Selection Of Mitigation Strategies Research Articles

The Suitability Assessment of Agricultural Drought Monitoring Indices: A Case Study in Inland River Basin

Drought monitoring is an important scientific basis for drought impact evaluation and the selection of mitigation strategies. Since the drivers of drought vary among regions, there is no universal drought index applicable to different regions. The Shiyang River Basin, an inland river basin, located in Gansu Province, China, has a closed water cycle system. Drought is a dominant nature disaster for the sustainable development of the region. Thus, this is an ideal area to explore the suitability of drought-monitoring indices. Here, we took the Shiyang River Basin as an example, in order to explore suitable indicators for agricultural drought monitoring in inland river basins. This study assessed the twelve different widely used drought indices used for monitoring the impact of drought on crop growth, represented by net primary production (NPP). The results showed that the vegetation status-based drought indices (VCI and NVSWI) had the highest significant correlation (0.6 ≤ |R| ≤ 1, p < 0.05) on NPP, and the integrated drought indices (DSI and ISDI) had the strong significant correlation (0.4 ≤ |R| < 0.6, p < 0.1). These four indices are good indicators for agricultural drought monitoring. Studies based on these four indices showed that agricultural drought has a tendency to slow down from 1982 to 2020. This is inconsistent with the monitoring of drought indices based on the meteorological variables that show a trend of increasing drought. This is mainly due to the increased efficiency of water management and its use in inland river basins. This indicates that other water resource information, such as runoff, should be included to construct an integrated agricultural drought-monitoring indices in management intensive regions, such as in an inland river basin.

Mitigating injection-induced seismicity to reduce seismic risk

Over the past decade, parts of the central United States have experienced elevated number of earthquakes and seismic damage to buildings and infrastructure. These earthquakes are caused by underground injection of wastewater from oil and gas operations, which increases pore pressures, in some cases leading to slip on faults in the geologic basement. Mitigation strategies have been proposed or implemented to reduce these earthquakes, while minimizing impact on operations, but the effectiveness of these strategies in terms of seismic risk is not well understood. Here, we show that the most effective strategies for reducing earthquake occurrence may not be the best for reducing regional seismic risk in terms of economic loss. Well locations have a large impact on seismic risk, and increasing the distance between wells typically reduces risks, with the least interruption to injection operations. Results also quantify the dramatic decrease in risk achieved by locating injection operations farther from population centers. Decreasing injected volume reduces both earthquake occurrence and risk, but large reductions in volumes are needed to achieve significant reductions in risk. These findings can be used to inform design and selection of mitigation strategies that most reduce seismic risk.

Built Environment, Transport, and COVID-19: a Review.

Purpose of ReviewThe COVID-19 pandemic has impacted daily-life activities around the world. Multiple countries and cities are implementing different mitigation strategies to reduce their transmission (e.g., physical distancing, stay-at-home orders, avoiding large gatherings). Such interventions have been related to positive and negative health externalities. Currently, the selection of mitigation strategies has not been systematically considering a long-term vision for urban health equity. This review presents evidence and a framework linking COVID-19 mitigation strategies, the built environment, and transport to health determinants and outcomes. In addition, the paper provides a set of urban interventions aimed at supporting COVID-19 mitigation strategies and promoting a long-term health equity vision.Recent FindingsCOVID-19 mitigation strategies, in addition to helping reduce disease transmission, have also decreased urban road transport, resulting in indirect benefits on air quality, traffic noise, and traffic incidents. On the other hand, the same mitigation strategies have had negative impacts on physical activity, mental health, home isolation, and access to transport options, among others. COVID-19 mitigation strategies are an opportunity to test and implement built environment and transport interventions aimed to maximize health equity and minimize health risks. National and local authorities should systematically integrate a long-term urban health equity vision when designing and implementing COVID-19 mitigation strategies.SummaryCOVID-19 offers an opportunity to rethink the built environment and transport infrastructure with the aim to support short-term mitigation strategies and reduce long-term urban health inequities.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40572-021-00307-7.

Priority resilience strategy for micro, small, and medium enterprises for dealing with natural disasters

Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) contribute significantly to the Indonesian economy. However, although the geographical location of Indonesia makes it susceptible to natural disasters, very little attention has been paid to the susceptibility of MSMEs to natural disasters. On average, MSMEs are fragile and need assistance in drawing up risk mitigation plans that can help them survive disasters. Moreover, no specific research has been conducted regarding MSMEs in the context of natural disasters. Therefore, this study proposes an MSME resilience measurement framework and provides examples of its application to MSMEs in Madura Island, Indonesia. This study aims to assist MSMEs and the government in determining priority strategies when dealing with natural disasters. A structured questionnaire was used to measure the resilience levels of MSMEs and identify a priority strategy for risk mitigation. Respondents in this study were the owners and leaders of 50 MSMEs in four regencies in Madura Island. The result of this study is a risk and resilience management model that demonstrates the cycle of resilience measurement and selection of mitigation strategies. The results of the resilience measurement of these MSMEs indicate that most have a low level of resilience and that priority strategies primarily involve efforts to improve the skills of human capital.

Supply chain risk inter-relationships and mitigation in Indian scenario: an ISM-AHP integrated approach

Supply chain risk management analyses and controls both internal and external supply chain risks through coordination/collaboration of supply chain partners to ensure profitability and business continuity. Be it internal or external, successful mitigation of these risks has always been a serious concern in the pursuit of customer satisfaction. The impact potential of these supply chain risk factors varies significantly as a result of their inter-relationships which further decide the selection of mitigation strategies. In this paper, we investigate the interdependence among the various supply chain risk factors that are prevalent in the Indian context by developing an interpretive structural model (ISM). Unlike a generic ISM, the proposed model incorporates the strength of the inter-relationships by deploying colour codes and a differential rating scale. Furthermore, we propose a group decision-making framework based on analytic hierarchy process for the prioritisation and selection of appropriate mitigation strategies. Finally, a case study is also presented to illustrate the proposed framework.

Fouling during food processing – progress in tackling this inconvenient truth

Progress in understanding fouling in food processing operations is assessed, -based on a review of the literature published from 2014–2017. Quantitative mechanistic models have been refined and tested for milk heat exchanger fouling: in other heat transfer and membrane separation applications the studies have focused on identifying fouling behaviour and management of fouling. The awareness of fouling being one stage in a fouling-cleaning cycle is becoming more widespread and this is being incorporated in the selection of mitigation strategies and development of coatings or new surfaces. Analytical techniques are providing more detailed insight into how fouling deposits grow and evolve, which can be used to optimise parts of the cycle.

Comparative Analysis of Supply Risk-Mitigation Strategies for Critical Byproduct Minerals: A Case Study of Tellurium.

Materials criticality assessment is a screening framework increasingly applied to identify materials of importance that face scarcity risks. Although these assessments highlight materials for the implicit purpose of informing future action, the aggregated nature of their findings make them difficult to use for guidance in developing nuanced mitigation strategy and policy response. As a first step in the selection of mitigation strategies, the present work proposes a modeling framework and accompanying set of metrics to directly compare strategies by measuring effectiveness of risk reduction as a function of the features of projected supply demand balance over time. The work focuses on byproduct materials, whose criticality is particularly important to understand because their supplies are inherently less responsive to market balancing forces, i.e., price feedbacks. Tellurium, a byproduct of copper refining, which is critical to solar photovoltaics, is chosen as a case study, and three commonly discussed byproduct-relevant strategies are selected: dematerialization of end-use product, byproduct yield improvement, and end-of-life recycling rate improvement. Results suggest that dematerialization will be nearly twice as effective at reducing supply risk as the next best option, yield improvement. Finally, due to its infrequent use at present and its dependence upon long product lifespans, recycling end-of-life products is expected to be the least effective option despite potentially offering other benefits (e.g., cost savings and environmental impact reduction).

Failure Prevention Through the Cataloging of Successful Risk Mitigation Strategies

The objective of this paper is to introduce the method to add mitigation strategy data to the generated risk event effect neutralization (GREEN) method knowledgebase to improve its ability to effectively mitigate risks. Risk mitigation is the creation and selection of mitigation strategies to reduce, measure, or control risks in a system. Currently, a vast majority of risk mitigation strategies are created based on the engineering expertise of the engineers on a project. The GREEN method provides a means for engineers to supplement their experience by generating risk mitigation strategies based on past successful risk mitigation strategies using the failure modes of the potential risks that the product faces. In order to better aid the engineer in selecting the best possible risk mitigation strategy for a particular risk, more information on mitigation strategies needs to be cataloged in the GREEN knowledgebase. This paper outlines and demonstrates the method for adding new data on mitigation strategies to the knowledgebase, and presents a case study of how this information is added and used to mitigate product risks.

8.3.2 Generated Risk Event Effect Neutralization: Identifying and Evaluating Risk Mitigation Strategies During Conceptual Design

AbstractIn the design of new products and systems, the mitigation of potential failures is very important. The sooner potential mitigation strategies can be employed, the lower the cost of those changes will be. Still, there needs to be a means to generate and evaluate mitigation strategies to supplement the existing expertise of the designer. By combining a mitigation strategy taxonomy with various rating strategies, a means to quickly select strategies and demonstrate their effect on the risk of failure can be obtained. This paper explains the risk mitigation selection and evaluation methods, including the mapping calculations used to evaluate strategies and their use in a method to move from a functional model of a new product to a selection of mitigation strategies that can be compared, and select the best strategy for the product.