Lifeline Services Research Articles

A Techno-Economic Analysis of Oil vs. Natural Gas Operation for Greek Island Ferries

In the quest for sustainability of island regions, coastal shipping ought to be at the forefront because it provides essential and often sole lifeline services for the island inhabitants and visitors. Air pollution caused by the exhaust emissions of coastal ships has a detrimental environmental effect upon the coastal human population and the natural resources. The high coastal shipping activity within the Greek seas and the environmental vulnerability of the Greek coasts present a case that undoubtedly deserves particular attention. To this extent, the utilization of liquified natural gas (LNG) for powering island ferries constitutes a promising alternative to oil-fuel for achieving a sizable reduction of SOX, NOX, and particulate matter (PM) exhaust pollution. Furthermore, in their effort to improve the quality of the shipping services, island communities often appear to be constantly pushing for new vessels, and LNG engines constitute a suitable opportunity for fleet renewal through the introduction of “green” shipboard technology. In this paper, the connection of the Greek Dodecanese Islands and the main port of Piraeus with an oil- vs. LNG-fueled ferry line is analyzed. The results indicate that, compared to conventional oil-fuel, natural gas currently offers a favorable alternative in terms of private costs (technical and fuel costs), as well as in terms of the external (damage) costs due to ship exhaust pollution. It is also shown that the LNG shipboard technology has the prospect of extending its advantage with respect to private costs, due to the increasing pressure on oil-fuel–related environmental control and the expansion of the natural gas market. Finally, a justifiable argument is made regarding the improvement of the techno-economics of the LNG ferry through the utilization of the “land transport equivalent” principle, in conjunction with “green” technology funding under the European policy framework for transport, energy, and regional development.

The role of lifeline losses in business continuity in the case of Adapazari, Turkey

Despite the fact that one of the main reasons for business discontinuity after the shock of a natural disaster is lifeline outages, individual preparedness and recovery efforts have been given priority. This paper focuses on the significance of lifeline services for business continuity in order to highlight the necessity for collective action to achieve community recovery. Post-disaster research was conducted on a sample of business survivors in the town of Adapazari, which was severely affected by an earthquake in 1999. The study looked into the dependence of businesses on various infrastructure systems and the effects on those businesses of lifeline outages. The findings of the study address the need for community-level actions that are beyond the capability of any individual firm and which will ensure the continuity of business.

Development in disaster nursing: The challenges of various research designs

Human health and lives are threatened by natural disasters happening around the world, armed conflicts and terrorist attacks occurring repeatedly in various countries, and the spread of infectious diseases. The Japanese Nursing Association defines a disaster as “an unexpected event—natural or man-made—that threatens life and health of many people. Disaster includes not only primary damage caused by an earthquake, fire, etc., but also secondary threats to life and health.” Particularly, in recent years, disasters have been on the increase, due to environmental changes including global warming, as well as social changes such as an aging population and population influx into urban areas. The disaster cycle is divided into four phases: (i) acute phase (immediately to 48 h after the disaster); (ii) sub-acute phase (31 month); (iii) midto long-term phase (3a few months or years); and (iv) the silent phase. Nursing professionals with knowledge and expertise in health care and patient support can play important roles in supporting the health of disaster-affected people in all phases of the disaster cycle. For example, nurses can comprehensively assess the physical, mental and social conditions of people with health problems, and provide necessary physical and emotional care. When a disaster strikes, lifeline services are often disrupted, forcing people to shelter in evacuation centers and endure a difficult life there. Nursing professionals can work to improve the living environment of evacuation centers through services such as water supply and hygiene management (provision of clean toilet facilities etc.). They can also make proper arrangements for the delivery of medical and relief supplies. Furthermore, they can provide long-term support for disaster survivors by encouraging them to summon up the strength to carry on and rebuild their lives. As just described, nursing professionals can contribute to a wide range of areas, from emergency medical services in the acute phase, to mental health nursing care, infectious disease prevention and health guidance in the midand long-term phase. As stated above, Disaster Nursing is expected to play an important role. To fulfill the expected role, it is necessary to accumulate the knowledge on disaster nursing and systematize disaster nursing care while continuing to provide care and make improvements. To this end, research is essential. The Japan Society of Disaster Nursing defines disaster nursing as “activities to minimize the impact of a disaster on human life and health by systematically and flexibly using specialized knowledge and skills in disaster nursing and by working in cooperation with professionals in other fields.” However, it is pointed out that internationally, there is insufficient systematic knowledge of Disaster Nursing, and that the numbers of disaster nursing experts are not sufficient. Thus, five graduate schools from the five Japanese national, public and private universities that have been playing a leading role in disaster nursing (University of Kochi, University of Hyogo, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Chiba University, the Japan Red Cross College of Nursing) jointly launched a project to develop global leaders in disaster nursing— Disaster Nursing Global Leader Degree Program (DNGLDP). This project was selected by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology as a Project for Promotion of Global Human Resource Development (2012–2018; http://www.dngl.jp/).

An Assessment of Resilience: Disaster Management and Recovery for Greater New Orleans’ Hotels

While numerous studies have examined the disaster-related challenges of residential populations, little research has documented the effects of disasters on businesses in the tourism industry (Drabek, 2000). As with residential circumstances, effective and efficient preparation, speedy response, and strategic recovery following disasters are crucial for tourism businesses. In this research, Greater New Orleans hotels are examined to assess their resiliency when handling the effects of Hurricane Gustav. Specifically, this research examines (a) the reasons for and effects of business closure, (b) the impact of losing lifeline services (e.g., electricity and telephone service), and (c) the human resource challenges that were caused by the disaster. In a study involving a representative sample of hotels, results indicated that 88% closed to the general public before the hurricane and were closed for an average of four days. Approximately 13% of hotels lost power, 17% lost telephone services, and 42% lost the minimum base of employees needed to continue providing full guest service. Findings also indicated that many of the challenges faced by hoteliers were connected to human resource factors. The results of this research are important to managers because it provides an illustration that could aid in future disaster management planning.

Health care response to the tsunami in Taro District, Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture.

IN THE TARO DISTRICT (POPULATION: 4434), the great tsunami of 11 March 2011 destroyed the central region including the clinic, the sole medical facility (one physician, 13 nurses and other staff) in the district, and many citizens were forced to live in evacuation centres. The Taro District experienced massive damage during the tsunamis of 1896 and 1933. Since then countermeasures to tsunamis have been implemented. The great tsunami on 11 March 2011 caused catastrophic damage to the low-lying areas where approximately 2500 people lived; 1609 buildings were completely destroyed, and approximately 200 people died or were missing across the district. The Taro National Health Insurance Clinic, the sole medical facility in the Taro District, was required to play a central role in a variety of activities to care for residents in severely affected areas. First of all, evacuees needed to move to neighbouring hospitals or safer evacuation centres because lifeline services were cut off to the first evacuation centre. Then, the clinic staff worked in a temporary clinic; they visited the evacuation centres to assess the public health and medical situation, cared for wounded residents, managed infection control and encouraged a normal lifestyle where possible. Additional medical, pharmaceutical and logistical support was received from outside the district. There was no noticeably severe damage to health, although there was manifestation of and deterioration in lifestyle-related diseases (e.g. diabetes, hypertension, obesity). Health care activities gradually returned to their pre-disaster levels. At the end of July 2011, the evacuation centres closed, and all evacuees moved to temporary accommodations. ISOLATED RURAL HEALTH PRACTITIONERS WERE REQUIRED TO BE INVOLVED IN A WIDE VARIETY OF ACTIVITIES RELATED TO THE DISASTER IN ADDITION TO THEIR ROUTINE WORK: e.g. preventive health (public health and safety activities), routine medical care, acute medical care, psychological care, post-mortems and recovery of medical facilities. Although the whole health care system returned to near-normal six months after the disaster, it is important to plan how to develop more resilient medical systems to respond to disasters, especially in rural areas. This articledescribesmy experienceand lessons learnt in responding to this disaster.

Onsite Medical Rounds and Fact-finding Activities Conducted by Nippon Medical School in Miyagi Prefecture after the Great East Japan Earthquake 2011

This report describes our onsite medical rounds and fact-finding activities conducted in the acute phase and medical relief work conducted in the subacute phase in Miyagi prefecture following the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami that occurred off northeastern Honshu on March 11, 2011. As part of the All-Japan Hospital Association medical team deployed to the disaster area, a Nippon Medical School team conducted fact-finding and onsite medical rounds and evaluated basic life and medical needs in the affected areas of Shiogama and Tagajo. We performed triage for more than 2,000 casualties, but in our medical rounds of hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes, we found no severely injured person but did find 1 case of hyperglycemia. We conducted medical rounds at evacuation shelters in Kesennuma City during the subacute phase of the disaster, from March 17 through June 1, as part of the Tokyo Medical Association medical teams deployed. Sixty-seven staff members (17 teams), including 46 physicians, 11 nurses, 3 pharmacists, and 1 clinical psychotherapist, joined this mission. Most patients complained of a worsening of symptoms of preexisting conditions, such as hypertension, respiratory problems, and diabetes, rather than of medical problems specifically related to the tsunami. In the acute phase of the disaster, the information infrastructure was decimated and we could not obtain enough information about conditions in the affected areas, such as how many persons were severely injured, how severely lifeline services had been damaged, and what was lacking. To start obtaining this information, we conducted medical rounds. This proved to be a good decision, as we found many injured persons in evacuation shelters without medication, communication devices, or transportation. Also, basic necessities for life, such as water and food, were lacking. We were able to evaluate these basic needs and inform local disaster headquarters of them. In Kesennuma City, we found that some evacuation shelters could not contact others even after 1 week after the earthquake. We realized from our experiences that, unlike our activities following more localized earthquake disasters, the first task following such large-scale disasters is to acquire information on basic life needs, including medication needs, and the number of persons requiring assistance. We must provide medical relief according to the unique characteristics of the disaster-affected areas as well as the specific nature of the disaster, in this case, a tsunami.

Medical Relief Activities Conducted by Nippon Medical School in the Acute Phase of the Great East Japan Earthquake 2011

At 14:46 on March 11, 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami occurred off the coast of Honshu, Japan. In the acute phase of this catastrophe, one of our teams was deployed as a Tokyo Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) to Kudan Kaikan in Tokyo, where the ceiling of a large hall had partially collapsed as the result of the earthquake, to conduct triage at the scene: 6 casualties were assigned to the red category (immediate), which included 1 case of cardiopulmonary arrest and 1 of flail chest; 8 casualties in the yellow category (delayed); and 22 casualties in the green category (minor). One severely injured person was transported to our hospital. Separately, our medical team was deployed to Miyagi 2 hours after the earthquake in our multipurpose medical vehicle as part of Japan DMAT (J-DMAT). We were the first DMAT from the metropolitan area to arrive, but we were unable to start medical relief activities because the information infrastructure had been destroyed and no specific information had yet reached the local headquarters. Early next morning, J-DMAT decided to support Sendai Medical Center and search and rescue efforts in the affected area and to establish a staging care unit at Camp Kasuminome of the Japan Self-Defense Force. Our team joined others to establish the staging care unit. Because information was still confused until day 3 of the disaster and we could not adequately grasp onsite medical needs, our J-DMAT decided to provide onsite support at Ishinomaki Red Cross Hospital, a disaster base hospital, and relay information about its needs to the local J-DMAT headquarters. Although our medical relief teams were deployed as quickly as possible, we could not begin medical relief activities immediately owing to the severely damaged information infrastructure. Only satellite mobile phones could be operated, and information on the number of casualties and the severity of shortages of lifeline services could be obtained only through a "go and see" approach. Because there was no way to transmit or receive this vital information, disaster workers in the affected areas faced many challenges. For the future, network data links need to be made more resistant to infrastructure damage, and redundant or reach-back systems involving multitiered satellite, wireless, and radio frequency data links would provide definitive solutions. Such integrated systems should be designed around seamless connectivity based on an "always best connected" principle for maintaining communication quality.

Multi‐scale system reliability analysis of lifeline networks under earthquake hazards

AbstractRecent earthquake events evidenced that damage of structural components in a lifeline network may cause prolonged disruption of lifeline services, which eventually results in significant socio‐economic losses in the affected area. Despite recent advances in network reliability analysis, the complexity of the problem and various uncertainties still make it a challenging task to evaluate the post‐hazard performance and connectivity of lifeline networks efficiently and accurately. In order to overcome such challenges and take advantage of merits of multi‐scale analysis, this paper develops a multi‐scale system reliability analysis method by integrating a network decomposition approach with the matrix‐based system reliability (MSR) method. In addition to facilitating system reliability analysis of large‐size networks, the multi‐scale approach enables optimizing the level of computational effort on subsystems; identifying the relative importance of components and subsystems at multiple scales; and providing a collaborative risk management framework. The MSR method is uniformly applied for system reliability analyses at both the lower‐scale (for link failure) and the higher‐scale (for system connectivity) to obtain the probability of general system events, various conditional probabilities, component importance measures, statistical correlation between subsystem failures and parameter sensitivities. The proposed multi‐scale analysis method is demonstrated by its application to a gas distribution network in Shelby County of Tennessee. A parametric study is performed to determine the number of segments during the lower‐scale MSR analysis of each pipeline based on the strength of the spatial correlation of seismic intensity. It is shown that the spatial correlation should be considered at both scales for accurate reliability evaluation. The proposed multi‐scale analysis approach provides an effective framework of risk assessment and decision support for lifeline networks under earthquake hazards. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Lifeline Aspects of the 2004 Niigata Ken Chuetsu, Japan, Earthquake

After landslides, damage to lifelines was the next most notable feature of the 23 October 2004 Niigata Ken Chuetsu, Japan, earthquake ( Mw=6.6). Roads and highways sustained damage at over 6,000 locations; rail lines, water systems, and wastewater systems sustained major damage; and over 300,000 customers lost electric power. Nagaoka's water supply was disrupted by the failure of electric power, which illustrates lifeline interaction, and Ojiya's water treatment plant almost lost its intake of raw water. Nagaoka's 1,079- km-long water system sustained damage at 287 locations, and Ojiya's 329- km-long water system sustained damage at 102 locations. In 2,672 km of wastewater piping, damage was sustained at over 9,000 locations, with manhole settlement or uplift at over 1,300 locations. The pattern of refugees was strongly influenced by the availability of lifeline services—primarily, electric power.

Sequencing Lifeline Repairs After an Earthquake: An Economic Approach

Recoveries after recent earthquakes in the U.S. and Japan have shown that large welfare gains can be achieved by reshaping current emergency plans as incentive-compatible contracts. We apply tools from the mechanisms design literature to show ways to integrate economic incentives into the management of natural disasters and discuss issues related to the application to seismic event recovery. The focus is on restoring lifeline services such as the water, gas, transportation, and electric power networks. We put forward decisional procedures that an uninformed planner could employ to set repair priorities and help to coordinate lifeline firms in the post-earthquake reconstruction.

State Subsidy System for Remote Island Liner Services in Japan

Japan has one of the world’s largest networks of remote island liner services. As with other remote island lifeline services, operators face similar problems such as traffic imbalances, seasonality, and inadequate fare levels. Many of these liner operations, and hence the communities they serve, depend on state subsidy for survival. This paper explains the subsidy system for remote island liner services in Japan. It provides analysis of some of the industry’s difficulties, in the face of diminishing traffic flows, and national budget constraints. Several proposals are offered in an effort to help modernise what is a particularly fragmented shipping system, and to aid decision makers in their quest to ensure long-term stability of the industry.

Damage to Lifeline Services and Occupants' Reactions in Condominiums Affected by the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake(Series)

Damage to Lifeline Services and Occupants' Reactions in Condominiums Affected by the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake(Series)

Psychological adaptation of nurses post-disaster.

Disasters have the potential to cause major disruptions in lifeline services and family support systems. As caregivers, nurses are required to make difficult choices during national emergencies and may be at risk for experiencing psychological distress following a disaster. This study describes the responses of a group of nurses following Hurricane Hugo, and makes recommendations to minimize the stress placed on nurses working in a time of disaster.

Lifeline services—An industry still defining its own identity

Lifeline services—An industry still defining its own identity