Assessing the Viability of a Fold-Out Hydroponic Farm for Humanitarian Relief Efforts in Dominica

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Hatcher ◽  
Stephen Jung ◽  
Holden Keegan ◽  
Todd Le ◽  
Henry Quach ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Relief Efforts

Central African Republic peace deal needs executing

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Central African Republic ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
African Union ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Government ◽  
Relief Efforts ◽  
The Eu

Significance The accord, the full contents of which are still not public, differs from previous deals in that it follows the first direct talks between the parties and because the government has reportedly met two key demands of armed groups: amnesty and power-sharing. These are controversial measures, but they may give the deal a greater chance of success than earlier efforts. Impacts If implemented, the peace agreement could facilitate humanitarian relief efforts and lead to gradual economic recovery. The new government should secure additional financial and technical assistance for the transition from the EU, UN and individual states. The actions of the African Union and neighbouring states, particularly Sudan and Chad, will carry more weight than Western partners.

scholarly journals Monitoring war destruction from space using machine learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (23) ◽  
pp. e2025400118
Author(s):  
Hannes Mueller ◽  
Andre Groeger ◽  
Jonathan Hersh ◽  
Andrea Matranga ◽  
Joan Serrat
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Automated Method ◽  
Syrian Civil War ◽  
Temporal Smoothing ◽  
Learning Techniques ◽  
High Resolution Satellite Images ◽  
Eyewitness Reports ◽  
Relief Efforts

Existing data on building destruction in conflict zones rely on eyewitness reports or manual detection, which makes it generally scarce, incomplete, and potentially biased. This lack of reliable data imposes severe limitations for media reporting, humanitarian relief efforts, human-rights monitoring, reconstruction initiatives, and academic studies of violent conflict. This article introduces an automated method of measuring destruction in high-resolution satellite images using deep-learning techniques combined with label augmentation and spatial and temporal smoothing, which exploit the underlying spatial and temporal structure of destruction. As a proof of concept, we apply this method to the Syrian civil war and reconstruct the evolution of damage in major cities across the country. Our approach allows generating destruction data with unprecedented scope, resolution, and frequency—and makes use of the ever-higher frequency at which satellite imagery becomes available.

scholarly journals TOWARDS "DRONE-BORNE" DISASTER MANAGEMENT: FUTURE APPLICATION SCENARIOS

2016 ◽  
Vol III-8 ◽  
pp. 181-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tullio Joseph Tanzi ◽  
Madhu Chandra ◽  
Jean Isnard ◽  
Daniel Camara ◽  
Olivier Sebastien ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Disaster Management ◽  
Situational Awareness ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
Future Application ◽  
Use Case ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
Flight Operations ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Relief Efforts

Information plays a key role in crisis management and relief efforts for natural disaster scenarios. Given their flight properties, UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) provide new and interesting perspectives on the data gathering for disaster management. A new generation of UAVs may help to improve situational awareness and information assessment. Among the advantages UAVs may bring to the disaster management field, we can highlight the gain in terms of time and human resources, as they can free rescue teams from time-consuming data collection tasks and assist research operations with more insightful and precise guidance thanks to advanced sensing capabilities. However, in order to be useful, UAVs need to overcome two main challenges. The first one is to achieve a sufficient autonomy level, both in terms of navigation and interpretation of the data sensed. The second major challenge relates to the reliability of the UAV, with respect to accidental (safety) or malicious (security) risks. <br><br> This paper first discusses the potential of UAV in assisting in different humanitarian relief scenarios, as well as possible issues in such situations. Based on recent experiments, we discuss the inherent advantages of autonomous flight operations, both lone flights and formation flights. The question of autonomy is then addressed and a secure embedded architecture and its specific hardware capabilities is sketched out. <br><br> We finally present a typical use case based on the new detection and observation abilities that UAVs can bring to rescue teams. Although this approach still has limits that have to be addressed, technically speaking as well as operationally speaking, it seems to be a very promising one to enhance disaster management efforts activities.

Effectiveness of DoD Humanitarian Relief Efforts in Response to Hurricanes Georges and Mitch

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Lidy ◽  
M. M. Cecil ◽  
James Kunder ◽  
Samuel H. Packer
Keyword(s):  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Relief Efforts

Human Resources in Humanitarian Health Working Group Report

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (S2) ◽  
pp. s184-s193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Janneck ◽  
Nicholas Cooper ◽  
Seble Frehywot ◽  
Hani Mowafi ◽  
Karen Hein
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Core Competencies ◽  
Task Shifting ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
Humanitarian Response ◽  
Relief Efforts

AbstractHumanitarian responses to conflict and disasters due to natural hazards usually operate in contexts of resource scarcity and unmet demands for healthcare workers. Task shifting is one avenue for delivering needed health care in resource poor settings, and on-the-ground reports indicate that task shifting may be applicable in humanitarian contexts. However, a variety of obstacles currently restrict the ability to employ task shifting in these situations, including issues of regulation, accreditation, funding, and a lack of commonly agreed-upon core competencies for different categories of humanitarian health workers. The Human Resources in Humanitarian Health (HRHH) Working Group during the 2009 Humanitarian Action Summit evaluated the potential strengths and weaknesses of task shifting in humanitarian relief efforts, and proposed a range of strategies to constructively integrate task shifting into humanitarian response.

scholarly journals Computational Modeling of Interventions and Protective Thresholds to Prevent Disease Transmission in Deploying Populations

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colleen Burgess ◽  
Angela Peace ◽  
Rebecca Everett ◽  
Buena Allegri ◽  
Patrick Garman
Keyword(s):  
Computational Modeling ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Economic Loss ◽  
Vaccine Preventable Disease ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Military Populations ◽  
Relief Efforts ◽  
Efficient Transmission ◽  
Significant Economic Loss

Military personnel are deployed abroad for missions ranging from humanitarian relief efforts to combat actions; delay or interruption in these activities due to disease transmission can cause operational disruptions, significant economic loss, and stressed or exceeded military medical resources. Deployed troops function in environments favorable to the rapid and efficient transmission of many viruses particularly when levels of protection are suboptimal. When immunity among deployed military populations is low, the risk of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks increases, impacting troop readiness and achievement of mission objectives. However, targeted vaccination and the optimization of preexisting immunity among deployed populations can decrease the threat of outbreaks among deployed troops. Here we describe methods for the computational modeling of disease transmission to explore how preexisting immunity compares with vaccination at the time of deployment as a means of preventing outbreaks and protecting troops and mission objectives during extended military deployment actions. These methods are illustrated with five modeling case studies for separate diseases common in many parts of the world, to show different approaches required in varying epidemiological settings.

A Field Manual for Palliative Care in Humanitarian Crises

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
Chronic Illnesses ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Environmental Disasters ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
Site Planning ◽  
Relief Efforts

For years, humanitarian relief efforts have focused primarily on saving lives. Traditional methods of triage have been employed, and those thought likely to die have been placed in an “expectant” tent or area. Recently however there has been increasing recognition that palliative care should play an essential role in relief efforts. The goal of humanitarian aid really shouldn’t just be saving lives, but should also include management of suffering, regardless of expected outcome. Humanitarian crises come in many forms, each with their own unique set of challenges. The challenges faced in dealing with high-mortality infectious disease outbreaks may differ significantly from those faced dealing with the movement of massive refugee populations or those faced in environmental disasters. In each of these situations, there may be many patients who could potentially benefit from palliative care. In addition to those facing death or disability as a result of the crisis itself (e.g. Ebola) there may be others with preexisting conditions, chronic illnesses, or new injuries who would benefit from incorporation of palliative care. And, of course, there are the psychological, spiritual, and psychosocial wounds that many bear because of these crises, all of which could be helped by incorporation of principles of palliative care into relief efforts. There are simply not enough palliative care specialty-trained clinicians to staff every humanitarian aid mission. To that end we have collaborated with a group of clinicians from around the globe in creating this field manual of palliative care in humanitarian crises, a focused, easy to use guide for incorporating palliative care into international humanitarian aid operations of all sorts. This guide may be used in the field for on-site planning and management, for education of local personnel, and for training purposes in advance of deployment. There remains much work to be done. We hope to someday see more comprehensive textbooks and more formalized training programs to optimize integration of palliative care into humanitarian relief efforts. In the meanwhile, we hope that this manual provides some useful, practical guidance for those undertaking this incredibly important work.

scholarly journals Optimizing Humanitarian Relief Operations with Transloads

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-106
Author(s):  
Kevin Guadagno ◽  
Kevin Saval ◽  
Quinn Van Drew ◽  
Sophia Vasiliadis ◽  
Philip Cho ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States Air Force ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
Mixed Integer ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Aircraft Routing ◽  
Mip Model ◽  
Relief Operations ◽  
Time Required ◽  
Relief Efforts

The 2010 earthquake in Haiti caused nearly 112,000 fatalities making it one of the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded in the western hemisphere.  In the weeks following the disaster, the United States Air Force Air Mobility Command moved over 29,000 passengers and 18,000 tons of relief aid in support of the relief effort, Operation Unified Response.  During the first 96 hours of the operation 59% of aircraft transporting relief aid to Haiti arrived late.  In order to assist planners in responding to future disaster relief efforts, we introduce a mixed integer programming (MIP) model that reduces the time required to deliver available relief aid into Haiti.  The aircraft routing schedule outputted by the model demonstrates that our optimized airlift network increases the amount of relief aid delivered in the first 96 hours of the operation.  Due to issues with the tractability of the MIP, we introduce an aircraft routing heuristic for use in real-world humanitarian relief operations.  We show that our heuristic is able to produce similar results to the optimization, provides greater flexibility to account for realistic planning considerations, and solves within seconds.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document