Disaster education as an effort to improve students' flood mitigation preparedness

Reducing disaster risk is an important thing that needs to be done at all levels of society, including students. This study aims to determine students' level of preparedness for flood disasters and the efforts made by schools in dealing with flood disasters. This study used a descriptive quantitative method conducted at SMA Negeri 1 Jeneponto. The population in this study was 95 students, with a total sample of 49 students determined using the Slovin formula with a ten percent margin of error. The data collection techniques used questionnaires, interviews, and documentation. The research results were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results of the study showed that knowledge of attitudes, emergency response plans, disaster warning systems, and students' disaster preparedness when a flood disaster occurs are included in the "very prepared" category. This research has implications for school practice in terms of developing a school curriculum that includes material on natural disasters and risk reduction, as well as training teachers and educators to teach and communicate about natural disasters to provide appropriate information to students

How are nature-based solutions contributing to priority societal challenges surrounding human well-being in the United Kingdom: a systematic map

Background: The concept of nature-based solutions (NBS) has evolved as an umbrella concept to describe approaches to learning from and using nature to create sustainable socio-ecological systems. Furthermore, NBS often address multiple societal challenges that humans are facing in the medium to long-term and as such can enhance human well-being (HWB). This study was commissioned to fulfil the need for a targeted systematic evidence map on the linkage between NBS and HWB to support focused research going forward that addresses the key knowledge needs of policy makers in the UK and beyond. Methods: A consultation with policy makers and government agency staff (n = 46), in the four component parts of the UK (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland) was conducted in spring 2019. This identified four key societal challenges of operational experience lacking a scientific evidence base. Three of these challenges related to management issues: NBS cost-efficacy, governance in planning, environmental justice. The fourth challenge related to the acoustic environment (soundscape). Using systematic methods, this study searched for and identified studies that assessed NBS on HWB with regard to these four selected societal challenges. Review findings: A total of 7287 articles were returned from the systematic search and screened for suitability at the level of title and abstract. A total of 610 articles passed screening criteria to warrant full text screening. Of these, 115 studies met the full text criteria for eligibility in the final systematic map database. Included studies were coded for twelve NBS interventions and ten HWB related outcome categories. Most of the evidence reviewed referred to natural, blue or green infrastructure in the urban environment and focused on economic, material and health aspects of HWB. Less than 2% of studies identified in the searches robustly reported the role of NBS actions or interventions on HWB compared with non-NBS actions or interventions. Conclusion: This systematic map found the evidence base is growing on NBS-HWB linkages, but significant biases persist in the existing literature. There was a bias in favour of the urban environment and restoration studies focused on conservation aspects, with only a few studies investigating the full suite of advantages to HWB that can be delivered from NBS actions and interventions. The soundscape was the least studied of the societal challenges identified as being of key importance by policy makers, with cost-efficiency the most reported. There was a lack of robust long-term studies to clearly test the potential of NBS regarding the HWB outcomes compared with non-NBS alternatives. This lack of robust primary knowledge, covering all four key societal challenges identified, confirms that the knowledge gaps identified by the policy makers persist, and highlights a clear research need for long-term, transdisciplinary studies that focus on comparisons between NBS and non-NBS alternatives

A conceptual framework of volcanic evacuation simulation of Merapi using agent-based model and GIS

In volcanic crises, the ability of population to evacuate has important role to reduce the risk. Based on two experiences of crisis management of Merapi 2006 and 2010, it was reported that there are problems in this aspect that caused confusion of population during the crises which resulted in fatalities. Therefore, we propose a methodology to develop a simulation model to analyze population risk that can be used to highlight the probabilities of emerged problem during the evacuation. The methodology of this research will be highly relied on the GIS-ABM simulation. The simulation was developed from the relation of the volcano, surrounding population and stakeholder within the environmental system. Those elements are represented as agents with their attributes, roles, behaviour and properties. As an example of the application, we developed a simulation case study using Anylogic

Rewilding: continuing the debate

University of Cumbria experts Dr Andrew Weatherall, Dr Lisa Fenton and Dr Ian Convery contributed a write up of their panel discussion on rewilding from the recent Timber Fest (three days of music, art and performance held in the heart of the National Forest to celebrate 'the transformative impact of forests'). The article featured online in the August 2019 edition of The Ecologist

Implementing a method for enhancing a resilient landscape with appropriate rural buildings placemen

[EN] Suitable location planning of rural buildings is a complex process to be in harmony with landscapes. This paper presents a multi-criteria spatial decision analysis approach using GIS techniques. The research aim is to evaluate the study area suitability to sustainably site tourism rural commercial buildings with landscapes. The criteria weights were decided by the authors from relevant literature, regional polices and European Union (EU) directives and experts’ discussion. The results reveal that the most suitable areas for placing them do not respond to a single solution. They explain the strengths of weighting flexibilities in the decision making proces.[ES] Planificar idóneamente la ubicación de edificaciones rurales es un proceso complejo que requiere armonización con el entorno. Este trabajo describe una metodología de análisis de decisión espacial multi-criterio mediante SIG. Se evalúa la idoneidad del área de estudio para albergar construc-ciones turísticas armonizadas en su entorno rural. Para establecer ponderaciones de criterios se emplea información de trabajos científicos, políticas regionales, directrices de la Unión Europea y opiniones de expertos. Los resultados muestran que el área más apropiada no responde a un única solución, y explican la fortaleza que supone la flexibilidad de ponderaciones en la toma de decisionesJeong, JS.; García Moruno, L.; González Gómez, D.; Carver, S. (2016). Implementación de un método para alcanzar un paisaje resiliente mediante la ubicación apropiada de edificaciones rurales. Economía Agraria y Recursos Naturales - Agricultural and Resource Economics. 16(1):19-38. https://doi.org/10.7201/earn.2016.01.02SWORD193816

Cost-effective priorities for the expansion of global terrestrial protected areas: Setting 2 post-2020 global and national targets

Biodiversity loss is a social and ecological emergency, and calls have been made for the global expansion of protected areas (PAs) to tackle this crisis. It is unclear, however, where best to locate new PAs to protect biodiversity cost-effectively. To answer this question, we conducted a spatial meta-analysis by overlaying seven global biodiversity templates to identify Conservation Priority Zones (CPZs). These are then combined with Low Human Impact Areas (LIAs) to identify Cost-Effective Zones for PA designation (CEZs). CEZs cover around 38% of global terrestrial area, of which only 24% is currently covered by existing PAs. To protect more CEZs, we propose three scenarios with conservative, moderate and ambitious targets, which aim to protect 19%, 26% and 43% of global terrestrial area, respectively. These three targets are set for each Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) party with spatially-explicit CEZs identified, providing valuable decision support for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework

Rewilding and restoring nature in a changing world

Overview of the PLoS ONE collection 'Rewilding and Restoration'