Natural Hazards Observer
| July 2004 | Volume XXVIII | Number 6 |
Below are descriptions of recently awarded contracts and grants related to hazards and disasters. An inventory of awards from 1995 to the present is available at http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/resources/grants/.
Exploring Flood Mitigation Policy: A System Dynamics Approach. Funding: National Science Foundation, two years. Principal Investigator: Thomas A. Birkland, University at Albany, State University of New York, Office for Sponsored Programs, Albany, NY 12222; (518) 437-4550; e-mail: birkland@csc.albany.edu. This project marks the beginning of a long-term research program dedicated to the use of system dynamics tools to better understand the opportunities for and chal-lenges to improved hazard mitigation policies. While the initial study will focus on flood mitigation, the resultant models will be applicable to other hazards and will enable researchers to study the intended and unintended consequences of existing and proposed mitigation and prevention policies.
Two Tests to Investigate Causes of Aftershocks. Funding: National Science Foundation, two years. Principal Investigator: Emily E. Brodsky, University of California at Los Angeles, 10920 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90024; (310) 794-0102; e-mail: brodsky@ess.ucla.edu. Through investigation of the earthquake aftershock triggering process, researchers hope to determine whether static or dynamic stresses play a greater role in triggering near- to mid-field aftershocks and gain insight into how earthquakes nucleate. In regards to earthquake hazard estimation issues, determining the triggering mechanism is important for the approximation of the distances to which earthquakes of different magnitudes might be expected to trigger aftershocks, determination of whether mainshocks could possibly depress regional seismic activity, and determination of whether the directionality of an aftershock pattern can always be expected to follow the directionality of the mainshock rupture.
A New Temporal-Spatial Dislocation Source Model. Funding: National Science Foundation, $50,000, one year. Principal Investigator: Ruichong Zhang, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois, Golden, CO 80401; (303) 273-3200; e-mail: rzhang@mines.edu. This study proposes to develop and validate a new concept of temporal-spatial pulse representation for nine couples for seismic moment tensor, which can be used to model various dislocation sources such as seismic source rupture and material crack mechanism. While improving understanding of the temporal-spatial mechanism of the dislocation sources, this research will also have broader impacts, such as diagnosing crack damage in structural health monitoring, simulating earthquake motion for structural design/retrofiting, conducting seismic survey for oil/gas exploration, and assessing influences of explosions in structures.
Combination Treatment for PTSD after the WTC Attack. Funding: National Institute of Mental Health, $450,000, five years. Principal Investigator: Randall D. Marshall, New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10032; e-mail: randall@nyspi.cpmc.columbia.edu. The purpose of this project is to study maximization of treatment response for adults with chronic Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), specifically adults with World Trade Center attack-related PTSD. The combination of serotonin reuptake inhibitor treatment and behavior therapy, (cost-effective, validated, and complementary treatments) will be examined in this new population of chronic PTSD sufferers.
Child and Family Disaster Research Training and Education. Funding: National Institute of Mental Health, $260,000, five years. Principal Investigator: Betty Pfefferbaum, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK 73126; e-mail: betty-pfefferbaum@ouhsc.edu. The goal of this program is to enhance the nation's capacity for conducting rapid postevent disaster mental health research related to children and families. The Terrorism and Disaster Branch of the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress will train researchers and responders in needs assessment, data collection for triage and tracking, clinical evaluation, surveillance treatment and intervention, and evaluation. Program benefits will include improved effectiveness of mitigation (resilience building) and long-term recovery activities.
Disaster Research Education and Mentoring Center. Funding: National Institute of Mental Health, $260,000, five years. Principal Investigator: Dean G. Kilpatrick, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, 171 Ashley Avenue, Charleston, SC 29425; e-mail: kilpatdg@musc.edu. In order to improve collaboration among disaster researchers and practitioners, mental and public health practitioners, policy makers, and relief agencies, researchers from the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Carolina and the New York Academy of Medicine, propose the establishment of a Disaster Research Education and Men toring Center. Recognizing that disasters often impact the general population, not just the direct victims, the center will focus primarily on epidemiological approaches to research assessment and intervention evaluation.
Performance-Based Probabilistic Multi-Model Climate Change Scenarios. Funding: National Science Foundation, six months. Principal Investigator: Lisa Goddard, Columbia University, 1210 Amsterdam Avenue; MC 2205, New York, NY 10027; (212) 854-6851; e-mail: Goddard@iri.columbia.edu. This research will address how anthropogenic forcing is likely to affect regional climate, with what certainty, and to what degree. It will focus on verifying the performance of twentieth century temporal characteristics and constructing probabilistic multimodel scenarios for twenty-first century climate and its variability.
Sharing the Message of Global Change through Multimedia, Vertically Integrated Outreach Curriculum. Funding: National Science Foundation, four years. Principal Investigator: Walter C. Oechel, San Diego State University Foundation, 5250 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182; (619) 594-5731. This project expands upon existing graduate, undergraduate, and K-12 educational programs to develop a new web-based curriculum highlighting the importance of climate change, the real-world application of scientific data and concepts, and the effects that climatic events in one region can have on the climates in others. The curriculum, which will be developed based on near-real-time ecophysiological data from three diverse research sites: arctic Alaska; San Diego, California (Mediterranean-type ecosystem); and the La Paz desert in Mexico, will be disseminated via a multitude of outreach activities.
Measuring Cross-Community Disaster Preparedness and Resiliency: Theoretical and Practical Application Development. Funding: National Science Foundation, three years. Principal Investigator: David M. Simpson, University of Louisville Research Foundation, 2301 South Third Street, Louisville, KY 40292; (502) 852-8367; e-mail: dave.simpson@louisville.edu. The primary goal of this project is to broaden the conceptualization of predisaster community preparedness and resiliency. The project will explore the manner in which "preparedness" and "resilience" are measured on a community scale and will seek to develop a set of characteristics and criteria that can be standardized, measured, and utilized to make meaningful cross-comparisons among communities.
Crisis Nursing Resource (CNR) Information System. Funding: National Library of Medicine, $160,000, three years. Principal Investigator: Douglas A. Troy, Miami University, 500 East High Street, Oxford, OH 45056; e-mail: troyda@muohio.edu. With the ultimate goal of providing the Disaster Health Services team of the Red Cross with instantaneous access to high quality community health resource information in the midst of a disaster, this project aims to develop, deploy, and evaluate a Crisis Nursing Resource information system. This system will feature a user-friendly database to maintain national and community health resource information and will be accessible via personal digital assistants, which are likely to be used in the field. The Resource Data Center for Community Disaster Intervention will be established at Miami University in order to manage the system and foster research.
New Modeling Grants Target
Epidemics and Bioterrorism
The National Institutes of Health National Institute of General Medical Sciences recently launched a new initiative to develop computer-modeling techniques to better diagnose, treat, and prevent infectious disease outbreaks, regardless of whether they occur naturally or are the result of bioterrorism. More than $28 million will be distributed over five years to create mathematical models and an accompanying central database to organize the information collected in the modeling process. The program, dubbed MIDAS (Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study), also supports development of user-friendly computer-modeling tools for the broader scientific community, policy makers, and public health officials to utilize in simulating infectious disease events and response strategies.
Awards have been made to a collaboration of scientists led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and including the Brookings Institution, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the University of Maryland, and Imperial College (London); a group of scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory; a research team at Emory University; and an informatics group spearheaded by Research Triangle Institute International, which includes members from SAS Institute, Inc., IBM, and Duke and Emory Universities. For more information about the program and each group's specific role in MIDAS, visit http://www.nigms.nih.gov/research/midas.html.