Review article: The use of remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPASs) for natural hazards monitoring and management

The number of scientific studies that consider possible applications of remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPASs) for the management of natural hazards effects and the identification of occurred damages strongly increased in the last decade. Nowadays, in the scientific community, the use of these systems is not a novelty, but a deeper analysis of the literature shows a lack of codified complex methodologies that can be used not only for scientific experiments but also for normal codified emergency operations. RPASs can acquire on-demand ultra-high-resolution images that can be used for the identification of active processes such as landslides or volcanic activities but can also define the effects of earthquakes, wildfires and floods. In this paper, we present a review of published literature that describes experimental methodologies developed for the study and monitoring of natural hazard

A consensus-based approach for structural resilience to earthquakes using machine learning techniques

Seismic hazards represent a constant threat for both the built environment but mainly for human lives. Past approaches to seismic engineering considered the building deformability as limited to the elastic behaviour. Following to the introduction of performance-based approaches a whole new methodology for seismic design and assessment was proposed, relying on the ability of a building to extend its deformability in the plastic domain. This links to the ability of the building to undergo large deformations but still withstand it and therefore safeguard human lives. This allowed to distinguish between transient and permanent deformations when undergoing dynamic (e.g., seismic) stresses. In parallel, a whole new discipline is flourishing, which sees traditional structural analysis methods coupled to Artificial Intelligence (AI) strategies. In parallel, the emerging discipline of resilience has been widely implemented in the domain of disaster management and also in structural engineering. However, grounding on an extensive literature review, current approaches to disaster management at the building and district level exhibit a significant fragmentation in terms of strategies of objectives, highlighting the urge for a more holistic conceptualization. The proposed methodology therefore aims at addressing both the building and district levels, by the adoption of scale-specific methodologies suitable for the scale of analysis. At the building level, an analytical three-stage methodology is proposed to enhance traditional investigation and structural optimization strategies by the utilization of object-oriented programming, evolutionary computing and deep learning techniques. This is validated throughout the application of the proposed methodology on a real building in Old Beichuan, which underwent seismically-triggered damages as a result of the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake. At the district scale, a so-called qualitative methodology is proposed to attain a resilience evaluation in face of geo-environmental hazards and specifically targeting the built environment. A Delphi expert consultation is adopted and a framework is presented. To combine the two scales, a high-level strategy is ultimately proposed in order to interlace the building and district-scale simulations to make them organically interlinked. To this respect, a multi-dimensional mapping of the area of Old-Beichuan is presented to aid the identification of some key indicators of the district-level framework. The research has been conducted in the context of the REACH project, `vi investigating the built environment’s resilience in face of seismically-triggered geo-environmental hazards in the context of the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake in China. Results show that an optimized performance-based approach would significantly enhance traditional analysis and investigation strategies, providing an approximate damage reduction of 25% with a cost increase of 20%. In addition, the utilization of deep learning techniques to replace traditional simulation engine proved to attain a result precision up to 98%, making it reliable to conduct investigation campaign in relation to specific building features when traditional methods fail due to the impossibility of either accessing the building or tracing pertinent documentation. It is therefore demonstrated how sometimes challenging regulatory frameworks is a necessary step to enhance the resilience of buildings in face of seismic hazards

Landslide analysis and early warning

In jüngerer Vergangenheit aufgetretene gravitative Massenbewegungen verdeutlichen die Notwendigkeit die Vorhersagemöglichkeiten von und die Frühwarnung vor gravitativen Massenbewegungen zu verbessern, um die damit verbundenen Risiken zu reduzieren und Menschenleben zu schützen. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit lokalen und regionalen Analysen der auslösenden Bedingungen gravitativer Massenbewegungen an der Schwäbischen Alb, und der Entwicklung von Frühwarnsystem Prototypen. Im lokalen Untersuchungsgebiet wurde ein extensives hydrologisches und Hangbewegungsmonitoringsystem auf einem saisonal reaktivierten Hangrutschungskörper in Lichtenstein-Unterhausen installiert. Basierend auf der Analyse von Monitoringdaten wurde der Einfluss von Niederschlag und Schneeschmelze auf die Grundwasserbedingungen und die Initiierung von Hangbewegungen untersucht. Das kombinierte Hydrologie und Stabilitätsmodell CHASM wurde verwendet, um Hangbereiche auszuweisen, für die ein Versagen wahrscheinlich ist, und die Auswirkungen einer Vielzahl von Einflussfaktoren auf die Hangstabilität zu simulieren. Auf den Ergebnissen aufbauend wurden zwei Internet-basierte Anwendungen entwickelt. Die erste Applikation stellt ein technisches Frühwarnsystem dar, in dem die Hangstabilität unter Verwendung von gemessenem Niederschlag, hydrologischen Monitoringdaten und Wettervorhersagen fortlaufend simuliert wird. Die zweite Anwendung dient der Entscheidungsunterstützung und erlaubt eine schnelle Berechnung der Hangstabilität für frei wählbare Profile. Auf der regionalen Ebene wurden verfügbare Inventare gravitativer Massenbewegungen analysiert und hinsichtlich einer Bewertung von Niederschlagsschwellenwerte anderer Studien ausgewertet. Adäquate gravitative Massenbewegungen wurden ausgewählt und deren auslösende Niederschlags- und Schneeschmelzekonditionen mit Intensität-Dauer und kumulativen Schwellenwerten verglichen. Aufbauend auf den Ergebnissen wurde ein regionales Frühwarnsystem für gravitative Massenbewegungen entwickelt und als Internet-basiertes Anwendung implementiert. Die entwickelten lokalen und regionalen Frühwarnsysteme sind Teil einer holistischen und integrativen Frühwarnkette, welche durch das ILEWS Project implementiert wurde, und können auch auf andere von gravitativen Massenbewegungen betroffene Gebiete übertragen werden.Recent landslide events demonstrate the need to improve landslide forecasting and early warning capabilities in order to reduce related risks and protect human lives. In this thesis, local and regional investigations were carried out to analyse landslide characteristics in the Swabian Alb region, and to develop prototypic landslide early warning systems. In the local study area, an extensive hydrological and slope movement monitoring system was installed on a seasonally reactivated landslide body located in Lichtenstein-Unterhausen. Monitoring data was analysed to assess the influence of rainfall and snow-melt on groundwater conditions, and the initiation of slope movements. The coupled hydrology-slope stability model CHASM was applied to detect areas most prone to slope failures, and to simulate slope stability using a variety of input data. Subsequently, CHASM was refined and two web-based applications were developed: a technical early warning system to constantly simulate slope stability integrating rainfall measurements, hydrological monitoring data and weather forecasts; and a decision-support system allowing for quick calculation of stability for freely selectable slope profiles. On the regional scale, available landslide inventory data were analysed for their use in evaluation of rainfall thresholds proposed in other studies. Adequate landslide events were selected and their triggering rainfall and snow-melting conditions were compared to intensity-duration and cumulative thresholds. Based on the results, a regional landslide early warning system was developed and implemented as a web-based application. Both, the local and the regional landslide early warning systems are part of a holistic and integrative early warning chain developed by the ILEWS project, and could easily be transferred to other landslide prone areas

The state of environmental migration 2011

The State of Environmental Migration 2011 is the second of an annual series, which aims to provide the reader with regularly-updated assessments on the changing nature and dynamics of environmental migration throughout the world. Written by students of the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) of Sciences Po, this volume\u27s case studies analyze the migration flows that were induced by some of the most dramatic events of 2011—both sudden disasters and slow-onset events. IDDRI and IOM have initiated, supervised and edited the volume

Modelling the Impacts of Predicted Environmental Change on the Frequency and Magnitude of Rainfall Induced Landslides in Central Kenya

The central highlands of Kenya frequently suffer the impacts of rainfall-induced landslides resulting from the interaction of slope stability and elements of environmental change (land-use and climatic variables). The impacts of rainfall-induced landslides affect the country’s fight against poverty, bearing in mind the limited budgets to cope with the socioeconomic losses incurred by landslide hazards. On the other hand, a fast population growth rate puts pressure on the country’s resources which is majorly agricultural based, thus contributing to more people settling on steep slopes and increasing their vulnerability to rainfall landslide hazards. Thus, this research sought to contribute to the mitigation measures by mapping the landslide areas, performing landslide susceptibility assessment, and investigating the impacts of predicted environmental change on the frequency and magnitude of rainfall-induced landslides. The role of environmental change was investigated using specific objectives which assessed the impacts of land-use on slope stability, and the impact of precipitation characteristics on landslide susceptibility. Several data types ranging from topographic, soil and geology, land-use land-cover (LULC), hydrology, and precipitation landslide controlling factors were mapped and used in the modelling process. The methodology comprised of LULC change detection with Landsat multitemporal data for the years 1995, 2002, 2010 and 2014; structural geology and soil mapping; landslide inventory creation with Landsat multitemporal data for the years 1995, 2000, 2010 and 2014; landslide susceptibility mapping with Combined Hydrological and Slope stability Model (CHASM) and landslide modelling with Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model. The success of mapping and visualizing geology lineaments was owed to the digital image enhancement methods involving band ratioing, False Colour Composites (FCC), feature data transformation and data reduction methods of principal and independent component analysis. In addition to the feature data transformation and data reduction, the landslide inventory mapping was enhanced by utilizing a Normalized Difference Mid-Red (NDMIDR) spectral index involving Landsat geology and red bands. The key results of this research indicated that human activities relating to land-use (mostly agricultural) did aggravate the landslide processes on the sloppy terrain. This was confirmed by the CHASM model results where forested slopes maintained low landslide susceptibility levels. In addition, the ANN model rated LULC, rainfall, and proximity to drainage network factors high in contributing to landslide occurrence in the study area. Thus, majorly shallow types of landslides dominated, although the ANN model mapped some areas with deep-seated landslide areas along lineament features. The impacts of heavy precipitation were observed to increase slope instability, especially in bare land covers and high density drainage network areas due to rapid soil saturation, while prolonged precipitation increased infiltration thus maintaining high landslide susceptibility levels. The effects of climatic variables were associated with increased rock weathering observed on bare volcanic rocks, hence high instability rates around such areas. Landslide hazard zonation with ANN model captured several landslide types and the stability classification. The results of this study can guide targeted policies on land-use management as it has been established that rainfall induced landslides are a result of the interactions of land-use, slope and rainfall landslide conditioning factors. Moreover, creating a landslide inventory which can be updated with landslide attributes was a success since this had not been done in this geographical location to indicate the potential of landslide reactivation

Climate Change: Human Rights in the Times of Climate Displacement

The increasing numbers of climate migrants caution that the dilemma of climate refugees is a well-substantiated concern of today not tomorrow. In 2011 large-scale flooding and landslides affected more than one million people in the Philippines. More than twenty million people were displaced after massive floods in Pakistan in 2010. A significant number of future projections show that climate change will lead tens, and perhaps hundreds, of millions of people to leave their homes and in some cases their countries. The crisis of human displacement, which entails immediate actions, raised the questions of legal and moral obligations to protect the displaced. Persons suffering climate displacement face a loss of their rights and states must take actions to ensure that they do not violate human rights. Recently, states are more inclined towards sealing their borders to stop the migration influx. Walls are being built and shorelines are heavily guarded to ensure that no one can migrate. The magnitude of the coming crises of Climatees (climate change refugees and displacees) is huge. It eventually will call into question meaning of “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Climate change impacts pose a significant threat to many of broadly recognized rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments. This thesis concludes that current national and international laws are inadequate to cope with the dilemma of climatic displacement. Nations must work together to fill in all gaps in the international legal and policy frameworks to cope with the emerging dilemma of Climatees. “Sit and wait” approaches can be very costly in terms of human life and financial cost

Urban Informatics

This open access book is the first to systematically introduce the principles of urban informatics and its application to every aspect of the city that involves its functioning, control, management, and future planning. It introduces new models and tools being developed to understand and implement these technologies that enable cities to function more efficiently – to become ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’. The smart city has quickly emerged as computers have become ever smaller to the point where they can be embedded into the very fabric of the city, as well as being central to new ways in which the population can communicate and act. When cities are wired in this way, they have the potential to become sentient and responsive, generating massive streams of ‘big’ data in real time as well as providing immense opportunities for extracting new forms of urban data through crowdsourcing. This book offers a comprehensive review of the methods that form the core of urban informatics from various kinds of urban remote sensing to new approaches to machine learning and statistical modelling. It provides a detailed technical introduction to the wide array of tools information scientists need to develop the key urban analytics that are fundamental to learning about the smart city, and it outlines ways in which these tools can be used to inform design and policy so that cities can become more efficient with a greater concern for environment and equity