Natural Hazards Observer
| March 2005 | Volume XXIX | Number 4 |
Below are new or updated Internet resources that the Natural Hazards Center staff have found informative and useful. For a more complete list, visit http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/resources/sites.html.
Tsuanmi • All Hazards • Earthquakes • Climate Change • Severe Weather •
Floodplain Management • Fire
• Homeland Security and World Trade Center •
Public Health and Bioterrorism
Tsunami
http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/tsunami2004.html
Following the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004, the Natural Hazards Center posted this list of resources to provide the hazards and disasters community, as well as other interested individuals, with ready access to information about the event itself, relief efforts, and general background information.
http://ioc.unesco.org/itsu/categories.php?category_no=63
The UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission’s tsunami warning system in the Pacific has set up a public tsunami warning listserv. Subscribe here to receive Pacific tsunami warnings via e-mail.
http://www.thoughtweb.com/relief/
The Pacific Disaster Center and Thoughtweb Inc. have created this Web site to facilitate information sharing and collaboration regarding the ongoing relief efforts pertaining to the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster. The objective of the site is to provide personalized and highly relevant, up-to-date knowledge and situation awareness so users can be effective and efficient in doing what they can to support the tsunami relief and recovery effort.
http://www.rms.com/Publications/SumatraInsuredLoss_RMSwhitepaper.pdf
This Risk Management Solutions report Estimating Losses from the 2004 Southeast Asia Earthquake and Tsunami sets out the main lines of business that will be affected by the 2004 South Asian tsunami, identifies the key drivers of insured losses, and estimates their magnitude.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5403a1.htm
A recent issue of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report features this article, “Rapid Health Response, Assessment, and Surveillance After a Tsunami: Thailand, 2004-2005.”
http://mceer.buffalo.edu/research/tsunami/page1.asp
As part of a multilateral reconnaissance team (United States, Thailand, and Japan), the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research is investigating the effects of the tsunami disaster in Thailand. Their report, Preliminary Field Report: Post-Tsunami Urban Damage Survey in Thailand, Using the VIEWS Reconnaissance System, is available here.
http://www.adpc.net/infores/dsituation/webtsunami/documents/LLinpics.pdf
This report from the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, Lessons Learned from the Tsunami Event, December 26, 2004, Case of Sri Lanka, uses photographs as well as text to illustrate lessons learned.
All Hazards
http://www.fema.gov/fima/bp.shtm
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Mitigation Best Practice Portfolio is now live. This portfolio is a collection of ideas, activities, projects, and funding sources that can help reduce or prevent the impacts of disasters. This Web page also invites users to submit their own mitigation best practices for review and possible inclusion in the portfolio.
http://www.nosa.noaa.gov/
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has developed a new Web site for its NOAA Observing System Architecture (NOSA) that offers a comprehensive description of all of NOAA’s observing systems and their interrelationships. The geospatial information of more than 80 observing systems has been collected into a geospatial database that forms the basis for the geospatial capabilities of the Web site. Additional information on the new Web site includes details about the NOSA project and related documents.
http://www.hewsweb.org/
The United Nation’s World Food Programme has created this new Web site to monitor natural hazards around the world and help the international community anticipate humanitarian crises. HEWSweb (Humanitarian Early Warning Service) is updated daily with forecasts from a range of specialized institutions on droughts, floods, tropical storms, earthquakes, and more rare events, such as El Niño. It represents an interagency partnership project aimed at establishing a common platform for humanitarian early warnings and forecasts for natural hazards and sociopolitical developments worldwide.
http://www.tallytown.com/redcross/educate.html
The Capital Area Chapter of the American Red Cross in Tallahassee, Florida, has prepared this comprehensive library of disaster education, preparedness, planning, and mitigation articles, brochures, fact sheets, checklists, and publications from a wide variety of sources to support disaster preparedness and planning activities in the home, neighborhood, workplace, school, and community.
http://www.riskinstitute.org/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi
The Public Entity Risk Institute has posted these “Issues and Ideas Papers” from their recent Benchmarking for Continuous Improvement in Risk Management symposium.
http://www.ilankelman.org/disasterdeaths.html
This Web site features a compilation of literature covering the causes and circumstances of disaster-related deaths. The current focus is on studies that examine individual fatalities from disasters involving environmental phenomena. Comments and additions are encouraged and should be sent to ilan_kelman@hotmail.com.
http://159.121.112.22/hazards/hazards.html
The goal of Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and Development’s Natural Hazards Program is to provide for protection of people and property from natural hazards through sound land use planning. In addition to a special section on emergency preparedness, the main sections of the department’s new Web site feature four natural hazards common to Oregon: floods, landslides, earthquakes, and wildfires.
http://publications.paho.org/english/dead_bodies.pdf
This report from the Pan American Health Organization, Infectious Disease Risks from Dead Bodies Following Natural Disasters, is of particular interest in light of the recent tsunami disaster.
http://www.nvoad.org/ManagingSpontaneousVol.pdf
The National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster Volunteer Management Committee’s Managing Spontaneous Volunteers in Times of Disaster: The Synergy of Structure and Good Intentions provides a basis for developing a national strategy for working with unaffiliated volunteers and is based on an analysis of effective practices and models.
http://www.ssri.hawaii.edu/research/GDWwebsite/pages/proceeding.html
The proceedings from last summer’s Gender Equality and Disaster Risk Reduction Workshop in Honolulu, Hawaii, are now available online, including presentations, posters, background resource materials, participant profiles, regional commentaries, and the call to action.
http://www.lastfirst.net/
Last-First Networks is a nonprofit resource center dedicated to advancing effective community renewal and grassroots development. Their Web site, Tools for Change, has a searchable catalog of over 11,000 resources for community renewal, social change, peace building, aid and development practice, microenterprise, advocacy, and more.
http://www.geocomm.com/
The GeoCommunity is a portal for geospatial technology professionals, a gathering place for geographic information systems, CAD, mapping, and location-based industry professionals, enthusiasts, and students. Visit the site for spatial news and up-to-date information about software, careers, events, and more.
http://www.nfpa.org/categoryList.asp?categoryID=279
As part of its commitment to enhancing public safety through the adoption and enforcement of key ANSI codes and standards, the National Fire Protection Agency is making several of its documents available for review online at no cost.
Earthquakes
http://www.asc-india.org/
The Amateur Seismic Centre is an independent Web site that was created to provide information about earthquakes on the Indian subcontinent.
http://www.wssi.org/
The World Seismic Safety Initiative (WSSI) is an undertaking of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering. WSSI is a nonprofit, nongovernmental venture designed to promote the spirit and goals of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction and to act as a catalyst in helping nations improve their earthquake risk management strategies.
http://1906centennial.org/
The 1906 Earthquake Centennial Alliance was formed to commemorate San Francisco, California’s legendary quake. The alliance unites policy makers, scientists, engineers, historians, teachers, and emergency responders in an exploration of lessons learned and risk reduction measures. More information about the alliance, the participants, and planned activities is available at this site.
http://peer.berkeley.edu/Archive/News/parkfield04.htm
This page on the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center’s Web site features a multitude of links to information about the 2004 Parkfield earthquake.
http://www.eeri.org/lfe/pdf/japan_niigata_eeri_preliminary_report.pdf
The report Preliminary Observations on the Niigata Ken Chuetsu, Japan, Earthquake of October 23, 2004 is the latest installment in the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute’s Learning from Earthquakes Program.
http://www.rms.com/Publications/KobeRetro.pdf
Risk Management Solutions has released 1995 Kobe Earthquake 10-Year Retrospective (Kobe, Japan).
Climate Change
http://unfccc.int/meetings/cop_10/items/2944.php
The Tenth Session of the Conference of Parties (COP 10) was held in December 2004 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, marking the 10th anniversary of the entry into force of the Framework Convention on Climate Change. Discussions highlighted a range of climate-related issues, including the impacts of climate change and adaptation measures, mitigation policies and their impacts, and technology. The decisions adopted by COP 10 are available on this Web site.
Severe Weather
http://www.unep.or.jp/ietc/wcdr/unep-tokage-report.pdf
The United Nations Environment Programme has released Environmental Management and Disaster Preparedness: Lessons Learnt from the Tokage Typhoon (Typhoon 23 of 2004) in Japan.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastall.shtml
This Web page on the National Hurricane Center’s site features an archive of information related to past hurricane seasons and includes links to hurricane season tropical cyclone reports that contain comprehensive information on individual storms, including synoptic history, meteorological statistics, casualties and damage, and the postanalysis best track.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2004/ann/ann04.html
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Climatic Data Center has released Climate of 2004: 2004 in Historical Perspective. Contents of the report include major highlights from 2004, global analysis, ENSO conditions, U.S. and global significant events, U.S. drought, and U.S. summary.
http://www.rms.com/Publications/CycloneTracy30YrRetro.pdf
Risk Management Solutions has released Cyclone Tracy 30-Year Retrospective (Darwin, Australia).
http://www.westgov.org/wga/publicat/nidis.pdf
This report, Creating a Drought Early Warning System for the 21st Century: The National Integrated Drought Information System, is the first product to result from a partnership between the Western Governors’ Association and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which was created to develop a vision and recommendations for establishing an improved drought monitoring and forecasting system.
Floodplain Management
http://www.fema.gov/pdf/fima/fema467-6-10-04.pdf
Issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in May 2004, this floodplain management bulletin is written in a FAQ (frequently asked questions) format to clarify the elevation certification process as it pertains to new and substantially improved structures within the floodplain.
http://www.usfa.fema.gov/statistics/reports/pubs/seasonal.shtm
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has issued a special report examining the causes and severity of seasonal fires attributed to changes in weather patterns and human activities. The report, The Seasonal Nature of Fires, was developed by the National Fire Data Center, part of FEMA’s U.S. Fire Administration. It explores fire patterns by each season of the year, including changes in incidence and causes of all types of fires.
http://www.westgov.org/wga/initiatives/fire/tempe-report04.pdf
The Western Governors’ Association (WGA) has sent to the secretaries of the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Agriculture this report from the WGA’s Forest Health Advisory Committee on the progress made and improvements needed in the implementation plan of the 10-Year Comprehensive Wildfire Strategy.
http://www.iafc.org/grants/documents/codes.pdf
Early in 2004, the International Association of Fire Chiefs convened two emerging building codes issues roundtables to develop strategies for enacting code changes with an emphasis on life safety and fire threat reduction in nightclubs and other places of public assembly. This publication reports the outcomes of those roundtables.
Homeland Security and World Trade Center
http://hsdec.org/
The Homeland Security/Defense Education Consortium is a network of teaching and research institutions focused on promoting education, research, and cooperation related to and supporting the homeland security/defense mission. The consortium is committed to building and maintaining a community of higher education institutions supporting this mission and the overall homeland security effort through the sharing and advancement of knowledge.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/pdf/wtc/wtc-report2004-1112.pdf
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released its fifth quarterly report on data collected as part of the World Trade Center Health Registry. Earlier reports are available at http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/pub/pub.html?t=wtc.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/911_archive/
Initiated by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, the “September 11, 2001, Documentary Project” captures heartfelt reactions, eyewitness accounts, and diverse opinions shared in the months that followed the terrorist attacks. This online presentation features almost 200 audio and video interviews, 45 graphics, and 21 written narratives. The complete collection is available at the American Folklife Center Reading Room at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
Public Health and Bioterrorism
http://www.publichealthlaw.net/Resources/BTlaw.htm
The Center for Law and the Public’s Health has released three checklists for voluntary use by county, city, state, and federal public health agencies in assessing their legal preparedness for public health emergencies. The checklists are “Civil Legal Liability and Public Health Emergencies,” “Interjurisdictional Legal Coordination for Public Health Emergency Preparedness,” and “Local Government Public Health Emergency Legal Preparedness and Response.”
http://www.ahrq.gov/research/btpreplist.htm
Subscribe to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) listserv to receive concise descriptions of findings from AHRQ’s published research; announcements about new products and tools; and updates on initiatives, meetings, and other key developments in bioterrorism planning and response.