scholarly journals Neglecting uncertainties biases house-elevation decisions to manage riverine flood risks

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahkameh Zarekarizi ◽  
Vivek Srikrishnan ◽  
Klaus Keller

Abstract Homeowners around the world elevate houses to manage flood risks. Deciding how high to elevate a house poses a nontrivial decision problem. The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recommends elevating existing houses to the Base Flood Elevation (the elevation of the 100-year flood) plus a freeboard. This recommendation neglects many uncertainties. Here we analyze a case-study of riverine flood risk management using a multi-objective robust decision-making framework in the face of deep uncertainties. While the quantitative results are location-specific, the approach and overall insights are generalizable. We find strong interactions between the economic, engineering, and Earth science uncertainties, illustrating the need for expanding on previous integrated analyses to further understand the nature and strength of these connections. Considering deep uncertainties surrounding flood hazards, the discount rate, the house lifetime, and the fragility can increase the economically optimal house elevation to values well above FEMA’s recommendation.

Author(s):  
Juliane Fürst

Flowers through Concrete: Explorations in Soviet Hippieland does what the title promises. It takes readers on a journey into a world few knew existed: the lives and thoughts of Soviet hippies, who in the face of disapproval and repression created a version of Western counterculture, skilfully adapting, manipulating, and shaping it to their late socialist environment. This book is a quasi-guide into the underground hippieland, situating the world of hippies firmly in late Soviet reality and offering an unusual history of the last Soviet decades as well as a case study in the power of transnational youth cultures. It tells the almost forgotten story of how in the late sixties hippie communities sprang up across the Soviet Union, often under the tutelage of a few rebellious youngsters coming from privileged households at the heart of the Soviet establishment. Flowers through Concrete recounts not only a compelling story of survival against the odds—hippies were harassed by police, shorn of their hair by civilian guards, and confined in psychiatric hospitals by doctors who believed nonconformism was a symptom of schizophrenia. It also advances a surprising argument: despite obvious antagonism the land of Soviet hippies and the world of late socialism were not incompatible. Indeed, Soviet hippies and late socialist reality meshed so well that the hostile, yet stable, relationship that emerged was in many ways symbiotic. Ultimately, it was not the KGB but the arrival of capitalism in the 1990s that ended the Soviet hippie sistema.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 1931-1940 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Martens ◽  
H. Garrelts ◽  
H. Grunenberg ◽  
H. Lange

Abstract. The likely manifestations of climate change like flood hazards are prominent topics in public communication. This can be shown by media analysis and questionnaire data. However, in the case of flood risks an information gap remains resulting in misinformed citizens who probably will not perform the necessary protective actions when an emergency occurs. This paper examines more closely a newly developed approach to flood risk communication that takes the heterogeneity of citizens into account and aims to close this gap. The heterogeneity is analysed on the meso level regarding differences in residential situation as well as on the micro level with respect to risk perception and protective actions. Using the city of Bremen as a case study, empirical data from n=831 respondents were used to identify Action Types representing different states of readiness for protective actions in view of flood risks. These subpopulations can be provided with specific information to meet their heterogeneous needs for risk communication. A prototype of a computer-based information system is described that can produce and pass on such tailored information. However, such an approach to risk communication has to be complemented by meso level analysis which takes the social diversity of subpopulations into account. Social vulnerability is the crucial concept for understanding the distribution of resources and capacities among different social groups. We therefore recommend putting forums and organisations into place that can mediate between the state and its citizens.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 90-109
Author(s):  
Mirosław Wylon ◽  
Agnieszka Kempa ◽  
Alicja Słowy ◽  
Justyna Chodkowska-Miszczuk

Summary Subject and purpose of work: Urban transport is a key element of the functioning of urban agglomerations around the world. As it is of strategic importance, the needs of its users have to be diagnosed. Due to the fact that students are the most numerous social group using public transport, particular attention should be paid to students as the real creators of the needs of urban transport. The paper aims to diagnose the challenges in urban transport shaped by the process of studentification based on the case study of Toruń. Materials and methods: The multi-stage research approach was adopted, among others a survey among students. The choice of the research area was determined by the fact that Toruń is one of the largest academic centres in Poland. Results: Toruń is experiencing the effects of the studentification process in different dimensions, including the spatial and transport facets. Conclusions: The majority of students use public transport, daily or several times a week. The most preferred means of transport is the tram owing to its relative speed and punctuality.


Author(s):  
Rizki Widyawulandari ◽  
Sarwanto Sarwanto ◽  
Mintasihu Indriayu

<p><em>The disruption era is defined as the time when so many innovations are emerging, unrecognized by established organizations that they interfere with the activities of the old system's order or even destroy the old system. The world of education must also be ready in the face of this disruption era, especially in the era of increasingly advanced technology. One of the efforts in the development of learning-based disrupted era, especially in primary school is the use of interactive multimedia. With the steps and processes of using the right interactive multimedia, using interactive multimedia as a message media will stimulate the thoughts, feelings, concerns and desires of students so as to encourage more interactive and communicative learning process and can improve the learning experience of students become more concrete. The research method used is qualitative with case study design where researchers collect and analyze data about the use of interactive multimedia in primary school. The results revealed that interactive multimedia is considered important in the effort of IT utilization in learning in disruption era but there are still many teachers who have not realized and apply it.</em></p>


This case study conducted to investigate the impact of a responsive leadership approach in meeting customers' needs in a higher education institution in the UAE during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, a mixed-method model has been used. The data has been collected from a convenient sample working and studying at Al Qasimia University Language Center, in fall 2020. This result indicates that the provided responsive leadership support during COVID-19 was effective and helped in motivating learners and customers to keep learning and making progress greater than what was shown before COVID-19, during the face-to-face teaching and physical assessment. Although the qualitative and quantitative results in this case study revealed a significant impact of responsive leadership approach on customers’ progress, there is still a need to conduct other researches to develop and validate a responsive leadership inventory to facilitate measuring of responsive leadership attributes in a large scale sample and/or population.


Challenges ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Diosey Ramon Lugo-Morin

Indigenous social development scenarios must be understood as the possibility of improving the sustainability of the planet and human health in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Integrating the institutional resilience approach by learning from the experience of indigenous peoples’ informal institutions through the design of public policies can be a reality. To demonstrate the potential of this premise, a case study was conducted that examined the institutional resilience of one indigenous people, whose findings under nomothetic conditions may be useful for other territories around the world. These peoples provide lessons on how they cope with adversity, the COVID-19 pandemic being one of them. Institutional resilience is a step towards reaching out to the world’s ancestral populations to learn from their knowledge. These scenarios can help us understand the implications of international policies on the capacities of nations to secure access to food and resources and, subsequently, to be better prepared for future pandemics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-241
Author(s):  
Ni'mal Maulana Maulana Rizqi

Abstract: The development of architecture is now increasingly rapid because of the many architectural concepts that have sprung up, one of which is marked by the emergence of iconic architecture in various parts of the world. Iconic architecture is a building marker of place or markers of the era and iconic buildings are usually located in strategic locations such as, crossroads, parks, and open spaces. The existence of iconic buildings greatly affects the surrounding environment, even able to market the face of the city in each country. But now many buildings are said to be iconic even though they do not meet the iconic parameters due to the lack of meaning and application of iconic principles to the building. Therefore the writer needs to conduct research on iconic concepts in order to find out the true characteristics of iconic architecture. As for this case study, the study that will be discussed is the iconic building concept in a wide-span sports facilities building, one of which is the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, while the method to be used is descriptive qualitative and the research results can be concluded that the case study of the building under study can be called a building Iconic, because in part of the Bung Karno Stadium building applying iconic characteristics. Among them: Having a building scale that is relatively large and tends to be majestic, has an attractive and attractive shape, has an element of great strength so that it has a long life, and strategic position.Keywords: Iconic, Architecture, Relative, Attractive Abstrak: Perkembangan arsitektur kini semakin pesat karena banyaknya konsep arsitektur yang bermunculan, salah satunya ditandai dengan munculnya arsitektur ikonik di berbagai belahan dunia. Arsitektur ikonik merupakan bangunan penanda tempat atau penanda zaman dan bangunan ikonik biasanya berada di lokasi yang strategis seperti, persimpangan jalan, taman, dan ruang terbuka. Adanya bangunan ikonik sangat mempengaruhi lingkungan di sekitarnya, bahkan mampu memasarkan wajah kota di setiap negaranya. Namun sekarang banyak bangunan dikatakan ikonik padahal belum memenuhi parameter ikonik karena masih minimnya makna dan penerapan prinsip ikonik pada bangunan tersebut. Maka dari itu penulis perlunya melakukan penelitian tentang konsep ikonik  agar mengetahui karakteristik arsitektur ikonik yang sebenarnya. Adapun dalam studi kasus ini kajian yang akan dibahas yaitu konsep bangunan ikonik pada bangunan fasilitas olahraga bentang lebar salah satunya yaitu Stadion Gelora Bung Karno, sedangkan metode yang akan digunakan adalah deskriptif  kualitatif dan dari hasil penelitian dapat disimpulkan bahwa studi kasus bangunan yang diteliti dapat disebut bangunan Ikonik, karena pada bagian bangunan Stadion Gelora Bung Karno menerapkan karakteristik ikonik. Diantaranya: Memiliki skala bangunan yang relative besar dan cenderung megah, memiliki bentuk yang atraktif dan menarik, memiliki unsur kekuatan besar sehingga memiliki umur yang panjang, serta letak posisi yang strategis.Kata kunci: Ikonik, Arsitektur, Relative, Atraktif


Articult ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 80-92
Author(s):  
Ksenia K. Eltsova ◽  

The article analyzes the reviews of female and male fashion collections published in the “Style” supplement of the “Kommersant” newspaper during the year 2009. The “Kommersant”, the leading quality publication in Russia in the 2000s, positioned itself as a media for the financial, political and cultural elite of the country, and thus presented a case extremely interesting for discourse analysis. Namely, the world financial crisis of 2008 turned out to be a threat situation to the status quo of the elites of the moment. The situation required articulation of the belonging to the group (elite), more intense than before the crisis. I examined how the system of status markers – the discursive “semiotics of distinction” proposed to the target audience as a strategy for group identification – was constructed in the “Kommersant. Style”: the “consumption of restraint” as a metaphor for “resilience” in the face of the crisis becomes the leading recommendation of the discourse. Putting the results into the context of the 2010s, it can be realized that the idea of “restraint” in consumer behavior transcends the elitist discourse and is popularized in the field of mainstream publications.


Author(s):  
Pedro Silva ◽  
Alexandra Braga ◽  
Sara Mota ◽  
Miguel Soares ◽  
Marisa R. Ferreira

Sustainable development is one of the greatest challenges facing our generation and the next, and achieving this goal will force society to continuously challenge and overcome itself. In order to attain the required sustainable objectives, many companies are investing in new methodologies, such as the Kaizen-Lean methodology. This chapter focuses on a case study in the food retail industry, a strategic and one of the largest and oldest industries in the world able to thrive even in the face of substantial adversity. The authors systematized the case study in three different stages via an action-research intervention. In a first stage, they identified the most sensitive areas, which enabled them to detect and target the intervention. In a second stage, they implemented and monitored several actions supported by the Kaizen/Lean methodologies. In a third stage, a survey was applied to workers whose work areas had changed in order to analyze and assess the impact of the implemented measures.


Author(s):  
Joshua Greenberg

Abstract: "Opinion" discourse - editorials, op-ed articles, and guest columns - assumes an important communicative function by offering newsreaders a distinctive and authoritative voice that will speak to them directly, in the face of troubling or problematic circumstances. Opinion discourse addresses newsreaders embraced in a consensual relationship by taking a particular stance in relation to the persons and topics referred. Nevertheless, despite its communicative importance, opinion discourse has received less sustained theoretical and empirical attention from scholars than "hard" news. Where "hard" news purports to be balanced and fair, "opinion" discourse problematizes the world by taking up the normative dimension of issues and events as the justification and rationale for taking sides. Taking the arrivals to Canada of four boatloads of "illegal" Chinese migrants in 1999 as a case study, this article aims to contribute theoretical understanding about the import of opinion discourse to the critical study of news, whilst offering a contribution to scholarship on the social construction of the Other. Résumé: Le discours d'« opinion » - éditoriaux, chroniques, et rubriques d'invités - remplit une fonction importante dans la communication en offrant aux lecteurs une voix distincte et fiable qui leur parle directement, lors de circonstances troublantes ou problématiques. Le discours d'opinion adresse les lecteurs en les accueillant dans une relation consensuelle où l'on prend une position spécifique par rapport aux personnes et aux sujets discutés. Néanmoins, malgré son importance dans la communication, les chercheurs ont porté une attention théorique et empirique moins soutenue sur le discours d'opinion que sur les actualités. Alors que les actualités prétendent être justes et équilibrées, le discours d'« opinion » discute du monde en adhérant à la dimension normative de questions et d'événements, adhésion qui justifie et explique une prise de position particulière. En se rapportant comme étude de cas à l'arrivée au Canada de quatre bateaux transportant des émigrés chinois « illégaux » en 1999, cet article vise à contribuer une compréhension théorique de l'importance du discours d'opinion dans l'étude critique des nouvelles, tout en offrant une contribution au savoir relatif à la construction sociale de l'Autre.


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