Intangible Damage Research Articles

GIS-based fuzzy comprehensive evaluation of urban flooding risk with socioeconomic index system development.

Due to the climate change-induced extreme rainfall, urban flooding risk is one of the major concerning risks in the near future with accelerating occurrence frequency and intensity. To systematically evaluate the socioeconomic impacts induced by urban flooding, this paper proposed a GIS-based spatial fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE) framework for local government to efficiently take contingency measures especially under urgent rescue conditions. The risk-assessing procedure could be investigated in 4 aspects: 1) application of the hydrodynamic model to simulate the depth and extent of inundation; 2) quantification of the impact of flooding with 6 methodically picked evaluation indexes concerning the transportation attenuation, residential security, and tangible and intangible monetary losses according to depth-damage functions; 3) implementing FCE method: comprehensive evaluation of urban flooding risk with the diverse socioeconomic indexes by fuzzy theory; and 4) presenting the risk maps of single and multiple impact factors intuitively in ArcGIS platform. The detailed case study in SA city validates the effectiveness of the adopted multiple index evaluation framework, which could help detect higher risk areas with low transport efficiency, high economic loss, high social impact, and high intangible damage. The results of single-factor analysis can also provide feasible suggestions for decision-makers and other stakeholders. Theoretically, the proposed method tends to improve the evaluation accuracy as the inundation distribution can be simulated by hydrodynamic model rather than subjective prediction with hazard factors, while the impact quantification with flood-loss models can also directly reflect the vulnerability of involved factors instead of empirical weight analysis of traditional methods. Besides, the results illustrate that the areas with higher risk levels reasonably coincide with severe inundation situations and dense hazard-bearing bodies. This systematic evaluation framework can support applicable references for further extension to other similar cities.

Dams or ponds classification based on a new criterion to assess potential flood damage to roads in case of failure

Dams are hydraulic infrastructure that have several purposes, such as irrigation, hydropower, water supply, flood control, recreation, fish breeding and navigation. However, their failure or malfunctioning can pose a threat to downstream communities, and thus, their safety is paramount to public protection and economic security. A variety of approaches to classify dams can be found in countries worldwide. Their classification allows to distinguish among those that are to be subject to safety regulation in each country. A common approach to classify them is according to their potential damage in case of failure. Roads are usually among the infrastructures that these approaches consider to be assessed in terms of the level of damage that can suffer. A new people-centred criterion is proposed in this paper to assess potential intangible damage (i.e. human lives) when roadways could be flooded due to a dam failure. This novel methodology is based on the Average Daily Traffic (ADT) of roadways and sets a maximum and a minimum number of vehicles expected in the area receiving the flood. To evaluate its appropriateness, it is verified from the results obtained after being applied to three existing ponds located in Catalonia (Spain).

A QUICK TECHNIQUE OF FLOOD DETECTION AND MAPPING BASED ON LAND COVER/LAND USE CHANGES (CASE STUDY: THE 2022 FLOOD EVENT OF TALEGHAN CITY OF IRAN)

Abstract. Flood as one of the most devastating natural disasters, causes significant tangible and intangible damages to watershed residents each year. When flood occurs, changes in land use (LU) and land cover (LC) relative to climate change and other edaphic factors have remarkable impacts on flood generation. Furthermore, application of complicated models with various inputs is costly and time-consuming. In this study, with the aim of determining the parameters affecting the recent floods in the Taleghan watershed, first, maps of the flooded areas and changes in LU and LC was extracted using' Sentinel 1 & 2 by coding the Google Earth Engine. In the extraction of LU, seasonal composites were used and the winter season was eliminated. Next, using the override command in the ARCGIS 10.8.1 software, the extracted maps were combined and evaluated. The results show that the use of urban and forest lands was limited to the lands next to the rivers and streams, which are the places where the floods pass, and this factor has increased exposure to flood. According to the composition of the maps in the Taleghan watershed, floods occurred in areas where there was no LC and the flooded areas we are located in the upper part of villages where natural LC was lost as a result of livestock grazing or human manipulation. It can be concluded that the use of simple models and basic maps can help experts identify flood zones.

Life cycle and risk assessment of vinasse storage dams: A Brazilian sugar-energy refinery analysis

• Assessment of a sugar-energy refinery's operation, considering GHG emissions. • Life cycle assessment and risk analysis of vinasse reservoir storage and failure. • Evaluation of environmental impacts for transient and steady-state events. • Reservoir impact contributed up to 30% of the total refinery impact. • LCRA provided insight to mitigate chronic and transient impacts. This study applied Life Cycle and Risk Assessment (LCRA) to characterize a sugar-energy refinery's operation, considering greenhouse gas emissions. The introduction of disturbances in mass or energy flows within LCRA enabled the simulation of accidental hypotheses, with the estimation of their environmental impacts from an approach oriented to the final damage. A risk value was assigned to each transient scenario (10, 30, and 100% leakage), and criteria was defined for accepting losses, calculating probabilities and identifying other associated tangible and intangible damages. The method provided a consistent theoretical basis that reduces ambiguity in estimating environmental impacts associated with transient events.

Citizens' Perception of Combined Sewer Overflow Spills into Bathing Coastal Areas

Once a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) exceeds its capacity, it is necessary to discharge a proportion of the flow to watercourses through combined sewer overflow (CSO) structures. In coastal urban areas, CSO spills may occur in seawaters. The present study analyses the effects of these spills into urban coastal bathing areas, through a qualitative survey-based analysis in Badalona and Barcelona, focusing on stakeholders' reputation and image involved in the sewer system and beaches management (i.e. intangible damages) and the consequences for the economy (i.e. tangible damages). The direct relation between CSO spills and impacts on restaurants’ revenues is not observed since business owners in Badalona and Barcelona do not perceive any economic impact due to these events. Their main concern is the municipality’s image, which might affect the citizens’ view of the management of the responsible agents and indirectly, the tourist sector, especially in Barcelona. Residents perception in this matter is remarkably different in both cities. In Badalona, residents know the problem and even the body responsible for setting the red flag and the beaches closure (i.e. the municipality). In Barcelona, though, residents are quite confused about this. The complexity in terms of competencies in sewer systems management requires a better communication campaign for the citizens to avoid misunderstandings and unnecessary loss of trust in the City Council. Decision-makers and stakeholders should be interested in understanding the perception of affected users upon these events to take appropriate measures to enhance awareness programs or measures to reduce overflows.

Engaging Indigenous perspectives on health, wellbeing and climate change. A new research agenda for holistic climate action in Aotearoa and beyond

ABSTRACT Existing frameworks for interpreting and acting upon the health consequences of climate change fail to engage with the multiple and complex forms of loss and damage that Indigenous peoples experience to their health and wellbeing in a changing climate. Using a case study of Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand, we call for a new research agenda that foregrounds Indigenous peoples’ collective, relational perspectives on health and wellbeing in order to better conceptualise the health implications of climate change. The agenda builds understanding and recognition of intangible loss and damages, bringing multiple knowledge systems and worldviews into conversation to drive adaptation that not only safeguards but also promotes the visions Indigenous peoples have for their health and wellbeing.

Socio–Economic Analysis of Riverine Flooding on Low-Income Dwellings: Adayar River, a Case Study

Abstract Flood damage assessment plays a vital role in providing information to policy developers. Nowadays, due to urbanization, the impact of flooding on communities is extensive, including tangible damage to property, the environment, and infrastructure as well as intangible damage due to stress, health hazards, and hardship. This paper provides an overview of a detailed flood assessment study conducted in the Kotturpuram Housing board area, located on the flood plain of the Adayar River in Chennai, India. A relatively simple approach to data collection was adopted, being a Questionnaire Survey (QS) as well as semi-structured interviews and observation techniques, due to data and research limitations. Losses due to damage to belongings and extra spending to buy essential commodities during flooding are also dealt with in this study. The flood mitigation costs for flooding that occurred in the year 2015 are also evaluated. A stage-damage curve was arrived at based on the information collected. Optimal and sustainable mitigation measures can be achieved only when the socio-economic aspects are adequately considered. Thus, this analysis was designed to estimate the effects of flooding on a community’s social and economic welfare, and thereby help to educate the community, including residents and officials, about the impact and magnitude of flooding. The outputs of the study will be the key inputs for designing flood mitigation and relief measures.

Racial Taxation: Schools, Segregation, and Taxpayer Citizenship, 1869–1973 by Camille Walsh

Reviewed by: Racial Taxation: Schools, Segregation, and Taxpayer Citizenship, 1869–1973 by Camille Walsh Andrew W. Kahrl (bio) Racial Taxation: Schools, Segregation, and Taxpayer Citizenship, 1869–1973. By Camille Walsh. (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2018. Pp. xiv, 235. $29.95 paper) In this timely and important book, Camille Walsh rightfully situates local tax law, policy, and politics at the center of the struggle for and against educational equality in twentieth-century America. Spanning the period from Reconstruction to the U.S. Supreme [End Page 371] Court's pivotal 1973 decision in San Antonio v. Rodriguez, Walsh uses court cases over school funding and access to trace the history of an idea—"taxpayer citizenship"—and its role in enforcing and rationalizing racial disparities in education. In the post-Reconstruction South, racist tropes of Black communities as mere recipients of white taxpayers' dollars became an article of faith among white officials and a cornerstone of the Jim Crow state. This, as Walsh is quick to note and as countless numbers of African Americans at the time argued, was a lie: Blacks consistently paid more than their fair share in taxes. But since the idea fit so nicely within a broader white supremacist worldview, it became a powerful rhetorical device and basis for tax policies that, throughout the era of segregation, not only starved Black communities of school funding but forced Black taxpayers to subsidize white education. Walsh argues that it also advanced the idea that taxes should be equivalent to a payment for service, and that paying taxes is what made a person a citizen. Blacks in the Jim Crow South attempted to use the concept of taxpayer citizenship to their advantage. Walsh recounts instances of Black litigants citing their status as taxpayers when challenging state laws and local practices that effectively denied Black children a public education. But this legal strategy rarely yielded tangible results in court, much less resonance in the white political imagination, where citizenship was synonymous with whiteness and "Black taxpayer" a contradiction in terms. By the early twentieth century, African Americans' mere access to education was beholden to the whims of white parents, whose preferences and objections to Blacks' educational needs invariably held sway in any dispute (the "white veto") even if it meant the total denial of educational opportunities for Black children. Throughout the book, Walsh neatly balances the politics and mechanics of taxation, and shows how white supremacist beliefs, prerogatives, and assumptions determined legal outcomes, informed administrative practices, and in the process, exacerbated racial inequities. Take the practice of separating tax revenues by race, a practice adopted by many southern states, including Kentucky, which not [End Page 372] only allowed white officials to rationalize gross funding disparities, and for myriad other forms of budgetary gimmickry to fly under the radar, but helped to advance the notion that people who paid more in taxes were deserving of more rights and benefits. This idea that taxes should be treated as a fee for services and that white parents, in particular, were entitled to a full return (and nothing less) on their investment in public schools would assume greater significance in the wake of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. While the court's unanimous decision stressed the intangible damage racial segregation inflicted on Black children, in retrospect, Walsh's book suggests, the court should have focused more on the tangible benefits school funding structures in American afforded white children, as well as the numerous loopholes it provided white parents seeking to evade integrated schools and hoard resources. The shortcomings and unintended consequences of the Brown decision would become apparent in the decades to come, as middle-class white parents fled to all-white suburbs and school districts, taking their tax dollars with them. As heavily minority school districts suffered for lack of funds, civil rights groups and legal activists challenged the constitutionality of school funding models, which, by relying so heavily on the property tax for revenue, greatly advantaged wealthier communities with substantial tax bases. For a moment, they achieved results in state courts, most notably in the case of Serrano v. Priest, where the California Supreme Court ruled that property-tax...

Award of Monetary Compensation for Intangible Damage with Special Reference to Defamation under Islamic & Pakistan Law

This paper examines the controversy among modern Islamic jurists whether in case of any intangible damages (especially defamation), any monetary compensation (solatium) under Islamic law (Shar¯ı‘ah) can be extended or not. It also evaluates the method used for measurement of monetary compensation for intangible damage by Pakistani courts. Further, whether monetary compensation awarded for intangible damage is legal, just, fair and reasonable. It finds that majority of modern Islamic scholars consider the award and claim of the monetary compensation for intangible damage as legal. It also, in Pakistan’s perspective, finds that; (i) there is no yardstick or definite principle for measuring compensation, (ii) compensation awarded is valid, but generally not just, fair and reasonable, (iii) discretion used by the courts to award compensation seems subjective and, (iv) harmony lacks between the amount of compensation claimed by the victims, and that awarded by the courts. It concludes that courts should formulate viable principles in this regard.

Integrated approach to analyze the total flood risk for agriculture: The significance of intangible damages – A case study in Central Vietnam

Although agricultural production is highly vulnerable to climatic disasters as being located in low-lying river deltas, the data and information about its damages caused by flooding are far limited and scattered. Therefore, this study proposes an integrated approach, combining 1D simulation, GIS based land use analysis, intensive household survey and Contingent Value Method to estimate Flood Risk Curve and Average Annual Risk (in monetary value) for rural agricultural production. The selected study area is located in the floodplain of Vu Gia-Thu Bon (VG-TB) basin, one of the largest and most complex basins in Vietnam with dense population. The key finding shows that although the local agricultural practice is well adapted to the flooding season to reduce direct damage, the calculated Annual Average Risk is still as high as 6% of total agricultural production every year, of which indirect and intangible risk accounts for 62%. Therefore, this result is believed to produce complete understanding about the total risk that need to be coped with. The managers, local communities and other stakeholders can also use Annual Average Risk as a clear, strong and quantitative indicator for a certain area showing how vulnerable it is to flood risk and which measures would be effective and worth to be invested from cost-effective point of view.

Ethical and Legal Considerations in Biometric Data Usage-Bulgarian Perspective.

Ethical and legal considerations with regards to biometric data usage are directly related to the right to protection of personal data, which is part of the rights protected under the European Convention of human rights. Specific protection is required to the process and use of sensitive data which reveals certain personal characteristic and is related to the health status of individuals. Biometric data and information on individual upon which people could be identified based on specifics and distinguishing signs. Bulgaria, as a country progressing in terms of integration of digital technologies and as a European Union member state has adopted international and universal legal instruments related on the procession and use of digital data and data protection. On legislative and ethical grounds, it has been established the particular importance of not violating human rights and individual freedoms when processing and using personal data. It has been noted that the processing of special categories of personal data may be necessary for reasons of public interest in the field of public health and that is why under such circumstances it has been permitted the procession to be carried on without the consent of the data subject. Lack of transparency and lawfulness of the processing of personal data could lead to physical, tangible, or intangible damages where processing could lead to discrimination, identity theft, or identity fraud as a result of which may be significant adverse economic or social consequences. Increasingly, widespread use of biometrics in the implementation of medical activities requires the application of a new approach in terms of awareness regarding existing risks to the rights, ethics, and freedoms of all of us, as a user of medical service.

Exploring the perception of aid organizations’ staff about factors affecting management of mass casualty traffic incidents in Iran: a grounded theory study

BackgroundTraffic incidents are of main health issues all around the world and cause countless deaths, heavy casualties, and considerable tangible and intangible damage. In this regard, mass casualty traffic incidents are worthy of special attention as, in addition to all losses and damage, they create challenges in the way of providing health services to the victims.AimThe present study is an attempt to explore the challenges and facilitators in management of mass casualty traffic incidents in Iran.MethodsThis qualitative grounded theory study was carried out with participation of 14 purposively selected experienced managers, paramedics and staff of aid organizations in different provinces of Iran in 2016. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to develop the theory. The transcribed interviews were analyzed through open, axial and selective coding.ResultsDespite the recent and relatively good improvements in facilities and management procedure of mass casualty traffic incidents in Iran, several problems such as lack of coordination, lack of centralized and integrated command system, large number of organizations participating in operations, duplicate attempts and parallel operations carried out by different organizations, intervention of lay people, and cultural factors halt provision of effective health services to the victims.ConclusionIt is necessary to improve the theoretical and practical knowledge of the relief personnel and paramedics, provide public with education about first aid and improve driving culture, prohibit laypeople from intervening in aid operations, and increase quality and quantity of aid facilities.

The effect of flooding on mental health: Lessons learned for building resilience

AbstractRisk management and climate adaptation literature focuses mainly on reducing the impacts of, exposure to, and vulnerability to extreme events such as floods and droughts. Posttraumatic stress disorder is one of the most important impacts related to these events, but also a relatively under‐researched topic outside original psychopathological contexts. We conduct a survey to investigate the mental stress caused by floods. We focus on hydrological, individual, and collective drivers of posttraumatic stress. We assess stress with flood‐specific health scores and the GHQ‐12 General Health Questionnaire. Our findings show that the combination of water depth and flood velocity measured via a Hazard Class Index is an important stressor; and that mental health resilience can be significantly improved by providing the population with adequate information. More specifically, the paper shows that psychological distress can be reduced by (i) coordinating awareness of flood risks and flood protection and prevention behavior; (ii) developing the ability to protect oneself from physical, material and intangible damage; (iii) designing simple insurance procedures and protocols for fast recovery; and (iv) learning from previous experiences.

Combined Effect of Economic Variables on Fraud, a Survey of Developing Countries

IntroductionIt has been established that the impact of fraud is detrimental to all societies, which also explains poor economic performance especially in the context of developing economies. The current business environments have experienced an upsurge in fraud and many academic researchers and business participants have investigated the factors involved in fraud and corruption. Also, the scope of fraud and its consequences and magnitude have been discussed in the literature. It is generally agreed by researchers of fraud that cost of fraud is unknown. This is because the nature of fraud is hidden so the cost of fraud is also hidden and incalculable. In addition, fraud causes intangible damage such as reputational and social damage to the organization and these costs are not easy to estimate. Many researchers believe that pervasiveness of fraud has to be considered as one of the important factors that contributes to economic growth, the effectiveness of public management, strategic decision making for investment, and forming international relationships. The Oxford English Dictionary (2009) defines fraud as - wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain. In academic literature fraud is defined as leading to personal enrichment by circumventing the prevention measures without necessarily being prosecuted by judiciary systems (Phua, 2005). Public sector fraud is pervasive and fraud is present in all the mechanism of development in different forms, magnitude and consequences. Public sector fraud is broadly defined as abusing an organizational system for personal gains. In this work, we study the effect of economic variables on fraud. Economic variables reflect the economic status of the country and public as a whole. The data set used in this research were obtained from 60 developing countries in the time period of 1995 to 2014. In this research, we used the world bank definition of developing and developed countries. We found that there is a service sector - fraud positive association and an industrial sector - fraud negative association in the context of developing counties subjected to our study.Value added reflects the contribution of labor and capital to production. In this study, we used value added in industry and service sector. Value added by activity breaks down the total value added by sector, namely industry, and service activities in this paper. The shares of each sector are calculated by dividing the value added in each sector by total value added.Our aim in this paper is to examine the combined effect of economic variables on fraud. To accomplish this, we used 7 variables namely; fraud, the size of government, democracy, per capita income, inflation, the total value added of the industrial sector divided by GDP, and the total value added of the service sector divided by GDP.We use panel model throughout our study. Panel data combine a time series dimension with a cross section dimension. We also applied co-integrated test to give an explanation for the long run association between the variables. In addressing the inquiry of what the causes of corruption are, with few exceptions, majority of the empirical studies have examined various cross-sectional comparative, but country case studies and/or by regional analysis has not been emphasized enough. Recent studies, notably by Sandholtz and Koetzle (2000), Treisman (2000), Fisman and Gatti (2002), and Pellegrini and Gerlagh (2008), considered several aspects of the causes of corruption across countries. With the complexity of corruption issues and use of different empirical methodologies, studies have separately or with combination of factors analyzed the economic, political, historical and cultural traditions of the causes of corruption. But the findings show some lack or inconclusive results on the relationship between corruption and some variables such as the size of government and democracy as non-economic variables. …

Flood risk assessment and coping capacity of floods in central Vietnam

In the perspective of improving and disseminating risk assessment methodologies and rise preparedness of people to flood hazard this paper presents flood hazard maps estimated in the Quang Ngai province, in central Vietnam, for different return periods in terms of depth, duration and velocity using the FLO-2D, hydrodynamic model with a 90m×90m resolution grid. Then, based on the vulnerability functions determined from field surveys and the feedback to 400 questionnaires distributed to people regarding residential areas, paddy rice, road networks and the number of deaths and injuries, the total amount of tangible and intangible damage at each point in the study area is estimated and mapped, indicating risk levels and expected annual damage in case of flooding. The resulting damage functions are quite different from others available in the literature, as a result of the adaptive capacity and the resilience of the population to floods in the investigated area. Damage functions to buildings, agricultural areas, road infrastructures and people are normalised with respect to mean flooding depth and flooding hazard so that they can be generalized to areas with similar geographical conditions. In this way, a more comprehensive knowledge on the negative effects of floods is carried out, providing an important input to flood management plans in order to mitigate flood damage in tropical areas similar to the Quang Ngai province.

Intangible Damages in American Tort Law: A Roadmap

This paper is meant to provide a succinct roadmap to the many pathways taken in providing recovery for intangible harm in tort. The paper was initially prepared for a comparative law conference, and in that setting, I assumed a lack of close familiarity with the historical origins and surprisingly broad expanse of recovery for intangible harm in American tort law. While succinctly presented, the present revised treatment, for those conversant with the US system, is meant to be comprehensive, addressing defamation and privacy, no-fault and tort reform, as well as the more conventional common law topics of intangible damages in cases of intentional and accidental harm.

Tangible and Intangible Flood damage evaluation

Flooding and flash floods that cause significant economic and social damage have been widely studied in the last few decades. The European Commission Flood Directive 2007/60 Flood Risk Management Plans require the assessment of potential damage to give an appreciation of the magnitude of the consequences of a flood event and so help stakeholders to use a cost benefit approach to planning flood mitigation measures. This paper evaluates the direct tangible flood damage applying the JRC water depth-damage functions for the European territory to estimate the potential economic damage. Intangible damage is evaluated with the Life Safety Model (LSM) to study the dynamic interactions among people, vehicles, buildings and the flood wave. LSM assesses potential flood damage and allows the development of a Flood Evacuation Plan in case of an emergency, underlining the evacuation routes adopted by people and vehicles. This enables emergency managers to avoid evacuation bottleneck problems and identify areas of potential high mortality. The impact of changes such as road network improvements, the location of safe havens and timing of flood warnings can be assessed in terms of potential loss of life. The developed methodology has been applied on the Sardinian Flood Risk Management Plan pilot basin, the Coghinas river lowland basin.

A fuzzy AHP methodology for selection of risk assessment methods in occupational safety

In modern times daily occupational accidents cause an ever increasing number of pecuniary loss claims as well as intangible damage within small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) worldwide. To counter this problem, most enterprises commonly apply risk assessment methods (RAMs) to promote occupational safety (OS). As there are plenty of different methods in this area, an effective and careful approach is required to select the most appropriate RAM for enterprises in general. This paper provides a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology for selecting the best RAM in OS operations for SMEs. As a test case study, a Turkish woven-printed-carton labelling company was chosen to carry out this study application under four separate decision criteria namely: scope, practicality, cost and sensitivity. On conclusion, it was deduced that the decision making approach can benefit company management in selecting the right method for OS operations.

Approach for Assessing Direct Flood Damages

Abstract This article presents a methodological approach to flood direct tangible damage - damage to assets and direct intangible damage - environmental damage and loss of life assessment. The assessment of flood risk is an essential part of the risk management approach, which is the conceptual basis for the EU directive 2007/60/ES on the assessment and management of flood risk. The purpose of this directive is to establish a framework for the assessment and management of flood risk, aiming at the reduction of the adverse consequences for human health, the environment, cultural heritage and economic activity associated with flood in the community. Overall, an accurate estimation of negative effects on assets, environment and people is important in order to be able to determine the economy, environmental and social flood risk level in a system and the effects of risk mitigation measures.

A Retrospective Approach to Valuation of Natural Resources in Wildland Fire Litigation

Wildland fires in California have been growing larger, more intense, and harder to control, and monetary damages sought and recovered by the government have been greater than ever. Intangible environmental damages is the category with the widest range of potential liability for which no quantification technique currently exists for use in fire litigation. In this article, we present our retrospective analysis of eight cases for which monetary awards have been made for wildfire-related intangible environmental damages. We developed a scale for intangible damages ranging from $18/acre to $1,600/acre that is aligned with environmental attributes of the affected forest land.