The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (SFDRR) highlights the importance of scientific research, supporting the ‘availability and application of science and technology to decision ...making’ in disaster risk reduction (DRR). Science and technology can play a crucial role in the world's ability to reduce casualties, physical damage, and interruption to critical infrastructure due to natural hazards and their complex interactions. The SFDRR encourages better access to technological innovations combined with increased DRR investments in developing cost-effective approaches and tackling global challenges. To this aim, it is essential to link multi- and interdisciplinary research and technological innovations with policy and engineering/DRR practice. To share knowledge and promote discussion on recent advances, challenges, and future directions on ‘Innovations in Earthquake Risk Reduction for Resilience’, a group of experts from academia and industry met in London, UK, in July 2019. The workshop focused on both cutting-edge ‘soft’ (e.g., novel modelling methods/frameworks, early warning systems, disaster financing and parametric insurance) and ‘hard’ (e.g., novel structural systems/devices for new structures and retrofitting of existing structures, sensors) risk-reduction strategies for the enhancement of structural and infrastructural earthquake safety and resilience. The workshop highlighted emerging trends and lessons from recent earthquake events and pinpointed critical issues for future research and policy interventions. This paper summarises some of the key aspects identified and discussed during the workshop to inform other researchers worldwide and extend the conversation to a broader audience, with the ultimate aim of driving change in how seismic risk is quantified and mitigated.
Flood and flood-related problems have become more rampant all over the world leading to loss of life, infrastructure damage, and epidemics every year. There are evidences in recent years where heavy ...precipitation events have resulted in severe detrimental floods in India. A number of major cities in India have reported a series of devastating floods in the recent decade. The immediate impact of floods specifically in urban areas is on the transport system. Most of the studies on transport vulnerability consider topographic properties along with supply and demand side of transport system to access the disruption; but less attention is given to the potential impacts of weather extremes on the performance of transportation network. In response to that, this study aims to provide a framework to assess the vulnerability of urban road network due to floods. An integrated framework linking meteorological information, land use functions, and hydrodynamic model with safety speed function is used to relate flood depth to reduction in speed in order to determine road network vulnerability. Two rainfall events with 1-in-10 year and 1-in-100 year return period were simulated for inundation mapping over road network and spatial vulnerability of road network was assessed. A critical map and index is developed to identify affected road length vulnerable to flood. It has been observed that more than 40% of road length across the network becomes immovable for 1-in-100 year rainfall event. Also, there is a significant decrease in average maximum speed in each road category corresponding to its normal.
This manuscript studies the impact of the exogenous COVID-19 pandemic shock on small businesses in the United States. We provide early evidence on how small business owners were affected by COVID-19 ...and the implementation of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. We collected online survey data from a national sample of 463 small business owners across the United States. The survey was conducted in June 2020, eight weeks after the passage of the CARES Act and the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act. The survey data include information about business characteristics, financial well-being, current response to the crisis, beliefs about the future of their business survival, and the business-owning family demographic information. There are three main themes that emerge from the results. First, drivers of income loss were not necessarily associated with time to recovery. Second, businesses that were undercapitalized were more likely to suffer higher income loss, longer time to recovery, and less likely to be resilient. Resilient was operationalized as a scale merging perceived success, potential for growth, and perceived profitability. Third, business model changes were necessary due to the pandemic but not all adaptive strategies led to better business outcomes. The results from this research study will lead to a better understanding of key vulnerabilities and adjustments that small businesses make to fully recover from economic shocks.
As ShakeAlert, the earthquake early warning system for the West Coast of the U.S., begins its transition to operational public alerting, we explore how post-alert messaging might represent system ...performance. Planned post-alert messaging can provide timely, crucial information to both emergency managers and ShakeAlert operators as well as calibrate expectations among various publics or public user groups and inform their responses to future alerts. There is a concern among the scientists and emergency managers that false alerts may negatively impact trust in the system, so quickly disseminated post-alert messages are necessary. For a new early warning system, such as ShakeAlert, this is particularly relevant given that the potentially affected population is likely to be unfamiliar with this system. We address this concern in six steps: (1) assessment of ShakeAlert performance to date, (2) characterization of human behavior and response to earthquake alerts, (3) presentation of a decision tree for issuing post-alert messages, (4) design of a critical set of post-alert messaging scenarios, (5) elaboration of these scenarios with message templates for a variety of communication channels, and (6) development of a typology of earthquake alerts. We further explore methods for monitoring and evaluating ShakeAlert post-alert messaging, for continuous improvement to the system.
This paper reviews serious games/simulations addressing issues related to disaster risk management (DRM) and serving as educational and engagement tools for affected communities, policy-makers, and ...other stakeholders. Building on earlier research in collecting and classifying serious games, we provide an objective and thorough overview of 45 non-commercial digital and analog gaming activities related to DRM, analyzing their characteristics, target groups, portrayed hazards, and possible DRM skills development. Moreover, realizing the need for a more reliable and scientific approach to testing serious games’ effectiveness in contributing to DRM, we explore the categories of objectives of existing activities, and collect qualitative and quantitative evidence (players’ feedback, quantitative surveys, scientific articles on the analyzed games etc.) supporting their assessment. Further, we identify the prospects and limitations of gaming in the broader context of DRM, and diagnose existing niches that could be exploited by game producers and researchers to develop more user-tailored game design and reliable evaluation methodology. The research reveals that DRM-related serious games/simulations offer a rich social experience with players collaboratively solving a problem. With a capacity of reaching diverse audiences (embracing adults, children, experts and communities) and of realistically simulating disaster reality, serious games/simulations may assist DRM, especially in the realm of disaster risk awareness raising, identifying hazards, undertaking preventive actions, empathy triggering and perspective-taking. At the same time, the research displays the scarcity of quantitative and qualitative research into the games’ effectiveness. Therefore more detailed and structured study is called for in assessing these outcomes.
This study evaluates the extent of flood vulnerability in the Ben Hai-Thach Han river basin, specifically Quang Tri province in the central area of Vietnam, where floods annually occur from September ...to November. A vulnerability assessment framework is used to calculate the flood vulnerability indexes (FVIs) under socio-economic, environmental, and physical aspects. We first analysed socio-economic data to examine the provincial socio-economic development from 2004 to 2019. We interviewed 573 residents and 111 officials during 2017 and 2018 in 111 communes of 9 districts to add detailed socio-economic and physical data, which were then classified, processed, and standardized based on 34 indicators for the FVIs calculations. All calculated indexes were then mapped for visual assessments. Results show that 29 communes are at high vulnerability levels (FVIs = 0.4–0.6). Notably, Gio Linh, Dong Ha, and Vinh Linh districts present the highest vulnerability, with five vulnerable communes. These communes present moderate probabilities of flood occurrence due to their low–lying terrain and agricultural production dominance. Our calculations also reveal that 81 communes (73.8% of the communes in Quang Tri province) were indexed with low vulnerability levels (FVIs = 0.2–0.4); of which Gio Linh has 17 out of 22 communes (77%), and Vinh Linh has 16 out of 21 communes (76%). Our findings suggest that the local government considers effective floodwater management strategies for the region, especially those with high vulnerability indexes and adaptation measures to mitigate flood damages.
Disaster occurs frequently around the world and is no more considered an isolated event. Thus, disaster management has become a hot issue in urban development and human security. However, selecting ...suitable measures in disaster preparedness is a complex task. Some mitigation measures, which include making dams and updating building codes, prove ineffective and can themselves become a source of added vulnerability. Therefore, the importance of preparedness cannot be ignored, and the relief distribution aspect needs to be appraised as a measure of disaster preparedness. This study integrates disaster preparedness and response. Many parameters cannot be known before a disaster, while relief demand is a key parameter in disaster preparedness modelling. A decision maker needs to identify the properties of relief demand. Seven influencing factors of relief demand are identified. Then, a facility location model is proposed, and the model results are analysed. The results show that the hub-and-spoke distribution system brings higher social benefits.
Educational institutions are obligated to protect children from multi-hazard disaster risks. The development of reliable and valid measuring instruments for school safety is an important component ...for reducing the impact of disasters on children's future at schools. This study aimed to examine the appropriateness of measuring instrument models, constructs and indicators of the Disaster Preparedness and Safety School (SSSB) program to be used in the assessment of the multi-hazard-based child safety education system in schools. This study used an explanatory research design with a cross-sectional approach. The sampling technique used was multistage cluster sampling with 539 elementary schools as samples. The data were analyzed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) using Lisrel 8.80 software. The CFA results showed that the SSSB constructs are considered valid and reliable. The modified model fulfilled the Goodness of Fit criteria so that the model is considered fit and suitable to be applied at schools, with school commitment as the strongest forming factor (R2 of 82%) for creating a successful SSSB program.
Although many studies have found negative associations between GDP per capita and damage caused by nature's shocks, evidence suggests that this negative association is obscure among low-income ...countries. By utilizing detailed household (HH) survey data from rural areas of Nepal, we investigated whether rising HH incomes, mainly through remittances, mitigated the damages caused by the 2015 devastating earthquake to houses. We confirmed that remittances were positively associated with house structures using concrete. Our analyses, however, did not show that houses using concrete displayed strength against the seismic shocks in 2015 compared with the masonry houses that were commonly used in the study areas. Our estimates further indicated that those HHs receiving more remittances maintained houses that were more vulnerable to the 2015 earthquake. We consider that the most likely factor by which remittances weakened houses against the seismic shocks are less maintenance and minor repairs in the remittance-dependent HHs. For example, remittance-dependent HHs tend to suffer from the shortage of working-age male workers needed for maintenance work. Our results suggest that using modern construction materials with remittances does not necessarily help HHs withstand nature's shocks.
It is increasingly important to evaluate the economic flood damage toward agricultural crops to further improve decision-making and mitigate flood impacts in developing countries. In this study, we ...derive a multivariable lookup table function for estimating flood damages to rice crops based on a secondary research approach, which involves collecting and integrating fragmented secondary information sources of rice damage caused by inundation and event data observed in southern rural areas of the Ca River Basin, Central Vietnam. The derived lookup table function includes the effects of the rice growth stages on the damage caused, in addition to flooding parameters such as inundation level and inundation duration. This indicates that the rice crops are generally the most vulnerable and robust to inundation in the ripening and the reproductive stages. The yield loss in the ripening stage dramatically increases from 50% to 90% when the complete inundation lasts 5–8 days. Even after 7 days of 75% inundation, the yield hardly decreased at the reproductive stage and was reduced by almost half for 7 days of complete inundation. Four–five days of complete inundation at the ripening and vegetation stages are likely to cause almost the same damage to rice crops as that caused by 7 days of inundation at the reproductive stage. Utilization of the function to estimate rice damage in four flood events reveals that the derived multivariable function captures flood damages well and outperforms the univariable damage functions for the target area.
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