Commentary: Ensuring health statistics in conflict are evidence-based

The author argues that measuring mortality in conflict settings is fraught with limitations which mostly result in under-estimation of mortality. Some recent publications on this subject have been based upon convenient surveillance processes, or even press reports. The author calls for vigilance against such studies and argues that war related surveillance-based mortality estimates should include measures of sensitivity and representativeness

Introduction: Landslides in Coastal and Submarine Environments

Proceedings of World Landslide Forum 3, 2-6 Jjune 2014, Beijing.-- 4 pagesLack of direct observations and restricted access limits our current knowledge about submarine and coastal landslides. Open research questions remain regarding landslide recurrence rates, trigger mechanisms, failure dynamics, their impact on coastal and seafloor infrastructure and their role in causing subsequent effects such as tsunamis. The session C8 of the 3rd World Landslide Forum addresses causes and consequences of hazardous mass movements in coastal and marine areas. The session highlights the role of innovative marine-geophysical, -geological, and –geotechnical surveys and site-investigation techniques in coastal and subaquatic landslide research, hazard assessment and mitigation. This introductory paper to the C8 section of the WLF3 volume provides a brief overview on the general topic and presents the compendium of seven papers contributed by landslide experts from different parts of the world to document detailed case studies on coastal and submarine landslides as well as landslide tsunamisThis session is co-sponsored by the International Geoscience Program “Earth’s continental Margins: Assessing the Geohazard from submarine Landslides” IGCP-585, funded by the International Union of Geological Science (IUGS) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)Peer Reviewe

Croatia: Submerged Prehistoric Sites in a Karstic Landscape

Croatia has a long history of underwater archaeological research, especially of shipwrecks and the history of sea travel and trade in Classical Antiquity, but also including intermittent discoveries of submerged prehistoric archaeology. Most of the prehistoric finds have been discovered by chance because of construction work and development at the shore edge or during underwater investigations of shipwrecks. Eustatic sea-level changes would have exposed very extensive areas of now-submerged landscape, especially in the northern Adriatic, of great importance in the Palaeolithic and early Mesolithic periods. Because of sinking coastlines in more recent millennia, submerged palaeoshorelines and archaeological remains of settlement activity extend as late as the medieval period. In consequence, the chronological range of prehistoric underwater finds extends from the Mousterian period through to the Late Iron Age. Known sites currently number 33 in the SPLASHCOS Viewer with the greatest number belonging to the Neolithic or Bronze Age periods, but ongoing underwater surveys continue to add new sites to the list. Systematic research has intensified in the past decade and demonstrates the presence of in situ culture layers, excellent conditions of preservation including wooden remains in many cases, and the presence of artificial structures of stone and wood possibly built as protection against sea-level rise or as fish traps. Existing discoveries demonstrate the scope for new research and new discoveries and the integration of archaeological investigations with palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic analyses of submerged sediments in lakes and on the seabed. A major challenge for the future is to develop better procedures for the integration of scientific research, commercial and industrial development, and the management and protection of the underwater heritage