Project of Counteracting Catastrophic Developments at Nature-Man-Made Objects in Russia

The problem-oriented project to counteract the development of catastrophes (henceforth the CDC Project) was set up as a particular response to two factors:Since the late 1970s, a rapidly advancing worldwide pandemic of technological accidents (catastrophes), highly costly in terms of their consequences, has been emerging (see the data in the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) [1] of the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR).There are no alternatives to the innovative evolution of Russia, with the key role played by systemic technologies [1].At this point, the problem-oriented groundwork has been laid in Russia for many years, including operational prototypes of catastrophe protection systems. The large-scale and fundamental works completed so far within the CDC Project attest to the perception of the critical demand for it. The Project is based on a systemic approach and a new technology of the problem-oriented innovative professional instrumentarium of research on nature-man-made objects (NMMOs). To date, the design of the CDC Project has been practically completed. Moreover, the Project has passed several tiers of critical review analysis at higher authorities, with relevant positive opinions offered in every case. Under the circumstances (just before further rollout of works under the CDC Project), a decision was made to advise appropriate publication of a series of thematically related articles on academic and technological issues, this paper being the first of them.

Report on the 19th international symposium on geo-disaster reduction/high-level academic forum on disaster mitigation and integrated risk defense on the Plateau, 12–15 July 2021, Xining, China

The joint event of 19th International Symposium on Geo-disaster Reduction (19ISGdR) and High-Level Academic Forum on Disaster Mitigation and Integrated Risk Defense on the Plateau was held on 11–15 July in Xining, Qinghai Province, China, focusing on the theme of “Geological disaster and integrated risk defense”. This event consisted of keynote lectures, invited lectures, and Youth forum, which provided a platform for scientists, industrial professionals and young scholars to share their research progress and exchange novel ideas on geo-disaster reduction in a hybrid way of offline and online. A post-symposium field trip for three days was also conducted in the joint area between Qinghai-Tibet plateau and Loess plateau.

Ensuring the Safety of Sri Lankan Hospitals: Adaptation of the WHO “Safe Hospital” Initiative to Sri Lanka

As a critical infrastructure, hospitals have to play a pivotal role in the health and well-being of a community. Specially during a disaster, hospitals are supposed to treat victims while continuing their day-to-day functions. At the same time, a hospital has to withstand the impacts of the disaster itself while safeguarding patients, staff, and visitors. Therefore, ‘Making hospitals safer’ emerged as a major concern that is included in global disaster reduction frameworks. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) 2030 emphasizes the need for strengthening disaster resilience of critical infrastructures such as hospitals. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 also prioritize the concept of safe hospitals under the goals, Good health & well-being; and Industry, innovation, and infrastructure.

Assessment of the adequacy of mobile applications for disaster reduction

Natural events continue to take a heavy toll on human lives. Added to this are the challenge of dynamic at-risk settings, uncertainty, and increasing threats, which demand holistic, flexible, and quickly adaptable solutions. In this context, mobile applications are strongly emerging as communication tools that can assist in disaster reduction. Yet, these have not been sufficiently evaluated. In view of this, the aim of this research is to evaluate the adequacy of mobile applications in disaster risk reduction in reference to some of the deadliest natural events. To this purpose, a two-part methodology is developed. Firstly, a random sample of applications is evaluated and contrasted with the literature. Secondly, the viability of mobile applications is determined based on the Digital Application Potential Index proposed by the authors, cross-referenced in Geographical Information Systems with the WorldRiskIndex. The results show that most mobile applications limit their coverage range to only one stage of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and one type of hazard event, failing to address systemic risk and hampering the scale-up of humanitarian response. For these to become adequate and wide-reaching, strong policies to promote reliability, transparency, and citizen empowerment would be required. The policies establishing the use of mobile applications as a viable tool for DRM must consider reducing the prices of internet connectivity while increasing educational levels, on top of language translation. At this point, the adoption of mobile applications is unable to ensure DRM communication, especially in countries with higher-risk levels, requiring these to be complemented with auxiliary tools. Graphic abstract

A Study on the Development of Reduction Facilities’ Management Standards for Agricultural Drainage for Disaster Reduction

The agricultural drainage in rural area plays important roles in water supply and drainage for crop cultivation. Various kinds of debris near agricultural drainage, however, causes sedimentation in the drainage during rainfall. The debris introduced into the agricultural drainage moves out of the drainage under a high flow rate. This causes a reduction in the flow rate, which may affect the discharge capacity, resulting in crop damage. This study developed a reduction facility to reduce debris entering agricultural drainage and analyzed the performance by measuring the capture efficacy in the hydraulic experiment. A total of 648 runs were performed for 216 experiment conditions where three replications and error ranges were calculated depending on the inflow characteristics of debris. This study also evaluated the performance of the reduction facility and established the design criteria by developing a capture efficacy equation by flow rate and type of reduction facility.

Study on the causes of rural lightning disaster and Countermeasures of lightning protection and disaster reduction

With the development of the times and the progress of economy, great changes have taken place in the environment. In recent years, it is common to see bad weather, such as hurricane, drought, lightning and so on. The emergence of these weather has the greatest impact on farmers and crops, especially the lightning weather, not only that, but also sometimes cause personal injury. In the face of the frequent occurrence of bad weather in recent years and its harm and threat to China's agriculture, rural areas, personnel, etc., the author makes a detailed study on the causes of rural lightning weather, analyzes the lightning protection measures in rural areas and their shortcomings, and summarizes the relevant improvement measures.