Weather and Climate Information for Tourism

The tourism sector is one of the largest and fastest growing global industries and is a significant contributor to national and local economies around the world. The interface between climate and tourism is multifaceted and complex, as climate represents both a vital resource to be exploited and an important limiting factor that poses risks to be managed by the tourism industry and tourists alike. All tourism destinations and operators are climate-sensitive to a degree and climate is a key influence on travel planning and the travel experience. This chapter provides a synopsis of the capacities and needs for climate services in the tourism sector, including current and emerging applications of climate services by diverse tourism end-users, and a discussion of key knowledge gaps, research and capacity-building needs and partnerships that are required to accelerate the application of climate information to manage risks to climate variability and facilitate successful adaptation to climate change

Weather and Climate Information for Tourism

The tourism sector is one of the largest and fastest growing global industries and is a significant contributor to national and local economies around the world. The interface between climate and tourism is multifaceted and complex, as climate represents both a vital resource to be exploited and an important limiting factor that poses risks to be managed by the tourism industry and tourists alike. All tourism destinations and operators are climate-sensitive to a degree and climate is a key influence on travel planning and the travel experience. This chapter provides a synopsis of the capacities and needs for climate services in the tourism sector, including current and emerging applications of climate services by diverse tourism end-users, and a discussion of key knowledge gaps, research and capacity-building needs and partnerships that are required to accelerate the application of climate information to manage risks to climate variability and facilitate successful adaptation to climate change

Weather and Climate Information for Tourism

The tourism sector is one of the largest and fastest growing global industries and is a significant contributor to national and local economies around the world. The interface between climate and tourism is multifaceted and complex, as climate represents both a vital resource to be exploited and an important limiting factor that poses risks to be managed by the tourism industry and tourists alike. All tourism destinations and operators are climate-sensitive to a degree and climate is a key influence on travel planning and the travel experience. This chapter provides a synopsis of the capacities and needs for climate services in the tourism sector, including current and emerging applications of climate services by diverse tourism end-users, and a discussion of key knowledge gaps, research and capacity-building needs and partnerships that are required to accelerate the application of climate information to manage risks to climate variability and facilitate successful adaptation to climate change

e-Sanctuary: open multi-physics framework for modelling wildfire urban evacuation

The number of evacuees worldwide during wildfire keep rising, year after year. Fire evacuations at the wildland-urban interfaces (WUI) pose a serious challenge to fire and emergency services and are a global issue affecting thousands of communities around the world. But to date, there is a lack of comprehensive tools able to inform, train or aid the evacuation response and the decision making in case of wildfire. The present work describes a novel framework for modelling wildfire urban evacuations. The framework is based on multi-physics simulations that can quantify the evacuation performance. The work argues that an integrated approached requires considering and integrating all three important components of WUI evacuation, namely: fire spread, pedestrian movement, and traffic movement. The report includes a systematic review of each model component, and the key features needed for the integration into a comprehensive toolkit

Analysis, simulation and testing of ITS applications based on wireless communication technologies

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) aim to improve road transport safety and efficiency, to manage road networks in the interest of the society and to provide real time responses to events. In order to reach these goals, real time feedback to the drivers is expected through the integration of telecommunications, sensing and information technologies with transport engineering. Wireless communication technologies, that have been used in industrial applications for more than 30 years, play a crucial role in ITS, as based on the concept of multiple devices (on both vehicle and infrastructure side) interconnected in different ways. Connectivity, in tandem with sensing technologies, is fuelling the innovations that will inevitably lead to the next big opportunity for road transport: autonomous vehicles. Therefore, this study has investigated - through analysis, simulation and field testing – on applications based on wireless communication technologies meant to support both Data acquisition and Data diffusion as fundamental aspects/ phases in ITS, where data is widely individuated as being the key element

Risk management in Norwegian avalanche rescue operations. Managing uncertainty, complexity, overcommitment and the long-term monitoring of accident risk

PhD thesis in Risk management and societal safetyIntroduction: Avalanche incidents commonly take place in adverse environmental conditions, and the expected survival time of avalanche victims is short. These situations require an immediate rescue response, which may pose a serious challenge to the safety of both rescuers and avalanche victims. Historically, the Norwegian rescue service has experienced few serious accidents, but undesirable incidents where rescuers are dangerously exposed in avalanche runout zones seem more frequent. Risk management in the avalanche rescue service is multifaceted, influenced by its multi-organizational structure. Individuals acting in this socio-technical rescue system are easily caught between two imperatives: saving lives and staying alive. The aim of risk management is to maintain equilibrium in rescue commitment. This project analysed whether the Norwegian avalanche rescue system is correctly balanced to withstand the extra load of common risk influencing factors in rescue operations. Aim: The fundamental aim of this thesis was to contribute to new knowledge on factors that are important for risk management and performance in the Norwegian avalanche rescue service. Methods: Mixed methods research was applied to answer the specific research questions. This implied multiple research activities in a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Study number 1 was a retrospective study to characterize Norwegian avalanche incidents and rescue response (Paper I). A comprehensive study comprising avalanche rescue statistics, cross-case analysis, factor analysis and risk modelling was conducted to gain insight into avalanche rescue performance (Paper II). In a phenomenological study to explore the concept of overcommitment, nine air ambulance crews from five bases took part in focus group interviews (Papers III and IV). Lastly, a systemic safety analysis was conducted in two separate seminars, supported by the insight of six experts in Norwegian avalanche rescue operations (Paper V). The thesis itself is a cross-paper synthesis of results. Results: The studies returned results which contribute to justified beliefs about patient and rescuer safety in Norwegian avalanche rescue operations. Conclusion: A synthesis of results from the various studies indicates that the Norwegian rescue service is vulnerable to common risk sources in rescue operations, affecting the safety of both rescuers and patients. The avalanche rescue system could benefit from a focus on the integrity of already established safety barriers. This implies an interorganizational effort to identify and reach common goals and system requirements. This thesis may serve as input to discussions on risk acceptance levels in the rescue service, the applicability and validity of control algorithms in rescue management and how to adjust the degree of commitment in various rescue missions

Characteristics of patients (expatriates and long-term travellers) with suspected malaria, being evacuated by fixed-wing air ambulances out of Sub-Saharan Africa to Johannesburg, South Africa. a retrospective case review, for the period July 2006 through June 2009

Background Promotion of job opportunities and tourism in African countries has led to an increase in expatriates in malaria endemic areas. A paucity of data exist on characteristics and numbers of expatriates and long-term travellers being evacuated from sub-Saharan Africa for suspected malaria infections diagnosed while still in Africa. Methods A retrospective flight record review of a South African fixed-wing air-ambulance provider from June 2006 through July 2009 was performed. Adult expatriates and long-term travellers with suspected malaria being evacuated from sub-Saharan African countries to Johannesburg, South Africa were included. Results Suspected malaria was the single most common diagnosis for dispatching airambulances with 81 (11.9%) of the 679 flights. Accuracy of the initial diagnosis, based on confirmation of malaria at the receiving facility was 78.4% for blood smears, 92.3% for rapid detection tests and 42.8% for clinical signs alone. P. falciparum (alone, or in combination with other Plasmodium species) was the most frequently isolated species at both the referring (100%) and receiving (88.2%) facilities in cases where the species was documented. The suspected malaria patients were predominantly male 69 (84.1%), with a mean age of 42.1 ±12.8 years, and were in sub-Saharan Africa for occupational reasons 65 (79.3%). Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique were the countries of origin in 48 (58.5%) of the suspected malaria flights. Compliance on appropriate malaria chemoprophylaxis was documented in two (2.4%) suspected malaria patients. Intubation as a marker of severity was required for 15 (18.3%) patients, and one (1.2%) patient died inflight. No statistically significant difference (p=0.50) was shown for intubation requirements when comparing patients who had utilised malaria chemoprophylaxis with the patients who had not utilised chemoprophylaxis. Conclusions Patients presented in advanced stages of severe/complicated malaria with concurrent poor chemoprophylaxis utilisation and compliance. Appropriate chemoprophylaxis did not decrease the severity of presentation (based on intubation requirements) and did not guarantee complete malaria protection

Ministry of Transport and Communications' research and Development Programme for Accessibility “ELSA”. Final report of the working group

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