Digital Commons Network^™

Security Concerns Vs. Monied Interests?: The Role Of Agenda Setting In Homeland Security, Andrew Christopher Ziegler

Hatfield Graduate Journal of Public Affairs

This paper applies public policy concepts such as agenda setting, resource allocation, lobbying, and campaign rhetoric to the field of homeland security. The analysis examines the allocation of resources among the U.S. federal government’s five broad homeland security priorities during the fiscal years of 2012-2017. An overemphasis on border security has led to a disproportionate allocation of resources among these various priorities. The uneven distribution is the summation of electoral ambitions, campaign contributions, and corporate lobbying. This analysis highlights the negative consequences that are a direct result of an unbalanced allotment, cumulating in a slow and uncoordinated federal response to …

Building Back Healthier: The Role Of Public Health In State Disaster Recovery Law, Claire Pendergrast, Nicole Errett

Population Health Research Brief Series

When communities are impacted by disasters, state officials must implement efficient and competent recovery strategies with the health and wellbeing of residents in mind. This research brief summarizes findings from a peer-reviewed study showing that few U.S. states explicitly integrate public health into their disaster recovery laws, and the types of public health requirements and authorizations vary substantially across states.

Incorporating Universal Design Into Tsunami Modeling Results For Cascadia Subduction Zone Faults To Create An Inundation Map And Universally Designed Evacuation Map For Port Angeles, Wa, Hannah Rose Spero, Breanyn Macinnes, Naomi J. Petersen

Student Published Works

Current tsunami hazard inundation and evacuation maps in the Puget Sound are based primarily on Cascadia and Seattle fault tsunamis. The standard evaluation process for tsunami impacts focuses on elevation and hypothetical fault rupture of known and predicted earthquakes. However, there are several known tsunami deposits in the Puget Sound that are not from Cascadia or Seattle fault tsunamis, potentially from other faults within the region, that could affect tsunami mitigation. Work to understand newly discovered crustal deformation and faults in Puget Sound is ongoing, therefore evacuation and inundation maps need to be updated to include these new faults and …

To New Geographies: Implementing U.S. Department Of Energy Order 151.1d, Comprehensive Emergency Management System, Eric B. Sussman

Capstone Collection

Emergency Management programs at National Nuclear Security Administration facilities are governed by federal policy directive Department of Energy Order 151.1D, Comprehensive Emergency Management System. The prescriptions within the Order are often at odds with industry-standard frameworks and vocabularies established by the Department of Homeland Security. Boleman and Deal’s Four Frame Model offers the tenets of the Political, Structural, Human Resource, and Symbolic lens perspectives to clarify the nature of disparate programs precipitant from disparate agency policies. This project utilizes a Phenomenological Interpretivist Framework for qualitative research to triangulate data across textual analyses, public perception, and practitioner experience, thus identifying …

Intangible Cultural Heritage: A Benefit To Climate-Displaced And Host Communities, Gül Aktürk, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Climate change is borderless, and its impacts are not shared equally by all communities. It causes an imbalance between people by creating a more desirable living environment for some societies while erasing settlements and shelters of some others. Due to floods, sea level rise, destructive storms, drought, and slow-onset factors such as salinization of water and soil, people lose their lands, homes, and natural resources. Catastrophic events force people to move voluntarily or involuntarily. The relocation of communities is a debatable climate adaptation measure which requires utmost care with human rights, ethics, and psychological well-being of individuals upon the issues …

Uri And Its Students: A Contract For The Provision Of A Safe Environment, Danielle Joan Beatrice

Senior Honors Projects

DANIELLE BEATRICE (English; Philosophy; Business) URI and Its Students: A Contract for the Provision of a Safe Environment

Sponsor: Judith Swift (Communication Studies, Coastal Institute)

When students begin to attend college, they expect to be consumed with busy schedules, heavy workloads, and an exciting social life. Students do not anticipate being in dangerous situations. However, this does not mean that such situations do not occur. Therefore, it is essential to teach students to be active participants in educating themselves and their peers regarding prevention and response to emergency situations. My Honors Project aims to increase the awareness of safety-related issues …

Social Worker’S Adjustment And Perception When Dealing With Double-Exposure During A Natural Disaster, Magaly Santos

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Limited research captures the perceptions and adjustments of social workers living and providing treatment in the same communities during a disaster. Few studies have captured the stressors and responsibilities put on social workers during an ongoing disaster. This paper reports the findings of the double-exposure captured using a qualitative approach in collecting interviews from nine mental health professionals who continued working during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. A constructivist paradigm was used to capture each participant’s reality. Participants described the sudden change to remote work as difficult when having to find the balance between work and life demands, providing …

Amber Alert System: An Analysis On How Access To Technology Has Affected Effectiveness, Elizabeth Balcom

Master's Projects

This research was conducted to examine whether the introduction of Wireless Electronic Alerts (WEAs) to the AMBER Alert system in 2012 has impacted the effectiveness of the system from 2009 to 2019.

Studying Successful Ageing: A Showcase Of The Singapore Life Panel, Jee Yuen Yew, Jia Wei Gwee, Anirudh Srivathsan

ROSA Research Briefs

In this special issue of the ROSA Research Brief Series, we showcase two aspects of the work being done at the Centre for Research on Successful Ageing (ROSA). Firstly, we showcase the capabilities of the Singapore Life Panel (SLP) and the data that the SLP is able to obtain and measure on a monthly basis. Secondly, we showcase the amazing work of the SGUnited Traineeship Programme’s Research Assistants at ROSA who have proven themselves to be incredible assets in helping further ROSA’s aims of enabling successful ageing in Singapore. ROSA aims to measure well-being among older adults holistically in order …

Multifidelity Prediction In Wildfire Spread Simulation: Modeling, Uncertainty Quantification And Sensitivity Analysis, Mario Miguel Valero, Lluís Jofre, Ricardo Torres

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Wildfire behavior predictions typically suffer from significant uncertainty. However, wildfire modeling uncertainties remain largely unquantified in the literature, mainly due to computing constraints. New multifidelity techniques provide a promising opportunity to overcome these limitations. Therefore, this paper explores the applicability of multifidelity approaches to wildland fire spread prediction problems. Using a canonical simulation scenario, we assessed the performance of control variates Monte-Carlo (MC) and multilevel MC strategies, achieving speedups of up to 100x in comparison to a standard MC method. This improvement was leveraged to quantify aleatoric uncertainties and analyze the sensitivity of the fire rate of spread (RoS) to …

Preparing For Wildfire Evacuation And Alternatives: Exploring Influences On Residents’ Intended Evacuation Behaviors And Mitigations, Amanda M. Stasiewicz, Travis B. Paveglio

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Understanding residents' intended evacuation behaviors is an increasingly important component of managing complex wildfire events in the United States and elsewhere. Growing evidence suggests that local populations consider a range of potential evacuation behaviors during fire events, yet fewer efforts explore rural residents' evacuation intentions or their relationship to wildfire mitigations that reduce risk or aid in fire suppression. This study explores evacuation intentions among wildland-urban interface residents in Pend Oreille County, Washington, USA. We explore how mitigation performance (e.g., fuel reduction efforts, structure improvements, active firefighting preparation) differs across three emergent categories of evacuation intentions and evaluate whether a …

Factors In Disaster Response In Mexico, Central America, And The Caribbean, Ashleigh Daugherty

Honors Theses

This research examines the impacts that existing factors can have on the outcome of natural disasters. In order to study this question more thoroughly than previous research, this paper conducts a small n study on the Middle America region through case studies in Mexico, El Salvador, and Haiti. Each of these case studies are evaluated by their outcomes of severe earthquakes and the conditions in which these earthquakes occurred. These conditions being: their economies, governances, and pre-existing natural disaster plans. The analysis of these indicators attempts to understand why certain countries perform better in natural disasters compared to others. In …

Emergency Alert Regarding A Social Media Threat, University Of Maine Police Department

General University of Maine Publications

Example of emergency alert notifications sent to all UMaine students and staff regarding an alleged threat made via social media impacting the University of Maine campus. Also attached, a screen-capture of the UMaine web home page displaying the emergency notification.

A Comparative Analysis Of Distribution And Allocation Of Covid-19 Vaccines Between Two Administrations, Leila Halawi, J. Mayanja, J. Chilipamushi, Y. Zhang, B Albury, Jude Edwards

Publications

The pandemic of COVID-19 is a life-threatening disease that entailed all governments but especially the U.S government, to quickly prevent methods of spreading the virus while strategically putting in place a plan for biological testing for a vaccine for immunity. The purpose was to determine how effective the formulation of a COVID-19 vaccine and the distribution would impact the mortality with efficacy rates. Besides, this research paper underlines the principles for ethical and equitable distribution for mass immunization. A comparative analysis between the Trump Administration and the Biden Administration will be presented regarding the funding stream, distribution of vaccinations, and …

Resident Safety During Disasters: Response To The Covid-19 Pandemic In Hampton Roads Area Nursing Homes, Tihara Richardson

College of Business (Strome) Posters

The communal nature of long-term care facilities (LTCFs), and the population served which includes older adults often with underlying medical conditions, put those living in LTCFs at increased risk of infection and severe illness from COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic has further illuminated gaps in LTCFs disaster preparedness as they have lacked the resources necessary to contain the outbreak, including tests and personal protective equipment, and underpaid and undertrained staff. The purpose of this research is to examine resident safety in nursing homes within the Hampton Roads region during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study seeks to examine the association between nursing …

The Evacuation Behaviors And Risk Perceptions Of College Students In Coastal Communities, Saige Hill, Wie Yusuf

College of Business (Strome) Posters

Effective emergency management saves lives. The role of an emergency manager is to implement policies and practices to ensure disaster preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery to promote community resilience; however, there are many factors that may hinder goal achievement. The False Alarm and Desensitization Model explores this concept by illustrating how evacuation behaviors and risk perceptions are influenced by individual experiences. Specifically, the Model demonstrates how disaster event false alarms and desensitization decrease the likelihood of adequate response during subsequent events.

False alarms and desensitization impede disaster preparation and perpetuate community vulnerability. This research highlights the false alarm theory of …

Hazardous Weather Communication En Español: Challenges, Current Resources, And Future Practices, Joseph E. Trujillo-Falcón, Orlando Bermúdez, Krizia Negrón-Hernández, John Lipski, Elizabeth Leitman, Kodi Berry

NOAA Technical Reports and Related Materials

According to recent Census data, the Hispanic or Latino population represents nearly 1 in 5 Americans today, where 71.1% of these individuals speak Spanish at home. Despite increased efforts among the weather enterprise, establishing effective risk communication strategies for Spanish-speaking populations has been an uphill battle. No frameworks exist for translating weather information into the Spanish language, nor are there collective solutions that address this problem within the weather world. The objective of this article is threefold. First, the current translation issue in Spanish is highlighted. Through research conducted at the NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center, situations are revealed where regional …

Information Communication Technology And Emergency Management Communication: Lessons From The 2020 ‘Hurricane-Pandemic’ Wave, Ren-Neasha Blake, Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf

College of Business (Strome) Posters

The coronavirus pandemic [COVID-19] forged new roles, dynamics, and systems across the public administration and policy domain. The hurricane season approached just a few months after the COVID-19 outbreak and necessitated swift emergency management response. The usual planning for the hurricane season grappled with pandemic threats, clouds of fear, and the urgent need for reconfigured strategies. Policy practitioners, academicians, and non-government officials convened to construct and deconstruct cross-sector plans for navigating the hurricane-pandemic wave. These tweaked strategies were necessary for coastal communities like Hampton Roads that are prone to extreme weather events. Information communication technology (ICT) was at the forefront …

Leadership In Collaborative Emergency Management And Resilience, Norah Alshayhan, Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf

College of Business (Strome) Posters

Emergency management and resilience are key concepts and functions that are vital for mitigating risks of hazards and reducing the impacts of disasters. Public sector leaders within the emergency management and resilience domains play a critical role in leading the organization and its staff and partners in achieving these goals of risk mitigation and disaster impact reduction. This research investigates the skills and competencies that emergency management and resilience leaders need to be successful in collaborations to deal with emergencies and disasters today and in a post-COVID world. The study will employ a postpositivist case study design using interviews as …

Government Management Capacities And The Containment Of Covid-19: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study Across Chinese Cities, Wenchao Li, Jing Li, Junjian Yi

Research Collection School Of Economics

Objectives: Better understanding of the dynamics of the COVID-19 (2019 novel coronavirus disease) pandemic to curb its spread is now a global imperative. While travel restrictions and control measures have been shown to limit the spread of the disease, the effectiveness of the enforcement of those measures should depend on the strength of the government. Whether, and how, the government plays a role in fighting the disease, however, has not been investigated. Here, we show that government management capacities are critical to the containment of the disease. Setting: We conducted a statistical analysis based on cross-city comparisons within China. China …

Assessing And Mitigating Risk For Applied Behavior Analysis Providers During A Pandemic, Joshua B. Plavnick Phd, Krista Clancy, Sharon Milberger

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the extent to which human service providers can safely deliver close-contact therapies in which social distancing cannot occur. Applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is one such example, with the pandemic creating several barriers to safely delivering this essential service. The present paper describes the development and administration of a risk assessment and mitigation toolkit that was designed for ABA providers to make decisions about how to identify and mitigate risk in delivering therapeutic services to children with ASD. The toolkit includes considerations for clients, other household members, …

Coronavirus Updates, Unf Emergency Management

UNF COVID-19 Response

Campus Coronavirus Updates for March 10, 2021

Odu Researchers Lead Local Resilience Partnership Aimed At Helping Displaced Vulnerable Populations During Disaster Events, News @ Odu

News Items

No abstract provided.

A Coupled Hazard Simulation And Post-Disaster Resource Optimization Framework, Stephen M. Cunningham

Theses and Dissertations

Extreme events, such as natural or human-caused disasters, cause mental health stress in affected communities. While the severity of these outcomes varies based on socioeconomic standing, age group, and degree of exposure, disaster planners can mitigate potential stress-induced mental health outcomes by assessing early, intermediate, and long-term treatment interventions by social workers and psychologists. However, local and state authorities are typically underfunded, understaffed, and have ongoing health and social service obligations that constrain mitigation and response activities. A resource assignment framework is developed as a coupled-state transition and linear optimization model that assists planners in optimally allocating constrained resources and …

Ecological Restoration And Countmeasures Against Desertification Crisis In Aral Sea Region., Mingzhu He, Xin Gao, Zhenyong Zhao, Haotian Yang, Lei Huang, Xinrong Li, Jiaqiang Lei

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Land degradation and desertification are the serious ecological problems and challenges to achieve global sustainable development goals. The Chinese government proposes to integrate the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt with the environmental improvement of the Central Asia, to build an intimate community of shared destiny between China and the Central Asia countries, and to promote the green and sustainable development of the Silk Road Economic Belt. However, the ecological crisis in the Aral Sea causes a significant shrinking in water body, loss of biodiversity, salinization, desertification, and salt dust storm, which have become major environmental problems encountered in …

Spatial Pattern And Response Of Landslide And Debris Flow Risks In China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Qiang Zou, Xiaojun Guo, Yu Luo, Yuanjun Jiang, Peng Cui, Lijun Su, Guoqiang Ou, Huali Pan, Weiming Liu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Landslides and debris flows caused significant threat to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. This study introduced the spatial pattern of the relevant mountainous hazards and assessed the hazards risks, predicted the development trends, and proposed the relevant countermeasures as well. 584 landslides, 116 collapses, and 1669 mudslides in total were identified, which mainly distributed in the mountainous areas in the northern part of the corridor. The hazards were divided into five grades: extremely high, high, medium, low, and extremely low and the northern area is highly dangerous. The vulnerability assessment was carried out with traffic, economy, and population as indicators, and …

Risk Assessment And Response Strategies For Extreme Climate Events In Key Nodes Of The Belt And Road, Yong Ge, Qiangzi Li, Feng Ling, Yuan Zhang, Yonghui Yao, Qingsheng Liu, Wen Dong, Hua Wu, Yi Li, Zhoupeng Ren

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

In the context of global climate change, heat waves, extreme precipitation, extreme droughts and storm surges have increased in most areas of the Belt and Road, which seriously threatens the personal and property safety of countries along the Belt and Road. This study focuses on dealing with the issues associated with the risk identification and assessment of extreme climate events in the “Belt and Road” region, including the coarse or single assessment scale and weak response strategies. It develops a multi-scale extreme climate risk assessment framework, and completes the risk assessment of four representative extreme climate events including heat waves, …

Regionalization Of Ecological Risk Of China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor Transportation And Pipeline Construction And Policy Suggestions, Suocheng Dong, Yijia Li, Fujia Li, Jingwen Li, Yu Li, Zehong Li, Hao Cheng, Guoyu Li, Shengyu Li

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The cross-border railways and oil and gas pipelines along the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor are key hubs and channels supporting the regional cooperation and development. It is very important to complete scientific regionalization of ecological risk of China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor and put forward suggestions to guarantee smooth construction and safe cross-border traffic project. By establishing ecological risk evaluation model, we quantitatively analyzed the ecological risk of China-MongoliaRussia Economic Corridor, and regionalized high, middle, and low risk. We put forward the ecological risk prevention and control countermeasures for China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor. It shows that the ecological risk areas are distributed along the …

Improve The Weak Links In Science And Technology For Disaster Prevention And Reduction Along Silk Road

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

No abstract provided.

Permafrost Engineering Problem Along China-Russia Crude Oil Pipeline And Mitigative Measure, Guoyu Li, Yapeng Cao, Wei Ma, Xiaoying Jin, Pengchao Chen, Qihao Yu, Zhongqiong Zhang, Yanhu Mu, Huijun Jin

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

China-Russia Crude Oil Pipeline (CRCOP), one of the four key national energy strategic channels, plays an important role in ensuring national energy security, diversifying oil supplies and transportation patterns, promoting the China-Mongolia-Russian economic corridor, and deepening Sino-Russian strategic cooperation. Aiming at permafrost engineering problems along the CRCOP, the principles of thaw control are put forward. This study develops a set of innovative techniques for mitigating and controlling the thaw of permafrost foundation soils of the pipeline, which provides an important guarantee for the green construction and safe operation of the CRCOP and can protect the permafrost environment along the pipeline …