Huge Disaster Research Articles

Simulation and optimization of pedestrian evacuation in high-density urban areas for effectiveness improvement

Rapid urbanization has made many cities in China enter an era that increment and stock develop in parallel. Urban central area presents the characteristics of complex spatial structure and high functional complexity, resulting in the huge disaster risks and severe security issues of evacuation. This paper proposes a method of improving emergency evacuation effectiveness under the restriction of limited available land resources in high-density areas, which is combined with urban renewal planning, aiming at optimizing the layout of shelters and evacuation passageway by cyclic evacuation simulation, evaluation and optimization with Anylogic software and facility location tool based on ArcGIS. Taking the renewal planning of Jintang Road Area in Tianjin, a typical high-density urban area, as a case study. The results showed that: 1) The evacuation space system of Jintang Road Area exists potential danger that severe congestion occurred in the simulation process and the congested section spread outward with three shelters as the center. Which lasted for several hours. The rate of successful asylum in 5 min and 30 min was 13% and 34%; 2) The matching degree between spatial layout of emergency shelters and population distribution is low, which is reflected in the utilization rate of shelter: the rate of shelter No.1 is as high as 826%, while that of No 4 and No 5 is 48% and 11%, and also causes unreasonable distribution of people flow in evacuation passages during the evacuation process; 3) The research method of integrating simulation, facility location and renewal planning is an effective way to improve the effectiveness of pedestrian evacuation in high-density urban areas. After the improvement, the four indexes have been effectively improved.

Application of an enhanced BP neural network model with water cycle algorithm on landslide prediction

The landslide caused a huge disaster to the living environment and seriously threatened the lives and property safety of nearby residents. Assess or predict landslide-susceptible the landslide displacement through monitoring are great beneficial to guide landslide control and mitigate these hazards by taking appropriate preparatory measures. In this paper, a new water cycle algorithm optimization BP neural network (BPNN) dynamic prediction model (WCA-BPNN) was established to make up for the shortcoming of BPNN convergence speed. A typical step-wise landslide——Langshuwan Landslide happened in the Three Gorges Reservoir area of China is taken as a case, and the displacement monitoring data of 4 years was used for time series analysis and modeling. The long-term creep effect of the landslide and the short-term acceleration effect of the climate are considered in the model, and the accumulative displacement is divided into two kinds of trend displacement and periodic displacement. The key influencing factors of landslide periodic displacement were screened by gray relational grade analysis method, and then used as learning data. In addition to comparing the predicted value of the model with the measured value, it also compares the accuracy of the three models of BPNN, support vector machine, extreme learning machine under the training conditions of the same learning data set. The results show that the WAC-BPNN model has faster convergence speed and higher prediction accuracy than the traditional BPNN model, and it is also the most accurate of the four models.

Operational Performance of Electric Power Firms: Comparison between Japan and South Korea by Non-Radial Measures

This study compares the electric power sectors between Japan and South (S) Korea. Both nations have been under a global trend of deregulation. To assess their progress due to industrial change and technology development, we use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) as an assessment tool that enables us to evaluate the level of simultaneous achievements on economic and technological measures, so assessing the degree of holistic development. DEA has been widely applied for performance assessment in the past decades. In this study, the method compares electric power firms by their operational efficiencies. To compare their achievements, it is necessary to develop a new type of DEA application for performance measurement. The proposed approach adds two analytical capabilities. First, the approach needs to handle “zero” in a data set and then restrict multipliers (i.e., weights among inputs and outputs) without any prior information to increase our empirical reliability. No study has simultaneously explored the two capabilities in DEA. Using the proposed method, our empirical study identifies two findings. One of the two is that the electric power industry of S. Korea outperformed that of the Japanese industry in the observed periods (2014–2018) because the Japanese power sector still suffered from an occurrence of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster which occurred on 1 March 2011. However, the difference has been gradually diminishing because the Japanese electricity industry has been gradually recovering from the huge disaster. The other is that the S. Korean power industry has been in a descending trend because the nation has shown technical regress as a result of inconsistent technology development (e.g., shifting its R&D: Research and Development) focus from electrical engineering to chemistry). The former R&D area is essential in maintaining the technical level of S. Korea′s electric power industry.

Penanaman Sikap Mitigasi Kebakaran Siswa SD Joseph Khatulistiwa Sintang Dengan Permainan “Gamikar”

Sintang Region is an area of level II in the Kalimantan Barat (West Borneo). The wide area of the land are 21.635km2, most the area are forest and soil. Sintang Region Fire Department was stated that fire disaster, including soil, forest and settlement fire always became similar problem every year, especially at dry season. On the year 2015, fire was the huge disaster that happened in Sintang Region. Fire Department already tried hard to prevent that fire disaster. Socialization and Education already done by Fire Department but that was not effective and efficient. Sintang Region is an area of level II in the Kalimantan Barat (West Borneo). The wide area of the land are 21.635km2, most the area are forest and soil. Sintang Region Fire Department was stated that fire disaster, including soil, forest and settlement fire always became similar problem every year, especially at dry season. On the year 2015, fire was the huge disaster that happened in Sintang Region. Fire Department already tried hard to prevent that fire disaster. Socialization and Education already done by Fire Department but that was not effective and efficient. SD Joseph Khatulistiwa in Sintang is one of the elementary schools that has never received material on fire mitigation. For this reason, the writer needs to take up the theme of this activity by choosing SD Joseph Khatulistiwa Sintang as a target partner for Community Service activities (PkM). The method used in this PkM is learning activities through games called Gamikar. The approved activities will be carried out for 2 days. The target output of this activity is an improvement in the students' understanding of disaster mitigation. There were improvements seen from the initial and final measurements of PkM activities.

Applying machine learning models for predicting forest fires in Australia and the influence of weather on the spread of fires based on satellite and weather forecast data.

What shall we expect from the year 2020? The coronavirus pandemic is not the worst thing that humanity can face in the near future. According to the observations of the scientists, in March, 2020, the planet temperature warmed up to the record-high level. Also, the temperature of the world’s oceans exceeded its average temperatures by 80%, and prognosis of the meteorological observations is not good. The warming seas had already led to catastrophic disaster. The average temperature increase can also lead to hurricanes, drought, invasion of locusts and, the worst, to forest fires. Natural disasters lead to loss of life, destruction of properties and infrastructure, loss of animal natural habitats, displacement of humans. And the results of these all lead to humanitarian catastrophes, including social and economic.The situations related to the nature are always very serious, as the whole world is involved. This is like butterfly effect, i.e., the natural disaster in Australia affect the economic and ecologic situation in USA and England. Taking the Australia, they faced problem that cannot be avoided. Nevertheless, the world can be prepared and prevent from the huge disasters. The forecasting of forest fires can really be helpful, as well as the inquiry of the weather impact on fires. The current paper is focused on the study of fire forecasting and weather influence on fire. The relevance of the study is important, as the global warming and human caused fires are increasing and there is a trend that Australia’s fires became more dangerous and longer lasting. The artificial intelligence, particularly machine learning algorithms, can help to make appropriate calculations and predictions to safe the ecosystem and human lives.According to the preliminary research results we acquire; in-depth multidimensional analysis confirms almost 100 percent dependence of bushfires on the weather conditions. Using the machine learning algorithms, it would be possible to predict the time and positioning of inflammation source.

Considerations on Relationship Between Central and Local Governments During Huge Disasters – Necessity and Application of Special Rules on Evacuation Measures and Relief –

The relationship between the Central and local governments during an emergency has been primarily discussed at the Diet, in connection with the Constitution’s amendment, including the emergency provisions. However, opinions from the various fields are divided and discussions are typically based on whether an emergency state should be tackled principally by the Central Government or municipalities. The increasing risk of a super wide-area disaster (huge disaster) that can be expressed as national emergency state, such as the Great Nankai Trough Earthquake and large-scale flood, makes it imperative for advancing the previously mentioned discussions. It should be examined whether a state of emergency state could be managed appropriately within the administrative framework of the municipalities based on the Disaster Countermeasures Basic Act. In addition, necessary measures should be adopted within the purview of the existing laws apart from the discussions on the amendment of the Constitution. In this case, detailed discussions are needed on, for example, what kind of special rules should be established regarding the relationship between the Central and local governments. In this paper, the Great Nankai Trough Earthquake, large-scale flood in metropolitan areas, nuclear disaster, and complex disaster along with natural disaster are considered; the plans created by the Central Government in terms of the disaster prevention measures for such disasters are examined; and the items requiring special rules on the relationship between the Central and local governments are extracted from the disaster emergency measures. Furthermore, the per item application procedure of these special rules is also determined.

新冠疫情时期韩国公共卫生外交对中国舆情的影响 --基于Gooseeker对微博的数据挖掘

After the outbreak of COVID-19 infectious disease in China, it quickly spreaded to major provinces and cities in China in early 2020, and was gradually under control after mid-february. But since then, the epidemic gradually broke out in South Korea, Japan, Iran and some other countries in Europe and the United States. The pandemic has caused a huge disaster to human beings. Various countries have taken measures to prevent and resist the virus. Meanwhile, some countries have also carried out active public health diplomatic measures to neighboring countries affected by the virus. From President Jaein Moon

Análise do acidente em Brumadinho/Minas Gerais

Barragens de rejeitos são reservatórios feitos com o objetivo de reter água e resíduos sólidos resultantes da extração de minérios para que evite danos ambientais. No Brasil, existem centenas e apesar de toda tecnologia envolvida, rompimentos continuam acontecendo e trazendo enormes prejuízos ambientais e sociais para a população. Um exemplo recente é o caso da barragem do Córrego do Feijão, localizada no município de Brumadinho, em Minas Gerais, que no dia 25 de janeiro de 2019 desmoronou resultando em um enorme desastre industrial, humanitário e ambiental impactando diretamente todos os habitantes da cidade, trazendo um número grande de vítimas fatais, desaparecidos e desalojados, além de diversos animais mortos, solo e rios contaminados pelos rejeitos de minério. O rejeito de minério de ferro pode ser considerado uma matéria-prima, visto que se torna um produto sustável e que atende aos requisitos técnicos exigidos pelas normas brasileira e internacional. São diferentes em suas características fazendo com que altere sua função e antes de usá-lo como uma alternativa de reaproveitamento são necessários alguns estudos e testes de ensaio em amostras de materiais de construção para avaliar qual a melhor forma de utilizá-lo. Através de diversas pesquisas e experimentos foram descobertas formas de reuso desse material na construção civil, como por exemplo em blocos cerâmicos. Dessa forma, através desse artigo buscamos uma alternativa para a redução dos passivos ambientais representados por essas barragens de rejeito, diminuindo consideravelmente o volume a ser represado nas barragens. Dar uma destinação para esses rejeitos será uma solução ambiental bastante satisfatória entre outras.

A Study On External Environment Of Business And Its Influence On MSMEs In The Context Of Covid-19

Businesses across the globe has decided ‘just to survive apart from making huge profit’, from a global pandemic which has created huge disaster to economy of almost all countries in the world. In India pharmaceutical industry is improving its status day by day, on the other hand travel and tourism industry, entertainment sector, market for luxury products and services is deteriorating among which the drastic-hit is the MSMEs. This study aims at analysing various external factors influencing the performance of business especially during times of COVID-19 pandemic, those factors include political, social, cultural, economic, legal, technological, etc., The study aims at finding out those external factor and potential ways to recover from the losses incurred.

Review of World Bank Two Most Terrible Moves Resulting in All Ever Increasing, Terrible Climate Calamities over the Entire Earth Globe along with Continuous Huge Disasters in Pakistan

The World Bank (WB) has been recommending and financing programs to various countries for their developments and some arbitration too in some issues between various countries, but two of its moves have not only brought persistently increasing disaster locally in Pakistan, but have opened huge Gates for continuously boosted almost all extremely huge Catastrophic Climate Calamities over the entire Earth Globe. The first one is terrible Indus water Treaty 1960 (IWT) between India and Pakistan sponsored by WB which blocked dissipation of 14.235 ZJ (Zeta Joules = 1021 Joules) Earth Global heat per year by the naturally established unique Huge Global Air Conditioner (GAC). Henceforth Global Heat Contents and Temperature (GHT) is continuously building up at extremely huge rate of 16.48 ZJ, the 2.255 ZJ being contribution of all other Global contributors. This is resulting into continuously increasing floods of catastrophic calamities over the entire Globe. This GAC was badly crippled by WB through diversion of its Freon, the 39 million acre-feet water of eastern three rivers of Pakistan irrigating its southeastern area to India. The 2nd terrible move was the misleading recommendations for developments of Water and Power Resources of Pakistan. The Pakistani Resources having heat transporting potential of 25.673 ZJ per year and successfully extinguishing the fire being continuously fueled IWT were blocked from playing their role in control of Global Climate Calamities. Both these are discussed particularly highlighting the WB blunders in the light of scientific and Global Heating vision and way forward is shown in this work for safe existence of life on the Earth Globe. The entire world is motivated to immediately mobilize exporter of GHT, the complete GAC system, through immediate developments of all infrastructures required for 3 unique parts of Pakistan’s WEPC to safely defuse the 60 years piled up heap of this huge terrible GHT explosive and crush its all terrible tribes. This work reiterates that if its recommendations are carried out fully, the GHT, its all terrible tribes and Global Climate Calamities, will come down to their pre-1960 status in 42 years excluding 10 years their mobilization period. It also sternly asserts that activation of complete Pakistan irrigation role in GAC is all unique and vital and has no substitute or alternate.

Study of the Construction of a Coastal Disaster Prevention System using Deep Learning

Numerous deaths and substantial property damage have occurred recently due to frequent disasters of the highest intensity according to the abnormal climate, which is caused by various problems, such as global warming, all over the world. Such large-scale disasters have become an international issue and have made people aware of the disasters so they can implement disaster-prevention measures. Extensive information on disaster prevention actively has been announced publicly to support the natural disaster reduction measures throughout the world. In Japan, diverse developmental studies on disaster prevention systems, which support hazard map development and flood control activity, have been conducted vigorously to estimate external forces according to design frequencies as well as expected maximum frequencies from a variety of areas, such as rivers, coasts, and ports based on broad disaster prevention data obtained from several huge disasters. However, the current reduction measures alone are not sufficiently effective due to the change of the paradigms of the current disasters. Therefore, in order to obtain the synergy effect of reduction measures, a study of the establishment of an integrated system is required to improve the various disaster prevention technologies and the current disaster prevention system. In order to develop a similar typhoon search system and establish a disaster prevention infrastructure, in this study, techniques will be developed that can be used to forecast typhoons before they strike by using artificial intelligence (AI) technology and offer primary disaster prevention information according to the direction of the typhoon. The main function of this model is to predict the most similar typhoon among the existing typhoons by utilizing the major typhoon information, such as course, central pressure, and speed, before the typhoon directly impacts South Korea. This model is equipped with a combination of AI and DNN forecasts of typhoons that change from moment to moment in order to efficiently forecast a current typhoon based on similar typhoons in the past. Thus, the result of a similar typhoon search showed that the quality of prediction was higher with the grid size of one degree rather than two degrees in latitude and longitude.

Prediction of dust storms in construction projects using intelligent artificial neural network technology

Sandstorms (dust storms) are considered the most events which cause destructive and costly damages in lots of desert regions. These sandstorms may be a reason of huge disasters (damages) on Environmental as well as Health aspects. The aim of this paper is to develop a mathematical model for predicting the Dust Storm in Republic of Iraq using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique. As a case study, four construction projects in Iraqi cities were selected (Baghdad, Basrah, Samawa, and Nasiriya) in order to identifying and prediction of the sandstorms, which significantly help to reduce the effects of damages. Only one ANN model was built to predict a dust storm. The datas of this model cited from Iraqi Meteorological Organization and Seismology. Four factors were adapted to develop the model (Max. Temperature, Min. Temperature, Rain and Wind), It was found that ANN has the ability to predict the dust storm with a high accuracys off the correlation coefficient (R) which is 90.00%, with a percentage of average accuracy is 89%.

Environmental site engineering and integrated bio-cycles management for rehabilitation of degraded tin mining land in tropical ecosystem

Indonesia is known as the emerald of equator that has high values of natural resources although it also has a huge disaster risk. It is because Indonesia is located in the strategic areas, namely: (i) the equator, (ii) ring of fire, and (iii) earth plates of Eurasian, Pacific & Indo Australia. Mining activities of natural resources in tropical region exposes carbon and heavy metals and thus are the main cause of severe local, regional, and global environmental damage. The change of national economic development from extraction to empowerment of natural resource will facilitate shifting paradigm from red & green economic to blue economic concept that more smart, global, focus, and futuristic. Site engineering on critically degraded land through land preparation, soil amendment & biofertilizer could facilitate a better rehabilitation of mining land and have added value on environment, economy, sociocultural and health aspect. Synergism to genetic engineering using fast-growing species (indigenous and exotic) will improve success rate of land rehabilitation. An integrated bio-cycle management for managing land resources (i.e., soil, water, mineral, air, and microclimate) and biological resources (i.e., fauna, flora, and human) is an important strategy for sustainable productivity in protective tropical ecosystems.

Computer Vision based System to Detect Abandoned Objects

Security has become the most essential aspect in every walk of life. With ever growing technology, there has been an apparent inclination towards developing smart surveillance systems that do not stop with just monitoring and recording of events, but also possesses the ability to observe the events and alert in case of any discrepancies if observed. One of the impending threats to security in crowded places is the ignorance of un-attended objects. These un-attended objects or abandoned objects may have been left behind intentionally and may contain hazardous things which can cause huge disasters. This paper is focused towards developing a computer vision based approach that analyses the blob areas to detect any abandoned objects and instantaneously send appropriate alert without any human intervention. The uniqueness of this approach is that it handles the occlusion scenario and also quick execution time to detect abandoned objects. The approach has been tested with various benchmark video datasets and real-time video sequences as well. The performance has been measured in terms of accuracy of classifying abandoned objects in a given video sequence and also the execution time taken for computing the outcome. Results indicate good accuracy in terms of abandoned object detection under varying conditions and scenarios and also faster execution time when compared to other contemporary approaches.

Good news: we can identify Ulva species erupted in the Yellow Sea more easily and cheaply now

The green tide in the Yellow Sea which has been erupting continuously for 13 years, has brought a huge disaster to the ecosystem. There are four Ulva species from the early stage of green tide in the Yellow Sea usually: Ulva prolifera, Ulva compressa, Ulva flexuosa and Ulva linza. With the passage of time, the green tide floating to Qingdao mainly consists of Ulva prolifera. Molecular biological identification of species during the outbreak of green tide in the Yellow Sea has always been a focus of surveillance, but the ‘ITS-5S’ test system we have been using for a long time is not perfect. Through analyzing the mitochondrial genome of species published by our laboratory and combining with the other mitochondrial genome data, we find that the rps2-trnL gene spacer sequences can accurately distinguish the Ulva species of the green tide. After gene amplification and the construction of Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic tree, we find that the rps2-trnL gene spacer sequence is completely suitable for the barcode sequence of common Ulva species. This discovery could save researchers a lot of money and time, also, provide basic data for future green tide prevention and control.

Multi-Period Evacuation Shelter Selection considering Dynamic Hazards Assessment

Natural phenomena may lead to a huge disaster that is affected by triggering phenomenon and the following phenomena that occured afterward. Nevertheless, following single scenario of disaster to create a disaster emergency plan might lead to an incomparable estimation of risk. The decision maker could reduce the risk and perform an efficient evacuation, By understanding disaster prone area based on hazard assessment. This study proposed a multi-period shelter selection and relocation by considering possible impact due to cascading effect and secondary disaster. The objective was to minimize the cost associated with transport and relocation shelter during the evacuation process. A simple yet powerful Simulated Annealing was proposed to solve the model. This study compared the cost that occurred based on two approaches, hazard assessment map, and radius based map. The result showed that model with hazard map generated a better result in comparison with radius based map. Hazard map could offer different subsets of the shelters identified in the first stage to be selected, thereby producing a minimum number of evacuees.

Study on the National Disaster Management Administration System Against Huge Disasters – A Discussion Based on the Initial and Emergency Responses to the Great East Japan Earthquake –

Based on Japan’s experience of establishing and operating the Extreme Disaster Management Headquarters following the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, the authors conclude that it is necessary to deepen the discussion on the following issues and identify a proper direction to be pursued for establishing a disaster management administration system capable of responding appropriately to huge disasters in the future: 1) Expansion and strengthening of the Disaster Management Bureau of the Cabinet Office; 2) Establishment of the Ministry of Disaster Management or Disaster Management Agency [(a) Its relation to the Cabinet Secretariat and Cabinet Office, (b) Jurisdiction (matters related to overall coordination and duties)]; 3) Organizational design that will contribute towards establishing an effective disaster management administration system [(a) Mandatory and full-time appointment of Minister of Disaster Management, (b) Staffing system of designated posts and higher-ranking senior officials, (c) Establishment of Regional Disaster Management Bureaus, (d) Staff size, (e) Desirable approaches to human resources management (accumulation and deepening of experience in disaster response, clarifying working conditions etc.)]; etc.

Assessments of Preparedness, Agri-food Impacts and Implications for Disaster Risk Management of Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

On March 11, 2011 the strongest ever recorded in Japan earthquake occurred which triggered a powerful tsunami and caused a nuclear accident in Fukushima nuclear plant. The later was a “man-made” disaster having immense impacts on people’s life, health and property, infrastructure, supply chains, economy, policies, natural and institutional environment, etc. This paper assesses preparedness for and agri-food impacts of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, identifies challenges in post-disaster recovery, and withdraws lessons for improving disaster risk management. Japan was not well prepared for such huge disaster while agri-food sector and consumption have been among the worst hit areas. The triple disaster was a rare but a high impact event, therefore, it is necessary to “prepare for unexpected”. Risk assessment is to include diverse hazards and multiple effects of a likely disaster, it is to be discussed with all stakeholders, and measures taken to educate and train all for complex disasters. It is necessary to modernize property rights, regulations, safety standards, and norms, enhance capability of responsible public authorities and improve coordination between divers actors. It is important to set up mechanisms for effective public resource allocation and reduction of agents’ costs. Different elements of agri-food chain have dissimilar capability requiring differential public support. There is a strong “regional” interdependency of agrarian, food and rural assets (and damages), and it is important to properly locate risk and take prevention and recover measures. Disaster response demonstrated the important role of small scale farms and food organizations, and high efficiency of private, market and collective governance. Before, during and after a disaster all available information from all sources is to be immediately publicized in understandable form through all possible means. Disaster provides opportunity to discuss, introduce and implement fundamental changes in agricultural, economic, regional, energy, disaster management, etc. policies. It is important to learn from the past experiences and make sure that “lessons learned” are not forgotten.

Current Status of and Issues concerning Medical Relief for Huge Disasters

Current Status of and Issues concerning Medical Relief for Huge Disasters

Tragic Aftermath of Californian Jungle Fire and Hawaiian Volcano Outburst, a Warning about Persistently Rising Global Warming, Resulting into High Rated Disaster’s Chain

Earthglobe is almost at flash point with respect to global heat contents and temperature and any sizeable further addition of heat to its environment will result into huge disaster of life, property and infrastructure at multiple locations on the globe. The recent example of this is the aftermath of Cali-fornian forest fires (2017-2018) and Hawaii volcano eruption as elaborated in this treatise. This has resulted into 7 main catastrophic events over the Earth globe in its first round, while in 2nd round, all the previous same 7 or similar event in the same or an area close to it are repeated with one more event added in the list. These wildfires add large quantity of heat directly to the globe and even more through abstraction of out going global heat radiation by their generated green house gasses, pollution and soot. The 2nd round is perhaps also supported by Hawaii volcanic eruption. The 3rd round has mainly completed and few expected events are yet in pipe line, but California jungle fire of November 2018 has strengthened its attacks again. The mechanics and tracks of its attacks with pulled in of its allies has been elaborated in this work with role of this wildfire and its all children; heat, soot, pollution and green house gasses in possible boast of global heat contents and temperature. It is observed that disastrous aftermath from all such heating events in the north are contained mainly in Northern Hemisphere, while contrary to this; some of such events in the south have hard strikes on the North. It is requested that Global heat contents rise, jungle fire and volcanic eruptions must be completely stopped by all means because this causes widespread disaster mainly over the tropical regions of Globe as experienced from Californian Jungle Fire.