Socio-economic Damage Research Articles

Hazard mitigation planning utilizing the HAZUS-MH Flood Model and Hurricane Wind Model

This study uses FEMA’s new flood model software, HAZUS-MH (Multi-Hazard), to assess the socio economic damages following floods. HAZUS-MH provides dollar figures for land use planners, flood managers, and emergency planners to utilize in their pre- and post-disaster planning of the economical, social, and environmental consequences of flooding. HAZUS-MH estimates financial losses resulting from a 100-year flood by analyzing the potential direct and indirect economic damages that could occur in a local jurisdiction. HAZUS-MH Flood Model and Hurricane Wind Model was used to estimate losses in the Parish of East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as part of the jurisdiction’s hazard mitigation planning process. Depth grid maps and flood loss maps are explained and displayed to show the results of the flood hazard and loss analysis. The article evaluates HAZUS-MH against the criteria of quality, timeliness, and completeness. The different levels of HAZUS-MH are explained within the context of accuracy. The article also explains how geographic information system (GIS) data layers can be made available to public officials by use of a free downloadable GIS data reader.

Detection of river/sea ice deformation using satellite interferometry: limits and potential

In this paper, we present a study consisting of the application of radar interferometry for river/sea ice monitoring in inhabited regions and on commercial waterways. The sites studied are located in Canadian regions where ice jams constitute a common winter hazard that can cause extensive socio-economic damage and impose severe restrictions on ship traffic. ERS and Radarsat images were jointly used with traditional in situ observations to detect ice break-up in order to prevent ice jams and related problems. A coherence study served to define the synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) limits for river/sea ice dynamics monitoring. Other factors that also help to define the limits of InSAR technology for this application include the frequency of image acquisition, the minimum dimension of detected ice floes and the determination of appropriate ice types. Significant phase shifts were found for small ice floes of several hundred metres with ERS-tandem images. The analysis of the interferograms showed that it is possible to detect deformations in the ice shelf and to discriminate quantitatively the horizontal and vertical components of ice movement when the interferograms are combined with traditional observations such as meteorological data, water level, water flow and ice charts. The deformation estimated on a piece of fast river ice can be interpreted as the first sign of the ice break-up. On an estuary river that is a busy seaway, a qualitative interpretation of the interferograms served to highlight the interaction of river and tidal flows affecting the ice cover. We showed, in particular, the potential of radar interferometry and its integration with other techniques to help the authorities to prevent problems related to ice jams.

The Nile Valley of Egypt: A Major Active Graben that Magnifies Seismic Waves

The Nile valley and the Nile delta are part of the active rift that is probably connected with the Red Sea tectonism. This zone is characterized by small-to-moderate size earthquakes that have caused extremely severe damage to recent and historical constructions. The most vulnerable area along the Nile valley is the one of Cairo-Faiyoum. Small local and large distant earthquakes could be a source of huge socio-economic damage in this area. The loose soft alluvial sediments of the Nile Canyon are the main factor behind this potential damage because they may greatly amplify the ground motion, as demonstrated by strong ground motion modelling. The largest amplification is generally concentrated along the edges of the graben and occurs at frequencies between 1 Hz and 2 Hz. This may explain the huge damage caused by distant earthquakes during recent and historical times. The distribution of intensity values during the events of 1926 and 1992 is well correlated with the modelled spatial distribution of the spectral amplification.

Interpretation of Slope Movements Induced by Adjacent Large Landslide in Northern Italy

The village of Corniglio in Italy has been affected for the last 6 years by a huge landslide, currently one of the largest slope movements in Europe, which has caused considerable socio-economic damage. In late 1994, the slope movement resumed after unusually high rainfalls in a preexisting landslide area that had been stable since 1902. The main landslide took place west of the old center of Corniglio, gradually involving an estimated 200,000,000 cubic meters of soil. The village itself initially did not experience any instability; however, the progressive extension of the main movement also later caused serious damage in the city center. Immediately after the movement's onset, a rather comprehensive and costly program of site investigation, careful monitoring, and geophysical surveying was planned and carried out. The substantial amount of collected data allowed a rather detailed stratigraphic profile to be developed and provided the geotechnical characterization of the complex soil formations involved in the slope movement. The stability analyses were focused on the old city center, where many reliable data are available and remedial measures could be required. Both the standard limit equilibrium and finite-difference methods were used and the relevant results compared. The analyses clearly show the need to take into account the close relationship between two slope movements; in particular, the possible reduction of earth support at the downhill boundary of the city center slope, as induced by the very large movements of the adjacent main landslide, was considered.

Financial Implications of Hypothetical San Francisco Bay Oil Spill Scenarios: Response, Socioeconomic, and Natural Resource Damage Costs

ABSTRACT This study provides a comprehensive examination of the use of trajectory modeling to estimate financial impacts of oil spills, including natural resource damages, response costs, and socioeconomic costs, as well as an opportunity to examine how spill size, oil type, response strategy, and probabilistic trajectory factors impact costs. The inclusion of NRDA, response, and socioeconomic costs in the modeling allows for an assessment of the relative proportion of NRDA costs to response and socioeconomic costs to further support the findings of past studies that refute the myth that NRDA costs are the overriding factors in most spill cases. The study demonstrates the overall financial and NRDA benefits of dispersant use. Estimated total bio-economic costs for oil spill scenarios involving four oil types and three spill sizes for two locations in San Francisco Bay, were modeled. Assuming present-day mechanical-only response, total costs range from $30 to $520 million. Estimated total bioeconomic costs would be reduced to $11 to $113 million if dispersants were used with high effectiveness. Dispersant use would reduce response costs, and if used effectively, could reduce NRDA and socioeconomic damages substantially, as both of these costs are driven by the amount of surface and shoreline oiling.

Wirtschaftliche Bewertung der Arbeitsunfähigkeit durch muskuloskelettale Erkrankungen

Musculoskeletal disorders are the most expensive form of work disability for companies. In Germany, they are responsible for almost 27% of all production downtimes caused by sick leave from work. The direct and indirect annual expenses of these disorders amount to approximately 24.5 billion Euro for the labor force and approximately 38 billion Euro for the total population. For analytical and practical reasons, measures for prevention of this socioeconomic damage should be implemented in companies.

Insatiable Appetite: The United States and the Ecological Degradation of the Tropical World. By Richard P. Tucker. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. Pp. xiii, 551. $45.

Why les tristes tropiques have become the world's major sump of poverty has been analyzed from various perspectives, producing varying judgments on the complicity of the foreign powers who had “opened up” the tropics to foreign settlement, trade and investment. This volume's basic theses are that ecological degradation from the expansion of tropical agricultural and silvicultural exports have been a major source of socioeconomic damage to the tropics and that, especially in the past century, U.S. consumer demand and enterprise have dominated the external forces propelling this adverse dynamic.

The prohibition of biological weapons: Current activities and future prospects

Deliberately induced disease or biological warfare is a source of increasing concern as we approach the twenty-first century, as its prevention is central to the security, health and well-being of the global community. In the simplest terms, biological warfare means placing the health of humans, animals and plants at risk from disease deliberately induced as a hostile act. Disease has caused more casualties in all wars than actual weapons of war and there is increasing — and justified — worldwide concern about new and emerging diseases. As the world population continues to increase, new areas of land are occupied and there is greater overcrowding in populated areas, with an ever-greater demand for both plants and animals as sources of food. This creates more opportunities for new or old diseases to spread among humans, animals and plants, with all the consequential socio-economic damage to the countries concerned.

Sleep disordered breathing in primary care medicine

Primary care medicine plays a key role in the delivery of health care. Sleep disorders medicine is a new specialty and standard medical school curricula do not contain any or only very little training in sleep medicine. Unrecognized and therefore untreated sleep disorders account for a large loss of human life and socio-economic damage. Recognition of sleep disorders, in particular sleep-disordered breathing at the primary care level is thus a major element in health care delivery. The objective of this study was to assess the occurrence of the risk of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) in a large primary care population. 852 primary care patients received a validated questionnaire which contained items based on signs and symptoms of SDB, periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD), and insomnia. A polygraphically validated algorithm was used to identify patients with a high suspicion of having sleep disordered breathing. Based on this algorithm 20% of the study participants had a high risk for SDB, 18.5% of PLMD and 25% of insomnia.Most commonly daytime sleepiness and fatigue was associated in patients with a positive likelihood of SDB, PLMD, and insomnia. Fifty percent of all primary care patients reported to snore while 31% of snorers reported to snore every night. SDB was twice as common in men than in women and associated with a significantly higher body mass index. A popular validated scale to assess the degree of daytime sleepiness, the Epworth sleepiness scale, was not always useful to document the degree of daytime sleepiness.We conclude that SDB, PLMD, and insomnia are very frequent sleep disorders in primary care patients yielding the need to include assessment of these sleep disorders in the medical history of primary care physicians.

Socio-economic analysis based on the definition of lost life potential due to mortality from malignant neoplasms

The urgent task of public health is to combat those diseases that cause the main losses of public health, namely the study and ranking of malignant tumors according to their significance in relation to the socio-economic damage they cause. The socio-economic significance of malignant neoplasms is due not only to the fact that they occupy one of the leading places among the causes of death, but also to the fact that they affect the average life expectancy and the extent of irreplaceable losses of the population. In addition, they cause significant economic damage, which is determined by both direct costs for prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of patients, and indirect costs - reduction in the production of public product due to loss of ability to work or premature death of the patient in the working age and childhood. According to E. M. Axel and V. V. Dvoirin, social and economic losses from malignant neoplasms are determined mainly (up to 70%) by losses from premature death.

THE MEDIA AND OIL SPILLS: DOES THE PRESS INFLUENCE DAMAGE PERCEPTIONS

ABSTRACT Although it is generally accepted that there is no evidence of socioeconomic damages resulting from the Argo Merchant oil spill, a survey undertaken approximately one year revealed that perceptions of significant damage exist among residents of adjacent areas. Concurrently, critics suggest the media exaggerated potential damages. Our findings indicate that erroneous damage perceptions are associated with a number of cultural and demographic variables, including differences in exposure to new media. Persons with erroneous damage perceptions had been exposed to a much larger number of information media reporting on the effects of the spill. Those concerned with providing accurate information will have to supply facts and data to the media, to local public officials, and to residents who are opinion leaders.

THE ASSESSMENT OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF OIL SPILLS — TOWARD A METHODOLOGY

ABSTRACT This paper examines the state of the art of socio-economic damage assessment following oil spills as a first step in developing a comparative methodology of use both to social scientists and lawyers in damage claim litigation. The conclusions reached are, first, that socio-economic baseline studies must be developed in areas potentially at risk if post-spill studies are to have any meaning. Secondly, post-spill data must be handled in uniform modes. Finally, development of predictive models is considered and assessed.

Effects of Alcohol Consumption on Human Health from the Perspective of Holy Quran and Modern Medicine

Context: Holy Quran has brought orders and decrees for the health and prevention of diseases for mankind which obey these rules ensure not only physical health but also mental health. The mighty god in Holy Quran has discouraged humans from drinking wine several times. The purpose of this study is deliberating alcohol effects on human health from the perspective of Holy Quran, and modern medicine. Evidence and Acquisition: In this paper by using proper keywords, an overview was made on Holy Quran, hadiths and scientific articles, available in Medline(Pubmed) and Embase as well as Persian sites such as SID and Magiran. Then effects of alcohol consumption on human health were analyzed. Results: Holy Quran in four verses and infallible imams in several hadiths have prohibited alcohol consumption for humans. On the other hand, it leads to many socioeconomic and mental damages and results in detriments on the Central and Peripheral Nervous System. Cardiovascular System, Liver, Bone, Pancreas, Skin and Respiratory System are such organs and tissues in which bear loads of heavy irreversible injuries from alcohol consumption. Harmful effects of alcohol on fetus and causing different malignancy in several tissues are from other fatal effects which eventually lead to death. Conclusion: Regarding Islam’s recommendations alcohol consumption is clearly forbidden. Scientific papers also express the damaging effects of alcohol on individual health which clearly demonstrates the same concept.