Predator Island: Washington State Department of Social and Health Services Internship

STEP Category: InternshipsIn the summer of 2019, I completed an internship with the State of Washington Department of Social and Health Services. This internship was designed to attract students from a wide variety of backgrounds to work and explore the state government’s human service department and participate in an experience working in a health service-related area. This internship is designed for people who have an interest in public service and helping others who also have the ability to work in these types of sensitive situations. Over the course of 11 weeks, I will be working with a group of people and exploring different fields of the state government and the health-related fields. Specifically, I will be working with sexually violent predators at the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island. This internship will provide a great opportunity to gain experience in the field of health services and working with the government as well.The Ohio State University Second-year Transformational Experience Program (STEP)Academic Major: Psycholog

Trivial Similarity-Based Biases and Efforts to Avoid Bias in Courtroom Judgments

Previous research on jury trials has focused mainly on the effects of group similarities (the similarity-leniency hypothesis; Kerr et al., 1995) and ways to combat those biases to ensure fair deliberation. Previous research on the effects of trivial similarities shows increased liking and compliance towards individuals who share similarities, but the similarity can also lead to participants distancing themselves from the individual if they display negative characteristics (i.e., being rude). The current study investigated the effects of shared trivial similarities between juror and defendant and possible ways to reduce or possibly eliminate these effects using bias correction. The main hypothesis was that trivial similarities between juror and defendant influence the juror's ratings of the defendant, and when asked to correct, jurors will do so. For the design of the study, a single-session study was utilized where participants were randomly selected to either see a similar or non-similar defendant and provide ratings of guilt, fault, and responsibility. The bias correction instructions immediately followed the initial decisions in the same sitting and theories of bias were measured as a possible predictor of the shift in ratings from pre-to-post-correction instructions. Participants were 150 undergraduate psychology students at The Ohio State University who were participating for credit ranging from ages 18 to 37. The effects of similarity, correction instructions, and the interaction between the two all failed to reach significance. Theories of bias also did not significantly interact with condition to impact difference in perceptions but were trending in the direction I predicted. Specifically, post-correction guilt ratings were higher for participants who were in the similar condition which is trending in the expected direction. While there were limitations to this study including the possibility of the similarities being too subtle, if significant results were found, there would be implications for jury instructions in the courtroom and jury selection.No embargoAcademic Major: Psycholog

The flood of June 2013 in Germany: how much do we know about its impacts?

In June 2013, widespread flooding and consequent damage and losses occurred in Central Europe, especially in Germany. This paper explores what data are available to investigate the adverse impacts of the event, what kind of information can be retrieved from these data and how well data and information fulfil requirements that were recently proposed for disaster reporting on the European and international levels. In accordance with the European Floods Directive (2007/60/EC), impacts on human health, economic activities (and assets), cultural heritage and the environment are described on the national and sub-national scale. Information from governmental reports is complemented by communications on traffic disruptions and surveys of flood-affected residents and companies. Overall, the impacts of the flood event in 2013 were manifold. The study reveals that flood-affected residents suffered from a large range of impacts, among which mental health and supply problems were perceived more seriously than financial losses. The most frequent damage type among affected companies was business interruption. This demonstrates that the current scientific focus on direct (financial) damage is insufficient to describe the overall impacts and severity of flood events. The case further demonstrates that procedures and standards for impact data collection in Germany are widely missing. Present impact data in Germany are fragmentary, heterogeneous, incomplete and difficult to access. In order to fulfil, for example, the monitoring and reporting requirements of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 that was adopted in March 2015 in Sendai, Japan, more efforts on impact data collection are needed

Toward an adequate level of detail in flood risk assessments

Flood risk assessments require different disciplines to understand and model the underlying components hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. Many methods and data sets have been refined considerably to cover more details of spatial, temporal, or process information. We compile case studies indicating that refined methods and data have a considerable effect on the overall assessment of flood risk. But are these improvements worth the effort? The adequate level of detail is typically unknown and prioritization of improvements in a specific component is hampered by the lack of an overarching view on flood risk. Consequently, creating the dilemma of potentially being too greedy or too wasteful with the resources available for a risk assessment. A “sweet spot” between those two would use methods and data sets that cover all relevant known processes without using resources inefficiently. We provide three key questions as a qualitative guidance toward this “sweet spot.” For quantitative decision support, more overarching case studies in various contexts are needed to reveal the sensitivity of the overall flood risk to individual components. This could also support the anticipation of unforeseen events like the flood event in Germany and Belgium in 2021 and increase the reliability of flood risk assessments

Assessment of flood loss model transferability considering changes in precaution of flood-affected residents in Germany

Common models that are used for flood loss assessments today rarely include multiple loss influencing factors, e.g. private precautionary measures, which is increasingly gaining attention in the course of the changes towards an integrated flood risk management. Furthermore, these models are often transferred to other flood events or regions without knowing to what extent this results in reliable estimates. Since data on explanatory variables and losses are often missing, model validation is scarcely performed. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate whether the multifactorial flood loss model FLEMO can be transferred in time and space, using the examples of the August 2002 and May/June 2013 flood events in Germany, with particular consideration of changes in property-level mitigation measures and loss reduction effects for residential buildings. The study revealed that the spatio-temporal transferability of flood loss models remains highly uncertain, since the models could only partially reproduce changes in property-level mitigation measures. This indicates that flood loss influencing processes and factors are still not yet sufficiently understood and represented in models due to complex interrelations and different flood and site specific characteristics. More research on changes in loss explanatory parameters and standardised data collection is needed to enhance the understanding of damage processes and to improve flood loss model validation

Assessment of flood loss model transferability considering changes in precaution of flood-affected residents in Germany

Common models that are used for flood loss assessments today rarely include multiple loss influencing factors, e.g. private precautionary measures, which is increasingly gaining attention in the course of the changes towards an integrated flood risk management. Furthermore, these models are often transferred to other flood events or regions without knowing to what extent this results in reliable estimates. Since data on explanatory variables and losses are often missing, model validation is scarcely performed. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate whether the multifactorial flood loss model FLEMO can be transferred in time and space, using the examples of the August 2002 and May/June 2013 flood events in Germany, with particular consideration of changes in property-level mitigation measures and loss reduction effects for residential buildings. The study revealed that the spatio-temporal transferability of flood loss models remains highly uncertain, since the models could only partially reproduce changes in property-level mitigation measures. This indicates that flood loss influencing processes and factors are still not yet sufficiently understood and represented in models due to complex interrelations and different flood and site specific characteristics. More research on changes in loss explanatory parameters and standardised data collection is needed to enhance the understanding of damage processes and to improve flood loss model validation

Toward an adequate level of detail in flood risk assessments

AbstractFlood risk assessments require different disciplines to understand and model the underlying components hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. Many methods and data sets have been refined considerably to cover more details of spatial, temporal, or process information. We compile case studies indicating that refined methods and data have a considerable effect on the overall assessment of flood risk. But are these improvements worth the effort? The adequate level of detail is typically unknown and prioritization of improvements in a specific component is hampered by the lack of an overarching view on flood risk. Consequently, creating the dilemma of potentially being too greedy or too wasteful with the resources available for a risk assessment. A “sweet spot” between those two would use methods and data sets that cover all relevant known processes without using resources inefficiently. We provide three key questions as a qualitative guidance toward this “sweet spot.” For quantitative decision support, more overarching case studies in various contexts are needed to reveal the sensitivity of the overall flood risk to individual components. This could also support the anticipation of unforeseen events like the flood event in Germany and Belgium in 2021 and increase the reliability of flood risk assessments.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001659BMBF http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002347Federal Environment Agency http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100010809http://howas21.gfz-potsdam.de/howas21/https://www.umwelt.niedersachsen.de/startseite/themen/wasser/hochwasser_amp_kustenschutz/hochwasserrisikomanagement_richtlinie/hochwassergefahren_und_hochwasserrisikokarten/hochwasserkarten-121920.htmlhttps://download.geofabrik.de/europe/germany.htmlhttps://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/list-of-components/EMSN024https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/collection/id-0054https://oasishub.co/dataset/surface-water-flooding-footprinthurricane-harvey-august-2017-jbahttps://www.wasser.sachsen.de/hochwassergefahrenkarte-11915.htm

Coping with Pluvial Floods by Private Households

Pluvial floods have caused severe damage to urban areas in recent years. With a projected increase in extreme precipitation as well as an ongoing urbanization, pluvial flood damage is expected to increase in the future. Therefore, further insights, especially on the adverse consequences of pluvial floods and their mitigation, are needed. To gain more knowledge, empirical damage data from three different pluvial flood events in Germany were collected through computer-aided telephone interviews. Pluvial flood awareness as well as flood experience were found to be low before the respective flood events. The level of private precaution increased considerably after all events, but is mainly focused on measures that are easy to implement. Lower inundation depths, smaller potential losses as compared with fluvial floods, as well as the fact that pluvial flooding may occur everywhere, are expected to cause a shift in damage mitigation from precaution to emergency response. However, an effective implementation of emergency measures was constrained by a low dissemination of early warnings in the study areas. Further improvements of early warning systems including dissemination as well as a rise in pluvial flood preparedness are important to reduce future pluvial flood damage

Toward an adequate level of detail in flood risk assessments

Flood risk assessments require different disciplines to understand and model the underlying components hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. Many methods and data sets have been refined considerably to cover more details of spatial, temporal, or process information. We compile case studies indicating that refined methods and data have a considerable effect on the overall assessment of flood risk. But are these improvements worth the effort? The adequate level of detail is typically unknown and prioritization of improvements in a specific component is hampered by the lack of an overarching view on flood risk. Consequently, creating the dilemma of potentially being too greedy or too wasteful with the resources available for a risk assessment. A “sweet spot” between those two would use methods and data sets that cover all relevant known processes without using resources inefficiently. We provide three key questions as a qualitative guidance toward this “sweet spot.” For quantitative decision support, more overarching case studies in various contexts are needed to reveal the sensitivity of the overall flood risk to individual components. This could also support the anticipation of unforeseen events like the flood event in Germany and Belgium in 2021 and increase the reliability of flood risk assessments