A Case Study of Telemedicine for Disaster Management in Underdeveloped Remote Districts of Balochistan, Pakistan

Balochistan (South West province of Pakistan) strategically lies at the border of Afghanistan and Iran. It is thelargest but overlooked and least developed in human development index in Pakistan. Universal Service Fund(USF) has recently started several telecom projects for broadband delivery, telemedicine and distant learning touplift and streamline the underprivileged class population of remote areas of Balochistan (Pakistan).Unfortunately, the ongoing and existing development projects are highly vulnerable to floods due tomountainous geography. This paper reports the breakdown analysis of telecom infrastructure throughunstructured interviews, blogs, newspapers and organizational reports. An overview of existing information andcommunication system shortcomings and its remedies are discussed and alternative technological options fornetwork resilience are highlighted through literature review and case studies. Two resilient designs forbroadband and narrowband networks are proposed. The proposed modifications will shoulder in sustainability oftelecommunication network, which is very vital during disaster mitigation, recovery and rehabilitation processes.The proposed models can be used to design better resilient telecommunication networks & disastercommunication systems for under developed mountainous regions in the world for sustainable development.Key Words: Disaster management, Information and communication systems, Telecom infrastructure,Balochistan, Floods, Telemedicin

Community-based Adaptation: Lessons from the Development Marketplace 2009 on Adaptation to Climate Change

The Development Marketplace 2009 focused on adaptation to climate change. This paper identifies lessons from the Marketplace and assesses their implications for adaptation support. Our findings are based on: statistical tabulation of all proposals; in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis of the 346 semi-finalists; and interviews with finalists and assessors. Proposals were fuelled by deep concerns that ongoing climate change and its impacts undermine development and exacerbate poverty, migration and food insecurity. Proposals addressed both local poverty and climate change challenges, and offered a wide range of approaches to render local development more resilient to current climate variability. Therefore, support to community-based adaptation should: exploit its strong local grounding and synergies with development; help connect local initiatives to higher levels; and use complementary approaches to address policy issues.Community-based Adaptation, Development Marketplace, Adaptation, Climate Change

Global Risks 2015, 10th Edition.

The 2015 edition of the Global Risks report completes a decade of highlighting the most significant long-term risks worldwide, drawing on the perspectives of experts and global decision-makers. Over that time, analysis has moved from risk identification to thinking through risk interconnections and the potentially cascading effects that result. Taking this effort one step further, this year's report underscores potential causes as well as solutions to global risks. Not only do we set out a view on 28 global risks in the report's traditional categories (economic, environmental, societal, geopolitical and technological) but also we consider the drivers of those risks in the form of 13 trends. In addition, we have selected initiatives for addressing significant challenges, which we hope will inspire collaboration among business, government and civil society communitie

Potential impact assessment of climate-related hazards on urban public health services: interaction of changing climate-related hazards and urban development in the future, Khon Kaen City, Thailand

Current understanding of the interactions between the future urban development change and climate change in the local context, considering infrastructure operation & functionality, is still primitive, especially in public health services. This study offers a climate-resilient operationalization framework for urban public health services considering the interaction between urban development change and climate change across scales, the so-called Health Integrative Climate Resilience and Adaptation Future (HICRAF). HICRAF integrates collaborative scenario planning and composite indicators developed based on the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) 's climate risk concept. It combines a mixed-methods approach of quantitative and qualitative techniques and demonstrates how different methods and scales (spatial and temporal) can be linked and create new knowledge on cascading risk patterns in a medium-sized city with a universal health care coverage setting; Khon Kaen city, Thailand. The results show that the approach allows local public health care to operationalize their potential impact and climate-resilient targets in a forward-looking manner with multiple service operation aspects. The scenario assessment outcomes prove that public health devotions can help their operation and functionality fail-safe when confronting future climatic and non-climatic challenges. However, achieving climate-resilient targets requires sectoral integration with urban development and health determining domains. Hence, more integrated spatial planning of public health services and critically revisiting conventional cost-benefit assessments on public health infrastructure investment are key entry points for creating climate-resilient urban health services. In addition to addressing missing links between global climate trajectories and local climate adaptation scenarios that involved stakeholders' normative judgements and cross-sectoral interests. HICRAF highlights a clear constraint of applying a purely place-based concept on climate vulnerability/risk assessment in reflecting the realities of network operation and functionality of urban systems. Thus, the co-existing paradox between the place-based and network-based concepts should be investigated further in climate vulnerability/risk assessment studies. Furthermore, exploration and disputation of HICRAF and its composite indicators with a wider scale and diversified settings are invited to enhance its robustness and universality

How are ICTs used as tools in raising public awareness, and what makes them effective : a case study of the work of ODPEM in Kingston, Jamaica

Master thesis development management- University of Agder 2013The last couple of decades the world has seen an incredible development within the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Not only has the number and quality of ICTs increased, but also its reach, penetration and the amount of new and different ICTs. It is also increasingly a part of everyday lives in most countries of the world. Simultaneously to this development there has been an increase in disasters and the loss of livelihoods and lives due to them. The disasters are affecting poor and developing countries disproportionally due to their vulnerability. Hence incorporating disaster management into the development agenda is vital for both to achieve sustainable livelihoods and development. Within disaster management addressing issues of risk and vulnerability is the main priority. In such work it is data collection, communication, cooperation, coordination and raising public awareness is vital. Hence effective information management is key. For there to be effective information management issues such as reaching a defined addressee, being comprehensible, multi--‐source, relevant, on time, reliable and standardised have to be addressed. ICT is beneficial in many ways; it is beneficial due to its availability, reach, penetration, multiplicity, accessibility, speed, robustness and portability. ODPEM is the main disaster management agency in Jamaica when they incorporate ICT as a tool into their disaster management work and work regarding raising public awareness, it will enhance these activities. The general public are increasingly influenced by ICTs during their days, accessing such technology to disperse important information about disaster preparedness can raise public awareness as well as enhance disaster managemen

Natural disaster risk management in South Asia a dissertation

Global economic growth and unprecedented population expansion coupled with climate change and unsustainable development will continue to cause an increase in the frequency, intensity and severity of natural disaster events into the future. Only through a clear understanding and appreciation of disaster risks can decision makers adequately prioritise the implementation of resilience building measures into development programs. The aim of this dissertation is to critically analyse the natural disaster risk management strategies, emergency preparedness and response readiness of South Asian countries. To this end the available literature and statistical data was first analysed before a comparative study was undertaken of how the frameworks and mechanisms of the South Asia Region compare to global standards. Three South Asian countries, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan were studied in detail in an attempt to measure the region against these world standards. As part of this analysis a study of the roles that the various actors play in disaster risk management, specifically the restoration of engineering services after a disaster event was undertaken. Further detailed case studies were conducted to analyse how these frameworks and mechanisms were actually implemented during disaster events. This combination of research methods revealed that significant advancements have been made in recent years towards individual communities, districts, states, countries and regions becoming more resilient to natural disaster events. The available literature and statistics reveal that there are vast areas for improvement available particularly with regard to reducing the damage to infrastructure caused by floods, earthquakes and storms. It has been conclude that a holistic approach towards disaster risk management that includes improved regional and global cooperation is vital to public safety and economic well being. One of the key outcomes of this research suggests that private companies have a responsibility to place greater importance on disaster risks when investing in infrastructure and development programs

Architecture design for disaster resilient management network using D2D technology

Huge damages from natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, landslide, tsunamis, have been reported in recent years, claiming many lives, rendering millions homeless and causing huge financial losses worldwide. The lack of effective communication between the public rescue/safety agencies, rescue teams, first responders and trapped survivors/victims makes the situation even worse. Factors like dysfunctional communication networks, limited communications capacity, limited resources/services, data transformation and effective evaluation, energy, and power deficiency cause unnecessary hindrance in rescue and recovery services during a disaster. The new wireless communication technologies are needed to enhance life-saving capabilities and rescue services. In general, in order to improve societal resilience towards natural catastrophes and develop effective communication infrastructure, innovative approaches need to be initiated to provide improved quality, better connectivity in the events of natural and human disasters. In this thesis, a disaster resilient network architecture is proposed and analysed using multi-hop communications, clustering, energy harvesting, throughput optimization, reliability enhancement, adaptive selection, and low latency communications. It also examines the importance of mode selection, power management, frequency and time resource allocation to realize the promises of Long-term Evolution (LTE) Device to Device (D2D) communication. In particular, to support resilient and energy efficient communication in disaster-affected areas. This research is examined by thorough and vigorous simulations and validated through mathematical modelling. Overall, the impact of this research is twofold: i) it provides new technologies for effective inter- and intra-agency coordination system during a disaster event by establishing a stronger and resilient communication; and ii) It offers a potential solution for stakeholders such as governments, rescue teams, and general public with new informed information on how to establish effective policies to cope with challenges before, during and after the disaster events

The Acceptance of Using Information Technology for Disaster Risk Management: A Systematic Review

The numbers of natural disaster events are continuously affecting human and the world economics. For coping with disaster, several sectors try to develop the frameworks, systems, technologies and so on. However, there are little researches focusing on the usage behavior of Information Technology (IT) for disaster risk management (DRM). Therefore, this study investigates the affecting factors on the intention to use IT for mitigating disaster’s impacts. This study conducted a systematic review with the academic researches during 2011-2018. Two important factors from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and others are used in describing individual behavior. In order to investigate the potential factors, the technology platforms are divided into nine types. According to the findings, computer software such as GIS applications are frequently used for simulation and spatial data analysis. Social media is preferred among the first choices during disaster events in order to communicate about situations and damages. Finally, we found five major potential factors which are Perceived Usefulness (PU), Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU), information accessibility, social influence, and disaster knowledge. Among them, the most essential one of using IT for disaster management is PU, while PEOU and information accessibility are more important in the web platforms

Symposium on Disaster Resilience and Built Environment Education: Celebrating Project Successes: Book of Abstracts

Among many communities in the EU and beyond, disasters pose significant concerns and challenges. With growing population and infrastructures, the world’s exposure to disaster related hazards is increasing. In addition to loss of life, disasters greatly hamper the social-economic capacity of the member countries and also of the union as a whole. Swiss Re’s latest sigma report (2014) highlights the 308 disaster events in 2013, of which 150 were natural catastrophes and 158 man-made. Almost 26,000 people lost their lives or went missing in the disasters. Europe suffered the two most expensive natural disasters in insurance terms. The first was the massive flooding in Central and Eastern Europe in May and June, after four days of heavy rain that caused large-scale damage across Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. It led to $4.1 billion in paid claims on$16.5 billion in economic losses. The second was the hailstorm that hit Germany and France in late July, causing $3.8 billion in insurance payments on$4.8 billion in economic losses. Most of those claims came from heavily populated areas of Germany. Altogether, Europe had economic losses worth $33 billion for$15 billion in insurance payouts. For the first time in history the world has experienced three consecutive years where annual economic losses have exceeded $100 billio

The Importance of Community Resilience: Developing the American Red Cross International Services Department in the New Hampshire Region

Disaster management and humanitarian aid organizations have had to reevaluate how communities and individuals can better adapt and prepare for future disaster events. One concept organizations are incorporating into their overall framework is strengthening community resilience. Increasing a community’s resilience level increases its ability to cope with the changes that affect it. Creating awareness of the vulnerabilities in an area, addressing these vulnerabilities with preparedness training, disaster risk reduction (DRR), and sustainable changes made over the long-term can develop a community’s adaptive capacity to be more resilient. For my practicum, I was given the opportunity to be the International Services Department Lead for the New Hampshire American Red Cross International Services Department. One of my main responsibilities was to develop the department to meet the disaster and emergency needs of the local intercultural community. It was through this role that I learned the importance of community preparedness and resilience. This capstone explores the influencing factors of climate change, disaster management, and social vulnerabilities on community resilience. These factors will serve as contextual information to better understand the importance and need for an International Services Department in New Hampshire. Resiliency Theory will be the lens used to describe how communities can adapt best to the influencing factors that affect their livelihood. Key Words: Resilience, disaster management, preparedness education, emergency services, international services, climate change, social vulnerability, American Red Cross, IFRC