Emergency and Disaster Management Commons^™

Federal Minister Delays Decision On Nuclear Waste Depository, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

The federal minister of the environment, Catherine McKenna, has dealt a setback to the proposal put forward by government-owned Ontario Power Generation (OPG), for the underground storage of nuclear waste. The proposed Deep Geologic Repository (DGR) would be located in Kincardine, Ontario, approximately 1.2 kilometres away from the shore of Lake Huron, and constructed underneath the world's largest operating nuclear power plant.

Examination Of Common Errors Committed During Eoc Operations: A Content Analysis Study, Michael Kenneth Ryan

Dissertations

One of the key aspects in the learning process, whether it is at an individual or organizational level, is the ability to recognize where errors occur. This is especially important in the field of public safety where small errors can present a serious threat to the safety of first responders and victims of disasters. Up to this point, there has been no systematic study to identify the most common errors that occur during emergency operations center (EOC) activations at the local level of government. Following the introduction, one chapter explores the history of emergency management and the difficulties local jurisdictions …

Using Life Saving Commodities To Save Lives Globally, Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

No abstract provided.

A Climate-Driven Mechanistic Population Model Of Aedes Albopictus With Diapause, Pengfei Jia, Liang Lu, Xiang Chen, Jin Chen, Li Guo, Xiao Yu, Qiyong Liu

Faculty Publications - Emergency Management & Homeland Security

BACKGROUND: The mosquito Aedes albopitus is a competent vector for the transmission of many blood-borne pathogens. An important factor that affects the mosquitoes' development and spreading is climate, such as temperature, precipitation and photoperiod. Existing climate-driven mechanistic models overlook the seasonal pattern of diapause, referred to as the survival strategy of mosquito eggs being dormant and unable to hatch under extreme weather. With respect to diapause, several issues remain unaddressed, including identifying the time when diapause eggs are laid and hatched under different climatic conditions, demarcating the thresholds of diapause and non-diapause periods, and considering the mortality rate of diapause …

Economic Impacts Of Climate Adaptation Strategies For Southern Monterey Bay, Kelly Leo, Sarah Newkirk, Walter Heady, Brian Cohen, Juliano Calil, Philip King, Fernando Depaolis

Publications

Local governments along Monterey Bay’s shores are undertaking a number of initiatives for which sea level rise adaptation planning is required. Governor Schwarzenegger’s 2008 Executive Order S-13-08 and the 2011 Resolution of the California Ocean Protection Council on sea level rise led to the proliferation of individual agency guidance documents (e.g., CalTrans (2011), BCDC (2011), CCC (2015)) that require emerging best available science (e.g., Pacific Institute Report (Heberger et al. 2009), NRC Report (2012)). These guidance documents stipulate that sea level rise and coastal hazards need to be considered in planning (e.g., Climate Action Compact, Climate Action Plans, Integrated Regional …

Sustainable Development Goals Worth Sharing, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

The international community has agreed upon another set of goals for the next 15 years. On the table are no less than 169 objectives and 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The new aspirations are summarized and the merits and demerits of further elaboration and measurement including country-specific deadlines and targets are discussed. The hefty budget to achieve all 17 goals is estimated at more than $4 trillion US a year. North American policy-makers need to be aware of humankind’s shared aspirations as they consider the new and expensive SDGs. Foreign aid is one of the instruments of North American foreign …

A Decision Model For Recommending Which Building Occupants Should Move Where During Fire Emergencies, Norman E. Groner

Publications and Research

This paper describes a decision model for managing the movement of building occupants during fire emergencies. Currently available guidance from standard practice, egress modeling, codes and the re-search literature, is too general to provide much help to persons charged with the responsibility of where groups of occupants should be located given a fire scenario. The occupant movement decision model described in the paper uses three basic yes–no questions to divide building occupants into groups during a fire emergency. For any particular group, the decision model recommends one of two basic actions:(1) people remain where they are already located; or, (2) …

The United Nations: The Syrian Refugee Crisis, Zahra R. Syed

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The main objective of this research paper is to analyze the international effects the Syrian Conflict has had to the global community. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has declared this conflict to be the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. Millions of Syrians have fled their home country to avoid unjust persecution and are looking to not only neighboring countries, but the European Union for assistance in resettlement.

Since the outbreak of the conflict in Syria in 2011, more than 220,000 people have been massacred, leaving fifty percent of the population in unrest due to home displacement. According …

Adaptation On A Budget: How Vietnamese Innovators Are Trying To Design Their Way Out Of Climate Change, Shanti R. Johnson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the rapidly developing Mekong Delta of Vietnam, young innovators are facing a challenge far greater than simply trying to catch up with the wealthier world. In a growing trend, the next generation of Vietnamese is acting under a common understanding: climate change is real, it’s here and the time to respond is growing short.

For over a decade, Southern Vietnam has consistently been ranked by international organizations like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as one of the most vulnerable places in the world to the impacts of climate change. That vulnerability is heightened by the fact that the …

Accelerating Expertise To Facilitate Decision Making In High-Risk Professions Using The Dacum System, Ralph Kuchenbrod

Masters Theses

The purpose of this research was to determine whether the process of achieving occupational expertise could be accelerated enabling operators in high risk vocations to make effective decisions earlier in their careers. Scholars have hypothesized good decision making skills are largely a result of relevant experience within the specific domain. The rationale being that the greater the experience an individual has the more likely the operator has experienced similar situations and can apply solutions that have been successful in the past. Two distinct methods of decision making have been identified: traditional decision making and naturalistic decision making (NDM).

The ability …

Barriers To Use Of Social Media By Emergency Managers, Linda Plotnick, Starr Roxanne Hiltz

Research, Publications & Creative Work

Social media (SM) are socio-technical systems that have the potential to provide real-time information during crises and thus to help protect lives and property. Yet, US emergency management (EM) agencies do not extensively use them. This mixed-methods study describes the ways SM is used by county-level US emergency managers, barriers to effective SM use, and recommendations to improve use. Exploratory interviews were conducted with US public sector emergency managers to elicit attitudes about SM. This was followed by a survey of over 200 US county level emergency managers. Results show that only about half of agencies use SM at all. …

The Use Of Catastrophe Bonds As A Means Of Economic Development In Emerging Economies, Lauren Mattucci

Honors Theses and Capstones

Catastrophe bonds offer a way for entities located in natural disaster prone regions to safely and efficiently transfer the risk of insuring property to the financial markets and subsequently, create a financially attractive environment for insurers and investors. The opportunity for investors to utilize modeled loss analytical platforms such as those created by AIR, Risk Management Solutions, and EQECAT, could be used to bridge the growing gap in emerging economies between economic losses created by natural disasters and insured losses. Bridging this insurance gap in emerging economies could have positive global implications for the insurance industry, global trade, foreign direct …

Threat Assessment And Management In Higher Education In The United States: A Review Of The 10 Years Since The Mass Casualty Incident At Virginia Tech, Eugene R.D. Deisinger, Mario Scalora

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Copyright © 2016 American Psychological Association. Used by permission.

Oie Peer-Indexed Benchmarks Demonstration Spring 2016, Uno Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

Student Learning

Internal program reviews are conducted by the Academic Planning Council (APC) and are an integral part of UNO’s assessment and planning processes for the unit, college, and University. The review process is designed to monitor the quality and assist in the ongoing development of UNO's academic programs and units.

Every academic program offered at UNO will be reviewed at least once within a seven-year cycle. The reviews are conducted routinely and are coordinated with the review reports prepared for the Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education (CCPE).

For programs with external accreditation the UNO review process may be coordinated to minimize …

Integrating A Simple Traffic Incident Model For Rapid Evacuation Analysis, Andrew J. Collins, R. Michael Robinson, Peter Foytik, Craig Jordan, Barry C. Ezell

VMASC Publications

Road transportation networks are a segment of society's critical infrastructure particularly susceptible to service disruptions. Traffic incidents disrupt road networks by producing blockages and increasing travel times, creating significant impacts during emergency events such as evacuations. For this reason, it is extremely important to incorporate traffic incidents in evacuation planning models. Emergency managers and decision makers need tools that enable rapid assessment of multiple, varied scenarios. Many evacuation simulations require high-fidelity data input making them impractical for rapid deployment by practitioners. Since there is such variation in evacuation types and the method of disruption, evacuation models do not require the …

Identifications Of Challenges And Success Factors Of Females Entering And Advancing In The Profession Of Emergency Management, Audra Cronen

Online Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on how women in the emergency management field have identified and overcome challenges when entering and advancing in the profession. The two research questions were:

• What barriers have females experienced when entering and advancing in the field of emergency management?

• In what ways have females overcome barriers when entering and advancing in the field of emergency management?

These questions were answered by five women who work in the field of emergency management and responded to a series of interview questions. These women made it clear that while this is a predominately male-dominated field of work, …

Impact Of The 2015 Earthquake On Women In Nepal, Christina Rajbhandari

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the gendered impacts of the 2015 earthquake on women in Nepal. The purpose of this study is to identify factors contributing to vulnerability of women, and explore gender sensitivity of the relief materials provided post 2015 earthquake. Five major themes were identified that put women in vulnerable situations. These include, menstruation and pregnancy, which are unique experience of women; bathing and toilet needs, which are different than their male counterparts; care taking duties, which was found to be the primary role of women interviewed; age based vulnerabilities, which puts older women in unique conditions that affect their …

Behavioral Response In The Immediate Aftermath Of Shaking: Earthquakes In Christchurch And Wellington, New Zealand, And Hitachi, Japan, Ihnji Jon, Michael K. Lindell, Carla S. Parker, Shih-Kai Huang, Hao-Che Wu, David M. Johnston, Julia S. Becker, Hideyuki Shiroshita, Emma E.H. Doyle, Sally H. Potter, John Mcclure, Emily Lambie

Research, Publications & Creative Work

This study examines people’s response actions in the first 30 min after shaking stopped following earthquakes in Christchurch andWellington, New Zealand, and Hitachi, Japan. Data collected from 257 respondents in Christchurch, 332 respondents in Hitachi, and 204 respondents inWellington revealed notable similarities in some response actions immediately after the shaking stopped. In all four events, people were most likely to contact family members and seek additional information about the situation. However, there were notable differences among events in the frequency of resuming previous activities. Actions taken in the first 30 mins were weakly related to: demographic variables, earthquake experience, contextual …

Food Policy: Urban Farming As A Supplemental Food Source, Bessie Didomenica, Mark Gordon

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

Food policy has a unique role for public, nonprofit, private, and academic stakeholders. Growing food in the city is a challenge worldwide. Food systems can be destroyed by external (weather extremes) and internal (zoning regulations) forces. This study explores urban farms as a secondary food source and their common themes across four sectors. A Northeastern U.S. city was the case study to examine how it implemented its formal urban agriculture program. The positive social change implications of urban farms include greater food visibility and food access in low-income areas and more consumer awareness about growing fresh food. This study contributes …

The Tornado That Struck Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University On Christmas Day, 2006: Lessons Learned From A Near-Miss, John M. Lanicci

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

An F2 tornado that touched down in Daytona Beach on Christmas Day afternoon caused over $50 million of damage to the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus and nearby neighborhoods. The tornado was part of a severe-weather outbreak over Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina that began during the overnight hours of 25 December 2006. Examination of surface and upper-level meteorological charts and vertical soundings on the morning of 25 December showed stability and wind-shear conditions favorable for tornadic thunderstorms over this region. The evolution of the squall line that moved through east-central Florida, and the parent thunderstorm that produced the tornado was …