Impact Of Disasters Research Articles

Disaster Management and Emergency Response: Improving Coordination and Preparedness

Disasters pose significant challenges to communities worldwide, necessitating effective disaster management and emergency response systems. This study aims to evaluate current practices in disaster management and emergency response, focusing on enhancing coordination and preparedness. Through qualitative analysis, including literature review and library research, this study assesses existing strategies and identifies areas for improvement. The findings underscore the importance of robust coordination mechanisms among various stakeholders involved in disaster management, including government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and community groups. Moreover, the study highlights the critical role of preparedness measures in mitigating the impact of disasters and facilitating timely and effective response efforts. By synthesizing insights from existing literature and case studies, this research provides valuable recommendations for enhancing disaster management and emergency response frameworks. The results emphasize the need for comprehensive planning, capacity-building initiatives, and the integration of technology to strengthen resilience and response capabilities. Furthermore, the study underscores the significance of community engagement and public awareness campaigns in fostering a culture of preparedness and resilience. Overall, this research contributes to the ongoing discourse on disaster risk reduction and emergency management by offering insights into improving coordination and preparedness strategies in the face of natural and man-made disasters.

Vulnerability of elderly people during climate-induced disasters in Sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review

Climate-induced disasters present significant challenges to vulnerable populations, especially elderly individuals with disabilities who face unique difficulties in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from such catastrophic events. Despite growing concerns about the impact of climate-induced disasters in sub-Saharan Africa, there is a notable lack of information regarding the specific vulnerabilities experienced by elderly people with disabilities in this region. This study aims to address this gap by identifying and synthesizing the existing literature on the subject. Researchers conducted a scoping review, selecting articles from regional (Sabinet African Journals, Science Direct) and global databases (PubMed, PsycINFO, and ProQuest) using search strategies with Boolean operators, truncations, and MeSH terms. The review included primary studies (qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods) published between 2013 and 2023 that met specified inclusion and exclusion criteria, with a focus on assessing the quality of the included studies. The findings revealed that elderly people in sub-Saharan Africa face significant physical, cognitive, and socio-economic challenges due to limited access to resources, inadequate infrastructure, and social exclusion. These challenges are amplified in the sub-Saharan context, highlighting a critical gap in inclusive risk reduction strategies during disasters. The review emphasizes an urgent need for targeted research and the development of community-based intervention programmes to improve the resilience and wellbeing of elderly individuals with disabilities facing climate-induced disasters. This study not only mapped the existing literature but also underscored the scarcity of research in the field of climate-induced disasters, with only six articles focusing on the elderly. The researchers recommend the development of more inclusive disaster risk reduction strategies and policies.

Incompleteness of natural disaster data and its implications on the interpretation of trends

ABSTRACT We use data from a leading global database, primarily the reported numbers of fatal ‘hydrological’, ‘meteorological’ and ‘geophysical’ disasters and associated fatalities, to elucidate long-term trends in natural disaster impact. There are very strong upward trends in the number of reported disasters. However, we show that these trends are strongly biased by progressively improving reporting. We apply well-established methods based on analysing evolving differences in the patterns of large (many fatalities) to small (fewer fatalities) events to assess and quantify this bias. For all disaster types investigated, the long-term (multi-decade) true number of disasters appears to be unexpectedly stable over time. There was, however, a clear temporary increase between 1980 and 1990 for hydrological and meteorological disasters. Importantly, there has been a large long-term decline in total fatalities reported for weather-related disasters, attributable to very effective mitigation for larger disasters. Probably due to improved mitigation rather than reduced hazard, data for the most recent decades shows a systematic decrease in the number of larger (more fatality) weather-related disasters compared to smaller ones. In contrast, for the geophysical disasters, predominantly earthquakes, the relative numbers of larger versus smaller disasters, are fairly constant, as are total fatalities.

Unveiling the Nexus: Climate change, green innovation, and the pendulum of energy consumption and carbon emissions

This study delves into the complex interplay of climate change, natural disasters, energy consumption, and carbon emissions across 111 countries from 1990 to 2019. A structural shift in 2004 signifies altered global dynamics in CO2 emissions, closely linked to the escalation of meteorological and hydrological disasters driven by climate change. Globally, we illuminate the significant impact of climate-induced natural disasters, especially storms and extreme temperatures, on energy consumption and carbon emissions, albeit with variations. Regionally, we establish a notable positive association between extreme temperature-related disasters and both energy consumption and carbon emissions in Europe. Examining the aftermath of catastrophic events reveals an intensified influence of these disasters on carbon emissions and energy consumption in Africa, Latin America, and Europe. Developed economies experience significant impacts on carbon emissions and energy consumption from storms and extreme temperatures, while flood severity predominantly affects carbon emissions in developing countries. Additionally, we explore the potential of green patents in mitigating energy consumption and emissions triggered by disasters. While not conclusively proven, the statistically significant impact of green patents on energy conservation holds profound policy implications for advancing climate understanding, transforming energy landscapes, and addressing future sustainability concerns.

Climate Disaster and Cognitive Ability: Evidence From Wildfire.

We investigate the impact of wildfire disasters on cognitive health (i.e., thinking and language skills) in individuals aged 10years and older using 2014 and 2018 wildfire and cognitive ability survey data from China. We distinguished wildfires in each county at different wind directions each day by exogenous wind direction changes, and analyzed the effects of wildfires on cognitive abilities through upwind and non-upwind wildfires. Our analysis shows that for every 10-unit increase in upwind wildfires compared to non-upwind wildfires, respondents' scores on word and math tests decrease by 0.235 and 0.236 standard deviations, respectively. Furthermore, we find that the impact of wildfire on cognitive ability is more pronounced in younger individuals, and those with lower defensive expenditures experience more severe impacts. Additionally, wildfires negatively affect individuals' cognitive abilities by generating air pollution. Wildfires significantly reduce individuals' cognitive abilities. Two recommendations are as follows: 1) governments should follow the principle of green development, introduce relevant regulations, and increase investment in adaptive technologies. 2) Individuals should raise awareness of climate hazards preparedness and strengthen defensive protection.

Current status and prospects of research on safety situation awareness of high speed railway operation environment

PurposeThe safety of high-speed rail operation environments is an important guarantee for the safe operation of high-speed rail. The operating environment of the high-speed rail is complex, and the main factors affecting the safety of high-speed rail operating environment include meteorological disasters, perimeter intrusion and external environmental hazards. The purpose of the paper is to elaborate on the current research status and team research progress on the perception of safety situation in high-speed rail operation environment and to propose directions for further research in the future.Design/methodology/approachIn terms of the mechanism and spatio-temporal evolution law of the main influencing factors on the safety of high-speed rail operation environments, the research status is elaborated, and the latest research progress and achievements of the team are introduced. This paper elaborates on the research status and introduces the latest research progress and achievements of the team in terms of meteorological, perimeter and external environmental situation perception methods for high-speed rail operation.FindingsBased on the technical route of “situational awareness evaluation warning active control,” a technical system for monitoring the safety of high-speed train operation environments has been formed. Relevant theoretical and technical research and application have been carried out around the impact of meteorological disasters, perimeter intrusion and the external environment on high-speed rail safety. These works strongly support the improvement of China’s railway environmental safety guarantee technology.Originality/valueWith the operation of CR450 high-speed trains with a speed of 400 km per hour and the application of high-speed train autonomous driving technology in the future, new and higher requirements have been put forward for the safety of high-speed rail operation environments. The following five aspects of work are urgently needed: (1) Research the single factor disaster mechanism of wind, rain, snow, lightning, etc. for high-speed railways with a speed of 400 kms per hour, and based on this, study the evolution characteristics of multiple safety factors and the correlation between the high-speed driving safety environment, revealing the coupling disaster mechanism of multiple influencing factors; (2) Research covers multi-source data fusion methods and associated features such as disaster monitoring data, meteorological information, route characteristics and terrain and landforms, studying the spatio-temporal evolution laws of meteorological disasters, perimeter intrusions and external environmental hazards; (3) In terms of meteorological disaster situation awareness, research high-precision prediction methods for meteorological information time series along high-speed rail lines and study the realization of small-scale real-time dynamic and accurate prediction of meteorological disasters along high-speed rail lines; (4) In terms of perimeter intrusion, research a multi-modal fusion perception method for typical scenarios of high-speed rail operation in all time, all weather and all coverage and combine artificial intelligence technology to achieve comprehensive and accurate perception of perimeter security risks along the high-speed rail line and (5) In terms of external environment, based on the existing general network framework for change detection, we will carry out research on change detection and algorithms in the surrounding environment of high-speed rail.

Typhoon-Induced Forest Damage Mapping in the Philippines Using Landsat and PlanetScope Images

Forests provide valuable resources for households in the Philippines, particularly in poor and upland communities. This makes forests an integral part of building resilient communities. This relationship became complex during extreme events such as typhoon occurrence as forests can be a contributor to the intensity and impact of disasters. However, little attention has been paid to forest cover losses due to typhoons during disaster assessments. In this study, forest damage caused by typhoons was measured using harmonic analysis of time series (HANTS) with Landsat-8 Operation Land Imager (OLI) images. The ΔHarmonic Vegetation Index was computed by calculating the difference between HANTS and the actual observed vegetation index value. This was used to identify damaged areas in the forest regions and create a damage map. To validate the reliability of the results, the resulting maps produced using ΔHarmonic VI were compared with the damage mapped from PlanetScope’s high-resolution pre- and post-typhoon images. The method achieved an overall accuracy of 69.20%. The accuracy of the results was comparable to the traditional remote sensing techniques used in forest damage assessment, such as ΔVI and land cover change detection. To further the understanding of the relationship between forest and typhoon occurrence, the presence of time lag in the observations was investigated. Additionally, different contributing factors in forest damage were identified. Most of the forest damage observed was in forest areas with slopes facing the typhoon direction and in vulnerable areas such as near the coast and hill tops. This study will help the government and forest management sectors preserve forests, which will ultimately result in the development of a more resilient community, by making it easier to identify forest areas that are vulnerable to typhoon damage.

Landslide and flood disaster: Causes and its responses

This paper attempts to overview the practices of human responses and adaptation strategies to natural hazards, particularly from landslides and floods. Moreover, it also aims to find out the appropriate response measures for developing countries like Nepal. This paper is prepared by the systematic reviews of related articles published in different peer-reviewed and scientific journals. Initially, the relevant papers were selected using keywords like hazards, disasters and human response to natural disasters. Then, the 64 papers were chosen and this paper was developed. There are different factors to determine the occurrence of disasters on the earth such as geology, topography, climate, topographic aspects, slope and biological activities. Processes and causes contributing to landslides can be put into three categories such as geological/morphological, physical, and human/anthropogenic causes. This study will be very helpful to entire developing countries in general and Nepal in particular as well as agencies and organizations involved in disaster risk reduction and disaster management. The impact of disasters is exacerbated by the lack of appropriate measures for mitigating their impacts. Hence, it will be the foundation for disaster risk reduction in Nepal.

Research on Cognition and Adaptation to Climate Risks among Inland Northwest Chinese Residents

Global climate change poses a significant threat to the sustainable development of human society, highlighting the critical importance of developing effective adaptation strategies in response to climate-related disasters. Public awareness and adaptive behaviors towards climate risks serve as crucial indicators of community concerns regarding climate change, laying the foundation for effective adaptation strategy design. For this study, we selected inland northwest Chinese residents, represented by Xi’an City, as the research subjects, to investigate their climate risk cognition and adaptation levels. Based on randomly sampled survey data, descriptive statistical analysis and multiple logistic regression models were used to study the public’s climate change awareness, climate risk sensitivity, and climate risk adaptability, as well as evaluation of climate risk adaptation measures in the public sector, and we also analyzed the impact mechanisms of factors such as gender, age, income, and education level on the related indicators. The study found that with the increasing urban heat island effect, residents of Xi’an are more likely to reach a higher level of belief in climate change regarding long-lasting weather events. However, there is still no collective consensus on the reasons for climate change. Residents are overly optimistic about the future impact of climate disasters, and there is high uncertainty in their ability to adapt to climate change risks. Additionally, specific demands were obtained from different groups of urban residents regarding measures in the public sector for climate risk adaptation.

SARIMA Model-Based Monte Carlo Simulation of Option Contract Design for Maize Seasonal Heavy Precipitation in Shenyang

Agricultural production is highly dependent on weather conditions such as temperature, light, water and heat. The huge loss caused by extreme disaster weather makes the global insurance and reinsurance market overwhelmed, and seriously affects the enthusiasm of agricultural investment and the development of agricultural economy. With unique topography and vast territory, China is vulnerable to complex and diverse climate disasters. In recent years, the annual average economic loss caused by extreme weather disasters has reached about 200-300 billion yuan, among which floods caused by extreme heavy rainfall are the main agricultural disasters in China. In order to enhance the "farmer - insurance company - government" interest association to resist the risk of flood disaster caused by extreme heavy rainfall, financial hedging derivatives of weather disaster risk have gradually become a new hedging tool besides traditional insurance and reinsurance. This paper takes Shenyang, the main grain producing area in northeast China, as the sample of the study area, and uses the SARIMA model to obtain the distribution characteristics of seasonal rainfall time series. Different seasonal rainfall index option products (call option and put option contracts) are designed respectively, and the final option pricing is obtained by Monte Carlo stochastic simulation. The seasonal rainfall call option and put option contracts have opened up a new hedging model of agricultural extreme weather catastrophe outside the insurance and reinsurance market, which has enriched the varieties of weather financial derivatives market in China, reduced the severe impact of extreme weather disasters on agriculture, and enhanced the ability of agricultural stakeholders to resist the risk of extreme weather disasters.

IPV and disasters: A systematic review of the literature of risk factors and interventions

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pressing issue and a global concern around the world. Moreover, there is solid evidence in the literature on the relationship between women's physical and mental health, the risk of IPV and the impact of disasters. This review examines the available literature to better understand how disasters and vio-lence against women in couple relationships are related and what risk factors and in-terventions might play a role in this. 29 articles were analysed. The inclusion criteria were: (1) English-language papers, (2) studies of IPV in the context of disasters, (3) published in indexed journals, (4) focused exclusively on intimate partner violence, and (5) with a sample of only women as the data source. The findings highlighted some key issues, such as prevalence, risk factors and recommendations, emphasising the importance of implementing specific assessment strategies and targeted interven-tions to prevent negative outcomes.

A National Disaster Medicine Quality Management Tool in an International Context – A Theoretical Study

Abstract The impact of disasters is changing, with disaster events becoming more complex and often affecting multiple countries simultaneously. Despite this, quality management systems have not yet been established in the field of disaster medicine. The German research project QUARZ-SAND, developed a national disaster medicine quality management system and an online registry. This theoretical study ascertains the current state of quality management in disaster medicine and compares existing initiatives to QUARZ-SAND and highlights advantages and synergies in the pooling of incident data, in view of improving resilience to national and transboundary disaster events. A systematic literature research was conducted on December 18, 2020 in the databases PubMed and LIVIVO. Existing disaster medicine quality management tools were identified and compared with QUARZ-SAND. It was determined that a lot of effort is still needed to get to an internationally accepted common standard and a tool such as a registry for evaluating medical disaster responses. A first step toward the establishment of a registry is the development of a standardized data set.

Culture and effectiveness of distance restriction policies: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Natural disasters bring indelible negative impacts to human beings, and people usually adopt some post hoc strategies to alleviate such impacts. However, the same strategies may have different effects in different countries (or regions), which is rarely paid attention by the academic community. In the context of COVID-19, we examine the effect of distance restriction policies (DRP) on reducing human mobility and thus inhibiting the spread of the virus. By establishing a multi-period difference-in-differences model to analyse the unique panel dataset constructed by 44 countries, we show that DRP does significantly reduce mobility, but the effectiveness varies from country to country. We built a moderating effect model to explain the differences from the cultural perspective and found that DRP can be more effective in reducing human mobility in countries with a lower indulgence index. The results remain robust when different sensitivity analyses are performed. Our conclusions call for governments to adapt their policies to the impact of disasters rather than copy each other.

Impact of the Sewol Ferry Disaster on Physical Changes: Focused on BMI

This study aims to empirically verify whether disasters affect physical changes, linking research on the effects of disasters on psychology and the effects of psychology on physical changes. It focused on the Sewol ferry disaster, and physical changes were tracked from 2010 to 2018, including the four years before and after the disaster in 2014. We constructed panel data on obesity rates from 229 local governments and used longitudinal data to analyze the impact of large disasters on changes in obesity rates over time. The results indicated that the Sewol Ferry Disaster had a long-term effect on the increase in obesity rate over time. In the directly affected areas of Ansan and Jindo, there was not only a long-term increase but also an immediate increase in the obesity rate. The findings of this study provide an opportunity to expand our understanding of the impact of disasters on society, and can also serve as foundational data for national and local disaster-related long-term impact support policies.

Basic Concepts of Disaster Management and Hazard Risk Vulnerability Profile of Gurgaon Based on District Disaster Management Plan 2020

To understand the process of disaster risk reduction and disaster management it is very important to know the usage meaning and difference between the basic concepts of disaster management. While hazard refers to probable event that can occur, disaster is actual occurrence of the event. Any event becomes a disaster after occurrence when it has very wide impact in terms of loss of life, injury to people, damage and destruction of physical structures and environment. Similarly, vulnerability is situation it can be physical, social or economic but risk is calculation of probable impact of disaster. Capacity improvement can lower the vulnerability, lower the risk and lower the total impact of disaster. Capacity improvement by building strong structures and creating awareness among communities will help in building a resilient society to cope with disasters. In this paper we tried to understand the meaning of these basic concept with illustrations from District Disaster Management Plan 2020 of Gurgaon District of Haryana

The Role of Political Uncertainty in Climate-Related Disaster Impacts on Financial Markets

This research presents a new model for analyzing the effects of government policies on climatic disasters on financial markets. Using Fama–MacBeth rolling regressions and the construction of model-proposed risk factors, three major risk factors are found to be significant in explaining stock returns. First, there is the risk of climate disasters. Second, there is the risk of uncertainty regarding government actions. Third, there is the risk of government response to climatic disasters. Through the increase in the cost of capital from climate disasters and the uncertainty of government response, the future cost of capital is higher, leading to less investment and lower productivity. However, the government’s actions to compensate for losses due to climate damage help offset the damages from disasters. This implies that the previous estimates of economic damages due to climate risk have been underestimated. This work adds to the literature by providing a fuller estimate of the economic implications of climate change

Human losses due to climate-related disasters: an urgent call for quality control

Abstract Missing data in climate impact databases are a source of major bias in disaster impact analyses and can mislead policy making. EMDAT, an international reference data source on disaster impacts, is often used without much quality control or consideration of data gaps. Ignoring these gaps undermines both the evaluation of disaster risk management activities and the evidence base for global policies for early warnings and disaster risk reduction. EMDAT, considered a key data source on climate extremes and their human impacts, records casualty information for only one in three climatological disasters. In this study, we provide insights into the missing data, highlighting the importance of data quality control to account for bias. Understanding where and why data is missing provides insights into whether trends can be attributed to true progress in disaster risk reduction or are merely statistical artifacts. We also underline the pressing need for harmonization across other databases that are relevant for measuring the human impact of climate disasters and suggest new technologies to fill gaps. As major resource investments were requested during COP 28 (2023) to attenuate the impact of future disasters, more complete and convincing data on climate disasters and human impacts will be needed to better identify the efficiency of countermeasures.

Rapid Emergency Response Resilience Assessment of Highway Bridge Networks under Moderate Earthquakes

Quick post-disaster emergency response of highway bridge networks (HBNs) is vital to alleviating the impact of disasters in affected areas. Nevertheless, achieving their emergency response resilience remains challenging due to the difficulty in accurately capturing the response capacity of HBNs and rapidly evaluating the damage states of regional bridges. This study delves into the emergency response, seismic resilience, and recovery scheduling of HBNs subjected to frequent yet mostly ignored moderate earthquakes. Firstly, the feasibility of intelligent methods is explored as a substitute for nonlinear time-history analysis of regional bridges. Subsequently, for realistic modeling of post-disaster HBNs, a decision tree model is developed to determine potential traffic restrictions imposed on damaged bridges. Moreover, their emergency response functionalities are thoroughly investigated, upon which a comprehensive multi-dimensional resilience metric vector is proposed. Finally, the proposed methodologies are applied to the Sioux Falls HBN as a case study, revealing a decreasing mean value and increasing deviation values in the long term. The results are expected to provide important theoretical and practical emergency response guidance.

Are Disaster Impact Estimates Distorted by Errors in Popular Night-Time Lights Data?

Satellite-detected night lights data are widely used to evaluate economic impacts of disasters. Growing evidence from elsewhere in applied economics suggests that impact estimates are potentially distorted when popular Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) night lights data are used. The low resolution DMSP sensor provides blurred and top-coded images compared to those from the newer and more precise Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) images. Despite this, some disaster impact studies continue to use DMSP data, which have also been given a new lease of life through the use of harmonized series linking DMSP and VIIRS data to provide a longer sample. We examine whether use of DMSP data affects evaluations, using expected typhoon damages in the Philippines from 2012–19 as our case study. With DMSP data, negative impacts on economic activity from expected damages at the municipality level appear over 50% larger than when the VIIRS data are used. The DMSP data give the appearance of greater spatial autocorrelation in luminosity and through this channel may tend to spread apparent spatial impacts of shocks. Harmonized data that adjust VIIRS images to be like the DMSP data also have this spurious autocorrelation so researchers should be cautious in using these data for disaster assessments.

Impact of Natural Disasters on Mental Health and Behavioral Changes

Impact of Natural Disasters on Mental Health and Behavioral Changes