An exploration of the construction industry's role in disaster preparedness, response and recovery

The construction industry’s role in reconstruction activities following disasters such as the Indian Ocean Tsunami, is well documented. In particular, post-disaster reconstruction has been the subject of a significant body of research, with particular emphasis on developing countries that are less able to deal with the causes and impacts of disasters. There is, however, growing recognition that the construction industry has a much broader role to anticipate, assess, prevent, prepare, respond and recover from disruptive challenges. Advocates suggest construction professionals have a key role to play because they are involved in the construction of the infrastructure, and therefore should also be involved when an event destroys that infrastructure. They also suggest that the construction professions are in the best position to frame the discussion of the costbenefit trade-offs that occur in the risk management process; for example, the need for risk avoidance against the cost of implementing safety strategies. This exploratory paper considers the need for a more expansive view of the life cycle of infrastructure projects: one that extends beyond the traditional cycle of feasibility analysis, planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance and divestiture. This revised life cycle considers the construction professional’s ability to anticipate and respond to events, such as the Indian Ocean Tsunami, which damage or destroy an infrastructure project and reflects the construction industry’s ongoing responsibility toward an infrastructure’s users

Modelling psychological responses to the great East Japan earthquake and nuclear incident

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited - Copyright @ 2012 Goodwin et al.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.The Great East Japan (Tōhoku/Kanto) earthquake of March 2011was followed by a major tsunami and nuclear incident. Several previous studies have suggested a number of psychological responses to such disasters. However, few previous studies have modelled individual differences in the risk perceptions of major events, or the implications of these perceptions for relevant behaviours. We conducted a survey specifically examining responses to the Great Japan earthquake and nuclear incident, with data collected 11-13 weeks following these events. 844 young respondents completed a questionnaire in three regions of Japan; Miyagi (close to the earthquake and leaking nuclear plants), Tokyo/Chiba (approximately 220 km from the nuclear plants), and Western Japan (Yamaguchi and Nagasaki, some 1000 km from the plants). Results indicated significant regional differences in risk perception, with greater concern over earthquake risks in Tokyo than in Miyagi or Western Japan. Structural equation analyses showed that shared normative concerns about earthquake and nuclear risks, conservation values, lack of trust in governmental advice about the nuclear hazard, and poor personal control over the nuclear incident were positively correlated with perceived earthquake and nuclear risks. These risk perceptions further predicted specific outcomes (e.g. modifying homes, avoiding going outside, contemplating leaving Japan). The strength and significance of these pathways varied by region. Mental health and practical implications of these findings are discussed in the light of the continuing uncertainties in Japan following the March 2011 events

How to Un-Supplement a Tsunami of Fiscal Proportions: An Examination of the Supplemental Appropriations Process

Article I § 9 clause 7 of the United States Constitution makes it clear that “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” This single sentence provides Congress with the sole legislative authority to allocate money out of the federal treasury. Throughout the years, Congress has fleshed out this power through legislation governing how the appropriations and budgeting process should occur. Although Congress has been granted the constitutional authority to make appropriations, the President and the executive agencies that receive the funds appropriated by Congress have made themselves influential partners in this process, often through purely political means. Despite the processes that Congress has put in place, the United States is facing a fiscal tsunami should things continue at their current trajectory. One of these budgetary processes put in place by Congress, the supplemental appropriations process, has resulted in increased outlays that avoid the transparency provided through the normal budget process. This paper suggests that Congress should reform the supplemental appropriations process, and proposes a piece of legislation called the Transparency and Accountability in Supplemental Appropriations Act (TASA). TASA would provide increased transparency and political accountability to the supplemental appropriations process. It would do so by creating an Emergency Trust Fund to be included in the regular budget and by requiring that the President’s Budget and the Congressional Budget Resolution include Contingency Allowances representing the level of any supplemental appropriations used to pay for military conflicts during the prior fiscal year. These reforms would allow Congress to lower the impact of the upcoming fiscal tsunami by reducing overall budget costs

Dealing With Earthquake Disaster on Java 2006: A Comparison of Affected and Non-affected People

The study investigated affected and non-affected people in Indonesia after the earthquake and the volcanic eruption in May 2006. We expected belief in a just world (BJW) and coping styles to be important factors when dealing with natural disasters for disaster attribution and psychopathological symptoms. Overall, 80 affected and 66 non-affected people were asked in the survey about their BJW, coping style, earthquake attribution, and psychopathological symptoms. ANOVAs and path models were used to analyze the data. Results show that people with a strong BJW attribute the disaster as a consequence of human failure. Avoidance coping was correlated with both emotional disturbance and psychological affectedness whereas approach coping was not related to the assessed psychopathological symptoms. Differences in the structural relations for the affected group emerged when compared to the non- affected group. Studi ini meneliti masyarakat di Indonesia yang terdampak dan yang tak-terdampak setelah gempa bumi dan letusan gunung berapi pada Mei 2006. Kami mengharapkan keyakinan terhadap dunia yang adil (DYA) dan gaya koping (coping styles) merupakan factor-faktor penting ketika berhadapan dengan bencana alam terkait atribusi kebencanaan dan gejala psikopatologis. Sejumlah 80 masyarakat terdampak dan 66 tak-terdampak diwawancarai dalam survei tentang DYA, gaya koping, atribusi gempa bumi, dan gejala psikopatologisnya. Untuk menganalisis data digunakan model ANOVA dan jalur. Hasil menunjukkan bahwa masyarakat dengan DYA kuat mengatribusikan bencana sebagai konsekuensi kegagalan manusia. Koping penghindaran berkorelasi dengan gangguan emosional dan akibat psikologis sedangkan koping pendekatan tidak berkorelasi dengan gejala psikopatologis yang dinilai. Perbedaan dalam hubungan struktural pada kelompok terdampak muncul bila dibandingkan terhadap kelompok yang tak-terdampak

Dealing With Earthquake Disaster on Java 2006: A Comparison of Affected and Non-affected People

The study investigated affected and non-affected people in Indonesia after the earthquake and the volcanic eruption in May 2006. We expected belief in a just world (BJW) and coping styles to be important factors when dealing with natural disasters for disaster attribution and psychopathological symptoms. Overall, 80 affected and 66 non-affected people were asked in the survey about their BJW, coping style, earthquake attribution, and psychopathological symptoms. ANOVAs and path models were used to analyze the data. Results show that people with a strong BJW attribute the disaster as a consequence of human failure. Avoidance coping was correlated with both emotional disturbance and psychological affectedness whereas approach coping was not related to the assessed psychopathological symptoms. Differences in the structural relations for the affected group emerged when compared to the non- affected group. Studi ini meneliti masyarakat di Indonesia yang terdampak dan yang tak-terdampak setelah gempa bumi dan letusan gunung berapi pada Mei 2006. Kami mengharapkan keyakinan terhadap dunia yang adil (DYA) dan gaya koping (coping styles) merupakan factor-faktor penting ketika berhadapan dengan bencana alam terkait atribusi kebencanaan dan gejala psikopatologis. Sejumlah 80 masyarakat terdampak dan 66 tak-terdampak diwawancarai dalam survei tentang DYA, gaya koping, atribusi gempa bumi, dan gejala psikopatologisnya. Untuk menganalisis data digunakan model ANOVA dan jalur. Hasil menunjukkan bahwa masyarakat dengan DYA kuat mengatribusikan bencana sebagai konsekuensi kegagalan manusia. Koping penghindaran berkorelasi dengan gangguan emosional dan akibat psikologis sedangkan koping pendekatan tidak berkorelasi dengan gejala psikopatologis yang dinilai. Perbedaan dalam hubungan struktural pada kelompok terdampak muncul bila dibandingkan terhadap kelompok yang tak-terdampak

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

Contradictions inherent in the management of natural and industrial disasters

These days people keep wondering whether the world is more dangerous now than it was before. Do natural disasters really happen more frequently or is it just that the damage they cause that has become greater? The situation is not quite clear. As a result of the globalizing world and advanced communication infrastructure, the number of known / reported catastrophes is relatively high, but that does not necessarily mean there has been an actual increase in frequency. The red mud spill in Hungary was a special combination of industrial and natural disasters. This is one of the reasons why it is very hard to pinpoint who is responsible for the event. Natural disasters tend to raise questions about responsibility that are different from those concerning industrial catastrophes. Interestingly enough, however, nature often plays an important role in industrial disasters. The present article is concerned with how the issues of responsibility are handled in the case of industrial disasters

Crisis is governance : sub-prime, the traumatic event, and bare life

The article provides a critical analysis of the role of discourses of trauma and the traumatic event in constituting the ethico-political possibilities and limits of the subprime crisis. It charts the invocation of metaphors of a financial Tsunami and pervasive media focus on emotional ‘responses’ like fear, anger, and blame, suggesting that such traumatic discourses constituted the subprime crisis as a singular and catastrophic ‘event’ demanding of particular (humanitarian) responses. We draw upon the thought of Giorgio Agamben to render this constituted logic of event and response in terms of the concomitant production of bare life; the savers and homeowners who became ‘helpless victims’ in need of rescue. We therefore tie the ongoing production of the sovereign power of global finance to broader processes that entail the enfolding and securing of everyday financial subjects. These arguments are illustrated via an analysis of three subjects: the economy, bankers and borrowers. We argue that it was the movement between subject positions – from safe to vulnerable, from entrepreneurial to greedy, from victim to survivor, etc. - that marked out the effective manner of governance, confirming in this process sovereign categories of financial citizenship, asset based welfare, and securitisation that many would posit as the very problem. In short, (the way that the) crisis (was constituted) is governance

“Thou art translated”: Remapping Hideki Noda and Satoshi Miyagi’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Post-March 11 Japan

As an example of this, I read A Midsummer Night’s Dream as adapted by Hideki Noda originally in 1992 and then directed by Miyagi Satoshi for the Shizuoka Performing Arts Centre in 2011. Drawing on my experience as the surtitle translator of Noda’s Japanese adaptation “back” into English, I discuss the linguistic and cultural metamorphosis of Noda’s reworking and the effects of its mediation in Miyagi’s rendition, and ask to what extent the production, adapted in post-March 2011 Japan, can be read as a “contact zone” for a translingual Japanese Shakespeare. In what way did Miyagi’s reading of the post-March 11 events inflect Noda’s adaption along socio-political lines? What is lost and gained in processes of adaptation in the wake of an environmental catastrophe