The role local initiatives in community based disaster risk management in Kemijen, Semarang City

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

Constructing the cultural repertoire in a natural disaster: The role of social media in the Thailand flood of 2011

In 2011, Thailand witnessed its worst flooding catastrophe in half a century. In this study, we explored social media as a new and promising weapon to address the physical and morale challenges caused by the natural disaster. A case study was conducted in the context of crisis response, whichinvestigated the use of social media to contribute to the collective cultural repertoire during the natural disaster. By investigating two paths toward the cultural repertoire construction considering different social groups, this study also identified the roles of social media as an information market and an information threshold in the crisis response

Role of opinion sharing on the emergency evacuation dynamics

Emergency evacuation is a critical research topic and any improvement to the existing evacuation models will help in improving the safety of the evacuees. Currently, there are evacuation models that have either an accurate movement model or a sophisticated decision model. Individuals in a crowd tend to share and propagate their opinion. This opinion sharing part is either implicitly modeled or entirely overlooked in most of the existing models. Thus, one of the overarching goal of this research is to the study the effect of opinion evolution through an evacuating crowd. First, the opinion evolution in a crowd was modeled mathematically. Next, the results from the analytical model were validated with a simulation model having a simple motion model. To improve the fidelity of the evacuation model, a more realistic movement and decision model were incorporated and the effect of opinion sharing on the evacuation dynamics was studied extensively. Further, individuals with strong inclination towards particular route were introduced and their effect on overall efficiency was studied. Current evacuation guidance algorithms focuses on efficient crowd evacuation. The method of guidance delivery is generally overlooked. This important gap in guidance delivery is addressed next. Additionally, a virtual reality based immersive experiment is designed to study factors affecting individuals\u27 decision making during emergency evacuation

A LOCAL SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE TO SUPPORT THE MERAPI VOLCANIC RISK MANAGEMENT: A CASE STUDY AT SLEMAN REGENCY, INDONESIA

This research aims to implement an application of a Local Spatial DataInfrastructure (SDI) for evacuation planning of Merapi Volcano disaster. Theprocesses, problems and information flows in evacuation planning were examined.Geo-collaboration Portal was customized in order to provide spatial resources fordecision makers. It is equipped with usable maps presentation and interaction toolsto support collaborative decisions. User group assessment was carried out toevaluate usability of the application. The evaluation results showed thatcollaborative portals on top of a local SDI can facilitate effective decision makingprocess and improve coordination among involved stakeholders in thecontext of disaster preparedness and mitigation. Several aspects need to beconsidered in order to achieve a functional local SDI e.g. availability and qualityof the spatial data, establishment of local regulations and standards, developmentof metadata, and strengthening capable human resources

Passenger Flows in Underground Railway Stations and Platforms, MTI Report 12-43

Urban rail systems are designed to carry large volumes of people into and out of major activity centers. As a result, the stations at these major activity centers are often crowded with boarding and alighting passengers, resulting in passenger inconvenience, delays, and at times danger. This study examines the planning and analysis of station passenger queuing and flows to offer rail transit station designers and transit system operators guidance on how to best accommodate and manage their rail passengers. The objectives of the study are to: 1) Understand the particular infrastructural, operational, behavioral, and spatial factors that affect and may constrain passenger queuing and flows in different types of rail transit stations; 2) Identify, compare, and evaluate practices for efficient, expedient, and safe passenger flows in different types of station environments and during typical (rush hour) and atypical (evacuations, station maintenance/ refurbishment) situations; and 3) Compile short-, medium-, and long-term recommendations for optimizing passenger flows in different station environments

Why Information Matters: A Foundation for Resilience

Embracing Change: The Critical Role of Information, a research project by the Internews' Center for Innovation & Learning, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, combines Internews' longstanding effort to highlight the important role ofinformation with Rockefeller's groundbreaking work on resilience. The project focuses on three major aspects:- Building knowledge around the role of information in empowering communities to understand and adapt to different types of change: slow onset, long-term, and rapid onset / disruptive;- Identifying strategies and techniques for strengthening information ecosystems to support behavioral adaptation to disruptive change; and- Disseminating knowledge and principles to individuals, communities, the private sector, policymakers, and other partners so that they can incorporate healthy information ecosystems as a core element of their social resilience strategies

Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)

This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio

Applying the lessons of the attack on the World Trade Center, 11th September 2001, to the design and use of interactive evacuation simulations

The collapse of buildings, such as terminal 2E at Paris' Charles de Gaule Airport, and of fires, such as the Rhode Island, Station Night Club tragedy, has focused public attention on the safety of large public buildings. Initiatives in the United States and in Europe have led to the development of interactive simulators that model evacuation from these buildings. The tools avoid some of the ethical and legal problems from simulating evacuations; many people were injured during the 1993 evacuation of the World Trade Center (WTC) complex. They also use many concepts that originate within the CHI communities. For instance, some simulators use simple task models to represent the occupants' goal structures as they search for an available exit. However, the recent release of the report from the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (the '9/11 commission') has posed serious questions about the design and use of this particular class of interactive systems. This paper argues that simulation research needs to draw on insights from the CHI communities in order to meet some the challenges identified by the 9/11 commission

Lessons from the evacuation of the World Trade Center, Sept 11th 2001 for the future development of computer simulations

This paper provides an overview of the state of the art in evacuation simulations. These interactive computer based tools have been developed to help the owners and designers of large public buildings to assess the risks that occupants might face during emergency egress. The development of the Glasgow Evacuation Simulator is used to illustrate the existing generation of tools. This system uses Monte Carlo techniques to control individual and group movements during an evacuation. The end-user can interactively open and block emergency exits at any point. It is also possible to alter the priorities that individuals associate with particular exit routes. A final benefit is that the tool can derive evacuation simulations directly from existing architects models; this reduces the cost of simulations and creates a more prominent role for these tools in the iterative development of large-scale public buildings. Empirical studies have been used to validate the GES system as a tool to support evacuation training. The development of these tools has been informed by numerous human factors studies and by recent accident investigations. For example, the 2003 fire in the Station nightclub in Rhode Island illustrated the way in which most building occupants retrace their steps to an entrance even when there are alternate fire exits. The second half of this paper uses this introduction to criticise the existing state of the art in evacuation simulations. These criticisms are based on a detailed study of the recent findings from the 9/11 Commission (2004). Ten different lessons are identified. Some relate to the need to better understand the role of building management and security systems in controlling egress from public buildings. Others relate to the human factors involved in coordinating distributed groups of emergency personnel who may be physically exhausted by the demands of an evacuation. Arguably the most important findings centre on the need to model the ingress and egress of emergency personnel from these structures. The previous focus of nearly all-existing simulation tools has been on the evacuation of building occupants rather than on the safety of first responders1

Culture and disaster risk management – citizens’ reactions and opinions during Citizen Summit in Malta

The analyses and results in this document are based on data collected during the second CARISMAND Citizen Summit held in Malta on July 16th 2016. The Citizen Summit was designed as a 1-day event combining public information with feedback gathering through different methods of data collection: (1) 30 questions with pre-defined answer options posed to the audience and collected via an audience response system; and (2) small moderated group discussions of approximately 1.5 hours duration which followed a detailed set of questions and discussion guidelines, including (3) a short association exercise. All questions and discussions aimed to explore citizens’ attitudes, feelings and perceptions towards disaster risks as well as the identification of cultural factors in disaster preparation, response and recovery. The definition and design of the questions was based on a literature review, preliminary research results from other work packages, and taking up specific topics identified in the 1st CARISMAND Stakeholder Assembly. For a detailed overview of all questions asked and topics discussed please see Appendix A. Overall, 108 citizens participated in the Malta event. The total sample shows a relatively even gender and age distribution, which is unsurprising given the target quotas which were requested from the recruiting local market research agency. The comparatively low number of senior citizens aged 65 and above was expected and reflects mobility issues.Participants were asked about three key aspects of experience of disasters and disaster risk perception that could potentially have an impact on how other questions were answered. Half of respondents indicated that they, or a close friend or family member, have experienced a disaster, 38% felt that they are living in an area that is specifically prone to disasters, and 48% answered that they know other people in the area where they live who they think are particularly vulnerable or exposed to disasters. Slight gender differences were found to be not statistically significant (p>=.05). This report presents the results of the second CARISMAND Citizen Summit and is structured in six main sections: After this introduction, the second section will provide an overview of the different methods applied. The third section, based on the quantitative data collected via the audience response system, presents the results from questions on general disaster risk perceptions, disaster preparedness, and behaviours in disaster situations, the latter with a particular focus on the use of social media. The fourth section, based on the qualitative data collected in the discussion groups, will analyse the participants’ risk perceptions and behaviours related to (a) different “features” of disasters, in particular related to slow/fast onset, short/long-term effects and the “visibility” of disasters, and (b) different disaster phases. Furthermore, this section will report on the different cultural aspects and cultural groups identified by the participants, the specific needs of such groups, and perceived community strengths and weaknesses in case of a disaster. Additionally, it will provide insight into participants’ views on measures that may help to improve disaster preparedness and response. The fifth section focuses on risk perception in relation to causes of disasters, in particular the blurred distinction between natural and man-made disasters. The final section compares and contrasts the results from sections 2, 3 and 4, draws some tentative conclusions, and identifies topics and issues that should feed into the next round of events in 2017, i.e. the 2nd Stakeholder Assembly as well as the 3rd and 4th Citizen Summits.The project was co-funded by the European Commission within the Horizon2020 Programme (2014-2020).peer-reviewe