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The Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center, Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, is seeking a person to operate its Information Services program, one of four major programs conducted by the Center.
Specifically, the person selected will be responsible for: advising researchers and practitioners about natural hazards information; acquiring and collecting materials pertinent to the field of natural hazard mitigation; operating and maintaining the Center's specialized library and unique database; and assisting other Center staff in carrying out their information dissemination and technology transfer duties. Typical work activities include: responding to hundreds of requests for information and advice per year; collecting and cataloging new materials for the Center library; annotating new publications; monitoring various university library holdings to locate new publications of interest; updating quarterly the library database on our WWW home page; supervising student assistants; and contributing to the Center's annual workshop.
Minimum qualifications include a master's degree in a pertinent discipline or a bachelor's degree with appropriate experience; extensive knowledge of disaster and hazards literature; excellent writing and communication skills; bibliographic database and computer information technology skills; and ability to work independently. This is a full-time, professional research assistant position. The salary range is $2,400-$3,000 per month plus benefits. Interested persons should submit a letter of application, resume, and contact information for three professional references, stating their relationship to the applicant, to the address below. Screening of applications will begin July 19, 1999, and continue until the position is filled. The University of Colorado at Boulder is committed to diversity and equality in education and employment.
Mary Fran Myers, Co-Director
Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center
Campus Box 482
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0482
In 1994, there was Disaster Evacuation and the Tourist Industry. In 1996 there was Disaster Evacuation Behavior: Tourists and Other Transients. Now comes the final volume in sociologist Tom Drabek's disaster evacuation trilogy: Disaster-Induced Employee Evacuation (Natural Hazards Center Monograph #60, 1999, 270 pp.).
Disaster-Induced Employee Evacuation asks the fundamental question: When people are at work and they learn that disaster is imminent, what are their responses? To find answers, Drabek interviewed 406 employees of 118 businesses and 23 emergency managers following seven disasters involving hurricanes or floods. He documented employee information sources, judgments, and actions, and, in so doing, discovered that many businesses were ill-prepared to provide the guidance their employees expected or needed. Thus, many employees experienced stress because of inadequate managerial leadership and acute tension because of conflicting demands between work and family. Collectively, Drabek's findings suggest that business owners must make significant investments in disaster preparedness or risk significant costs in both material losses and employee morale and effectiveness.
Not only does Drabek examine numerous dimensions of employee evacuation behavior, he also surveys the effects on that behavior of various event characteristics, organizational size, and organizational mission. He then develops models to explain and predict evacuation behavior and risk perception.
Finally, Drabek identifies specific policy gaps that must be addressed to improve business and employee response to impending disaster and offers suggestions for future research that would both clarify and improve that process. He concludes with an "Action Agenda," in which he calls for employee initiatives to improve business preparedness, employer audits of current practices and resources, and promotion of disaster planning throughout the business community by local emergency managers.
Disaster-Induced Employee Evacuation costs $20.00, plus postage (indicated in the chart below); copies can be ordered from the Publications Clerk, Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center, Campus Box 482, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0482; (303) 492-6819; fax: (303) 492-2151; e-mail: jclark@colorado.edu.
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Written by practitioners and researchers, the new Natural Hazards Informer series of booklets from the Natural Hazards Center summarizes current knowledge about various aspects of natural hazards research and policy, providing single points of reference for the latest state-of-the-art information. The Informer is intended to be used by all persons interested in the mitigation of natural hazards. The first issue is entitled Flood Mitigation Planning: The CRS Approach.
The Natural Hazard Informer will be sent to all subscribers to the Hazard Center's regular printed newsletter, The Natural Hazards Observer; there is no need to subscribe separately. The Observer and Informer are free to persons in the U.S. and cost $15 per year elsewhere. Subscriptions should be directed to the Publications Clerk, Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center, Campus Box 482, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0482; (303) 492- 6819; fax: (303) 492-2151; e-mail: jclark@colorado.edu.
Of course, the Informer will also be made available on-line. To see the first issue, go to the Hazards Center Web site on the World Wide Web: http://www.colorado.edu/hazards and click on the Informer.
Since 1984, the Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center has periodically published a comprehensive list of domestic, academic, governmental, and international institutions that generate information on natural disasters, as well as a list of journals and periodicals dealing with the subject. In each case, these directories provide the names of individuals to contact, with as much contact information as we can divine (address, phone, fax, e-mail, Web site, hat size).
That information is reproduced on the Hazards Center Web site: http://www.colorado.edu/hazards. Specifically, the list of domestic, academic, governmental, and international institutions is available from http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/infosource1/infosource1.html and the list of periodicals is available from http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/infosource2.html.
We have recently completed a thorough update of these indices. However, due to prohibitive costs, we will not be publishing the Information Sources in print. Instead we encourage those of you who would like hard copies of these catalogs, to print the Web pages listed above. For persons without access to the Web, the Hazards Center will print and mail a complete set; the cost for recipients within the U.S. is $7.50; for persons overseas, $12.50. Orders should be directed to the Publications Clerk, Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center, Campus Box 482, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0482; (303) 492-6819; fax: (303) 492-2151; e-mail: jclark@ colorado.edu.
NOTE: As always, we have tried to ensure that these lists are accurate and comprehensive (although we do not include private, for-profit enterprises). Still, no doubt we have missed someone somewhere or recorded an erroneous zip code or two. Therefore, we encourage DR readers to provide any additions or corrections they may discover. Corrections should be sent to David Butler, Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center, Campus Box 482, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0482; (303) 492-4180; fax: (303) 492-2151; e-mail: butler@colorado.edu.
Last November, during the Virtual Fire and Rescue Exposition, hosted by National Fire & Rescue Magazine, the Emergency Infrastructure Information Partnership (EIIP) conducted a successful experiment in using the Internet to conduct an on-line disaster exercise (see DR#276 ). Five chat rooms were used to simulate duty stations, and a fast-paced experience ensued, with individual volunteers from all over the U.S. and Canada filling various roles in the fictional Central City (also see http://www.emforum.org/webex/ for details about last year's event.)
The EIIP is pleased to announce that it will host a similar on-line exercise the evening of December 2, 1999. This year, however, the organizers hope to involve a real community with real plans and role players, and they are currently seeking a jurisdiction willing to participate. Due to the venue (the exercise is being co-sponsored by the National Fire Protection Association, NFPA), an exercise scenario involving response by fire, search & rescue, hazmat, and/or EMS personnel is anticipated - possibly a Y2K-related event. The exercise will be conducted in a public forum, and VFRE attendees will be invited to observe or to play minor roles.
The selected community should have good Internet access capabilities, be able to commit a sufficient number of role players, as well as the necessary time for planning. An exercise design team will be formed and meet one evening per week beginning in August. A commitment from a state-level emergency management agency to participate in support of the community, as well as a neighboring jurisdiction, would be highly desirable.
In addition to a participating community, other volunteers will be needed to serve as evaluators and coordinators. Participants in last year's exercise will be given preference. If you or your community would be interested in participating, please contact Amy Sebring, asebring@emforum, by July 15.
Hello there,
I am looking for information about the modeling of landslides induced
by earthquakes. I need documentation, scientific articles about this
specific research theme, also I need to know about methodologies to
analyze and study this type of landslide.
Thanks a lot,
Diana Mendoza
Auxiliary Research
Seismological Observatory of the South West
Campus Melendez, Universidad del Valle
Torre de Ing. 3er piso
Cali, Colombia
AA 25928
E-mail: dimendoz@osso.univalle.edu.co
Tel: 57 2 3301661
Fax: 57 2 3313418
URL: http://osso.univalle.edu.co
I am a postgraduate student at Anglia Polytechnic University in
Cambridge (U.K.) studying for an M.Sc. in Geography, Health and
Environment. I am currently researching the ways in which the meanings
of home are changed for an individual when the home is destroyed,
damaged or affected by disaster. The type of disaster is not
important, it can be "natural" or of human origin. I am interested in
home not just as the place of residence but also home at a larger
scale, for example neighbourhood or home-town. I would be very
grateful for any relevant information either by e-mail or post.
Tracey Coates
13 Shakespeare Road
St. Ives
Huntingdon
Cambs.
PE17 4TR
U.K.
E-mail: The.Coates@btinternet.com
[Forwarded from the Association of State Floodplain Managers]
I am writing to you concerning a project sponsored and directed by the Rivers and Trails Conservation Assistance Program, a division of the National Park Service. We are working to put together an annotated bibliography on the conservation and protection of rivers that will be available for broad distribution with the purpose of assisting citizens and local government in the protection and conservation of rivers. One part of this bibliography will be dedicated to the economics of river conservation. Special attention will be put on the use of economics as an incentive for protection as well as part of the benefits of protecting or conserving rivers. I would like to ask for your collaboration on any kind of information that you may have regarding this matter.
I thank you very much, and should you need more information from us, please contact the RTCA program at the National Park Service office in Washington D.C.
Thank you,
Mirtha Becerra
RTCA/NPS
(202) 565-1178
E-mail: Mirtha_Becerra@nps.gov
[Received from Ulrike Huber, ulihuber@hotmail.com]
Together with Juha Uitto, I am currently writing a review paper covering experiences of hazard risk and vulnerability in small island developing states [SIDS]. As a part of this paper we have made an assessment of the IDNDR's [United Nations International Decade of Natural Disaster Reduction] contribution to disaster management in SIDS, using material gathered from the U.N. Such a review would be incomplete without including the perspectives of SIDS stakeholders from the national and local levels.
To all governmental and nongovernmental actors working in disaster management in the context of small island developing states I ask the following questions . . .
I would be very grateful for any responses to these questions and look
forward to reading your views! Thanks very much, in advance, for your
time.
Please reply to:
Dr. Mark Pelling
Department of Geography
University of Liverpool
Liverpool L69 3BX
U.K.
E-mail: pelling@liverpool.ac.uk
I am an employee of FEMA. I am looking for any studies/surveys
concerning outreach preferences of disaster victims in the recovery
phase (i.e., do they prefer a high level of human contact or are they
more concerned with the efficiency of the financial assistance
delivery mechanism?). I realize such information is rather esoteric
and may not exist, but am conducting a literature search before
undertaking my own survey.
Thank you,
Ken Lizzio
E-mail: Kenneth.Lizzio@fema.gov
I am a student at the University of Greenwich, England, about to
undertake my third year project entitled "The Spatial Analysis of
Tornadoes Using Techniques in GIS for Kansas and Oklahoma." At present
I am finding it extremely difficult to find information on tornadoes
in these areas, and due to financial constraints I am unable to
purchase data. If you can help me in anyway, I will be extremely
grateful. A copy of the report will be made available if you require
it. Thank you for your time on this matter.
Yours sincerely,
Kathryn Brown
E-mail: bk627@greenwich.ac.uk
I am drafting a disaster recovery manual for our bank in South Africa.
Do you have any information or links that can provide me with
information to supplement and improve the manual? The manual will be a
procedure manual of what to do in the event of a disaster. I know it
can be very specific to an institution, but any information will be
appreciated.
Thanks,
Carl Nicholson
Fulcrum Science & Technology Bank
Tel: (27) 11 644-7426
E-mail: Cnicholson@FulcrumBank.co.za
[Taken from the Emergency Information Infrastructure Partnership Preparedness e-mail listserve: preparedness@emforum.org]
I need information concerning the impact of severe tornadoes on a
community and its infrastructure. I intend to use this information as
the backdrop for a tabletop exercise for a corporation that would be
located in the community. What is the most likely impact on utilities,
communication, emergency response resources, and reduced capability,
etc.?
Thanks,
Ed
Edward H. Pearce CBCP
Senior Consultant
Harris Disaster Recovery Associates
(314) 962-0517
E-mail: edpearce@email.msn.com
[A reader notes: "This is a good opportunity to focus on disaster - development linkages, the impossibility of sustainable development in conditions of vulnerability, the need to know as much about the structure of vulnerability as the vulnerability of structures, the creation of vulnerability through development actions and the mainstreaming of disaster reduction in development."]
The World Bank's Operations Evaluation Department (OED) invites you to join an electronic discussion on the evaluation of the World Bank Group's performance in promoting environmental sustainability in development. The discussion [began] on July 6, 1999 and will last for a period of four to six weeks. The objective is:
However, considering the magnitude of environmental issues, the impact of the World Bank Group's programs on broad environmental trends in the developing world has been limited, and the achievements of various programs have been mixed. Serious issues are still being raised about the Bank Group's performance in living up to its commitment to environmental sustainability. Information on this on-line discussion, including background materials, can be found in the Development Forum discussion space on the World Bank's Web site: http://www.worldbank.org/devforum/current-environment.html.
The conference will take the form of a moderated e-mail discussion list, archived onto the Development Forum Web site. A team of moderators will review all messages for relevance before posting them to the list. The moderators will also prepare regular summaries of the discussion for posting both to the list and to the forum site.
We plan to prepare a synthesis report of the discussions based on the responses. This report will form the basis for future work including workshops, short notes, and commissioned papers. The conference is open to the public. However, the moderators will enforce both the general rules of decorum of the Development Forum and the specific rule that contributions to this conference should be directly addressed to the issues under discussion.
If you wish to participate, please send an e-mail to: majordomo@jazz.worldbank.org. Leave the subject line blank. In the body of the message, type the following: subscribe E-SUST. You will receive a welcome message confirming your subscription. For further information, or if you have questions, please contact: Moderator3@worldbank.org.
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