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Thu, 2011-07-14 22:34 — mdmcdonald
This collaboratory is focused on discussions about Risk Communication.

The mission of this collaboratory is to focus on discussions about Risk Communication.

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Kathy Gilbeaux Katie Rast mdmcdonald
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Using Twitter to Share Information After a Disaster

Thu, 2012-05-24 23:36 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Luis Kun

Homeland Security News Wire - May 23, 2012

A study from North Carolina State University shows how people used Twitter following the 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan, highlighting challenges for using the social media tool to share information. The study also indicates that social media have not changed what we communicate so much as how quickly we can disseminate it.

“I wanted to see if Twitter was an effective tool for sharing meaningful information about nuclear risk in the wake of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant,” says Dr. Andrew Binder, an assistant professor of communication at NC State and author of a paper describing the work. “I knew people would be sharing information, but I wanted to see whether it was anecdotal or substantive, and whether users were providing analysis and placing information in context.

“In the bigger picture, I wanted to see whether social media is changing the way we communicate, or if we are communicating the same way using different tools.”

Researchers Use GPS Data to Speed Up Tsunami Warnings

Sun, 2012-05-06 23:25 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

In this Jan. 2, 2005 file photo, a wide area of destruction is shown from an aerial view taken over Meulaboh, 250 kilometers (156 Miles) west of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Researchers in the United States are hoping to use GPS data to speed up current warnings. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)

U.S. seismologists currently testing new warning system

by Andrew Pinsent - CBC News - May 5, 2012

Scientists in the United States have been testing an advanced tsunami warning system using GPS data, combined with traditional seismology networks, to attempt to detect the magnitude of an earthquake faster so warnings of potential tsunamis can get out to potentially affected areas sooner.

The prototype is called California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN), and is a collaboration between the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, whose focus is on environmental conservation.

Country / Region Tags: 
Global
United States
General Topic Tags: 
Communication
Disaster Risk Reduction
Earthquake
Natural Hazard
Oceans
Technology
Tsunami
Visualization
Vulnerability
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Solutions
Problem

Looking Back on the Limits of Growth

Wed, 2012-04-11 21:55 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

Chart Sources: Meadows, D.H., Meadows, D.L., Randers, J. and Behrens III, W.W. (1972) /  Linda Eckstein

by Mark Strauss - Smithsonian Magazine - April 2012

Recent research supports the conclusions of a controversial environmental study released 40 years ago: The world is on track for disaster. So says Australian physicist Graham Turner, who revisited perhaps the most groundbreaking academic work of the 1970s,The Limits to Growth.

Written by MIT researchers for an international think tank, the Club of Rome, the study used computers to model several possible future scenarios. The business-as-usual scenario estimated that if human beings continued to consume more than nature was capable of providing, global economic collapse and precipitous population decline could occur by 2030.

(GO TO THE SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE ARTICLE)

Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update

The Club of Rome

Country / Region Tags: 
Global
United States
General Topic Tags: 
Capacity
Collapse
Limits
Population
Sustainable Development
Vulnerability
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Solutions
Problem

California Nuclear Plant Shut Indefinitely Amid Hunt to Find Cause of Problems

Sat, 2012-04-07 11:18 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Janine Rees

      

The power plant has been shut down since this winter, when a small amount of radioactive gas escaped.

CNN - April 6, 2012
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Anti-nuclear activists warn of a potential environmental catastrophe
  • The San Onofre nuclear plant has been shut down since radioactive gas escaped
  • Officials have said there's no harm to the public health, but can't identify problem's cause
  • The head of the NRC says the plant won't restart until a cause and plan is put forward

(CNN) -- A large Southern California nuclear plant is out of commission indefinitely, and will remain so until there is an understanding of what caused problems at two of its generators and an effective plan to address the issues, the nation's top nuclear regulator said Friday.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Proceedings for the 2011 Community Health Resiliency Workshop are Now Available

Sun, 2012-03-25 19:00 — Kathy Gilbeaux

       

 

Thank you for attending the 2011 Community Health Resiliency Workshop; your participation helped make this event a success!

Material from the workshop is now available for download in the attachment below, and at: http://www.communityhealthresilience.com/proceedings.html. 

Respectfully,

The Community Health Resilience Workshop Coordination Team

Country / Region Tags: 
United States
General Topic Tags: 
Health
Resilience
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Other

Fukushima Lesson: Be Ready for Unanticipated Nuclear Accidents

Mon, 2012-03-12 21:49 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Samuel Bendett

Homeland Security News Wire - March 12, 2012

A year after the Fukushima disaster all but two of Japan’s fifty-four nuclear reactors remain shut down, in a country where nuclear power once supplied nearly 30 percent of the electricity; the Japanese government is awarding an initial $13 billion in contracts to begin decontamination and rehabilitation of the more than 8,000-square-mile region most exposed to radioactive fallout

A year after the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, scientists and engineers remain largely in the dark when it comes to fundamental knowledge about how nuclear fuels behave under extreme conditions, according to a University of Michigan nuclear waste expert and his colleagues.

In a review article in this week’s edition of the journal Science, U-M’s Rodney Ewing and two colleagues call for an ambitious, long-term national research program to study how nuclear fuels behave under the extreme conditions present during core-melt events like those that occurred at Fukushima following the 11 March, 2011, magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami.

Rapid Appraisal Methods

Tue, 2012-02-21 18:29 — Kathy Gilbeaux

usaid.gov

WHAT IS RAPID APPRAISAL?

Rapid Appraisal (RA) is an approach that draws on multiple evaluation methods and techniques to quickly, yet systematically, collect data when time in the field is limited. RA practices are also useful when there are budget constraints or limited availability of reliable secondary data. For example, time and budget limitations may preclude the option of using representative sample surveys.

BENEFITS – WHEN TO USE RAPID APPRAISAL METHODS

Rapid appraisals are quick and can be done at relatively low cost. Rapid appraisal methods can help gather, analyze, and report relevant information for decision-makers within days or weeks. This is not possible with sample surveys. RAs can be used in the following cases:

  • for formative evaluations, to make mid-course corrections in project design or implementation when customer or partner feedback indicates a problem (See ADS 203.3.6.1);

  • when a key management decision is required and there is inadequate information;

  • for performance monitoring, when data are collected and the techniques are repeated over time for measurement purposes;

  • to better understand the issues behind performance monitoring data; and

  • for project pre-design assessment.

Creation of Next-Gen Public Safety Comms Net Should Be Managed by Non-Profit, Says Study

Fri, 2012-02-03 01:13 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Mike Kraft

gsnmagazine.com - by Mark Rockwell - February 1, 2012

The next generation public safety communications network should be managed by a non-governmental, non-profit organization that could impartially reconcile the myriad standards and procedures affecting emergency responders nationwide, said a report by an independent government advisory committee.

It also recommended that such a network should take advantage of “assigned public safety spectrum.” Congress has been trying to get spectrum for a national public safety network for years, battling over whether to assign the spectrum directly to first responders or auction it off to communications companies, so they can share it with responders and manage its back-office functions.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
United States
General Topic Tags: 
Communication
Disaster Response
Technology
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Solutions

Report on the Domestic Natural Disaster Health Workforce is officially released

Wed, 2012-02-01 22:54 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health - ncdmph.usuhs.edu - February 1, 2012

Greetings NCDMPH Stakeholders,

The NCDMPH is extremely proud to release the Report on the Domestic Natural Disaster Health Workforce, a landscape analysis describing selected aspects of the health professions workforce who would respond to a catastrophic domestic natural disaster.

As the main output of our workforce project, the report analyzes the core Federal departments supporting Emergency Support Function #8 (ESF#8) by examining three key occupational sub-groups (emergency and critical care physicians, emergency and critical care nurses, and paramedics) at the national, state and local levels.

The report offers 14 recommendations on a number of issues, including: double counting of responders, volunteer failure to respond, an aging medical workforce, human capital development, personnel asset visibility, readiness and the deployment of subunits.

Country / Region Tags: 
United States
General Topic Tags: 
Disaster Response
Disaster Risk Reduction
Natural Hazard
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Situation Report

New NRC Hazard Analysis Earthquake Study Released

Tue, 2012-01-31 23:32 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Kay Goss

                 

US NRC study released today on "New Seismic Model Will Refine Hazard Analysis at U.S. Nuclear Plants" and performs studies at many central and eastern U.S. susceptible locations. The Central and Eastern United States Seismic Source Characterization for Nuclear Facilities (CEUS SSC) Project was conducted from April 2008 to December 2011 to develop a new, regional seismic source model for use in conducting and reviewing probabilistic seismic hazard analyses (PSHAs) for nuclear facilities in the CEUS. PSHA is a method for assessing site-specific seismic hazard that includes getting the best estimate of ground motions and a transparent quantitative accounting of uncertainty. The results of PSHA are used in seismic design and in calculating seismic risk. 

Country / Region Tags: 
Japan
United States
General Topic Tags: 
Disaster Response
Disaster Risk Reduction
Earthquake
Radiation
Vulnerability
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Solutions
Problem

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