Contracts and Grants
Below are descriptions of recently awarded contracts and grants for the study of hazards and disasters. An inventory of contracts and grants awarded from 1995 to the present (primarily those funded by the National Science Foundation) is available from the Natural Hazards Center’s web site: http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/grants.html.
Cooperative Research: Coastal Tsunami Effects: Mitigation Component. Funding: National Science Foundation, $128,000, four years. Principal Investigator: Jane Preuss, GeoEngineers, Inc., 8410 154th Avenue, N.E., Redmond, WA 98052; e-mail: jpreuss@geoengineers.com.
This award supports a group research project focusing on specific aspects of tsunami coastal hazards mitigation. In this work, the first priority is to accurately identify the tsunami inundation zone. Recently, the National Oceanic and Atmos- pheric Administration launched a comprehensive program to estimate potential inundation zones along the Pacific Coast (California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii; see http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tsunami/time). The next priority is to reduce loss of life and property damage within the identified inundation zones. This project will address several aspects of the dynamics of tsunami inundation resulting in scenarios of flooding.Decision Technologies for Managing Critical Infrastructure Interdependencies. Funding: National Science Foundation, $400,000, 30 months. Principal Investigator: William A. Wallace, CII 5117, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180-3590; (518) 276-6854; e-mail: wallaw@rpi.edu.
As documented in a recent report to the U.S. Congress (see the previous Observer, Vol. XXIII, No. 2, p. 16), it is vital that critical infrastructure systems, ranging from electrical grids to highways, not be degraded by willful acts such as terrorism or by natural or random events such as earthquakes, design flaws, or human error. Compounding this problem, infrastructure systems and their managers increasingly rely on other infra- structure systems in order to deliver key services. The objective of this research is to improve understanding of and support for the management of interdependent critical infrastructure systems in which the impact on one system affects others. The particular aim is to develop techniques to mitigate or respond to events that could affect interdependent critical infrastructure systems and to provide decision makers with means for using those models. The techniques developed will be embedded in computer-based decision aids designed to assist managers both when disruption occurs and prior to events, when decision makers can model different event scenarios, assess impacts, and formulate strategies for minimizing lost service and promptly restoring infrastructure.Cooperative Research on Seismic Resistant Design of Low-Cost Housing Units. Funding: National Science Foundation, $4,800, one year. Principal Investigator: James K. Wight, Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2368 G.G. Brown Building, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2125; (734) 763-3046; e-mail: jwight@umich.edu.
For most major earthquakes, the largest loss of life is typically caused by the collapse of low-cost structures that have not been adequately designed and/or constructed. This study will explore the use of high-performance concrete for the fabrication of low-cost seismic-resistant housing. The study is the first step in a long-term cooperative research effort to develop a variety of standard designs for low-cost housing in moderate- to high-risk seismic zones in Mexico and other Central and South American countries.Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA). Funding: National Science Foundation, $17 million, five years. Principal Investigator: David J. McLaughlin, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Marcus Hall, 100 Natural Resources Road, Amherst, MA 01003; (413) 545-0962 ; e-mail: dmclaugh@mirsl.ecs.umass.edu. Our ability to monitor, anticipate, and respond to changing circumstances and events in the atmosphere is increasingly important. Hazardous weather, such as thunderstorms, snow storms, tornadoes, microbursts, and floods, as well as lofted radiological, chemical, and biological agents can, in a matter of minutes or hours, destroy or contaminate life and property over vast areas. Yet the lower troposphere and, particularly, the atmospheric boundary layer which comprise the portion of the atmosphere that contains the bulk of both natural and human-made hazards is grossly undersampled by today's sensing technologies. McLaughlin and several colleagues have proposed a new paradigm in which systems of distributed, collaborative, and adaptive sensing (DCAS) networks are deployed to over- come the fundamental limitations of current approaches. The improved sensitivity and resolution of these systems will lead to significant reductions in tornado false alarms, vastly improved precipitation estimates for flood prediction, fine-scale wind field imaging and thermodynamic state estimation for use in airborne hazard dispersion prediction, and other applications. The Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) will host the interdisciplinary group developing this system.
Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center. Funding: National Science Foundation, $8,075,000, nine years. Principal Investigator: Jack P. Moehle, EERC/PEER, Building 451 RFS, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-3580; (510) 231-9554; e-mail: moehle@peer.berkeley. edu.
The PEER Center is a consortium of nine core institutions, closely linked and regularly interacting through electronic networks. PEER's goal is to develop urban earthquake risk reduction technologies within a performance-based earthquake engineering framework. The research program comprises five basic areas: policy, planning, and economics; seismic hazards; performance assessment; systems reliability; and innovative technologies. PEER is a problem-focused, integrative center that bridges disciplinary gaps and barriers. It is one of three earthquake engineering research centers in the U.S. (along with the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research [MCEER] and the Mid-America Earthquake [MAE] Center) whose goals are to create new knowledge and technology; educate the next generation of earthquake engineers and scientists; and provide outreach to industry, government, educational institutions, and other potential user groups.Multidisciplinary Program in Wind Science and Engineering. Funding: National Science Foundation, $2,316,196, five years. Principal Investigator: Kishor C. Mehta, Wind Science and Engineering Research Center, Box 41023, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409-1023; (806) 742-3476; fax: (806) 742-3446; e-mail: kishor.mehta@wind.ttu.edu.
The objective of this Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program is to produce a cadre of professionals prepared for broader multidisciplinary research, comprehensive planning, and balanced decision making by creating an integrated graduate research and training program leading to an interdisciplinary doctoral degree. The program will build on Texas Tech's strong history of wind-related research. National Science Foundation IGERT fellows will take core courses in atmospheric sciences, wind-related engineering, economic/risk management, ethics, and GIS, and participate in laboratory courses in meteorological measurement, wind-related engineering experimentation, and statistical analysis of random phenomena. A one-semester internship in a national laboratory, industrial organization, or governmental agency is also part of the program. This training, along with selected courses in a specific discipline, will prepare the fellows to pursue multi- disciplinary research in wind science and engineering.A Foundation for Emergency Egress Simulation. Funding: National Science Foundation, $99,250, six months. Principal Investigator: Daniel V. Swenson, Thunderhead Engineering, 1006 Poyntz Avenue, Manhattan, KS 66502-5459; (785) 770-8511; e-mail: swenson@thunderheadeng.com.
The aim of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to develop a new method for modeling emergency egress from buildings. The primary focus is evacuation due to fires, but the software will also support simulation of exposure and response to biological and chemical agents. The project will couple egress analysis to time-varying fire conditions (e.g., smoke density and heat), thus enabling simulation of emergency situations in which, for example, some exit paths become blocked. In addition to incorporating current human response models, the software will allow researchers to specify more complex individual behavior based on the results of recent studies of observed human behavior during emergencies. The software will enable researchers to add their own models of human behavior to the analysis and potentially facilitate peer reviews, an essential component to robust fire protection design. Egress analysis is a critical component, with fire simulation, in the implementation of "performance-based building design." This new approach, as compared to traditional rule-based (prescriptive) design, is being adopted in the U.S. to save building cost and reduce injury.Collaborative Research: Earthscope-Acquisition, Construction, Facility Management, Operations and Maintenance/USArray and Earthscope Office. Funding: National Science Foundation, $1, five years. Principal Investigator: David W. Simpson, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20005; (202) 682-2220; e-mail: simpson@iris.edu.
EarthScope is a scientific infrastructure initiative involving the development and integration of new observational facilities that address fundamental questions about the evolution of continents and the processes responsible for earthquakes and volcanic eruptions (see the Observer, Vol. XXVI, No. 1, p. 7). The integrated observing systems that will comprise the EarthScope facility include: USArray that maps the earth's interior in 3-D; the Plate Boundary Observatory that monitors the distortion of the earth's surface by means of geodetic systems; and the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) that monitors an active plate boundary fault at depth. These systems capitalize on recent technological developments to provide earth scientists with synoptic and high-resolution data derived from a variety of geophysical sensors. All data from the EarthScope facility will be openly available in real-time to support both research and education. EarthScope will also aid hazard assessment and resource management.
This is only one of several recently awarded grants for construction and operation of Earthscope. Persons interested in learning about other Earthscope awards should see the NSF web site: http://www.nsf.gov and via the awards search page, http://www.nsf.gov/verity/srchawdf.htm, search for grants with the term "Earthscope" (see, for example, awards #0350025, 0350028, 0208457).GEON: A Research Project to Create Cyberinfrastructure for the Geosciences. Funding: National Science Foundation, $481,000, two years. Principal Investigator: Charles M. Meertens, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000; (303) 497-8011; e-mail: chuckm@ucar.edu. The GEOscience Network (GEON) project will use leading-edge information management research to create a cyber infrastructure for the solid earth geosciences that will integrate multidisciplinary geoscience data sets in four dimensional (4D) space. The need to manage the large amount of diverse earth science data has been recognized in a series of NSF-sponsored community meetings on geoinformatics. GEON, which represents a collaboration between information technology (IT) and earth science researchers, will provide the foundation for a national geoinformatics program. GEON will support the study of a wide range of phenomena including the interplay between tectonics and the evolution of sedimentary basins; the role of mountain building in the evolution of climate and life; broader predictive understanding and modeling capabilities of geologic hazards, such as earthquakes and volcanoes; the 4-D reconstruction of the Earth through time; and the management of the natural resources of our planet. Each of these problems requires interdisciplinary research, and the goal of GEON is to develop the necessary IT foundations to support such work.
Framework for Integrating Geospatial and Online Data to Respond to Unexpected Events. Funding: National Science Foundation, $1,180,000, four years. Principal Investigator: Craig A. Knoblock, Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California, 4676 Admiralty Way, Marina del Rey, CA 90292; (310) 448-8786; e-mail: knoblock@isi.edu.
Much of the work on information integration has focused on the dynamic integration of structured data sources, such as databases or XML data. With more complex types of geospatial data, such as satellite imagery, maps, and vector data, researchers have focused on limited types of integration, such as combining vector data with imagery. With the enormous amount of data now available, there is a major opportunity to integrate non-web-based and web-based information sources. This project will focus on rapidly integrating and using the wide variety of geospatial and on-line data available today. The research will be conducted by the University of Southern California's Center for Research on Unexpected Events and should greatly improve the nation's ability to respond to such occurrences.
DHHS Helping NYC (and Others) Deal with Public Health Emergencies
Last fall, the Health Resources and Services Administration, of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced a noncompetitive cooperative agreement with the Fund for the City of New York. The award supports the efforts of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to develop model approaches for addressing the special needs of high-density metropolitan areas with high levels of risk for bioterrrorism attacks and other public health emergencies. Because of its population density, experience with previous terrorist attacks, and subsequent efforts to improve response capacity, New York City was cited as uniquely qualified to demonstrate methods that could be adapted by other health departments and government agencies regarding how to deal with bioterrorism threats and actual events.
A particular focus of this 18-month, $5 million agreement is the development and evaluation of best practice guidelines for emergency preparedness in primary care settings, including effective models of clinical training. One aim is to ensure that federally qualified health centers are sufficiently involved in regional planning for, and actual response to, bioterrorist events or other public health emergencies. Beyond developing best practice guidelines and educational curricula, this effort will include testing, evaluating, and refining these products and formulating preparedness exercises such as hospital-based, web-accessible bioterrorism tabletop exercises to help identify the strengths and weaknesses of existing plans.
Information about this award can be found in the September 29, 2003, Federal Register (Vol. 68, No, 188, pp. 55968-55969). Additional information is available from Michael Millman, Director, Division of Information and Analysis, Office of Planning and Evaluation, Health Resources and Services Administration, DHHS, Parklawn Building, Room 14-45, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857; (301) 443-0368.
Table of Contents for This Issue of the Natural Hazards Observer
