A study on risk assessment of complex disasters in Busan coast

In the vicinity of the coast, there is a risk of complex disasters in which inland flooding, wave overtopping, storm surge, and tsunami occur simultaneously. In order to prepare for such complex disasters, it is necessary to set priorities for disaster preparedness through risk assessment and establish countermeasures. In this study, risk assessment is carried out targeting on Marine city, Centum city, and Millak waterside parks in Busan, where complex disasters have occurred or are likely to occur. For risk assessment, inundation prediction map constructed by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security in consideration of sea level rise, rainfall and storm surge scenarios and authorized data on social and economic risk factors were collected. The socioeconomic risk factors selected are population, basements, buildings, sidewalks, and roads, and the risk criteria for damage targets are set for each risk factors. And it was assessed considering the maximum inundation depth and maximum flow velocity of the inundation prediction map. Weights for each factor were derived through expert questionnaires. The risk assessment index that was finally evaluated by calculating the risk index for each element and applying weights was expressed as a risk map by different colors into four levels of attention, caution, alert and danger.

When emergencies and disasters collide: Lessons from the response to the Magna, Utah earthquake during the COVID-19 pandemic

The following article addresses the complexities of responding to the Magna, Utah earthquake under conditions of the global corona virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The article begins with a brief mention of the literature on complex disasters along with the research methods employed for the study. Contextual information about COVID-19 and the Magna earthquake are then provided along with general issues that had to be addressed in the public health emergency and after the seismic hazard occurred. The following two sections identify how COVID-19 benefited the response to the earthquake as well as how the virus complicated operations after the tremor. The article then discusses major lessons of this research and provides recommendations for future study and practice. Overall, this research reveals that the responses to these two simultaneous events witnessed successes as well as significant challenges. The appearance of COVID-19 may have limited injuries or the loss of life during the Magna earthquake, and it also enabled an early activation of the emergency operations center (EOC). However, COVID-19 presented unique challenges for evacuation, sheltering, and damage assessment functions. The pandemic also altered the nature of EOC operations, created the need for a virtual response, and had distinct implications for financial accounting and personnel workload.

Issues in Tsunami Countermeasures from the Viewpoint of Geotechnical Engineering

The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake, with its epicenter off the Sanriku coast, measured the moment magnitude of 9.0, had a maximum seismic intensity of 7 in the northern part of Miyagi Prefecture, and impacted an area of 450 km. Consequently, a variety of unprecedented problems were made apparent. In particular, the human and property damage wrecked by the ensuing tsunami triggered our response for earthquake and tsunami resistance. In addition to conventional issues, such as earthquake resistance of buildings, disruption of lifelines, liquefaction of residential land and soil structures, and tsunami damage in coastal areas, there were new challenges, such as prolongation of earthquake disaster waste treatment. During the 10 years since the 2011 earthquake, tsunami countermeasures have been reexamined, and based on the concept of multiple protections, both tangible and intangible countermeasures have been advanced. This article addresses technical problems related to complex disasters, and includes the example of actual damage to a river levee in the Iwate Prefecture and the case of a building overturned by tsunami in Onagawa City, Miyagi Prefecture. It also discusses liquefaction caused by earthquakes and lists the points to be considered when selecting tsunami evacuation buildings to tackle future tsunami disasters.

A Study on the Improvement of the Disaster Relief Donation System

This study discussed the need for restructuring the disaster relief fundraising system in South Korea. To that end, it examined the management system and characteristics of disaster relief donations. In addition, the study drew implications by comparing domestic and overseas disaster relief donation systems and analyzing important precedents related to disaster relief donations. The analysis revealed that the domestic disaster relief fundraising system is based on the classification of disasters into natural and social disasters, which the study contended is not suitable in the current scenario given the recent trend of large and complex disasters. Overseas disaster donation systems were not found to be based on such a dual classification. Moreover, it was confirmed that various forms of support were being provided to revitalize donations overseas. It may also be unconstitutional for donations to be based on such a classification because the system violates the basic spirit of the Constitution by limiting the right to freedom and pursuit of happiness of donors and charitable organizations participating in disaster relief funding. Historical changes in the donation law have changed the orientation from regulation to promotion of a donation system with a mature donation culture. In this context, the following proposals were made to improve the domestic disaster relief donation system. First, the study recommended the unification of the donation system for natural and social disasters in light of the occurrence of multiple disasters. Second, it advocated a transition away from the current system of monopolistic fund management in order to revitalize various disaster relief fundraising institutions.

Kebijakan Penanggulangan Bencana: Model Kesiapsiagaan Bencana Berbasis Sekolah/ Madrasah di Provinsi Jawa Barat

West java is an area that has the potential for very complex disasters. Based on the data release the regional disaster management agency there have 6,607 disasters in the period 2015-2019, natural disasters in west jawa including earthquakes, tsunami, landslide, flash floods, and so forth. So that, a guidelines for disaster-preparedeness schools is important to avoid school from any kind of disasters. This study aims to find out and analysis model disaster-preparedeness schools in west java province and relation of disasters handling. This research using a qualitative method. Data collection, interviews with informants and collection of documents related to the policy guidelines for safe schools from disasters. Data analysis teachniques used are from the miles and Huberman models which include data reduction, data presentation, verification and conclusion. The results of this research indicate that the implementation model of disaster preparedness school policy as a whole has fulfilled the rules of disaster mitigation management by implementing regulations and procedures from both the central and regional levels. However, judging from the basic measures, objectives, policy resources and communication between organizations have not gone well so it has not been able to cope with the negative impacts of disasters in the school environment.

On the Use of Synthetic Populations to Assess Health Risks of Complex Disasters

The pathways from climate change and related disasters to health outcomes can be conceptualized as direct (primary) or indirect (secondary or tertiary). How these pathways impact the health of a given population are the result of complex interactions between climate-induced forcing functions, non-climatic environmental risk factors, community socio-economic structures and processes, and the health attitudes and behaviors of individuals and groups. These interactions vary by place and over time to create a complex mosaic of health risks. To address the complexity of the consequences of climate change across space and time, planning and policy approaches have typically used post-hoc analyses and have extrapolated relationships temporally without the ability in most instances to account for new contextual conditions at a place.The focus of this handbook chapter is to describe and illustrate how agent-based modeling of synthetic populations could be used to create reasonable scenarios of current and future health risks associated with climate change and related disasters. As an example of the utility of the platform, the chapter provides an estimate of extreme heat exposures of individuals in one region of the United States. Additionally, it gives examples of further applications of synthetic population modeling for assessing health risks following an acute natural disaster, such as a hurricane or earthquake.

Networks and Crisis Management

Managing complexity requires appropriate governance structures and effective coordination, communication, and action within the incident response network. Governance structures serve as a framework to understand the interrelated relationships that exist during a crisis. Governance structures can be classified as either hierarchical and managed, autonomous and networked, or a hybrid of hierarchies and networks, and represent a continuum of crisis response systems. As such, effective crisis management is first a function of a leader’s ability to leverage hierarchical, hybrid, and network forms of crisis management governance to manage complex disasters. Second, it hinges on the proficiency of the disaster response network in managing distributed information, coordinating operations, and collaborating among jurisdictions. Combining these two points results in high-performing disaster response networks that operate fluidly between governing structures and across jurisdictions, thus increasing our national capacity to manage complex disasters.