Worldwide Emergency Services Initiative from Down UnderOver the past decade, a global team of academics and emergency professionals has researched the needs of emergency service agencies and emergency medical service providers in a variety of countries around the world. Largely based on findings generated during this survey period, an international advisory team came together to launch the International Combined Emergency Services initiative (ICES). The goal of
Located in Queensland, Australia, the ICES Center will eventually be able to meet the needs of up to 15,000 international students and staff. ICES’ focus on training and operations will help developing countries meet specific needs to train and administer their own emergency service agencies, thus ensuring that more vulnerable communities are better able to cope with disasters. ICES will establish and maintain a variety of capabilities ranging from an operations center to an airborne response task force capable of responding globally to a fully staffed mobile field hospital.ICES is to provide a center of global excellence in emergency services education, training, and response. ICES is being organized in recognition of the growing severity and magnitude of disasters worldwide, as well as the disparity of resources, training, and services among emergency responders around the world. A degree program in Public Safety is being developed, along with on-site and Internet course options in fire and rescue, medical response, environmental and humanitarian assistance, and law enforcement and security.
For more information contact John Sturrock, ICES, P.O. Box 1227, Crows Nest N.S.W. 1585, Australia; tel: 61-2-9929-6179; e-mail: johns@icesproject.com; http://www.icesproject.com.
Earthshaking New Program Will Lead to Better Forecasting
The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) has been awarded $10 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop computing capabilities that will lead to better forecasts of when and where earthquakes are likely to occur in southern California and how the ground will shake as a result. The project team includes collaborating researchers from SCEC, the Information Sciences Institute (ISI) at the University of Southern California, the San Diego Supercomputing Center (SDSC), the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).These earth and computer scientists will create an on-line collaborative laboratory—a collaboratory—to allow scientists from across the country to work together more effectively than is currently possible.
SCEC, headquartered at the University of Southern California, was founded in 1991 to gather new information about earthquakes; integrate existing knowledge into a comprehensive and predictive understanding of earthquake phenomena; and communicate this understanding to end-users and the general public to increase earthquake awareness, reduce economic losses, and save lives. Funding for SCEC activities is also provided by the NSF and the USGS.A community of outstanding scientists from over 40 institutions throughout the country participate in SCEC. The SCEC Communication, Education, and Outreach Program offers student research experiences, web-based education tools, classroom curricula, museum displays, public information brochures, on-line newsletters, and technical workshops and publications.
For more information, contact the Southern California Earthquake Center, University of Southern California, 3651 Trousdale Parkway, Suite 169, Los Angeles, California, 90089-0742; (213) 740-5843; e-mail: scecinfo@usc.edu; http://www.scec.org.
Table of Contents for This Issue of the Natural Hazards Observer
