scholarly journals Urban fire risk control: House design, upgrading and replanning

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabela Wilfred Mtani ◽  
Elinorata Celestine Mbuya
Keyword(s):  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Fire Disaster ◽  
Grass Root ◽  
Grass Root Level ◽  
House Design ◽  
Fire Accidents ◽  
And Coping ◽  
Dar Es Salaam City

Urbanisation leads to house densification, a phenomenon experienced in both planned and unplanned settlements in cities in developing countries. Such densification limits fire brigade access into settlements, thereby aggravating fire disaster risks. In this article, we assess the fire exposure and risks in residences in informal areas of Mchikichini ward, in Dar es Salaam City, Tanzania. We rely on interviews of residents and government officials to obtain background on the occurrence and causes of fire accidents, policy provisions and regulations, and experiences with fire outbreaks and coping strategies, as well as on observations and measurements of house transformations, spatial quality and indoor real life. Our findings suggest that fire risks arise from both inappropriate structural characteristics and unsound behavioural practices. This includes unsafe electric practices by residents, poor capacity of residents to fight fires once started, limited access to structures by firefighting equipment because of flouting of planning regulations and inadequate awareness of local government leaders of the magnitude of fire risks. Potential changes to reduce fire risks in the settlement include the installation of firefighting systems, restriction of cooking to designated spaces, use of safer cooking energy sources and lighting means, improvements of vehicle access routes to neighbourhoods, capacity building at the grass root level and the establishment of community-based fire risk management.

New Grounded Feminist Approach to Islam in Indonesia: A Textual Analysis of Rahima and Fahmina’s Publications

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-52
Author(s):  
Nina Nurmila
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Dominant Male ◽  
Young Generation ◽  
Feminist Activism ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Grass Root ◽  
Grass Root Level ◽  
Nahdlatul Ulama

This article aims to offer a textual analysis of Rahima and Fahmina’s publications. Rahima and Fahmina are two Non-Government Organizations founded in 2000 by a young generation of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), one of the largest moderate Muslim organizations in Indonesia. There are more similarities than differences between Rahima and Fahmina because the persons involved in the organizations are close friends and, in fact, the same persons even though both are based in two different cities. Since their foundation, both Rahima and Fahmina have published many books and magazines. This article argues that both Rahima dan Fahmina publications offer a new grounded feminist approach to Islam, which counterbalance the dominant male-biased normative approach to Islam in most Muslim societies. These publications are based on their feminist activism and community engagement with the grass-root level of many Nahdlatul Ulama pesantrens (Islamic boarding schools). The topics of their publication cover many current issues such as fiqh of women’s reproductive rights and empowerment, fiqh of the daily life of migrant workers, fiqh of anti-trafficking, prevention of child marriage, violent extremism and religious pluralism. As a result, the progressive nature of their publications negates the existing label of NU as the traditionalist organization.

scholarly journals Determination of Critical Separation Distance Between Dwellings in Informal Settlements Fire

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Wang ◽  
Lesley Gibson ◽  
Mohamed Beshir ◽  
David Rush
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Informal Settlement ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Fire Spread ◽  
Separation Distance ◽  
Flame Length ◽  
Critical Distance ◽  
Fire Disaster ◽  
Critical Separation

AbstractApproximately one billion people across the globe are living in informal settlements with a large potential fire risk. Due to the high dwelling density, a single informal settlement dwelling fire may result in a very serious fire disaster leaving thousands of people homeless. In this work, a simple physics-based theoretical model was employed to assess the critical fire separation distance between dwellings. The heat flux and ejected flame length were obtained from a full-scale dwelling tests with ISO 9705 dimension (3.6 m × 2.4 m × 2.4 m) to estimate the radiation decay coefficient of the radiation heat flux away from the open door. The ignition potential of combustible materials in adjacent dwellings are analyzed based on the critical heat flux from cone calorimeter tests. To verify the critical distance in real informal settlement fire, a parallel method using aerial photography within geographic information systems (GIS), was employed to determine the critical separation distances in four real informal settlement fires of 2014–2015 in Masiphumelele, Cape Town, South Africa. The fire-spread distances were obtained as well through the real fires. The probabilistic analysis was conducted by Weibull distribution and logistic regression, and the corresponding separation distances were given with different fire spread probabilities. From the experiments with the assumption of no interventions and open doors and windows, it was established that the heat flux would decay from around 36 kW/m2 within a distance of 1.0 m to a value smaller than 5 kW/m2 at a distance of 4.0 m. Both experiments and GIS results agree well and suggest the ignition probabilities at distances of 1.0 m, 2.0 m and 3.0 m are 97%, 52% and 5% respectively. While wind is not explicitly considered in the work, it is implicit within the GIS analyses of fire spread risk, therefore, it is reasonable to say that there is a relatively low fire spread risk at distances greater than 3 m. The distance of 1.0 m in GIS is verified to well and conservatively predict the fire spread risk in the informal settlements.

Child Abuse Control Centers: A Project for the Academy?

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 894-895
Author(s):  
Jacob Brem
Keyword(s):  
Child Abuse ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Battered Child Syndrome ◽  
Battered Child ◽  
Child Syndrome ◽  
Grass Root ◽  
Grass Root Level ◽  
Social Agencies

A good deal of literature on child abuse has accumulated since Kempe and his group first described the "Battered Child Syndrome."1 Enlightened laws have been passed in the various states and management transferred from the police into the hands of social agencies. Furthermore, the reporting physician was protected from libel. However, at the grass root level, conditions are far from ideal. Physicians are unfamiliar with the various laws and are reluctant to report for fear of getting involved in unpleasant situations.

scholarly journals Impact of the Informal Institutional Forces on the Local Government Elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-70
Author(s):  
Niaz Ahmad ◽  
Abida Bano ◽  
Ashfaq Rehman
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Formal Institutions ◽  
Political Awareness ◽  
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ◽  
Institutional Forces ◽  
Grass Root ◽  
Grass Root Level

Local government is visualised as a tool for promoting political participation, downward accountability, which consequently leads to the establishment of good governance at the grass-root level. In the establishment of the local government system, the main ingredients of good governance, such as participation and downward accountability, reckon almost on the nature of elections. However, societies marked with strong cultural and socially embedded informal institutions, already existed from generations, hinder formal institutions to play its intended role. In Pakistan, some socio-cultural features like gender, ascribed status, and economic background of the individuals influence the entire process of elections adversely. This paper attempts to assess the processes of the local government elections in District Karak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. It aims to highlight the deterministic role of other informal institutional forces that affect the outcome of local elections. It investigates, how the process of local government elections is influenced in Pakistan and how do people decide whom to vote for in these elections. The study argues that policymakers should work on strengthening the formal institutions of elections through measures such as monitoring by media, referendums, auditing, evaluations, education, and political awareness as alternatives to ensure good governance at the local level in Pakistan.

The Impact of Information and Communication Technology on the Rise of Urban Social Movements in Poland

2018 ◽  
pp. 1354-1375
Author(s):  
Maja Grabkowska ◽  
Łukasz Pancewicz ◽  
Iwona Sagan
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Information And Communications Technology ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Urban Social Movements ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Grass Root ◽  
Urban Issues ◽  
Activist Groups

The chapter examines the relationship between the use of Information and Communications Technology (ITC) and the emergence of social movements focused on urban agenda in Poland. The aim is to investigate how and to what extent a growing body of smaller activist groups use opportunities provided by the ITC to achieve their political objectives. The research results indicate that Web-based media have helped to raise the profile of local initiatives and increased awareness of systemic urban issues between different groups of grass-root actors. The findings of the chapter are based on the analysis of the Congress of Urban Movements (Kongres Ruchów Miejskich: KRM), a broad coalition of smaller non-governmental organizations and bottom-up activist groups, which use Internet-based tools to network. The results indicate that the Web-based tools increase the members' ability to connect and interact, consequently improving the ability to coordinate joint initiatives, expand real-life social networks, and in the result stimulate the rise of urban social movements.

scholarly journals Community Detection Based on a Preferential Decision Model

Information ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Jinfang Sheng ◽  
Ben Lu ◽  
Bin Wang ◽  
Jie Hu ◽  
Kai Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Complex Networks ◽  
Community Detection ◽  
Decision Model ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Stable State ◽  
Ground Truth ◽  
Label Propagation ◽  
Comparison Algorithms

The research on complex networks is a hot topic in many fields, among which community detection is a complex and meaningful process, which plays an important role in researching the characteristics of complex networks. Community structure is a common feature in the network. Given a graph, the process of uncovering its community structure is called community detection. Many community detection algorithms from different perspectives have been proposed. Achieving stable and accurate community division is still a non-trivial task due to the difficulty of setting specific parameters, high randomness and lack of ground-truth information. In this paper, we explore a new decision-making method through real-life communication and propose a preferential decision model based on dynamic relationships applied to dynamic systems. We apply this model to the label propagation algorithm and present a Community Detection based on Preferential Decision Model, called CDPD. This model intuitively aims to reveal the topological structure and the hierarchical structure between networks. By analyzing the structural characteristics of complex networks and mining the tightness between nodes, the priority of neighbor nodes is chosen to perform the required preferential decision, and finally the information in the system reaches a stable state. In the experiments, through the comparison of eight comparison algorithms, we verified the performance of CDPD in real-world networks and synthetic networks. The results show that CDPD not only has better performance than most recent algorithms on most datasets, but it is also more suitable for many community networks with ambiguous structure, especially sparse networks.

Assessing Social Vulnerability to Fire Hazards at the Kumasi Central Market, Ghana

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 57-73
Author(s):  
Dacosta Aboagye ◽  
Samuel Adu-Prah ◽  
Christabel E. Ansah
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Response ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Social Vulnerability ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Fire Hazards ◽  
Fire Disaster ◽  
Vulnerability Indicators ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Method Approach

This article describes how social vulnerability indicators can assist with informing fire disaster relief preparations. Fire outbreaks at the Kumasi Central Market in Ghana have become an annual event. About 27 fire disasters were recorded between 2007 and 2016. This article uses a spatially-centered approach to assess human vulnerability to fire risk at the location. The study used a geographic information system to compliment indicators of vulnerability to assess the level of fire risk and adaptive capacities. Mixed method approach was also used to collect survey data from traders and emergency response agencies. Data sets were analyzed using SPSS and ArcGIS. The study revealed that: most of the damaging fires occur during the dry season; fire hydrants in the market are insufficient and inaccessible; and there are low levels of awareness on fire risk and weak adaptive capacities. The article recommends provision of more fire hydrants and mass education on disaster risk prevention. Also, the market must be reconstructed with fire resistant materials and designed to make it more accessible to fire emergency response.

scholarly journals Maiden Partisan Rural Local Government Elections: Bangladesh Experience

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Mashiur Rahman ◽  
Salma Nasrin
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Daily Newspapers ◽  
Grass Root ◽  
Grass Root Level ◽  
The Government ◽  
First Time ◽  
Election Commission

A paradigm shift in the political system has been taken in Bangladesh on 12 October, 2015 with the final approval by the Cabinet to hold local polls on partisan basis. The long historical practice of non-partisan local polls has been shifted to first ever partisan poll that brought major challenges for the existing confrontational political parties of Bangladesh. Ruling Bangladesh Awami League considered demonstrating its popularity at grass-root level and controlled all political institution through this election while Bangladesh Nationalist Party had opposed these partisan local government elections as a political trick with an ill motive by the government. For the first time in Independent Bangladesh, 9th Union Parishad[1](UP) election hold on partisan basis at six phases across the country from March to June 2016. The articles tried to explore the experiences of this maiden partisan UP polls and what are the immediate consequences on the local governance as well as electoral system through reviewing seceondary materials specially the Daily Newspapers. Unfortunately massive violence, record deaths and uncontested elected Chairman, election fraughts & irregularities, reluctant role of Election Commission, strong dominant of ruling party over electoral system were common phenomenon in this maiden partisan election.[1] Lowest tier of rural local government in Bangladesh.

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