Natural Hazards Observer
| March 2005 | Volume XXIX | Number 4 |
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/.
Older Adult Decision Making During Hurricane Hazard Preparation. Funding: National Science Foundation, one year. Principal Investigator: Christopher Mayhorn, North Carolina State University, 2701 Sullivan Drive, Suite 240, Raleigh, NC 27695; (919) 515-2444; e-mail: chris_mayhorn@ncsu.edu. Recognizing a critical need for research that investigates the needs of older adults in preparing for natural hazards such as hurricanes (e.g., evacuate or shelter-in-place), this principal investigator seeks to answer three questions: How do older adults (aged 65+) differ from younger adults in how they make decisions regarding hurricane hazard preparation? Do age-related factors (i.e., cognitive, social, physical) interact to limit hazard preparation and potentially hinder warning compliance with protective action recommendations? And does frequent, repeated exposure to previous hurricanes influence risk perception, which in turn may determine how factors are weighted during subsequent decision making? This research promises to significantly increase understanding of age-related vulnerability during natural disasters and provide useful information for the updating of warning and communication systems that are not designed with older adults in mind and may pose a systematic risk to this traditionally underrepresented population.
Morphological Impacts and Poststorm Recovery of Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Ivan, Florida Gulf Coast. Funding: National Science Foundation, one year. Principal Investigator: Ping Wang, University of South Florida, 4202 Fowler Avenue, Tampa, FL 33620; (813) 974-5465; e-mail: pwang@chuma1.cas.usf.edu. This study aims to quantify the morphological and sedimentological impacts of the recent hurricanes along the barrier islands of Florida’s Gulf Coast. It will be conducted at three areas that were significantly impacted by the hurricanes: Captiva Island, the west-central barrier-island chain, and the panhandle barrier-island chain from Fort Walton Beach to St. George Island. The following scientific questions will be addressed: How does a barrier island respond to, and thereafter recover from, single and multiple storm impacts with and without being washed over? How do human activities influence the storm impact and recovery? What are the characteristics of the storm deposits and what are the factors controlling their spatial distribution? And, what are the key parameters that need to be quantified to improve our ability to predict storm impact and recovery?
Medical Emergency Disaster Response Network. Funding: National Library of Medicine, six months, $100,000. Principal Investigator: Daniel J. Reininger, Semandex Networks Inc., 201 Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08540; e-mail: dan@semandex.net. The purpose of this project is the development of a proof-of-concept prototype for a Medical Emergency Disaster Response Network (MEDRN) that will enable better resource planning and logistic coordination among organizations involved in medical emergency disaster services: emergency medical services, fire and police departments, hospitals, local authorities, etc. Semandex Networks has developed an XML based content-routing technology, which will be used to implement the MEDRN prototype, that reduces the number of “information breaks” within an organization and across organizations by allowing information to flow from providers to users without requiring the parties to know one another. Project components include system requirements analysis, network topology design, MEDRN prototype development, system testing under a simulated scenario, and system evaluation.
Understanding the Origin of Low-Frequency Earthquakes: The Key to Forecasting Volcanic Hazard. Funding: Natural Environment Research Council, three years, £180,359. Principal Investigator: Jurgen Neuberg, Earth Sciences, School of Earth and Environment, The University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK; e-mail: J.Neuberg@earth.leeds.ac.uk. This project is aimed at the investigation of possible trigger mechanisms for low-frequency seismic events on volcanoes. The occurrence of these signals has been used as a forecasting tool on several volcanoes. Attempts in waveform modeling can explain the seismic wave propagation in and around the conduit, and a successful link has been made to derive magma properties such as pressure and gas content from seismic signals. However, the trigger mechanism, which kicks off the pressure perturbation in the first place, is unknown. This research will be based on a database from the ongoing eruption on Montserrat. Numerical modeling will be employed to evaluate a variety of physical trigger mechanisms, which will be tested against seismic data and other observational constraints. The final goal is to develop a model that explains the generation of a single low-frequency event as well as a prolonged earthquake swarm.
Effects of Social Identity on Responses to Emergency Mass Evacuation. Funding: Economic and Social Research Council, three years, £185,130. Principal Investigator: John Drury, Department of Psychology, University of Sussex, Pevensey Building, Falmer BN1 9QG, UK; e-mail: j.drury@sussex.ac.uk. Previous psychological theory has mostly suggested that emergency mass evacuations characteristically take the form of irrational panic. At the same time, there is much research evidence of coordination and mutual helping behavior among crowds of people even in life-threatening situations. This research proposes a theoretical framework explaining the conditions under which emergency mass evacuations might take the form of either individualized panic or collective cooperation. Research methods will include interviews and experiments. Findings will feed into the theory and practice of crowd safety and management and will be presented to crowd safety and management organizations and others involved in design and crowd flow in public spaces.
EPA Calls for Proposals on Global Change and Human Health
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Research and Development, National Center for Environmental Research, and National Center for Environmental Assessment, in cooperation with the EPA Global Change Research Program, announce an extramural funding competition supporting assessment of the consequences for human health of global change, including climate, climate variability, land use, economic development, and technology. Under the Global Change Research Act of 1990, the U.S. Climate Change Science Program is required to undertake scientific assessments of the potential consequences of global change for the United States. The EPA is interested in research leading to the development of decision support systems that can incorporate information about the consequences of global change on human health in order to aid state and local public health agency efforts to ameliorate these impacts.
It is anticipated that six grants, totaling approximately $2.7 million (depending on the availability of funds), will be funded under this announcement. The projected award per grant is up to $150,000 per year, for up to three years. Requests for amounts in excess of a total of $450,000, including direct and indirect costs, will not be considered. The total project period for an application submitted in response to this announcement may not exceed three years. Funding in subsequent years will be contingent upon satisfactory progress.
The deadline for applications is March 29, 2005. Find out more at http://es.epa.gov/ncer/rfa/2005/2005_decision_support_sys.html, or contact Darrell Winner at (202) 343-9748 or winner.darrell@epa.gov.
Summer Research Institute for Undergraduates
The National Science Foundation recently awarded funding to the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware to establish a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site. The purpose of the REU program is to provide hands-on research training and mentoring to undergraduate students regarding the social science aspects of disasters. Each year, 10 students from a wide variety of social science disciplines will be selected to participate in a nine-week summer institute. All transportation and lodging expenses will be covered for the student participants, who will also receive a generous stipend for the summer. Students who have attained junior-level standing at their home institutions are invited to apply. Students who are underrepresented in graduate schools, such as minorities and women, in particular, are especially encouraged to apply. Applications for this summer’s institute are due April 1, 2005. Notifications will be made by April 15. Program details, guidelines, and application materials can be found online at http://www.udel.edu/DRC/.
Cooperating Technical Partners Program Grants
One of the key objectives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Map Modernization Plan is to increase local involvement in, and ownership of, the flood mapping process. To meet this objective, FEMA created the Cooperating Technical Partner (CTP) program to create partnerships between FEMA and state, local, and regional agencies that are interested in and capable of playing active roles in FEMA’s Flood Hazard Mapping program (see the Observer, November 2004, p. 8).
A grants notice was published in January that estimated total program funding at $50 million. The application deadline is April 29, 2005. Read the notice at http://www.fedgrants.gov/Applicants/DHS/DHSWIDE/DHSLOC/97%26%23046%3B045/Grant.html. For more information, contact Daphne Thornton at (202) 646-4019 or daphne.thornton@dhs.gov or visit the CTP on the Web at http://www.fema.gov/fhm/ctp_main.shtm.