disaster management News
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UN examines how to use technology to minimize disaster damage in Asia-Pacific
Better utilizing information and communication technology (ICT) to prepare for and deal with catastrophic natural disasters in the Asia-Pacific region is the focus of a United Nations meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, this week. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and last year’s Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar have caused massive human and economic losses, partly due to inadequate national warning and response ...
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Sentinel 6 Goes Live,a welcome addition to Aratos Earth Observation Data Platform
The Sentinel-6 which was launched back in 11/22/2020 has just finished calibration and is now operational. Sentinel-6 is equipped with a Synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) altimeter and an Advanced Microwave Radiometer for Climate (AMR-C). This enables Sentinel-6 to acquire measurements with better accuracy and less noise with respect to Jason-3 satellite regarding maritime. ...
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Water Infrastructure Conference & Expo advance registration deadline is Oct. 7
The early registration deadline for the American Water Works Association’s first-ever Water Infrastructure Conference & Exposition is Oct. 7. AWWA members are encouraged to register online before Oct. 7 to receive a $175 discount off a full-conference registration. The event will take place in Atlanta, Ga., Oct. 26 - 29, 2014. With investment needs for buried drinking water ...
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Climate forecasts boosted West African floods response
Climate forecasting in an early-warning strategy led to fewer deaths and more efficient disaster management for floods that took place in West Africa in 2008, a study reports. It was the first time seasonal climate data in an 'early warning, early action' (EWEA) system had been deployed for flood response in the region, enabling the Red Cross to improve its response compared with that over ...
By SciDev.Net
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Fun and games help communicate disaster science
Playing games is helping to engage communities with the complex scientific information used to forecast natural disasters, as well as encouraging people to take steps to mitigate future risks, experts say. Tools ranging from simple probability-based role play scenarios to state-of-the-art digital apps that model the Earth's changing environment were presented to the Global Platform for Disaster ...
By SciDev.Net
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CSIRO dam break modelling to help flood planning
CSIRO scientists have developed powerful modelling techniques to help understand the full impact of flooding that occurs when dams collapse. The research has been helping China’s disaster management authorities better understand the full impact of the catastrophic flooding that would occur if one of China’s, and the world’s, biggest dams collapsed. The work could also be ...
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Hawaii, Indonesia Build Disaster Preparedness Partnership
Jakarta, Indonesia (ENS) – On an official visit this week to the island nation of Indonesia, Linda Lingle, governor of America's only island state, Hawaii, has struck a partnership that will help both governments deal with natural disasters such as the deadly tsunami that struck Indonesia in 2004. Governor Lingle and Indonesia's Minister of Defense Dr. Juwono Sudarsono Monday announced a ...
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ISO publishes international benchmark for incident preparedness
ISO has published the first internationally ratified benchmark document addressing incident preparedness and continuity management for organizations in both public and private sectors. The Publicly Available Specification ISO/PAS 22399:2007, Societal security – Guideline for incident preparedness and operational continuity management, is based on best practice from five national standards from ...
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NCKU-AECOM MOUs Focus on Water and Technical Cooperation
National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) signed three Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with AECOM, a U.S.-based technical services company, on environmental protection and city development through scientific and technical cooperation, natural disaster assessment and water research. NCKU President Hwung-Hweng Hwung signed the MOU concerning scientific and technical ...
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Sri Lanka `poorly equipped to forecast floods`
Poor flood forecasting facilities contributed to the damage caused by recent extensive floods in Sri Lanka, the worst in nine decades, scientists said. Between 1 December 2010 and 12 January 2011, Sri Lanka's northern and eastern districts received rainfall that almost equalled the area’s total monsoon rains from December to February each year, according to the Colombo-based Disaster ...
By SciDev.Net
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Pakistan flood data wasted, say critics
A huge effort to collect and analyse data on the devastating floods wreaking havoc in northern Pakistan has been severely undermined by a lack of strategies for disaster management and the dissemination of information, scientists and disaster experts have said. The Pakistan Meteorological Department's flood forecasting division provides information on the size and flow of the floods using data ...
By SciDev.Net
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Environmental Tectonics Corporation`s Simulation Division Awarded Contract by Butler County Community College to deliver the Advanced Disaster Management Simulator (ADMS™)
SOUTHAMPTON, Pa. - Environmental Tectonics Corporation's (OTC Bulletin Board: ETCC) ("ETC" or the "Company") Simulation Division today announced the signing of a contract with Butler County Community College in Butler, Pennsylvania to deliver a full team ADMS training system. Butler County Community College ("BC3") serves 27 counties in Western Pennsylvania and plans to use ADMS to augment their ...
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Deaths from drought in Africa are down, data reveal
Mortalities from severe droughts in Sub-Saharan Africa have gone down over the last decade but the level of preparedness in most countries remains low, a conference has heard. Although there have been many criticisms of preparedness and speed of response to famines such as that in Horn of Africa in 2011, disaster data from 1960 to 2009 have revealed that "the number of people dying form drought ...
By SciDev.Net
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NCEC presents at the Chemical Safety Seminar in Mumbai
NCEC presented at the ‘Chemical Safety Seminar: Standards and Regulations’ in Mumbai, a workshop jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) Institute of Quality, New Delhi; and Sustainability Support Services (Europe) AB, Sweden. The seminar was also supported by India’s National Institute of Disaster Management; the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS); ...
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Scientists develop method for managing glacial lake outburst floods
A team of Nepali and international researchers has developed a risk assessment method to manage the threat of devastating floods that can be triggered by a glacial lake outburst (GLOF). The new method, tested on glacial lakes in Nepal, is expected to help the country's government develop a national strategy for GLOF pre-disaster management. National strategies for disaster risk management ...
By SciDev.Net
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Pacific islands to map coastal hazards
Pacific Island researchers will be trained in skills such as coastal hazard mapping as part of a programme to use science to make coastal communities safer and more resilient. The US$1.3-million programme is part of an expansion of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Storms Program (CSP) into US-affiliated Pacific Islands, beginning next month (October) and led ...
By SciDev.Net
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Bangladesh flood forecast ignored
Forecasts of Bangladesh’s current floods were largely ignored by people living in the affected areas, say scientists, exposing gaps in disaster preparedness. At least 100 people died and 250,000 were left homeless when flash floods and landslides that followed torrential rains in Bangladesh in the last week of June, according to officials. Ainun Nishat, vice-chancellor of the BRAC ...
By SciDev.Net
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Pakistan to prepare climate change strategy post floods
Pakistan is drafting a national climate change strategy with an action plan to mitigate adverse events like the recent floods which were thought to be related to local and global climate change. After the announcement last month (22 October), Pakistan's minister for environment Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi told SciDev. Net that the strategy would help deal with events like the one "which disturbed ...
By SciDev.Net
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UN Secretary-General: World Threatened by Dangerous and Unacceptable Levels of Risk from Disasters
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today warned that “growing global inequality, increasing exposure to natural hazards, rapid urbanization and the overconsumption of energy and natural resources threaten to drive risk to dangerous and unpredictable levels with systemic global impacts.” The 2015 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR15), prepared by the UN Office for ...
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Toxic waste defiles defunct chemical plant in Hungary
Greenpeace says leaking, rusted barrels full of toxic materials stored in the open at a defunct chemical company in Hungary could cause an environmental catastrophe. The government says it will take months before the chemicals are removed and the area can be cleaned up. Gergely Simon, a Greenpeace chemicals expert, called the situation at the Budapest Chemical Works "near catastrophic." He said ...
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