AN INFORMATION SYSTEM DESIGN FRAMEWORK FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RISK AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

Monitoring environmental risks for public safety applications (i.e. fire prediction, landslides forecasting, sea/river monitoring, etc.) requires an accurate model of involved phenomenological aspects, entities, actors, stakeholders as well as their articulated interactions. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of such scenarios several models are typically developed to address both concerns and information needs of heterogeneous skilled actors (e.g. geologists, geophysicists, chemists, managers, etc.), generally resulting in a fragmented process design. This paper goes in the opposite direction, i.e., we introduce a framework for designing collaborative processes for environmental risk and emergency management processes at multiple levels of detail. More specifically, through the use of UML models we provide a detailed description of ”the system of systems” articulated scenario which proves to be effective in designing risk evaluation and assessment processes. The application case is that of the rock face collapse forecasting in the alps, where the hydrogeological risk affects urban areas implemented into a multidisciplinary research project, namely PROMETEO, that focused on civil and public protection. As further work we aim to describe the framework as an extension to the Unified Modeling Language (UML)

Examination of international law and flood management

Flood disasters have forced millions of people from their homes, destroyed businesses, polluted water resources and increased the risk of diseases. Flood affects and displaces more people than any other disasters, though not leading in terms of claiming lives. It causes more damages to properties. Numerous human and environmental factors threaten to increase the likelihood and magnitude of floods throughout the world. Presently, the law of international watercourses provides the basic norms by which States cooperate over flood-related matters. Emergency Management being a managerial function is charged with creating the framework which communities and organisations can reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. It is the process of preparing for mitigating, responding to and recovering from an emergency like flood that informed this paper. This paper is aimed at evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of legal and institutional framework on flood related disasters in Nigeria in line with the recently adopted floods directive and the model Provisions of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Helsinki Convention. The paper further aims to point out the strength and weakness inherent in the extant law for flood prevention and mitigation. The paper also examines the extent of the involvement of international law flood related issue. This paper finds that disaster risk governance at the national, regional and global levels is of great importance for the effective management of disaster risk governance at the national, regional and global levels is of great importance for the effective management of disaster risk. Keywords: International Law, Emergency, Management, Flood Management, Efficiency, Legal and Institutional Framewor

Planning for an emergency : strategies for identifying and engaging at-risk groups : a guidance document for emergency managers

Research by the National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that emergency managers would benefit from more information on how to identify at-risk groups within their communities. In response, NCEH, other centers at CDC, and volunteers from the emergency management community created this guidance document on processes and tools that could help in these efforts. By knowing vulnerabilities in your community, you, as emergency managers, can better anticipate needs and provide information to the right people at the right time before, during, and after disasters. This document describes a process that will help you identify at-risk groups in your community. You can use this information to reduce vulnerabilities and enhance outcomes for a broader population of those at risk.Suggested citation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Planning for an Emergency: Strategies for Identifying and Engaging At-Risk Groups. A guidance document for Emergency Managers: First edition. Atlanta (GA): CDC; 2015.AMalasky8/24/20152015CurrentEvaluation811

Decisin support system for risk assessment and management of floods

The objective of the RAMFLOOD project is to develop and validate a new decision support system (DSS) for the risk assessment and management of emergency scenarios due to severe floods. The DSS combines environmental and geo-physical data from earth observation, with advanced computer simulation and graphical visualisation methods and artificial intelligence techniques, for generating knowledge contributing to the risk prevention of floods and the design of effective response actions maximising the safety of infrastructures and human life

Evaluation and Management of Patients with Methomyl Poisoning – A Case Report

The Apulian Poison Centre (PC) of Foggia, Italy, annually manages numerous consultations concerning certain or suspected poisonings from pesticides, starting at the same time a careful activity related to the risk assessment phase. The management of the exposure to pesticides and to other chemicals, and the alerting of the “National center for chemicals, cosmetics and consumer protection” at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), actively contributes to the improvement of products quality and safety. Thus, leading to a reduction in the number of intoxications - and therefore of the accesses to the emergency services - allows greater protection for workers, bystanders, residents and consumers. The reported case of methomyl poisoning has been of fundamental importance both from the medical point of view and for the management of the intoxicated patient, both for the risk assessment actions, and for cooperation with the competent authorities, generating discussion points on the regulations in force between PCs and National Competent Authority. It follows that the feedback of intoxication in an emergency can lead to improvements in the management and risk mitigation measures in order to reach a greater protection of human, animal, and environmental health. In addition, the regulatory feedback deriving from these reports is an input to the increase product quality improvement (mixtures, labels, packaging, and risk communication) leading to a greater protection of potential exposed subjects. The importance of creating an information and management network that allows the optimization of the flow of information deriving from PCs arises. The actions taken are therefore described, both relating to the management of the emergency, and relating to the subsequent information flow and to the measures for containing the consequent risks

Urban flood simulation and integrated flood risk management

Climate change induces the probability of occurring natural disasters; e.g. floods, Sea Level Rise, Green House Gases. Flood is considered one of the most dangerous phenomena that tremendously and dramatically threatening the human being and environment worldwide. Rapid urban growth, demographic explosion, and unplanned land uses have exacerbated the problem of urban flooding, particularly in the cities of China. In addition to that, the concept of flood risk management and adaptation measures and strategies are still missed in the cities’ development future plans. The main objective of this Ph.D. dissertation is to investigate the flood risk analysis and assessment based on flood simulation and adaptive strategies for flood event through two case studies of Changsha city in south-central China. In case study I, fluvial flooding was considered on mesoscale and an MCA-based approach was proposed to assess the integrated flood risk of Changsha central city. HEC-RAS 1-D model was used to simulation the inundation characteristics for hazard analysis based on four risk dimensions: economic, social, environmental, and infrastructural risk. For infrastructural dimension, apart for direct damage on road segments, network analysis method was combined with inundation information and macroscopic traffic simulation to evaluate the impact on traffic volume as well as a decrease of road service level. Closeness centrality weighted with a travel time of pre- and after- flood was compared in order to measure the impact on urban accessibility. Integrated risk values were calculated using various weighting criteria sets. Sobol' indices were used as a tool of spatially-explicit global Uncertainty Analysis and Sensitivity Analysis (UA/SA) for damage models. In case study II, an agent-based modeling approach was proposed to simulate the emergency pluvial flood event caused by a short-time rainstorm in local areas of cities aiming at developing an interactive flood emergency management system capable of interpreting the risk and reduction strategy of the pluvial flood. The simulation integrated an inundation model with microscopic traffic simulation. It also reveals that all agents can benefit significantly from both engineering measures and the only pedestrian obtain relatively more benefits from risk warning with high awareness. The method provided potentials in studies on the adaptive emergency management and risk reduction, help both decision-makers and stakeholders to acquire deeper and comprehensive understanding of the flood risk. This Ph.D. study has investigated holistic methods and models’ selection in flood risk assessment and management to overcome data deficiency and to achieve the integration of different data. The results of the first case study reveal that the integrated methods have proved to be able to improved flood risk analysis and assessment especially for indirect damage of infrastructural system with network features. The global UA/SA based on Sobol' method and visualization with maps enable to gain the spatial distribution of uncertainty for various factors, the validation of damage models, and deeper and more comprehensive understanding of flood risk. Then based on the integrated risk assessment, functions of spatial planning in flood risk management were discussed, potentially providing guidance and support for decision-making. The results of the second case study denote that agent-based modeling and simulation can be effectively utilized for flood emergency management. Two scenarios focusing on specific risk reduction interventions were designed and compared. Engineering measures by improving capability of the drainage system and the surface permeability of waterlogging areas are the most effective means for damage mitigation. High public risk awareness still has great potential benefits of the in the event of emergencies, which can greatly enhance the effectiveness of the official warning. The agent-based modeling and simulation provided an effective method for analyzing the effectiveness of different strategies for reducing flood risk at the local scale and for supporting urban flood emergency management. The case studies also indicate the significance and necessity of establishing a platform and database to realize full sharing and synergies of spatial information resources for flood risk management, which is a vital issue to manage the urban flood risk and take effective measures correspondingly with responding to emergency extreme flood event. Keywords: urban flood; flood risk assessment; network analysis; flood simulation; flood risk managemen

Children and Young People’s Participation in Disaster Risk Reduction

"Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Disasters are complex environmental, social and cultural events and processes yet disaster management approaches tend to simplify responses and homogenise affected populations. Participatory research with more than 550 children across Europe, detailed in this book argues for a radical transformation in children’s roles in disasters. It shows how more child-centred working in civil protection and emergency planning, that recognises children’s capacities in building resilience, benefits at-risk communities as a whole.

Co-Design Disaster Management Chatbot with Indigenous Communities

Indigenous communities are disproportionately impacted by rising disaster risk, climate change, and environmental degradation due to their close relationship with the environment and its resources. Unfortunately, gathering the necessary information or evidence to request or co-share sufficient funds can be challenging for indigenous people and their lands. This paper aims to co-design an AI-based chatbot with two tribes and investigate their perception and experience of using it in disaster reporting practices. The study was conducted in two stages. Firstly, we interviewed experienced first-line emergency managers and invited tribal members to an in-person design workshop. Secondly, based on qualitative analysis, we identified three themes of emergency communication, documentation, and user experience. Our findings support that indigenous communities favored the proposed Emergency Reporter chatbot solution. We further discussed how the proposed chatbot could empower the tribes in disaster management, preserve sovereignty, and seek support from other agencies

RMP Compliance

After the Clean Air Act Amendments became finalized in 1996, the subsequent requirement of Risk Management Plan (RMP) submission by certain large chemical facilities to the EPA was mandated within 3 years. Because of the complexity of many environmental regulations on facilities and the natural gap created by different levels (and agencies) of Government, total compliance with this most important emergency planning regulation could not be verified. This project is meant to assist in bridging the gap between the Local and State knowledge of facility information and assisting the EPA in identifying all potential RMP facilities. By sharing information in both directions, the hope is also to narrow the gap among emergency planning entities to ultimately make the community a safer place

Investigating the Intersection of Flood Risk and Environmental Justice in Maryland

Gemstone Team E-JUSTICEConsidering the implications of environmental justice, we sought to identify areas of Maryland with high socio-economic vulnerability, flood risk, and environmental risk to assess whether emergency preparedness policies in these areas were effective. We characterized this disparity based on a review of hazard mitigation policies in areas of Maryland that were susceptible to flood risk and toxic release. Our first phase of research determined which counties met our criteria of containing low-income, minority populations and being subject to flood risk. With the use of GIS technology to visualize pollution risk factors, we chose various counties in Maryland to use as our focus of comparison. The second phase analyzed emergency management plans for flooding and hazard mitigation policies of the selected counties. In our third and final phase, we interviewed officials or related personnel in the emergency preparedness policies and practices to gain a better understanding of the reality of their implementation. We found that Baltimore City, Dorchester County, Anne Arundel County, and Prince George’s County had high-risk factors for flooding and socioeconomic vulnerability and had less comprehensive emergency plans. Additionally, we found that the explicit mention of environmental justice was not a priority of most plans, creating space for future improvements and research