = 1.77, 95 % CI 1.07-2.95). Young adults with a long-term psychiatric work disability episode rarely have a recorded plan for rehabilitation in their treatment and rehabilitation plan although psychotherapeutic interventions and a combination of a psychotherapeutic and work-oriented intervention might help them gain employment.

  6. Survey of Hospital Employees' Personal Preparedness and Willingness to Work Following a Disaster.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brice, Jane H; Gregg, David; Sawyer, Dalton; Cyr, Julianne M

    2017-08-01

    Little is known about the personal readiness of hospital staff for disasters. As many as 30% of hospital staff say that they plan not to report for work during a large-scale disaster. We sought to understand the personal disaster preparedness for hospital staff. Surveys were distributed to the staff of a large academic tertiary-care hospital by either a paper-based version distributed through the departmental safety coordinators or a Web-based version distributed through employee e-mail services, depending on employee familiarity with and access to computer services. Surveys assessed the demographic variables and characteristics of personal readiness for disaster. Of the individuals who accessed the survey, 1334 (95.9%) enrolled in it. Women made up 75% of the respondents, with a mean age of 43 years. Respondents had worked at the hospital an average of 9 years, with the majority (90%) being full-time employees. Most households (93%) reported ≤4 members, 6% supported a person with special medical needs, and 17% were headed by a single parent. A small number (24%) of respondents reported an established meeting place for reuniting households during a disaster. Many reported stockpiling a 3-day supply of food (86%) and a 3-day supply of water (51%). Eighteen percent of respondents were not aware of workplace evacuation plans. Most respondents were willing to report to work for natural disasters (eg, tornado, snowstorm; all categories >65%), but fewer respondents were willing to report during events such as an influenza epidemic (54%), a biological outbreak (41%), a chemical exposure, (40%), or a radiation exposure (39%). Multivariate analysis revealed being female, having a child in the household younger than 6 years old, and having a child in school lowered the likelihood of being willing to report to work in two or more event types, whereas pet ownership, being a clinical healthcare worker, and being familiar with the work emergency plan increased the likelihood

  7. Learning from mega disasters

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Greve, Anni

    In Tokyo building on ruins has been its sine qua non ever since the city turned into an enormous urban formation in the seventeenth century: ‘The trauma of urban collapse has been so severe for us in Japan, the inevitability of destruction and rebirth’ (Arate Isozaki 2006 ). But March 2011...... the earthquake was 45 times as great as the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake in the Tokyo area, which killed approximately 140.000 people. Even though Japan is considered one of the best-prepared countries in the world for handling major disasters the reality of a large nuclear disaster proved to be far worse than...... what was planned for. This paper presentation discusses “The Great East Japan Earthquake” of 2011 with particular focus on what happens to social relations and cultural norms, when uncertainty and crisis is something people are living through and living in....

  8. Call for action for setting up an infectious disease control action plan for disaster area activities: learning from the experience of checking suffering volunteers in the field after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takahashi, Kenzo; Kodama, Mitsuya; Kanda, Hideyuki

    2013-12-01

    After the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11th, 2011, a journalist visited the disaster area with febrile symptoms and was diagnosed with measles of the D genotype, which is not indigenous to Japan. After continuing activities in disaster areas and Tokyo, 11 measles cases were reported, some of which were identified as genotype D. Meanwhile non-profit activities directed towards volunteers were offered including interviews to screen for subjective symptoms, check body temperature and advise volunteers to refrain from working in shelter areas during the period of sickness. As a consequence, disease transmission was controlled among volunteers. In disaster areas, anyone can be an infection vector. In order to prevent transmission of infectious diseases, a field action plan, which includes body temperature checks and standard precautions should be formulated and put into place. If the action plans are shared among local governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), they can become a norm and be expected to control infectious disease transmission.

  9. Escaping the impulse to immediate gratification: the prospect concept promotes a future-oriented mindset, prompting an inclination towards delayed gratification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Ying-Yao; Shein, Paichi Pat; Chiou, Wen-Bin

    2012-02-01

    People's willingness to postpone receiving an immediate reward in order to gain additional benefits in the future, that is, a tendency to shallow delay discounting, is closely related to one's health, wealth, and happiness. We conducted two experiments investigating how the prospect concept can induce a future-oriented mindset and induce people to behave accordingly. We found that engaging in prospective imagery led the participants to focus on delayed utility over immediate utility in financial decisions (Experiment 1). Participants who received the prospect prime via a scrambled-sentence task decreased their desire to pursue hedonic activities for instant gratification (Experiment 2). Moreover, a state of future orientation mediated the effect of the prospect prime on measures of delayed gratification (Experiments 1 and 2). Thus, reminders of prospect may activate a mindset for future orientation by which delayed gratification is strengthened. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

  10. Insuring against earthquakes: simulating the cost-effectiveness of disaster preparedness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Hoop, Thomas; Ruben, Ruerd

    2010-04-01

    Ex-ante measures to improve risk preparedness for natural disasters are generally considered to be more effective than ex-post measures. Nevertheless, most resources are allocated after an event in geographical areas that are vulnerable to natural disasters. This paper analyses the cost-effectiveness of ex-ante adaptation measures in the wake of earthquakes and provides an assessment of the future role of private and public agencies in disaster risk management. The study uses a simulation model approach to evaluate consumption losses after earthquakes under different scenarios of intervention. Particular attention is given to the role of activity diversification measures in enhancing disaster preparedness and the contributions of (targeted) microcredit and education programmes for reconstruction following a disaster. Whereas the former measures are far more cost-effective, missing markets and perverse incentives tend to make ex-post measures a preferred option, thus occasioning underinvestment in ex-ante adaptation initiatives.

  11. The CEOS Global Observation Strategy for Disaster Risk Management: An Enterprise Architect's View

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moe, K.; Evans, J. D.; Frye, S.

    2013-12-01

    disaster reduction - Reduce redundancies and gaps in inter-organizational systems - Assist in planning / managing / prioritizing information and computing resources - Adapt computational resources to new technologies or evolving user needs - Sustain capability for the long term Insights from this exercise are helping us to abstract best practices applicable to other contexts, disaster types, and disaster phases, whereby local communities can improve their use of satellite data for greater preparedness. This effort is also helping to assess the likely impacts and roles of emerging technologies (such as cloud computing, "Big Data" analysis, location-based services, crowdsourcing, semantic services, small satellites, drones, direct broadcast, or model webs) in future disaster management activities.

  12. Planning Schools for the Future. Publication No. BM-1.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weinberger, JoAnn

    In a three-year study, Research for Better Schools (RBS) was asked by the National Institute of Education to identify, analyze, and verify definitive social changes forecast for the decades ahead, and to project their implications for schools of the future. RBS reviewed the literature to extract future planning needs relevant to educational…

  13. Disaster-Proofing Senior Leadership: Preventing Technological Failure in Future Nano-War

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-02-01

    then goes on to provide concrete ways to steer around each of the decision-making potholes. Chapter six gives recommendations for disaster-proofing...like China and Russia have become more translucent as they open up their borders to new trade opportunities brought forth by globalization. If former

  14. Major Natural Disasters in China, 1985-2014: Occurrence and Damages.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Weixiao; Liang, Chen; Jiang, Baofa; Ma, Wei; Zhang, Ying

    2016-11-10

    This study aimed to describe the characteristics of natural disasters and associated losses from 1985 to 2014. The Mann-Kendall method was used to detect any long-term trends and abrupt changes. Hotspot analysis was conducted to detect the spatial clusters of disasters. We found an increasing trend in the occurrence of integrated natural disasters ( tau = 0.594 , p natural disasters in 1998-2000. Hotspots of droughts, floods, landslides and storms were identified in central, southern, southwest and southeast areas of China, respectively. Annual deaths from integrated natural disasters were decreasing (tau = -0.237, p = 0.068) at about 32 persons/year, decreasing at 17 persons/year for floods ( tau = -0.154, p = 0.239), and decreasing at approximately 12 persons/year for storms ( tau = -0.338, p = 0.009). No significant trend was detected in inflation-adjusted damages while a declining trend was detected in the ratio of year damage against GDP (gross domestic product). In conclusion, there has been an increasing trend in occurrence of natural disasters in China with the absence of an increase in life and economic losses. Despite the progress in the disaster adaption, there will be great challenges in disaster control for China in the future.

  15. Coping with a fast-changing world: Towards new systems of future-oriented technology analysis

    OpenAIRE

    Weber, K. Matthias; Harper, Jennifer Cassingena; Könnölä, Totti; Carabias Barceló, Vicente

    2017-01-01

    Transformations linked to disruptive events are causing a shift in future-oriented technology analysis (FTA) activities from individual large-scale foresight actions to smaller in-house exercises and capacity building. The reasons are manifold relating to the need for an even tighter embedding of FTA in policy-making in a fast-changing complex environment as well as to internal drivers for novel forms of future intelligence to support coordinated and coherent decisions within and across organ...

  16. Non-structural Components influencing Hospital Disaster Preparedness in Malaysia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samsuddin, N. M.; Takim, R.; Nawawi, A. H.; Rosman, M. R.; SyedAlwee, S. N. A.

    2018-04-01

    Hospital disaster preparedness refers to measures taken by the hospital’s stakeholders to prepare, reduce the effects of disaster and ensure effective coordination during incident response. Among the measures, non-structural components (i.e., medical laboratory equipment & supplies; architectural; critical lifeline; external; updated building document; and equipment & furnishing) are critical towards hospital disaster preparedness. Nevertheless, over the past few years these components are badly affected due to various types of disasters. Hence, the objective of this paper is to investigate the non-structural components influencing hospital’s disaster preparedness. Cross-sectional survey was conducted among thirty-one (31) Malaysian hospital’s employees. A total of 6 main constructs with 107 non-structural components were analysed and ranked by using SPSS and Relative Importance Index (RII). The results revealed that 6 main constructs (i.e. medical laboratory equipment & supplies; architectural; critical lifeline; external; updated building document; and equipment & furnishing) are rated as ‘very critical’ by the respondents. Among others, availability of medical laboratory equipment and supplies for diagnostic and equipment was ranked first. The results could serve as indicators for the public hospitals to improve its disaster preparedness in terms of planning, organising, knowledge training, equipment, exercising, evaluating and corrective actions through non-structural components.

  17. Impacts and Implications of Future-oriented Technology Analysis for Policy and Decision Making

    OpenAIRE

    SARITAS Ozcan; CAGNIN CRISTIANO; HAVAS Attila; MILES Ian

    2009-01-01

    Most of the papers in this special issue were presented at the Third International Seville Conference on Future-Oriented Technology Analysis (FTA) that took place in October 2008. They address a wide variety of issues in FTA including methods and policy and governance impacts with discussions and demonstrations at the regional and corporate levels.

  18. The Design of Data Disaster Recovery of National Fundamental Geographic Information System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhai, Y.; Chen, J.; Liu, L.; Liu, J.

    2014-04-01

    With the development of information technology, data security of information system is facing more and more challenges. The geographic information of surveying and mapping is fundamental and strategic resource, which is applied in all areas of national economic, defence and social development. It is especially vital to national and social interests when such classified geographic information is directly concerning Chinese sovereignty. Several urgent problems that needs to be resolved for surveying and mapping are how to do well in mass data storage and backup, establishing and improving the disaster backup system especially after sudden natural calamity accident, and ensuring all sectors rapidly restored on information system will operate correctly. For overcoming various disaster risks, protect the security of data and reduce the impact of the disaster, it's no doubt the effective way is to analysis and research on the features of storage and management and security requirements, as well as to ensure that the design of data disaster recovery system suitable for the surveying and mapping. This article analyses the features of fundamental geographic information data and the requirements of storage management, three site disaster recovery system of DBMS plan based on the popular network, storage and backup, data replication and remote switch of application technologies. In LAN that synchronous replication between database management servers and the local storage of backup management systems, simultaneously, remote asynchronous data replication between local storage backup management systems and remote database management servers. The core of the system is resolving local disaster in the remote site, ensuring data security and business continuity of local site. This article focuses on the following points: background, the necessity of disaster recovery system, the analysis of the data achievements and data disaster recovery plan. Features of this program is to use a

  19. Adolescents' Religiousness and Substance Use Are Linked via Afterlife Beliefs and Future Orientation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holmes, Christopher; Kim-Spoon, Jungmeen

    2017-01-01

    Although religiousness has been identified as a protective factor against adolescent substance use, processes through which these effects may operate are unclear. The current longitudinal study examined sequential mediation of afterlife beliefs and future orientation in the relation between adolescent religiousness and cigarette, alcohol, and…

  20. Patterns and Limitations of Urban Human Mobility Resilience under the Influence of Multiple Types of Natural Disaster.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Qi; Taylor, John E

    2016-01-01

    Natural disasters pose serious threats to large urban areas, therefore understanding and predicting human movements is critical for evaluating a population's vulnerability and resilience and developing plans for disaster evacuation, response and relief. However, only limited research has been conducted into the effect of natural disasters on human mobility. This study examines how natural disasters influence human mobility patterns in urban populations using individuals' movement data collected from Twitter. We selected fifteen destructive cases across five types of natural disaster and analyzed the human movement data before, during, and after each event, comparing the perturbed and steady state movement data. The results suggest that the power-law can describe human mobility in most cases and that human mobility patterns observed in steady states are often correlated with those in perturbed states, highlighting their inherent resilience. However, the quantitative analysis shows that this resilience has its limits and can fail in more powerful natural disasters. The findings from this study will deepen our understanding of the interaction between urban dwellers and civil infrastructure, improve our ability to predict human movement patterns during natural disasters, and facilitate contingency planning by policymakers.

  1. The lesson of the Chernobyl disaster

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Milhaud, G.

    1991-01-01

    On april 26, 1986 a major nuclear disaster took place at 1 h 24 min local time, destroying the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl plant. Five years later the consequences of the disaster are still not fully known. Nevertheless the long term future of nuclear energy in the world is uncertain. Questions need to be answered by observing hard facts if emotional attitudes are not to prevail over reality. The reactor and its core were destroyed by an explosion, causing two radioactive jet emissions of iodine 131, followed by caesium 137. Both elements are mainly incorporated in the body via food. The Chernobyl disaster was a consequence of inadequate safety regulations and human error. Enforcement of strict regulations are likely to be highly effective in preventing a further catastrophe. However, governments should consider another possibility. What would be the consequences for public health if a terroristic act deliberately destroyed a nuclear power station

  2. Optimization Modeling and Decision Support for Wireless Infrastructure Deployment in Disaster Planning and Management

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bartolacci, Michael R.; Mihovska, Albena D.; Ozceylan, Dilek

    2013-01-01

    Natural disasters and emergencies create the need for communication between and among the affected populace and emergency responders as well as other parties such as governmental agencies and aid organizations. Such communications include the dissemination of key information such as evacuation...... orders and locations of emergency shelters. In particular, the coordination of efforts between responding organizations require additional communication solutions that typically rely heavily on wireless communications to complement fixed line infrastructure due to the ease of use and portability. While...... the deployment of temporary mobile networks and other wireless equipment following disasters has been successfully accomplished by governmental agencies and network providers following previous disasters, there appears to be little optimization effort involved with respect to maximizing key performance measures...

  3. A Longitudinal Analysis of the Indirect Effect of Violence Exposure on Future Orientation Through Perceived Stress and the Buffering Effect of Family Participation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidt, Carissa J; Zimmerman, Marc A; Stoddard, Sarah A

    2018-06-07

    Exposure to violence (ETV) during adolescence has been associated with negative effects in later life, and may negatively affect an individual's future orientation. Future orientation has important health implications and warrants being studied. Yet, few researchers have examined how ETV affects an individual's future orientation as a young adult. The purpose of this study was to examine the indirect effect of ETV during adolescence on future orientation as a young adult through perceived stress. We also tested the moderating effect of family participation on the relationship between perceived stress and future orientation. Longitudinal data from a sample of 316 African American participants (42.10% male and 57.90% female, Mage = 14.76 at Wave 1) from low socioeconomic backgrounds recruited from a Midwestern school district were used in the analysis. Multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test our hypotheses. Our findings indicated that greater ETV during adolescence is associated with higher levels of perceived stress and, in turn, a more negative outlook on one's future as a young adult. This indirect effect occurred for individuals with lower family participation, but was not evident for individuals with greater family participation. These findings provide important implications for youth development interventions. © Society for Community Research and Action 2018.

  4. Risk analysis and evaluation of agricultural drought disaster in the major grain-producing areas, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zongtang Xie

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The analysis and evaluation of agricultural drought risk can assist in reducing regional disasters and agricultural drought losses. Because of the uncertainties and incomplete agricultural drought information, this paper employed an information diffusion technology and information matrix to identify a drought disaster risk distribution and to quantify the relationship between the annual drought-affected rate and the grain production losses in China's major grain-producing areas. From the assessment results, provincial drought disaster risk spatial distribution maps for each major grain-producing area in China were obtained. These risk patterns showed that the probability of drought fell when the annual drought-covered rate and the annual drought-affected rate increased, and that the high risk areas were located primarily in China's northern and central provinces. These results can provide the basis for the development of effective drought mitigation strategies which would be able to inform possible drought situations and allow for easier decision-making on drought resistance strategies. The fuzzy relationship between the annual drought-affected rate and the drought-caused grain production losses provides vital information for the development of disaster compensation plans. Furthermore, the results of this study indicated that the proposed methods had superior detection stability and higher precision. We hope that by conducting such agricultural drought risk analysis, the results are able to provide the basis for the development of drought mitigation strategies to reduce future losses.

  5. The importance of secondary trauma exposure for post-disaster mental disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kessler, R C; McLaughlin, K A; Koenen, K C; Petukhova, M; Hill, E D

    2012-03-01

    Interventions to treat mental disorders after natural disasters are important both for humanitarian reasons and also for successful post-disaster physical reconstruction that depends on the psychological functioning of the affected population. A major difficulty in developing such interventions, however, is that large between-disaster variation exists in the prevalence of post-disaster mental disorders, making it difficult to estimate need for services in designing interventions without carrying out a post-disaster mental health needs assessment survey. One of the daunting methodological challenges in implementing such surveys is that secondary stressors unique to the disaster often need to be discovered to understand the magnitude, type, and population segments most affected by post-disaster mental disorders. This problem is examined in the current commentary by analyzing data from the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys. We analyze the extent to which people exposed to natural disasters throughout the world also experienced secondary stressors and the extent to which the mental disorders associated with disasters were more proximally due to these secondary stressors than to the disasters themselves. RESULTS. Lifetime exposure to natural disasters was found to be high across countries (4.4-7.5%). 10.7-11.4% of those exposed to natural disasters reported the occurrence of other related stressors (e.g. death of a loved one and destruction of property). A monotonic relationship was found between the number of additional stressors and the subsequent onset of mental disorders CONCLUSIONS. These results document the importance of secondary stressors in accounting for the effects of natural disasters on mental disorders. Implications for intervention planning are discussed.

  6. Disaster mythology and fact: Hurricane Katrina and social attachment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacob, Binu; Mawson, Anthony R; Payton, Marinelle; Guignard, John C

    2008-01-01

    Misconceptions about disasters and their social and health consequences remain prevalent despite considerable research evidence to the contrary. Eight such myths and their factual counterparts were reviewed in a classic report on the public health impact of disasters by Claude de Ville de Goyet entitled, The Role of WHO in Disaster Management: Relief, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction (Geneva, World Health Organization, 1991), and two additional myths and facts were added by Pan American Health Organization. In this article, we reconsider these myths and facts in relation to Hurricane Katrina, with particular emphasis on psychosocial needs and behaviors, based on data gleaned from scientific sources as well as printed and electronic media reports. The review suggests that preparedness plans for disasters involving forced mass evacuation and resettlement should place a high priority on keeping families together--and even entire neighborhoods, where possible--so as to preserve the familiar and thereby minimize the adverse effects of separation and major dislocation on mental and physical health.

  7. Post Disaster Assessment with Decision Support System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    May Florence J. Franco

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available The study aimed to develop an online system that would expedite the response of agencies after disaster strikes; generate a list of the kinds and volume of relief aids needed per family affected for a fair, precise and timely distribution; implement community-based ICT by remotely gathering all the necessary data needed for disaster assessment; and adhere to ISO 9126 standards. The system was designed to calculate the effects of disaster in human lives and economy. Integrated into the system were Goggle Maps, Mines and GeoSciences Bureau Hazard Maps, SMS sending features, best passable routes calculations, and decision support on the needs that has to be addressed. The system was made live at pdrrmcguimaras.herokuapp.com to allow remote data entry. The functionality and usability of the system were evaluated by 19 potential users by computing for the arithmetic Mean and Standard Deviation of the survey. The result showed that most of them strongly agreed that the system is acceptable based on these criteria. A group of IT experts also evaluated the system’s conformance to ISO 9126 standards using the same method. The result showed that majority of them strongly agreed that the system conforms to this international standard. The system is seen as a valuable tool for the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (PDRRMC and the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC for it could help expedite the assessment of the effects of disasters and the formulation of response plans and strategies.

  8. Energy future Santa Cruz: A citizens' plan for energy self-reliance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohn, J.; Stayton, R.

    The results of a grassroots energy conservation project which involved more than 3,100 residents of Santa Cruz, California, is discussed. Citizens attended forums and town meetings to suggest ideas for solving the community's energy problems. These ideas were then evaluated by the Energy Future Advisory Board and compiled into the Energy Future Plan. The energy plan covers such topics as new residences, residential retrofit, automobile efficiency, farm efficiency, commercial greenhouses, local food production, commercial efficiency, land use planning, energy education and financing, and solar, wind, and ocean energy. An energy implementation guide and glossary are included.

  9. Does future-oriented thinking predict adolescent decision making?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eskritt, Michelle; Doucette, Jesslyn; Robitaille, Lori

    2014-01-01

    A number of theorists, as well as plain common sense, suggest that future-oriented thinking (FOT) should be involved in decision making; therefore, the development of FOT should be related to better quality decision making. FOT and quality of the decision making were measured in adolescents as well as adults in 2 different experiments. Though the results of the first experiment revealed an increase in quality of decision making across adolescence into adulthood, there was no relationship between FOT and decision making. In the second experiment, FOT predicted performance on a more deliberative decision-making task independent of age, but not performance on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Performance on the IGT was instead related to emotion regulation. The study's findings suggest that FOT can be related to reflective decision making but not necessarily decision making that is more intuitive.

  10. Optimism and Planning for Future Care Needs among Older Adults

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sörensen, Silvia; Hirsch, Jameson K.; Lyness, Jeffrey M.

    2015-01-01

    Aging is associated with an increase in need for assistance. Preparation for future care (PFC) is related to improved coping ability as well as better mental and physical health outcomes among older adults. We examined the association of optimism with components of PFC among older adults. We also explored race differences in the relationship between optimism and PFC. In Study 1, multiple regression showed that optimism was positively related to concrete planning. In Study 2, optimism was related to gathering information. An exploratory analysis combining the samples yielded a race interaction: For Whites higher optimism, but for Blacks lower optimism was associated with more planning. High optimism may be a barrier to future planning in certain social and cultural contexts. PMID:26045699

  11. Learning Strategic Planning from Australian and New Zealand University Experience

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Anfu

    2014-01-01

    Initiating a strategic development plan is necessary for universities to be managed scientifically; a university's strategic development plan includes both the educational philosophy and development orientation as determined by the university, including the future reallocation of resources and measures for their integration. The development…

  12. Special populations: care of the critically ill and injured during pandemics and disasters: CHEST consensus statement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dries, David; Reed, Mary Jane; Kissoon, Niranjan; Christian, Michael D; Dichter, Jeffrey R; Devereaux, Asha V; Upperman, Jeffrey S

    2014-10-01

    Past disasters have highlighted the need to prepare for subsets of critically ill, medically fragile patients. These special patient populations require focused disaster planning that will address their medical needs throughout the event to prevent clinical deterioration. The suggestions in this article are important for all who are involved in large-scale disasters or pandemics with multiple critically ill or injured patients, including frontline clinicians, hospital administrators, and public health or government officials. Key questions regarding the care of critically ill or injured special populations during disasters or pandemics were identified, and a systematic literature review (1985-2013) was performed. No studies of sufficient quality were identified. Therefore, the panel developed expert opinion-based suggestions using a modified Delphi process. The panel did not include pediatrics as a separate special population because pediatrics issues are embedded in each consensus document. Fourteen suggestions were formulated regarding the care of critically ill and injured patients from special populations during pandemics and disasters. The suggestions cover the following areas: defining special populations for mass critical care, special population planning, planning for access to regionalized service for special populations, triage and resource allocation of special populations, therapeutic considerations, and crisis standards of care for special populations. Chronically ill, technologically dependent, and complex critically ill patients present a unique challenge to preparing and implementing mass critical care. There are, however, unique opportunities to engage patients, primary physicians, advocacy groups, and professional organizations to lessen the impact of disaster on these special populations.

  13. Choosing the Future You Prefer. A Goal Setting Guide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindaman, Edward B.; Lippitt, Ronald O.

    The guide, intended for group and organization leaders, presents activities and exercises to aid in personal and group goal-setting and planning for the future. The objective is to help groups choose goals which are sensitive to and oriented toward the evolving future with its rapid rate of change. The guide is presented in eight chapters.…

  14. Committee Opinion No. 726: Hospital Disaster Preparedness for Obstetricians and Facilities Providing Maternity Care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-12-01

    Large-scale catastrophic events and infectious disease outbreaks highlight the need for disaster planning at all community levels. Features unique to the obstetric population (including antepartum, intrapartum, postpartum and neonatal care) warrant special consideration in the event of a disaster. Pregnancy increases the risks of untoward outcomes from various infectious diseases. Trauma during pregnancy presents anatomic and physiologic considerations that often can require increased use of resources such as higher rates of cesarean delivery. Recent evidence suggests that floods and human-influenced environmental disasters increase the risks of spontaneous miscarriages, preterm births, and low-birth-weight infants among pregnant women. The potential surge in maternal and neonatal patient volume due to mass-casualty events, transfer of high-acuity patients, or redirection of patients because of geographic barriers presents unique challenges for obstetric care facilities. These circumstances require that facilities plan for additional increases in necessary resources and staffing. Although emergencies may be unexpected, hospitals and obstetric delivery units can prepare to implement plans that will best serve maternal and pediatric care needs when disasters occur. Clear designation of levels of maternal and neonatal care facilities, along with establishment of a regional network incorporating hospitals that provide maternity services and those that do not, will enable rapid transport of obstetric patients to the appropriate facilities, ensuring the right care at the right time. Using common terminology for triage and transfer and advanced knowledge of regionalization and levels of care will facilitate disaster preparedness.

  15. Combining Landform Thematic Layer and Object-Oriented Image Analysis to Map the Surface Features of Mountainous Flood Plain Areas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chuang, H.-K.; Lin, M.-L.; Huang, W.-C.

    2012-04-01

    mitigation. In this study, an automatic and fast image interpretation process for eight surface features including main channel, secondary channel, sandbar, flood plain, river terrace, alluvial fan, landslide, and the nearby artificial structures in the mountainous flood plain is proposed. Images along timelines can even be compared in order to differentiate historical events such as village inundations, failure of roads, bridges and levees, as well as alternation of watercourse, and therefore can be used as references for safety evaluation of engineering structures near rivers, disaster prevention and mitigation, and even future land-use planning. Keywords: Flood plain area, Remote sensing, Object-oriented, Surface feature interpretation, Terrain analysis, Thematic layer, Typhoon Morakot

  16. The Relationships among Students' Future-Oriented Goals and Subgoals, Perceived Task Instrumentality, and Task-Oriented Self-Regulation Strategies in an Academic Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tabachnick, Sharon E.; Miller, Raymond B.; Relyea, George E.

    2008-01-01

    The authors performed path analysis, followed by a bootstrap procedure, to test the predictions of a model explaining the relationships among students' distal future goals (both extrinsic and intrinsic), their adoption of a middle-range subgoal, their perceptions of task instrumentality, and their proximal task-oriented self-regulation strategies.…

  17. Epidemiologic methods lessons learned from environmental public health disasters: Chernobyl, the World Trade Center, Bhopal, and Graniteville, South Carolina.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Svendsen, Erik R; Runkle, Jennifer R; Dhara, Venkata Ramana; Lin, Shao; Naboka, Marina; Mousseau, Timothy A; Bennett, Charles

    2012-08-01

    Environmental public health disasters involving hazardous contaminants may have devastating effects. While much is known about their immediate devastation, far less is known about long-term impacts of these disasters. Extensive latent and chronic long-term public health effects may occur. Careful evaluation of contaminant exposures and long-term health outcomes within the constraints imposed by limited financial resources is essential. Here, we review epidemiologic methods lessons learned from conducting long-term evaluations of four environmental public health disasters involving hazardous contaminants at Chernobyl, the World Trade Center, Bhopal, and Graniteville (South Carolina, USA). We found several lessons learned which have direct implications for the on-going disaster recovery work following the Fukushima radiation disaster or for future disasters. These lessons should prove useful in understanding and mitigating latent health effects that may result from the nuclear reactor accident in Japan or future environmental public health disasters.

  18. Disaster management and humanitarian logistics – A South African perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wilna L. Bean

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Disasters are becoming an unavoidable part of everyday life throughout the world, including South Africa. Even though South Africa is not a country affected by large-scale disasters such as earthquakes, the impact of disasters in South Africa is aggravated significantly by the vulnerability of people living in informal settlements. Humanitarian logistics, as a ‘new’ sub-field in the supply chain management context, has developed significantly recently to assist in disaster situations. This paper provides an overview of the South African humanitarian logistics context. Even though humanitarian logistics plays a critical role in the aftermath of disasters, it extends far beyond events that can typically be classified as ‘disasters’. Therefore the implication of the South African humanitarian logistics context on future research and collaboration opportunities in South African humanitarian logistics is also discussed. Finally, two recent case studies in the South African humanitarian logistics environment are discussed.

  19. The role local initiatives in community based disaster risk management in Kemijen, Semarang City

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fauzie, W. Z.; Sariffudin, S.

    2017-06-01

    Community-based disaster risk reduction is one of the homegrown initiatives efforts and community empowerment oriented in disaster management. This approach is very important because no one can understand the conditions in a region better than the local communities. Therefore, the implementation of CBDRM always emphasize local initiatives in decision making. The existence of local initiative is necessary specially to anticipate the impact of climate change which is increasingly affecting towns in coastal areas, including settlements in Semarang. Kemijen Urban Village is one of the informal settlements in Semarang, which has the highest intensity of flood that is 12 times during 5 years (2011-2015). The research question is how the level of local initiatives in flood disaster management in Kemijen, Semarang? This study aims to assess the level of local initiatives in Kemijen as the community adaptive capacity of flood prevention in pre-disaster, emergency response, and post-disaster. Local initiatives assessed on water supply, sanitation, food, shelter, health, drainage maintenance and waste management. This study shows the level of local initiatives in pre-disaster and post-disaster is almost same and bigger than the response phase. Scoring results showed that pre-disaster is 35.002, 27.9577 for emergency response, and post-disaster is 34.9862 with each category that is independent, empowered, and independent. This study also shows that local initiatives in Kemijen largely formed by individual initiative and only a few were formed by a collective initiative.

  20. Making cities resilient: Increasing resilience to disasters at the local level.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albrito, Paola

    2012-01-01

    Half of humanity is now living in cities, according to the United Nations Population Division. The urban population exceeded the rural for the first time in 2008, and by 2050 urbanisation will rise to 70 per cent with increased urban risk. 'Today, 100 cities are in control of 30 per cent of the world's economy.' The need for maintenance and upkeep of these cities makes safety measures for their citizens crucial. In this context, urban risk, city planning and the role of local governments in dealing with risk reduction have been recognised as key factors to build communities resilient to disasters. While many local governments have taken action to reduce vulnerability, especially when it comes to government organising capacity to deal with disasters, much remains to be done. Disaster risk has become an acute and increasingly urban issue. Poorly-planned urban environments, weak urban governance, an old and fragile infrastructure, and rapid population growth have increased pressure on the urban environment and triggered exposure to disaster risk. More and more people are settling in potential danger zones such as flood plains, volcanic flanks or earthquake faults and coastal areas. They do so because planners and local governments fail to provide alternatives, or because they cannot afford safer land. Local government officials are confronted with the threat of disasters daily, and need improved access to policies and tools to cope with them effectively.

  1. Teaching Disaster Risk Management: Lessons from the Rotman School of Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ANDRÁS TILCSIK

    Full Text Available This article describes how disaster risk management topics are taught at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and thus highlights opportunities for developing similar course modules on disaster risk management at other institutions. An undergraduate and MBA elective course, titled Catastrophic Failure in Organizations, contains four modules that are directly relevant to disaster risk management. The first module focuses on the need to move from risk indifference to risk sensitivity. The second module considers the importance of business continuity and crisis management plans and explores their common shortcomings. The third module uses a case study to examine the topic of prospective risk management. The fourth module focuses on the vulnerability of supply chains and other complex systems to disaster risk. The article describes the details of implementing these modules and discusses opportunities for further integration of disaster risk management topics in other parts of the curriculum.

  2. Landscape planning for a safe city

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Ishikawa

    2002-06-01

    Full Text Available To create a safe city free from natural disasters has been one of the important criteria in city planning. Since large cities have suffered from large fires caused by earthquakes, the planning of open spaces to prevent the spread of fires is part of the basic structure of city planning in Japan. Even in the feudal city of Edo, the former name of Tokyo, there had been open spaces to prevent fire disasters along canals and rivers. This paper discusses the historical evolution of open space planning, that we call landscape planning, through the experiences in Tokyo, and clarifies the characteristics and problems for achieving a safe city.

  3. Disaster risk reduction and sustainable development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khurshedi, N.

    2005-01-01

    During the past four decades, natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanic activity, and slides, tsunami tropical cyclones and other severe storms, tornadoes and high winds, river floods and coastal flooding, wildfire and associated haze drought, sand/dust storms, and insect infestations have caused major loss of human lives and livelihoods, the destruction of economic and social infrastructure, as well as environmental damages. Economic losses have increased almost ten times during this period. As it happen in recent Asia Tsunami, in which over 2, 00,000 people reportedly killed, estimated five million homeless, and resulted in massive displacement of population and extensive damage to infrastructure. The escalation of severe disaster events triggered by natural hazards and related technological and environment disasters is increasingly threatening both sustainable development and poverty-reduction initiatives. The loss of human lives and the rise in the cost of reconstruction efforts and loss of development assets has forced the issue of disaster reduction and risk management higher on the policy agenda of affected governments as well a multilateral and bilateral agencies and NGOs. For this Disaster risk reduction-.strategies are aimed at enabling societies at risk to become engaged in the conscious management of risk and the reduction of vulnerability. The adoption of appropriate development policies can reduce disaster risk. These policies should be gender sensitive and need the necessary political commitment. They involve the adoption of suitable regulatory and other legal measures, institutional reform, improved analytical and methodological capabilities, financial planning, education and awareness. (author)

  4. ADHD symptoms, academic achievement, self-perception of academic competence and future orientation: a longitudinal study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scholtens, Sara; Rydell, Ann-Margret; Yang-Wallentin, Fan

    2013-06-01

    In the investigation of the effect of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms on school careers there is a need to study the role of adolescent and childhood ADHD symptoms and academic achievement, and to incorporate measures that include the individual's perspective. Our aim was to gain an overview of the long-term development of school careers in relation to ADHD symptoms. We studied associations between ADHD symptoms and academic achievement at different time-points and future orientation at the end of high school, and assessed the role of self-perceptions of academic competence in these associations. Participants were 192 children (47% girls) with a range of ADHD symptoms taken from a community sample. Collecting data at three time points, in 6th, 11th and 12th grade we tested a structural equation model. Results showed that ADHD symptoms in 6th grade negatively affected academic achievement concurrently and longitudinally. ADHD symptoms in 11th grade negatively affected concurrent academic achievement and academic self-perception and future orientation in 12th grade. Academic achievement had a positive influence on academic self-perception and future orientation. Given the other factors, self-perception of academic competence did not contribute to outcomes. We concluded that early ADHD symptoms may cast long shadows on young people's academic progress. This happens mainly by way of stability in symptoms and relations to early low academic achievement. © 2013 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology © 2013 The Scandinavian Psychological Associations.

  5. Disaster Risk Management In Business Education: Setting The Tone

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    JUAN PABLO SARMIENTO

    Full Text Available Looking for windows of opportunity to mainstream disaster risk management within business education, in 2015, the United Nations Office for Disaster Reduction's (UNISDR Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies (ARISE, partnered with Florida International University's Extreme Events Institute (FIU-EEI and 12 international leading business schools. This partnership began with a call for White Papers to propose innovative approaches to integrate cutting edge disaster management content into business education programs and other academic offerings, based on seven themes or niches identified: (1 Strategic Investment and Financial Decisions; (2 Generating Business Value; (3 Sustainable Management; (4 Business Ethics and Social Responsibility; (5 Business Continuity Planning; (6 Disaster Risk Metrics; and (7 Risk Transfer. In March 2016, an international workshop was held in Toronto, Canada to present the White Papers prepared by the business schools, and discuss the most appropriate approaches for addressing the areas of: teaching and curriculum; professional development and extension programs; internships and placement; research opportunities; and partnerships and collaboration. Finally, the group proposed goals for advancing the implementation phase of the business education initiatives, and to propose mechanisms for monitoring and follow-up.

  6. Atmospheric natural disasters in Serbia: Management experience and economic effects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nikolić Jugoslav

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Natural disasters occur as a result of an action of natural forces and represent limitations in spatial planning and efficient spatial development, with different consequences in terms of scope on humans, living things and tangible property. Consequences can be ecological, economic, in terms of health, demographic, social, psychological, etc. Weather modification management involves policies, methods, techniques and technologies that affect atmospheric features in order to make atmospheric water useful for humans, while eliminating its negative effects. Highly significant risk of natural disasters in Serbia is related to hailstorm disasters and droughts as atmospheric elementary disasters. The goal of this paper is to present certain methodologies and experience in Serbia in the weather modification management, mainly in the hailstorm processes. This paper provides analysis and critical review of the methodology of an action, with the analysis of the economic benefits. Cost-benefit analysis of a hail suppression project in Serbia was performed. The results point to the economic justification of some aspects of artificial influence on weather disasters.

  7. Analysis of tsunami disaster map by Geographic Information System (GIS): Aceh Singkil-Indonesia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farhan, A.; Akhyar, H.

    2017-02-01

    Tsunami risk map is used by stakeholder as a base to decide evacuation plan and evaluates from disaster. Aceh Singkil district of Aceh- Indonesia’s disaster maps have been developed and analyzed by using GIS tool. Overlay methods through algorithms are used to produce hazard map, vulnerability, capacity and finally created disaster risk map. Spatial maps are used topographic maps, administrative map, SRTM. The parameters are social, economic, physical environmental vulnerability, a level of exposed people, parameters of houses, public building, critical facilities, productive land, population density, sex ratio, poor ratio, disability ratio, age group ratio, the protected forest, natural forest, and mangrove forest. The results show high-risk tsunami disaster at nine villages; moderate levels are seventeen villages, and other villages are shown in the low level of tsunami risk disaster.

  8. Social Participation and Disaster Risk Reduction Behaviors in Tsunami Prone Areas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Witvorapong, Nopphol; Muttarak, Raya; Pothisiri, Wiraporn

    2015-01-01

    This paper examines the relationships between social participation and disaster risk reduction actions. A survey of 557 households in tsunami prone areas in Phang Nga, Thailand was conducted following the 2012 Indian Ocean earthquakes. We use a multivariate probit model to jointly estimate the likelihood of undertaking three responses to earthquake and tsunami hazards (namely, (1) following disaster-related news closely, (2) preparing emergency kits and/or having a family emergency plan, and (3) having an intention to migrate) and community participation. We find that those who experienced losses from the 2004 tsunami are more likely to participate in community activities and respond to earthquake hazards. Compared to men, women are more likely to prepare emergency kits and/or have an emergency plan and have a greater intention to migrate. Living in a community with a higher proportion of women with tertiary education increases the probability of engaging in community activities and carrying out disaster risk reduction measures. Individuals who participate in village-based activities are 5.2% more likely to undertake all three risk reduction actions compared to those not engaging in community activities. This implies that encouraging participation in community activities can have positive externalities in disaster mitigation. PMID:26153891

  9. OPERATIONAL REMOTE SENSING SERVICES IN NORTH EASTERN REGION OF INDIA FOR NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT, EARLY WARNING FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION AND DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION AND SERVICES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. L. N. Raju

    2016-06-01

    administrators and local government bodies for better management, preparing prospective planning, and sustainable use of available resources. The knowledge dissemination is being done through online web portals wherever the internet access is available and as well as offline space based information kiosks, where the internet access is not available or having limited bandwidth availability. This paper presents a systematic and comprehensive study on the remote sensing services operational in NER of India for natural resources management, disaster risk reduction and dissemination of information and services, in addition to outlining future areas and direction of space applications for the region.

  10. Analyzing and sense making of human factors in the Malaysian radiation and nuclear emergency planning framework

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamid, A. H. A.; Rozan, M. Z. A.; Deris, S.; Ibrahim, R.; Abdullah, W. S. W.; Rahman, A. A.; Yunus, M. N. M.

    2016-01-01

    The evolution of current Radiation and Nuclear Emergency Planning Framework (RANEPF) simulator emphasizes on the human factors to be analyzed and interpreted according to the stakeholder's tacit and explicit knowledge. These human factor criteria are analyzed and interpreted according to the "sense making theory" and Disaster Emergency Response Management Information System (DERMIS) design premises. These criteria are corroborated by the statistical criteria. In recent findings, there were no differences of distributions among the stakeholders according to gender and organizational expertise. These criteria are incrementally accepted and agreed the research elements indicated in the respective emergency planning frameworks and simulator (i.e. 78.18 to 84.32, p-value <0.05). This paper suggested these human factors criteria in the associated analyses and theoretical perspectives to be further acomodated in the future simulator development. This development is in conjunction with the proposed hypothesis building of the process factors and responses diagram. We proposed that future work which implies the additional functionality of the simulator, as strategized, condensed and concise, comprehensive public disaster preparedness and intervention guidelines, to be a useful and efficient computer simulation.

  11. Lessons learned from DMAT medical activities in the great disaster

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tanigawa, Koichi

    2012-01-01

    Lessons learned from actions taken by DMAT (Disaster Medical Assistant Team) at the Great East Japan Disaster (Mar. 11) are reported. One unit of DMAT consists from 2 doctors, 2 nurses and 1 logistics clerk, who all had education and training authorized by Japan MHLW. On the disaster, MHLW and suffering prefectures can order DMAT to gather at the disaster base hospital or SCU (Staging Care Unit) like an airport nearby. DMAT missions are firstly to grasp the medical state of the disaster and its report to the MHLW through EMIS (Emergency Medical Information System), and then to estimate the possible numbers of serious patients, their transporting systems and further DMAT needed. Within 3 days after the Disaster, 32 base hospitals in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures received 2,092 patients including 752 serious ones. Needs for DMAT were rather scarce within 48 hr after the Disaster and 103 DMAT in total within Mar. 14 in the 3 prefectures decreased to 50 of 840 patients in the area of 20 km distance from the Plant died during urgent evacuation without medicare staff due to deterioration of the basal disease, dehydration, hypothermia, etc., suggesting necessity of the more flexible action of DMAT, of which responsibility has been defined to be essentially within 48 hr after the disaster. Probably, DMAT should have assumption that complicated disaster with natural and atomic courses can occur at the earthquake in future. (T.T.)

  12. COMPLEAT (Community-Oriented Model for Planning Least-Cost Energy Alternatives and Technologies): A planning tool for publicly owned electric utilities. [Community-Oriented Model for Planning Least-Cost Energy Alternatives and Technologies (Compleat)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1990-09-01

    COMPLEAT takes its name, as an acronym, from Community-Oriented Model for Planning Least-Cost Energy Alternatives and Technologies. It is an electric utility planning model designed for use principally by publicly owned electric utilities and agencies serving such utilities. As a model, COMPLEAT is significantly more full-featured and complex than called out in APPA's original plan and proposal to DOE. The additional complexity grew out of a series of discussions early in the development schedule, in which it became clear to APPA staff and advisors that the simplicity characterizing the original plan, while highly desirable in terms of utility applications, was not achievable if practical utility problems were to be addressed. The project teams settled on Energy 20/20, an existing model developed by Dr. George Backus of Policy Assessment Associates, as the best candidate for the kinds of modifications and extensions that would be required. The remainder of the project effort was devoted to designing specific input data files, output files, and user screens and to writing and testing the compute programs that would properly implement the desired features around Energy 20/20 as a core program. This report presents in outline form, the features and user interface of COMPLEAT.

  13. Resource-poor settings: response, recovery, and research: care of the critically ill and injured during pandemics and disasters: CHEST consensus statement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geiling, James; Burkle, Frederick M; West, T Eoin; Uyeki, Timothy M; Amundson, Dennis; Dominguez-Cherit, Guillermo; Gomersall, Charles D; Lim, Matthew L; Luyckx, Valerie; Sarani, Babak; Christian, Michael D; Devereaux, Asha V; Dichter, Jeffrey R; Kissoon, Niranjan

    2014-10-01

    Planning for mass critical care in resource-poor and constrained settings has been largely ignored, despite large, densely crowded populations who are prone to suffer disproportionately from natural disasters. As a result, disaster response has been suboptimal and in many instances hampered by lack of planning, education and training, information, and communication. The Resource-Poor Settings panel developed five key question domains; defining the term resource poor and using the traditional phases of the disaster cycle (mitigation/preparedness/response/recovery). Literature searches were conducted to identify evidence to answer the key questions in these areas. Given a lack of data on which to develop evidence-based recommendations, expert-opinion suggestions were developed, and consensus was achieved using a modified Delphi process. The five key questions were as follows: definition, capacity building and mitigation, what resources can we bring to bear to assist/surge, response, and reconstitution and recovery of host nation critical care capabilities. Addressing these led the panel to offer 33 suggestions. Because of the large number of suggestions, the results have been separated into two sections: part I, Infrastructure/Capacity in the accompanying article, and part II, Response/Recovery/Research in this article. A lack of rudimentary ICU resources and capacity to enhance services plagues resource-poor or constrained settings. Capacity building therefore entails preventative strategies and strengthening of primary health services. Assistance from other countries and organizations is often needed to mount a surge response. Moreover, the disengagement of these responding groups and host country recovery require active planning. Future improvements in all phases require active research activities.

  14. How do Japanese escape from TSUNAMI? - Disaster Prevention Education through using Hazard Maps

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sakaue, Hiroaki

    2013-04-01

    learning a hazard map. I have used a comment paper to evaluate the following competencies: 1. Students can understand the mechanism of tsunami formation and its potential for damage. 2. Students can read the hazard map. 3. Students can explain or describe a detailed plan for disaster prevention. In conclusion, many students could read hazard maps and describe a detailed plan for disaster prevention. In other words, through developing mapping skills, geography students can contribute to developing abilities for Disaster Prevention Education and building a sustainable society. Disaster Prevention Education has many requirements. For example, the MEXT working group says that Disaster Prevention Education teaching should not only deliver knowledge but also develop students' problem solving competency, and that it is important to incorporate this education within each subject area in the school.

  15. Epidemiologic Methods Lessons Learned from Environmental Public Health Disasters: Chernobyl, the World Trade Center, Bhopal, and Graniteville, South Carolina

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Timothy A. Mousseau

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available Background: Environmental public health disasters involving hazardous contaminants may have devastating effects. While much is known about their immediate devastation, far less is known about long-term impacts of these disasters. Extensive latent and chronic long-term public health effects may occur. Careful evaluation of contaminant exposures and long-term health outcomes within the constraints imposed by limited financial resources is essential. Methods: Here, we review epidemiologic methods lessons learned from conducting long-term evaluations of four environmental public health disasters involving hazardous contaminants at Chernobyl, the World Trade Center, Bhopal, and Graniteville (South Carolina, USA. Findings: We found several lessons learned which have direct implications for the on-going disaster recovery work following the Fukushima radiation disaster or for future disasters. Interpretation: These lessons should prove useful in understanding and mitigating latent health effects that may result from the nuclear reactor accident in Japan or future environmental public health disasters.

  16. To create and built urban environment for disaster mitigation; Saigai ni tsuyoii toshi kankyo no sozo no tameni

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Murozaki, Masuteru [Kobe University, Kobe (Japan)

    1999-06-10

    Learning from disaster of the Hanshin{center_dot}Awaji Earthquake, the need for building disaster preventing town is explained. Scheme of planning, urban planning is badness> is prevalent among the townspeople. Administrations also tend to think light of hardware, and they treate approaches lightly in which safety of hardwares of town structures is secured. There are basic questions such as learning cases of reconstruction in advanced cities, understanding that problem is in hardware rather than in software, and removing biases on disaster prevention. It is necessary that persons concerning construction give them positive solutions as problems of themselves. (NEDO)

  17. The Tous Dam Disaster of 1982: Risk communication and the origins of integrated flood risk management in Spain

    Science.gov (United States)

    Serra-Llobet, A.; Tàbara, J.; Sauri, D.

    2012-12-01

    The failure of Tous dam on the Júcar River near Valencia in 1982 was one of the most important socio-natural disasters in 20th century Spain. The death toll of 25 would have been much greater had not a local dam manager anticipated the failure and alerted mayors of a failure, before it actually occurred. The Tous Dam failure occurred a week before the first democratic elections in Spain after the Franco dictatorship, it received extensive coverage in the media. As a result, this disaster triggered a paradigm change in the way disaster risks were perceived and managed at multiple levels of government in Spain. Many factors, often of a qualitative and organisational nature, affect (vertical and horizontal) communication in disaster risk reduction learning and planning at the community level. Through interviews with key actors and stakeholders, content analysis of scientific literature, review of historical and media accounts, and analysis of legislation and regulation, we documented changes that resulted from the Tous Dam failure: (1) A process of institutional development, which led to the growth, and increase in complexity of the organisations involved both in vertical and horizontal communication of disaster risk reduction. (2) Actions taken and experiences gained in dealing with disaster risk reduction in the Tous area were used as a benchmark to develop new strategies, as well as new mechanisms for communication and planning in other territories and other risk domains in Spain.We identify three main stages from 1980s to present in the evolution of disaster risk reduction planning in the area, which show a progressive shift towards a more integrated and preventative approach: (1) After the collapse of the Tous Dam, disaster risk reduction strategies in Spain focused on improving preparedness in order to reduce short-term risks. (2) Disaster management in the 1990s was strongly influenced by international initiatives (e.g. the UN International Decade for Natural

  18. Characterization of post-disaster environmental management for Hazardous Materials Incidents: Lessons learnt from the Tianjin warehouse explosion, China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Hui; Duan, Huabo; Zuo, Jian; Song, MingWei; Zhang, Yukui; Yang, Bo; Niu, Yongning

    2017-09-01

    Hazardous Materials Incidents (HMIs) have attracted a growing public concern worldwide. The health risks and environmental implications associated with HMIs are almost invariably severe, and underscore the urgency for sound management. Hazardous Materials Explosion incidents (HMEIs) belong to a category of extremely serious HMIs. Existing studies placed focuses predominately on the promptness and efficiency of emergency responses to HMIs and HMEIs. By contrast, post-disaster environmental management has been largely overlooked. Very few studies attempted to examine the post-disaster environmental management plan particularly its effectiveness and sufficiency. In the event of the Tianjin warehouse explosion (TWE), apart from the immediate emergency response, the post-disaster environmental management systems (P-EMSs) have been reported to be effective and sufficient in dealing with the environmental concerns. Therefore, this study aims to critically investigate the P-EMSs for the TWE, and consequently to propose a framework and procedures for P-EMSs in general for HMIs, particularly for HMEIs. These findings provide a useful reference to develop P-EMSs for HMIs in the future, not only in China but also other countries. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  19. Increasing emergency medicine residents' confidence in disaster management: use of an emergency department simulator and an expedited curriculum.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Franc, Jeffrey Michael; Nichols, Darren; Dong, Sandy L

    2012-02-01

    Disaster Medicine is an increasingly important part of medicine. Emergency Medicine residency programs have very high curriculum commitments, and adding Disaster Medicine training to this busy schedule can be difficult. Development of a short Disaster Medicine curriculum that is effective and enjoyable for the participants may be a valuable addition to Emergency Medicine residency training. A simulation-based curriculum was developed. The curriculum included four group exercises in which the participants developed a disaster plan for a simulated hospital. This was followed by a disaster simulation using the Disastermed.Ca Emergency Disaster Simulator computer software Version 3.5.2 (Disastermed.Ca, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) and the disaster plan developed by the participants. Progress was assessed by a pre- and post-test, resident evaluations, faculty evaluation of Command and Control, and markers obtained from the Disastermed.Ca software. Twenty-five residents agreed to partake in the training curriculum. Seventeen completed the simulation. There was no statistically significant difference in pre- and post-test scores. Residents indicated that they felt the curriculum had been useful, and judged it to be preferable to a didactic curriculum. In addition, the residents' confidence in their ability to manage a disaster increased on both a personal and and a departmental level. A simulation-based model of Disaster Medicine training, requiring approximately eight hours of classroom time, was judged by Emergency Medicine residents to be a valuable component of their medical training, and increased their confidence in personal and departmental disaster management capabilities.

  20. Re-establishing clean water in a disaster.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fournier, Chris

    2011-09-01

    When a disaster occurs, water systems can be overwhelmed with sediment, chemicals, microbes, and other harmful organisms. Dialysis clinics need to have disaster management plans and protocols in place to meet the demands of any situation. During emergency events, such as large widespread natural disasters, it is necessary to have the support of outside resources to keep the clinic operating or to aid in returning it to service as quickly and as safely as possible. Before proceeding with any medical treatments that use water, such as dialysis, facilities should address five different response actions to establish the safety and effectiveness of their water system. Test the water quality prior to treating patients. Make sure the system is working properly by performing critical water tests. Compare all results with pre-disaster data to help spot any warning signs. Inspect the water system, including all connections, timers, and settings. Consider contacting your water treatment vendor for additional verification and support. Be sure to closely monitor the water system equipment; make sure it is not overwhelmed by staying in touch with local water authorities. They may "shock" their distribution system to regain compliance. Make every effort to conserve water during this time. Change the water system. If the central water system has been compromised, consider using portable RO units or portable exchange DI tanks. Finally, moving your patients to another facility may be the only alternative, so work with other local facilities unaffected by the disaster.