Built-in resilience through disaster risk reduction: operational issues

It has been argued that the broad range of people responsible for the delivery, operation and maintenance of the built environment need to become more proactively involved in making the built environment resilient to a wide range of known and unforeseen hazards and threats. Accordingly, the (actual and potential) roles of a wide range of stakeholders associated with the integration of Disaster Risk Reduction into the (re-)development of the built environment are examined. A review of literature, government data and interviews with key stakeholders in England, highlights that despite regulatory intentions to increase local resilience through the use of public and private sector stakeholders, a number of structural and operational obstacles exist. A range of strategies can be employed to overcome these obstacles: revisions to building codes, tightening planning policy, improving professional training, clarifying roles and missions, enabling complementary bottom-up and top-down approaches, and the provision of good practice guidance about the broad range of structural and non-structural risk reduction measures. Many of the operational challenges are non-structural and require a coherent, overarching strategy: changing and aligning the social understandings and practices in civil society, government and building environment stakeholders

Disasters are not natural

Steve, Lee and Ksenia argue for a greater understanding that disasters arising from hazardous events are not natural and that we should therefore avoid using the term ‘natural disaster’

Decision–Support System Portal as a tool for mainstreaming DRR into urban decision making

Recent disasters such as Super Storm Sandy, the Haitian Earthquake and extensive floods across the United Kingdom have highlighted the fragility of cities to a range of hazards and threats thus emphasizing the increasing importance of resilience and disaster risk reduction (DRR) and the influences of such concepts upon the management of the built environment. While this makes the role of planning, design and construction stakeholders crucial in implementing the principles of DRR, tensions exist regarding the extent to which DRR measures should be implemented during planning, design and construction process; in particular who should be responsible for the implementation of such measures. This paper presents a web-based Decision-Support System Portal (DSSP) developed during a four-year European Union-funded project which is examining the design and planning of safer urban spaces. Central to the project is an integrated security and resilience (ISR) design framework that engages local stakeholders for identifying vulnerabilities and improving urban spaces with respect to ‘security threats’. The DSSP helps end-users better understand the vulnerabilities and design possibilities of the proposed site by allowing users to pursue decision-support scenarios of secure urban design and planning

An analysis of the fundamental tensions between copyright and social media: The legal implications of sharing images on Instagram

Copyright is inherently intertwined with the development of technology and none more so than the advent of the Internet and sharing technologies. More recently, social media platforms have become the latest challenge for copyright law and policy. This article builds on the literature that recognises the underlying conflict between copyright and social networking sites; namely that the basic implication of copyright is the restriction of copying, whereas the ethos of social networking is the promotion of sharing. In particular, this article focuses on the disparity between the restricted acts of copying and communication to the public under copyright law and the encouragement of sharing on social networking site Instagram. In doing so, it contextualises the debate surrounding copyright and social media, and provides an understanding of the legal implications of using Instagram. As such this paper analyses 1) the infringement of copyright protected work on Instagram, and 2) the user-agreement and licensing of copyright material on Instagram. This study concludes that the disparity between the principles of copyright and social media lead to confusion and vulnerability of users. Therefore, it is suggested that Instagram should better inform its users of the implications of sharing third-party content as well as the terms of its user-agreement. This could be done by implementing a copyright strategy, which includes a notice and takedown system as well as investing in producing educational content for users. Perhaps social networking sites, such as Instagram might be more motivated to take steps to recognise intellectual property rights if they were considered Internet Services Provides such as YouTube

Water resource assessment of karst islands and the development of a freshwater lens assessment protocol

Karst islands like those found in the Philippine Archipelago present extreme challenges for stakeholders to manage their water resources in a sustainable manner. Anthropogenic Climate Change, land development, point source pollution and increased population have all combined to alter the water balance on these fragile islands. Karst features, shallow depth to groundwater and the potential for dissolution, contribute greatly to these challenges. Combined, these factors pose an array of complex research questions. A field reconnaissance and semi-structured interviews were completed on Bantayan Island in 2016. Drawing upon current groundwater characterization practices the research posits a novel approach for these hydrogeologic environs. With the application of the Freshwater Lens Assessment Protocol (FLAP) credible output for the characterization of the islands groundwater resources will be determined and integrated into an Adaptive Water Resource Management framework, empowering stakeholders to make informed decisions on sustainable abstraction strategies

Engineering design for dwellings and small housing in seismically active regions of Pakistan : towards a more holistic approach

This paper is an outcome of a 3 year research link programme. Over a period of time several people have contributed towards the development of the ideas. It is difficult to acknowledge all. For the production of this paper Dr Lee Bosher, Dr M.Sohail, Professor Lodi and Professor Rafeeqi have contributed. “Earthquakes don’t kill people: buildings do”1. The earthquake in October 2005 in Kashmir and northern parts of Pakistan once again highlighted the unresolved issue of poor design and quality of buildings, especially non-engineered buildings and infrastructure2. This paper introduces the ‘Holistic Engineering Design’ (HED) project that aims to ensure that best practice in the design and construction of resilient informal (non-engineered) buildings in seismically active areas can be more widely achieved. In doing so, the proposed project will address key questions about the technical, financial and social feasibility of current practice and possible seismic hazard engineering measures; including the potential to learn lessons from traditional construction techniques and ‘professional wisdom’; this is what the authors have referred to as a ‘holistic approach’ to engineering design. This paper highlights the main issues globally regarding the engineering design of dwellings and small housing in seismic zones before defining and considering the case for a more holistic approach in Pakistan

Stimulating resilience for recovery: building adaptive resilience in emergency WASH response in Haiti, the Philippines and Lebanon

Recovery deficits are often witnessed within disaster-affected societies following post-disaster interventions. Humanitarian operations have struggled to find coherence between relief and recovery activities, which has resulted in a perceived operational ‘gap’ between relief, recovery and development. Building individual/household resilience within the humanitarian sphere has been theoretically posed to be fundamental for recovery; a programmatic consideration that could ensure former weak resilience would not hinder post-disaster recovery. Therefore, could a resilience building approach offer much needed solutions to the challenge of recovery within post-disaster contexts? This paper will present findings from recent doctoral research undertaken in the 2010 Haiti earthquake response, as well as presenting case study evidence from the 2013 post-disaster responses in the Philippines and the Syrian response in Lebanon. The paper will look specifically at the common barriers to recovery experienced by individuals/ households in a crisis event, understanding how emergency response operations within the WASH sector affects recovery, individual/ household resilience within the post-disaster environment will be detailed, gauging its relevance for stimulating recovery; giving case study examples of how in practice resilience at the individual/ household level can be operationalised in emergency response programming

Tensions and complexities in creating a sustainable and resilient built environment: achieving a turquoise agenda in the UK

The paradigms of sustainability and resilience have significant impacts on both research and practice in the built environment, framing ethical postures towards the fragile relationships between the built, the natural and the social environments. Both paradigms adopt a systems approach to the understanding and the embracing of complexity, highlighting the importance of long-term effects and a holistic view of highly interconnected variables. However, a careful look at policies shows that these paradigms also emphasize diverging priorities and relationships, and that there is often a prioritization of one agenda over another. Such tensions create increased complexity in policy and decision-making, potentially undermining both agendas. In this paper we examine the tensions and compatibilities between these agendas through an analysis of 43 UK policy documents, and 21 interviews with stakeholders involved in the planning, design, construction and operation of the built environment. Our analysis reveals a series of recurrent tensions that occur when theoretical approaches are translated into the ‘green’ (sustainable) and ‘blue’ (resilience) agendas. Incapable of dealing with this increased complexity, decision and policy makers simplify and ‘instrumentalise’ several core principles, creating additional tensions. Rather than determining objective concepts that decision-makers can directly translate into action, both paradigms lead stakeholders to create their own dynamic representations and meanings in an iterative process influenced by theory and practice. The findings have both theoretical and practical implications. Conceptually, they help to draw clearer boundaries between the two paradigms. In practice, they show that narrow and simplistic representations of these paradigms make it difficult to reconcile the two agendas. The paper raises important questions as to the plausibility of a ‘turquoise’ agenda, and suggests the need for a more nuanced representation of the two paradigms

Preventing catastrophic events in construction

The construction industry recognises the hazardous nature of its activities, which can be seen in the high toll of accidents its workers suffer compared with other industries - ranging from lost time injuries to fatalities. There is also a high incidence of ill-health among construction workers, including fatal diseases such as cancer arising from asbestos exposure. However, the industry may not be sufficiently aware of the potential for it to be associated with more major or catastrophic events (those involving multiple deaths and/or significant damage to property and infrastructure). Larger construction organisations have been applying ‘holistic’ risk management techniques to manage project risk. Low probability but high-consequence issues have often been included in these considerations. Most issues addressed have had purely commercial consequences eg sudden loss of a major contract or customer. However, some issues do have significant health and safety implications. This project has examined these ‘low probability but high-consequence’ safety hazards by looking at: n the types of catastrophic event which have occurred or which might occur during construction; n the reasons for occurrence when there have been (or could have been) catastrophic events during construction, including an examination of the underlying factors; n the controls which should contribute to an avoidance of a catastrophic event; and n where the UK construction industry could improve. This report and the work it describes were funded by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Its contents, including any opinions and/or conclusions expressed, are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect HSE policy

Update on HER-2 as a target for cancer therapy: The ERBB2 promoter and its exploitation for cancer treatment

Overexpression of the ERBB2 proto-oncogene is associated with amplification of the gene in breast cancer but increased activity of the promoter also plays a significant role. Members of two transcription factor families (AP-2 and Ets) show increased binding to the promoter in over-expressing cells. Consequently, strategies have been devised to target promoter activity, either through the DNA binding sites for these factors, or through another promoter sequence, a polypurine-polypyrimidine repeat structure. The promoter has also been exploited for its tumour-specific activity to direct the accumulation of cytotoxic compounds selectively within cancer cells. Our current understanding of the ERBB2 promoter is reviewed and the status of these therapeutic avenues is discussed