4,296 research outputs found
Development of Grid e-Infrastructure in South-Eastern Europe
Over the period of 6 years and three phases, the SEE-GRID programme has
established a strong regional human network in the area of distributed
scientific computing and has set up a powerful regional Grid infrastructure. It
attracted a number of user communities and applications from diverse fields
from countries throughout the South-Eastern Europe. From the infrastructure
point view, the first project phase has established a pilot Grid infrastructure
with more than 20 resource centers in 11 countries. During the subsequent two
phases of the project, the infrastructure has grown to currently 55 resource
centers with more than 6600 CPUs and 750 TBs of disk storage, distributed in 16
participating countries. Inclusion of new resource centers to the existing
infrastructure, as well as a support to new user communities, has demanded
setup of regionally distributed core services, development of new monitoring
and operational tools, and close collaboration of all partner institution in
managing such a complex infrastructure. In this paper we give an overview of
the development and current status of SEE-GRID regional infrastructure and
describe its transition to the NGI-based Grid model in EGI, with the strong SEE
regional collaboration.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figures, 4 table
Volcanic Activity: Processing of Observation and Remote Sensing Data (VAPOR)
The World Bank makes a very clear distinction between disasters and natural phenomena. Natural phenomena are events like volcanic eruptions. A disaster only occurs when the ability of the community to cope with natural phenomenon has been surpassed, causing widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses. By these definitions, volcanic eruptions do not have to lead to disasters. On November 13, 1985, the second most deadly eruption of the twentieth century occurred in Colombia. Within a few hours of the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano, 23,000 people were dead because no infrastructure existed to respond to such an emergency. Six years later, the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines was the largest volcanic eruption in the 21st century to affect a heavily populated area. Because the volcano was monitored, early warning of the eruption was provided and thousands of lives were saved. Despite these improvements, some communities still face danger from volcanic events and volcano-monitoring systems still require further development. There remain clear gaps in monitoring technologies, in data sharing, and in early warning and hazard tracking systems. A global volcano-monitoring framework such as the VIDA framework can contribute to filling these gaps. VIDA stands for “VAPOR Integrated Data-sharing and Analysis” and is also the Catalan and Spanish word for ‘life’. The ultimate goal for this project is to help save the lives of people threatened by volcanic hazards, while protecting infrastructure and contributing to decision support mechanisms in disaster risk management scenarios
Technology Resources for Earthquake Monitoring and Response (TREMOR)
Earthquakes represent a major hazard for populations around the world, causing frequent
loss of life, human suffering, and enormous damage to homes, other buildings, and
infrastructure. The Technology Resources for Earthquake Monitoring and Response
(TREMOR) proposal is designed to address this problem. This proposal recommends two
prototype systems integrating space-based and ground technology. The suggested pilot
implementation is over a 10-year period in three focus countries – China, Japan, and Peru –
that are among the areas in the world most afflicted by earthquakes.
The first proposed system is an Earthquake Early Warning Prototype System that addresses
the potential of earthquake precursors, the science of which is incomplete and considered
controversial within the scientific community. We recommend the development and launch
of two small satellites to study ionospheric and electromagnetic precursors. In combination
with ground-based precursor research, the data gathered will improve existing knowledge of
earthquake-related phenomena.
The second proposed system is an Earthquake Simulation and Response Prototype. An
earthquake simulator will combine any available precursor data with detailed knowledge of
the affected areas using a Geographic Information System (GIS) to identify those areas that
are most likely to experience the greatest level of damage. Mobile satellite communication
hubs will provide telephone and data links between response teams, while satellite navigation
systems will locate and track emergency vehicles. We recommend a virtual response satellite
constellation composed of existing and future high resolution satellites. We also recommend
education and training for response teams on the use of these technologies.
The two prototypes will be developed and implemented by a proposed non-profit nongovernmental
organization (NGO) called the TREMOR Foundation, which will obtain
funding from government disaster management agencies and NGOs. A for-profit subsidiary
will market any spin-off technologies and provide an additional source of funding.
Assuming positive results from the prototype systems, Team TREMOR recommends their
eventual and permanent implementation in all countries affected by earthquakes.Postprint (published version
REAL TIME INTEGRATION OF FIELD DATA INTO A GIS PLATFORM FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF HYDROLOGICAL EMERGENCIES
Abstract. A wide series of events requires immediate availability of information and field data to be provided to decision-makers. An example is the necessity of quickly transferring the information acquired from monitoring and alerting sensors or the data of the reconnaissance of damage after a disastrous event to an Emergency Operations Center. To this purpose, we developed an integrated GIS and WebGIS system to dynamically create and populate via Web a database with spatial features. In particular, this work concerns the gathering and transmission of spatial data and related information to the desktop GIS so that they can be displayed and analyzed in real time to characterize the operational scenario and to decide the rescue interventions. As basic software, we used only free and open source: QuantumGIS and Grass as Desktop GIS, Map Server with PMapper application for the Web-Gis functionality and PostGreSQL/PostGIS as Data Base Management System (DBMS). The approach has been designed, developed and successfully tested in the management of GIS-based navigation of an autonomous robot, both to map its trajectories and to assign optimal paths. This paper presents the application of our system to a simulated hydrological event that could interest the province of Catania, in Sicily. In particular, assuming that more teams draw up an inventory of the damage, we highlight the benefits of real-time transmission of the information collected from the field to headquarters
Urban seismic risk index for Medellín, Colombia, based on probabilistic loss and casualties estimations
The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11069-015-2056-4Medellín is the second largest city of Colombia with more than 2 million inhabitants according to the latest census and with more than 240,000 public and private buildings. It is located on an intermediate seismic hazard area according to the seismic zonation of Colombia although no destructive earthquakes have occurred having as a consequence low seismic risk awareness among its inhabitants. Using the results of a fully probabilistic risk assessment of the city with a building by building resolution level and considering the dynamic soil response, average annual losses by sectors as well as casualties and other direct effects are obtained and aggregated at county level. Using the holistic evaluation module of the multi-hazard risk assessment CAPRA platform, EvHo, a comprehensive assessment that considered the social fragility and lack or resilience at county level is performed making use of a set of indicators with the objective of capturing the aggravating conditions of the initial physical impact. The urban seismic risk index, USRi, is obtained at county level which is useful to communicate risk to decision-makers and stakeholders besides making easy identifying potential zones that can be problematic in terms of several dimensions of the vulnerability. This case study is an example of how a multidisciplinary research on disaster risk reduction helps to show how risk analysis can be of high relevance for decision-making processes in disaster risk management.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
Socio-economic benefits of using space technologies to monitor and respond to earthquakes
Earthquakes represent a major hazard for populations around the world, causing frequent loss of life,
human suffering and enormous damage to homes, other buildings and infrastructure. The Technology Resources for
Earthquake Monitoring and Response (TREMOR) Team of 36 space professionals analysed this problem over the
course of the International Space University Summer Session Program and published their recommendations in the form
of a report. The TREMOR Team proposes a series of space- and ground-based systems to provide improved capability
to manage earthquakes. The first proposed system is a prototype earthquake early-warning system that improves the
existing knowledge of earthquake precursors and addresses the potential of these phenomena. Thus, the system will
at first enable the definitive assessment of whether reliable earthquake early warning is possible through precursor
monitoring. Should the answer be affirmative, the system itself would then form the basis of an operational earlywarning
system. To achieve these goals, the authors propose a multi-variable approach in which the system will combine,
integrate and process precursor data from space- and ground-based seismic monitoring systems (already existing and
new proposed systems) and data from a variety of related sources (e.g. historical databases, space weather data, fault
maps). The second proposed system, the prototype earthquake simulation and response system, coordinates the main
components of the response phase to reduce the time delays of response operations, increase the level of precision
in the data collected, facilitate communication amongst teams, enhance rescue and aid capabilities and so forth. It is
based in part on an earthquake simulator that will provide pre-event (if early warning is proven feasible) and post-event
damage assessment and detailed data of the affected areas to corresponding disaster management actors by means of a
geographic information system (GIS) interface. This is coupled with proposed mobile satellite communication hubs to
provide links between response teams. Business- and policy-based implementation strategies for these proposals, such
as the establishment of a non-governmental organisation to develop and operate the systems, are included
Earthquake risk assessment using an integrated Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process with Artificial Neural Networks based on GIS: A case study of Sanandaj in Iran
Earthquakes are natural phenomena, which induce natural hazard that seriously threatens urban areas, despite significant advances in retrofitting urban buildings and enhancing the knowledge and ability of experts in natural disaster control. Iran is one of the most seismically active countries in the world. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and analyze the extent of earthquake vulnerability in relation to demographic, environmental, and physical criteria. An earthquake risk assessment (ERA) map was created by using a Fuzzy-Analytic Hierarchy Process coupled with an Artificial Neural Networks (FAHP-ANN) model generating five vulnerability classes. Combining the application of a FAHP-ANN with a geographic information system (GIS) enabled to assign weights to the layers of the earthquake vulnerability criteria. The model was applied to Sanandaj City in Iran, located in the seismically active Sanandaj-Sirjan zone which is frequently affected by devastating earthquakes. The Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) model was implemented in the IDRISI software and 250 points were validated for grades 0 and 1. The validation process revealed that the proposed model can produce an earthquake probability map with an accuracy of 95%. A comparison of the results attained by using a FAHP, AHP and MLP model shows that the hybrid FAHP-ANN model proved flexible and reliable when generating the ERA map. The FAHP-ANN model accurately identified the highest earthquake vulnerability in densely populated areas with dilapidated building infrastructure. The findings of this study are useful for decision makers with a scientific basis to develop earthquake risk management strategies
Science for Disaster Risk Reduction
This thematic report describes JRC's activities in support to disaster management. The JRC develops tools and methodologies to help in all phases of disaster management, from preparedness and risk assessment to recovery and reconstruction through to forecasting and early warning.JRC.A.6-Communicatio
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