Back to the HRL Home Page. [The Natural Hazards Observer is the Natural Hazards Center'sbimonthly printed newsletter. Disaster Research and the Observercontain some of the same information, but they are by no meansidentical. The Observer is available free to subscribers within theU.S. Subscriptions elsewhere cost $15. To subscribe, contact theCenter's publications clerk, Janet Clark: jclark@colorado.edu.]
Mitigation from the Ground Up: Sustainable Cities in California
-- an invited comment
A popular notion in land use management is that communities should besustainable. However, this concept often overlooks the importance ofhazard mitigation for encouraging sustainability, often only includingelements relating to environmental resource protection, energyefficiency, and economic self-sufficiency. In addition, sustainabilityhas been reduced in the popular literature to its simplest terms, thatis, "not borrowing against the future."
In this sense, the concept should be expanded to encompass predisasterhazard mitigation. By paying billions of dollars in disasterreimbursements under the Stafford Act, we are borrowing against ourfinancial future while not mitigating hazards very well.
This realization has helped motivate FEMA's National MitigationStrategy, which will place a new obligation on states to encouragepredisaster mitigation. Some states already have effective mandatesfor local hazard mitigation, and mandates matter, as May and Burbyhave documented (see the Natural Hazards Observer, Vol. XX, No. 5,p. 1).
- Building Codes -
The Hanshin-Awaji and Northridge earthquakes, hurricanes Andrew andIniki, and the Oakland Hills fire provide obvious lessons thatbuilding codes are important. Following the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake,it was determined that buildings constructed under new standardsadopted since 1981 performed well, while older buildings rebuilthastily after World War II, without proper mitigation, suffered greatdamage.
- Beyond Codes to Community Design -
Part of the long-term solution is for localities to implementdisaster-resistant community design. The broad purpose of this conceptis to create new communities in an overall pattern that is moreresistant to the effects of natural hazards.
Disaster-resistant community design includes, but moves well beyond,code solutions to embrace site and neighborhood design approaches thattake into account the more complex interaction of natural hazards withthe built environment. Common examples of design practices fosteringeffective mitigation in flood-, earthquake-, fire-, and landslide-prone areas include:
However, disaster-resistant community design practices are being usedeffectively in various states and cities to mitigate hazards duringdevelopment. In California, such practices are grounded on localgeneral plan safety elements mandated by state law, or they may be inresponse to a hazard identified in an environmental impact reportunder the California Environmental Quality Act.
Now evolving within many city governments is a rather sophisticated,multidisciplinary, teamwork approach to hazard reduction. In suchmodel circumstances, planning departments coordinate with building,fire, police, public works, parks, transportation, and other citystaff to bring about a reduced level of risk in relation to recognizedhazards. In many cases, effective mitigation is the product of skillednegotiation by planners with developers and property owners based onlocal policy commitments to build safe communities.
- Rebuilding Existing Communities -
We are far from achieving uniform application of disaster-resistantdesign principles in new development; yet, perhaps the greatestchallenge is what to do with the vast number of communities alreadybuilt up without sufficient mitigation.
In some communities with serious vulnerability to hazards, there is agrowing awareness that the community is living on borrowed time.Commonly recognized measures to counteract this threat include:
In the long run, it is much safer and cheaper to build communitiesright the first time. Real mitigation is much harder to achievefollowing a disaster in a built-up community because of the pressuresto rebuild quickly and the costs of retrofitting existing structures.The problem in both newly developing and built-up communities isreluctance by localities to act on their own to force property ownersand developers to pay mitigation costs in the absence of a statemandate requiring all communities to do so.
Disaster-resistant community design instead treats mitigation costs asan investment, the returns for which are reduced life and propertylosses and vastly less expensive recovery. Through mandates, examples,and incentives, it is possible to create inducements for newlydeveloping communities to mitigate hazards more effectively. Assavings from predisaster mitigation accrue, resources can beredirected to the tough long-term task of redeveloping existing citiesin more disaster-resistant form.
At this juncture, we need to stop tiptoeing around the so-called "landuse measures" issue and pursue through the National MitigationStrategy a full-scale effort at the national, state, and communitylevels to use proven disaster-resistant community design and financingpractices both in developing and redeveloping safer communities. Weowe it to our children and grandchildren.
Ken Topping, AICP
Topping Jaquess Consulting
Pasadena, California
For the past couple of years, the Natural Hazards Center hasmaintained on its Web site a list of researchers using orinvestigating the use of geographical information systems (GISs) inhazards/disaster research.
Well, quite frankly, that list languished in the last year, but nowthe Hazards Research Laboratory (HRL) at the University of SouthCarolina, one of the primary centers of GIS/hazards research in thenation, has offered to take over this index and update it (hooray forthem!)
So, we ask any and all GIS/hazards researchers to contact the HRL witha brief note describing who they are and what they are doing. Pleasebe sure to include contact information - addresses, phone/fax numbers,e-mail addresses, and Web URLs, if available.
Please send information to Mike Scott, mscott@ecotopia.geog.sc.edu.
Once this information is updated, we will announce its availability inDisaster Research.
Thanks, everybody . . .
Hello,
I am a Masters student at James Cook University, North Queensland,Australia. My current area of research is "community vulnerability intimes of tropical cyclones and storm surge." I am about one year intomy project and at the present time I am writing a chapter dealing with"pets" in a disaster situation and in an evacuation. I would be verygrateful if you could direct me to any publications or recent researchthat may be relevant to this topic.
Yours in Research,
Linda Berry
Linda.Berry@jcu.edu.au
We are researchers of the Institute of Torrent & Avalanche Control ofthe University Vienna, Austria. Now, we are studying the "Alarming andWarning System of Disasters" (Earthquakes, Landslides, Floods, etc).Would you be so kind to send us information on developments in thisfield? Thanks lot!
Guest Researcher
Mr. Geng Dayu
GENG@edv1.boku.ac.at
Universitaet fuer Bodenkultur Wien
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been given the responsibility to lead and coordinate the National Earthquake lossreduction Program (NEP), a new interagency earthquake mitigationeffort.
President Clinton's chief science advisor, Dr. John H. Gibbons,announced the formation of the NEP at a meeting of the AmericanGeophysical Union in Baltimore, MD, earlier this month. Dr. Gibbons,who is director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy at theWhite House, said that the new program will focus scarce governmentresearch and development dollars on finding the most effective meansfor saving lives and property and limiting social and economicdisruptions from future earthquakes.
Gibbons explained that FEMA will provide leadership and coordinationof the NEP to ensure that federal earthquake mitigation researchremains focused on priority goals, that duplication among agencies isavoided, and that cooperation with state and local jurisdictions andthe private sector is expanded to stimulate the use of more effectivemitigation strategies.
FEMA Director James Lee Witt has appointed one of the agency's seniorcareer staff, Robert H. Volland, to serve as the NEP Program OfficeDirector, effective immediately.
Gibbons explained that the NEP is intended to strengthen and expandthe National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP), establishedby Congress in l977. NEP will involve a number of agencies beyond thefour NEHRP member agencies - FEMA, the U.S. Geological Survey, theNational Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standardsand Technology. While NEHRP has been successful in conducting researchinto earthquake hazards and engineering techniques to reduceearthquake loss, actions based on research results, such as theadoption of earthquake-resistant building codes by state and localgovernments, have not kept pace with expectations.
The following NEP goals were announced at the meeting:
The third draft for the "Convention on the Provision ofTelecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and ReliefOperations" has recently been published, and is now available at theURL of the drafter, Professor Fred Cate: http://www.law.indiana.edu/law/disaster/together with other related documents, and, as hardcopy from thesecretariat of the Working Group on Emergency Telecommunications(WGET) - contact Hans Zimmermann; e-mail: hans.zimmermann@itu.ch.
The draft was first presented at the African Regional Telecommunica-tions Development Conference (AF-RTDC/96) of the ITU (Abidjan, May1996). Further presentations will take place at Americas Telecom 96(Rio de Janeiro, 10-15 June 1996) in a special session of theStrategies Forum on 12 June; at the Pan Pacific Hazards 96 Conference(Vancouver, BC, Canada, 29 July - 2 August 1996), and in several otherevents.
The WGET and the drafters welcome comments on the document. They canbe forwarded to the address given below, or, for subscribers to theemergency-telecoms e-mail list, directly to the list. A furtherrevision of the present draft is scheduled for September 1996. A finaldraft will then be submitted for adoption to an intergovernmentalconference, tentatively scheduled for early 1997. Further informationon the WGET and on emergency telecommunications in general is alsoavailable from http://www.unog.ch/freq/freq1.htm
The report "The 1996 Sulawesi Tsunamis" by E.Pelinovsky, D.Yuliadi,G.Pratseya, R.Hidayat is published now in English as the preprint ofthe Institute of Applied Physics No.392 (1996), 35 pp. The report,covering the earthquake and tsunami on Sulawesi Island (Indonesia)January 1, 1996, contains:
Efim Pelinovsky
Professor
Institute of Applied Physics
Russian Academy of Sciences
46 Uljanov St., 603600
Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Tel: +(8312)384339
Fax: +(8312)365976
E-mail: enpeli@appl.sci-nnov.ru
[The following was forwarded to us from who know where . . .]
The 1993 Emergency Response Guidebook has been replaced by the 1996North American Emergency Response Guidebook (NAERG96) and is now indistribution. Canada, the U.S, and Mexico cooperated in the revisionof this new version and the result is a major improvement in qualityand content over the previous versions. The Windows software versionof the guidebook also has numerous improvements and will be shippingsoon. This year it will be available in English, Spanish and French,as will the guidebook. Read more about and pre-order the Windowsversion at: http://members.aol.com/naerg/erg.htm
A new resource for Family Preparedness Program organizers and otherswho promote disaster preparedness is now available from the FederalEmergency Management Agency. The FEMA "Good Ideas Book" containsideas, case studies, materials and art work, and "how to" steps for avariety of simple and more complex preparedness activities. The GoodIdeas Book is a "living document" that will be supplemented andupdated on an ongoing basis. To obtain the latest edition, contactFEMA and ask for item #8-1108, "The Good Ideas Book":
FEMA
P.O. Box 2012
Jessup, MD 20794-2012
1-800-480-2520
Fax: (301) 497-6378
Or, better yet, download the items you want from the FEMA World WideWeb site: http://www.fema.gov (look under "preparedness")
These are the latest meeting announcements we've received. Mostprevious issues of DR contain additional notices. For a *comprehen-sive* list of upcoming disaster-related conferences, see our WorldWide Web page: http://adder.colorado.edu/~hazctr/Home.html
Internet 101, or What the Heck is the Internet: Emergency Informationand the Internet. Sponsor: Business and Industry Council for EmergencyPlanning and Preparedness (BICEPP). Los Angeles, California: June 5,1996. Contact BICEPP, c/o Life Goes On, P.O. Box 3137, Canyon Country,CA 91386-8137; tel: Diana Gross, (805) 298-4277.
Multiple Workshops on Critical Incident Stress. Sponsors:International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF) and others.Stockton, California: July 11-14, 1996. Contact: ICISF, 5018 DorseyHall Drive, Suite 104, Ellicott City, MD 21042; (410) 730-4311; fax;(410) 730-4313
Multihazard Building Design Summer Institute. Sponsor: FederalEmergency Management Agency's Emergency Management Institute (EMI).Emmitsburg, Maryland: July 15-19, 1996 (earthquake and wind mitigationdesign); July 22-26, 1996 (flood and fire safety design). Contact:EMI, 16825 South Seton Avenue, Emmitsburg, MD 21727; WWW:http://www.fema.gov/EMI/mbdsi3.htm
Retrofitting Flood-Prone Residential Buildings Course. Sponsors:Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Mitigation Directorate andEmergency Management Institute. Emmitsburg, Maryland: September 9-13,1996. Contact: Dan Bondroff, NETC, 16825 South Seton Avenue,Emmitsburg, MD 21727; (301) 447-1278; WWW: http://www.fema.gov/EMI/emi_gram.htm.
Analyzing Risk: Science, Assessment, and Management: Sponsor: HarvardCenter for Risk Analysis. Boston, Massachusetts: September 24-27,1996. Contact: Center for Continuing Professional Education, HarvardSchool of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, LL-23, Boston, MA02115-6023; (617) 432-1171; fax: (617) 432-1969; e-mail:contedu@sph.harvard.edu.
The Southern California Emergency Services Association (SCESA) 1996Annual Statewide Conference: "Surfing the Emergency Management Highway- Disaster Planning into the Year 2000." Santa Barbara, California:October 28-29, 1996. Contact Laura Hernandez, Program Chairperson,(310) 458-8686.
Sixth International Conference of Disaster Medicine and TechnicalExhibition of Medical and Logistic Equipment for Disaster Situations.Budapest, Hungary: November 3-6, 1996. Contact: ConferenceSecretariat, Asszisztencia Congress Bureau Ltd., Oktober 23. u.17.III/3, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary; tel/fax: +361 161 0149; e-mail:assziszt@odin.net.
Eighth U.S. National Conference on Wind Engineering. Baltimore,Maryland: June 5-7, 1997. A call for papers has been issued and two-page abstracts are due by November 30, 1996. Contact: Prof. NicholasP. Jones, 8th U.S. National Conference on Wind Engineering, Departmentof Civil Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD21218-2686; (410) 516-7874; fax: (410) 516-7473; e-mail:8usncwe@jhu.edu; WWW: http://www.ce.jhu.edu/~8usncwe/index.html
Coastal Zone '97: "Spotlight on Solutions - Charting the Future ofCoastal Zone Management for the Next 25 Years." A call for papers hasbeen issued; abstracts are due September 1. Contact: Dr. Martin C.Miller, USAE Waterways Experiment Station, Attn: CEWES-CR-O, 3909Halls Ferry Road, Vicksburg, MS 39180.
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