Natural hazard impacts on infrastructure in Russian regions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Petrova
Keyword(s):  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Natural Hazard ◽  
Normal Operation ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Risk Levels ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Adverse Impacts ◽  
Electrical Grids ◽  
Almost All

<p>Infrastructure is considered as the fundamental facilities and systems serving a country or other area to ensuring the functioning of its economy. The term infrastructure refers to public and private facilities and systems such as transport (including roads, railways, bridges, tunnels, ports, airports, etc.), water supply, sewers, electrical grids, and telecommunication lines. Throughout the area of Russia, almost all of the listed infrastructure facilities are exposed to the undesirable impacts of adverse natural processes and phenomena, as well as natural hazards of various origins such as geophysical, hydro-meteorological, and others. Adverse impacts of natural hazards may trigger accidents and failures; disrupt the normal operation of infrastructure facilities. In their turn, these negative consequences of natural hazard impacts on the infrastructure cause multiple social problems. Using the information collected by the author in the database of technological and natural-technological accidents, contributions of natural factors to accidents and failures in the infrastructure facilities are assessed. Database includes more than 21 thousand events from 1992 to 2019. Among all the identified types of natural hazards, the largest contributions to accidents and infrastructure disruptions have hydro-meteorological hazards such as heavy snowfalls and rains, floods, and ice phenomena. Electrical grids are the most vulnerable to adverse impacts of natural hazards. Regional differences in the risk of accidents and infrastructure disruptions between Russian federal regions were found. All the federal regions were grouped by their risk levels of accidents and infrastructure disruptions. The resulting maps were created and analyzed.</p>

When it rains it pours: Mapping and characterization of compound events in Sweden

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Mård ◽  
Örjan Bodin ◽  
Daniel Nohrstedt
Keyword(s):  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Natural Hazard ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Extreme Precipitation Events ◽  
Compound Events ◽  
Private Actors ◽  
Current Risk ◽  
Precipitation Events

<p>Economic losses caused by natural hazards are increasing in many areas across the world. Sweden is not an exception to these trends. For example, in 2018 Sweden experienced the warmest summer ever on record. Wildfires were frequently reported, together with reports on thunder storms, extreme precipitation events, floods and prolonged drought conditions. These events resulted in considerable economic losses and required coordination on an unprecedented scale, including international assistance. Considerable knowledge gaps remain on how to effectively mitigate societal effects of compound events. Current risk assessments often focus on single hazards within distinct administrative boundaries whereas compound events, which often transcend these boundaries, are rarely accounted for. This poses a problem – particularly in vulnerable geographical areas where the risk for compound events with significant societal impacts is high. Here we present a new project that will address this knowledge gap, with the aims to identify underlying factors and causal chains of compound events in Sweden, and to investigate capacities among public and private actors to mitigate these impacts via effective collaboration. The first outcome is an integrated natural hazards map that reveals how climate-related natural hazard events have evolved over time and space in Sweden since the 1970s, and what areas are most exposed and vulnerable to compound events. These results provide knowledge on the spatiotemporal distribution of natural hazard events, including compound events, which is critical when analyzing their underlying drivers.</p>

scholarly journals Natural hazard impacts on transport infrastructure in Russia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Petrova
Keyword(s):  
Natural Hazard ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Transport Infrastructure ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Total Risk ◽  
Rock Falls ◽  
Adverse Weather ◽  
Safety And Reliability ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Transport Accidents

Abstract. Transport infrastructure is considered as a large and complex technological system including railway and bus stations; tunnels, overpasses, and bridges; sea- and river ports; airports; roads, railways, and waterways, as well as other structures, buildings and equipment ensuring the functioning of transport. Almost all of the transport infrastructure facilities are exposed to natural hazard impacts of different genesis. Such impacts pose a threat to transport safety and reliability, trigger accidents and failures, cause traffic disruptions and delays in delivery of passengers and goods. Under conditions of climate changes, these harmful impacts with negative consequences will increase. The transport infrastructure of Russia is exposed to multiple impacts of various natural hazards and adverse weather phenomena such as heavy rains and snowfalls, river floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, debris flows, snow avalanches; rock falls, icing conditions of roads, and others. The paper considers impacts of hazardous natural processes and phenomena on transport within the area of Russia. Using the information of the author’s database, contributions of natural factors to road, railway, air, and water transport accidents and failures are assessed. The total risk of transport accidents and traffic disruptions by adverse and hazardous natural impacts is assessed at the level of Russian federal regions.

scholarly journals Impact of Estrogens Present in Environment on Health and Welfare of Animals

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 2152
Author(s):  
Konrad Wojnarowski ◽  
Paweł Podobiński ◽  
Paulina Cholewińska ◽  
Jakub Smoliński ◽  
Karolina Dorobisz
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Environmental Contamination ◽  
Physiological Condition ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Neoplastic Processes ◽  
Potential Sources ◽  
Sources Of Contamination

Nowadays, there is a growing interest in environmental pollution; however, knowledge about this aspect is growing at an insufficient pace. There are many potential sources of environmental contamination, including sex hormones—especially estrogens. The analyzed literature shows that estrone (E1), estradiol (E2), estriol (E3), and synthetic ethinyloestradiol (EE2) are the most significant in terms of environmental impact. Potential sources of contamination are, among others, livestock farms, slaughterhouses, and large urban agglomerations. Estrogens occurring in the environment can negatively affect the organisms, such as animals, through phenomena such as feminization, dysregulation of natural processes related to reproduction, lowering the physiological condition of the organisms, disturbances in the regulation of both proapoptotic and anti-apoptotic processes, and even the occurrence of neoplastic processes thus drastically decreasing animal welfare. Unfortunately, the amount of research conducted on the negative consequences of their impact on animal organisms is many times smaller than that of humans, despite the great richness and diversity of the fauna. Therefore, there is a need for further research to help fill the gaps in our knowledge.

Climate Change — A Natural Hazard

2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 215-232
Author(s):  
William Kininmonth
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Natural Hazard ◽  
Climate Extremes ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Loss Of Life ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Weather And Climate ◽  
Do So

The impacts of weather and climate extremes (floods, storms, drought, etc) have historically set back development and will continue to do so into the future, especially in developing countries. It is essential to understand how future climate change will be manifest as weather and climate extremes in order to implement policies of sustainable development. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that natural processes have caused the climate to change and it is unlikely that human influences will dominate the natural processes. Any suggestion that implementation of the Kyoto Protocol will avoid future infrastructure damage, environmental degradation and loss of life from weather and climate extremes is a grand delusion.

Pipeline Vulnerability to Natural Hazards

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Vicente Amórtegui
Keyword(s):  
Stress State ◽  
Risk Analysis ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Natural Hazard ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Monitoring Systems ◽  
System Vulnerability ◽  
Preventive Actions ◽  
Strength And Stiffness ◽  
External Forces

The strength and stiffness of the pipelines allow them to tolerate the effects of natural hazards for some period of time. The amount of time depends on the strength and deformability, the stress state, the age, the conditions of installation and operation of the pipeline and their geometric arrangement with regard to the hazardous process. Accordingly, some of the hazards due to weather conditions and external forces would not be time independent. In consequence the designing of monitoring systems to predict the behavior of the pipelines against natural hazards is required in order to carry out the preventive actions which are necessary to avoid failure of the pipes due to the exposition to those hazards. In this paper a method for assessing the transport system vulnerability is developed, a function for risk analysis is proposed (which is determined by the probability of the natural hazard, the pipeline’s vulnerability to the hazard and the consequences of the pipe rupture). The elements that are part of that evaluation are presented and illustrated by means of examples.

scholarly journals Landscape analysis for multi-hazard prevention in Orco and Soana valleys, Northwest Italy

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (9) ◽  
pp. 1963-1972 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Turconi ◽  
D. Tropeano ◽  
G. Savio ◽  
S. K. De ◽  
P. J. Mason
Keyword(s):  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Natural Hazard ◽  
Thematic Maps ◽  
Italian Alps ◽  
Alpine Environment ◽  
Natural Risk ◽  
Mountainous Regions ◽  
Morphological Studies ◽  
Field Evidence ◽  
Different Types

Abstract. The study area (600 km2), consisting of Orco and Soana valleys in the Western Italian Alps, experienced different types of natural hazards, typical of the whole Alpine environment. Some of the authors have been requested to draw a civil protection plan for such mountainous regions. This offered the special opportunity (1) to draw a lot of unpublished historical data, dating back several centuries mostly concerning natural hazard processes and related damages, (2) to develop original detailed geo-morphological studies in a region still poorly known, (3) to prepare detailed thematic maps illustrating landscape components related to natural conditions and hazards, (4) to thoroughly check present-day situations in the area compared to the effects of past events and (5) to find adequate natural hazard scenarios for all sites exposed to risk. The method of work has been essentially to compare archival findings with field evidence in order to assess natural hazard processes, their occurrence and magnitude, and to arrange all such elements in a database for GIS-supported thematic maps. Several types of natural hazards, such as landslides, rockfalls, debris flows, stream floods and snow avalanches cause huge damage to lives and properties (housings, roads, tourist sites). We aim to obtain newly acquired knowledge in this large, still poorly understood area as well as develop easy-to-interpret products such as natural risk maps.

scholarly journals Assessing the risk posed by natural hazards to infrastructures

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Unni Marie Kolderup Eidsvig ◽  
Krister Kristensen ◽  
Bjørn Vidar Vangelsten
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Natural Hazard ◽  
Quality Level ◽  
Quantitative Methodology ◽  
Cascading Effects ◽  
Natural Event ◽  
Ranking Criteria ◽  
Adverse Weather ◽  
Restoration Effort

Abstract. This paper proposes a model for assessing the risk posed by natural hazards to infrastructures. The model prescribes a three level analysis with increasing level of detail, moving from qualitative to quantitative analysis. The focus is on a methodology for semi-quantitative analysis to be performed at the second level. The purpose of this type of analysis is to perform a screening of the scenarios of natural hazards threatening the infrastructures, identifying the most critical scenarios and investigating the need for further analyses (third level). The proposed semi-quantitative methodology considers the frequency of the natural hazard, different aspects of vulnerability including the physical vulnerability of the infrastructure itself and the societal dependency on the infrastructure. An indicator-based approach is applied, ranking the indicators on a relative scale according to pre-defined ranking criteria. The proposed indicators, which characterize conditions that influence the probability of an infrastructure break-down caused by a natural event, are defined as 1) Robustness and buffer capacity, 2) Level of protection, 3) Quality/Level of maintenance and renewal, 4) Adaptability and quality in operational procedures and 5) Transparency/complexity/degree of coupling. Further indicators describe the societal consequences of the infrastructure failure, such as Redundancy and/or substitution, Restoration effort/duration, Preparedness, early warning and emergency response and Dependencies and cascading effects. The aggregated risk estimate is a combination of the semi-quantitative vulnerability indicators, as well as quantitative estimates of the frequency of the natural hazard, the potential duration of the infrastructure malfunctioning (depending e.g. on the required restoration effort) and the number of users of the infrastructure. Case studies for two Norwegian municipalities are presented where risk posed by adverse weather and natural hazards to primary road, water supply and power network is assessed. The application examples show that the proposed model provides a useful tool for screening of potential undesirable events, contributing to a targeted reduction of the risk.

scholarly journals The Swiss joint information platform for natural hazards

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Philipp Angehrn ◽  
Sabina Steiner ◽  
Christophe Lienert
Keyword(s):  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Natural Hazard ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Measurement Data ◽  
User Feedback ◽  
Acceptance Testing ◽  
Spatial Density ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Information Platform

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> The Swiss Joint Information Platform for Natural Hazards (GIN) has been realized from 2008 to 2010 as part of the Swiss federal government’s OWARNA project, which aimed at optimizing warning and alerting procedures against natural hazard. The first online-version of the platform went productive in 2011 with the primary goal of providing measured and forecast natural hazard data in form of processed cartographic, graphic and other multimedia products to professional users &amp;ndash; before, during and after natural hazard events. In Switzerland water-, weather-, snow- and earthquake-related hazards are the most relevant ones.</p><p>In 2013, an online survey showed that the platform does not fully meet user expectations, particularly as to user experience and usability of its cartographic, web-based user interface. Revaluation and redesign of the overall platform were necessary in order to improve map legibility, caused by the complexity of data, large data amounts, and high spatial density of online, real-time measurement data locations. A new web design and user interaction concept have been developed in 2014 and eventually put online in June 2017. User acceptance testing by means of surveys and direct user feedback sessions were key factors in this perennial redesign process. The GIN platform now features important novel technical and graphical elements: The starting page is based on a dashboard containing virtual dossiers (Fig. 1), with which users configure their desired information, data, and map bundles individually, or use predefined adaptable views on various existing data sets. In addition, there is a new overall spatial search function to query data parameters. A responsive approach further improves the usability of the platform. The focus of these new features is on multi-views involving maps, diagrams, tables, text products, as well as selected geographical areas on maps, and fast data queries (Fig. 2). Current user feedback suggests that the new GIN platform design is well received, and that it is moving closer to its very goal: online monitoring and management of natural hazard events by enhanced usability, more targeted and higher personalization.</p><p>Several Swiss Cantons (i.e., the political entities in Switzerland below the federation) actively participated, and still participate, in the conceptual GIN platform development process through advisory board meetings and consultations. On the operational level, Cantons actively provide and contribute further natural hazard information and measurement data from their own natural hazard monitoring networks. These additional Cantonal regional-scale data sets help to fill spatial data gaps, where no Federal data is available. GIN thusly integrates natural hazard data from Federal and Cantonal levels (and partly even private level), which adds value to all stakeholders on various political levels involved in natural hazard management (Federal, Cantonal, Regional, Communal crisis committees). Stakeholders not only use GIN’s ample database and cartographic product portfolio to accomplish their early warning and crisis management tasks, but also benefit from seamless, secure and reliable IT-services, provided by the Swiss Federal Government. With the new GIN platform, Switzerland has a powerful, integrative, and comprehensive tool for monitoring and responding to natural hazard events.</p>

scholarly journals Employee well-being in the COVID-19 pandemic: The moderating role of teleworking during the first lockdown in the province of Quebec, Canada

Work ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Annick Parent-Lamarche ◽  
Maude Boulet
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Conservation Of Resources ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Business Sectors ◽  
Moderating Role

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on all aspects of society, including mental health. Many employees have had to pivot suddenly to teleworking to prevent the virus from spreading. While teleworking may have some negative consequences, it may also represent a human resources practice that may improve employee well-being. OBJECTIVE: The study main objective was to determine if teleworking played a moderating role in the relation between potential stressors and employee well-being during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic when working from home. This was based on the theory of conservation of resources. METHODS: Multivariate regression analyses were conducted with Stata 13 software to determine the contribution of potential stressors on employee well-being, as well as the moderating role of teleworking on a sample of 480 Canadian employees. Data were collected once for white and blue collar from both public (67.08%) and private (32.92%) business sectors. RESULTS: Results indicated that work-life imbalances, workload, and marital tension were associated with lower levels of well-being. On the other hand, teleworking and household income were associated with higher levels of well-being. Teleworking also moderated the differences in well-being between the public and private sectors. Teleworking in the public sector seems to increase employee well-being. Conversely, working on-site in the public sector seems to decrease well-being. CONCLUSIONS: Employers need to proactively address work-life imbalances, workloads, and teleworking to maintain employee well-being. Specific recommendations are offered to ensure that teleworking remains positive for employee well-being both during a pandemic and afterward.

scholarly journals The Case for Stimulating a Planetary Protection Framework for Emerging Private Space Activities

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (02) ◽  
Author(s):  
George Profitiliotis
Keyword(s):  
Biological Material ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Prevention Measures ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Planetary Protection ◽  
Private Space ◽  
Celestial Bodies ◽  
Financing Mechanism ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Space Activities

The emergence of private space activities is pushing the boundaries of the space industry with technological innovations that may soon enable the targeting of the novel market segments of space research and exploration, space resources utilization, and human access to space. Planetary protection is defined as a set of guidelines that aim to prevent the forward contamination of celestial bodies with biological material from Earth and the backward contamination of the terrestrial biosphere with extraterrestrial biological material. Significant questions are expected to be raised in the future with respect to potential forward and backward contamination issues of emerging private space activities. Unfortunately, the jurisdiction over and the enforcement of forward and backward contamination prevention measures to private space endeavors are currently facing policy and regulatory gaps and ambiguities. The key challenges with the current planetary protection policy landscape indicate that these contamination issues of private space activities can indeed have lasting negative impacts on social, economic, and environmental equity, sustainable development on Earth, and the sustainable exploration and development of other celestial bodies. Drawing on its multidisciplinary expertise, the UN system is favorably positioned to play a key role in stimulating a novel planetary protection framework for emerging private space activities. Firstly, it can provide an international forum for the harmonization and agreement on such a framework. Secondly, it can create a financing mechanism to fund international research and development consortia of public and private organizations under a pre-competitive collaboration scheme for planetary protection technologies. Thirdly, it can establish a process of civic engagement to promote the meaningful participation of the civil society in the formulation of this framework. A prudent consideration of this matter may not only counteract the inequitable distribution of any unintended negative consequences, but may also facilitate economic development in a respectful, sustainable, and responsible manner.

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