Natural Hazards Observer
| September 2006 | Volume XXXI | Number 1 |
Below are descriptions of recently awarded contracts and grants related to hazards and disasters. An inventory of awards from 1995 to the present is available at www.colorado.edu/hazards/resources/grants/.
Agency within Disaster Preparedness and Response: The Role of Poverty and Disability. Funding Organization: National Science Foundation, one year, $29,943. Principal Investigator(s): Nicole Dash (Doug Henry and Linda Holloway), University of North Texas, Department of Sociology; (940) 565-2230; dash@unt.edu. This project aims to help understand how people make disaster preparedness and evacuation choices when their choices are constrained by poverty. If some groups are unable to protect themselves or evacuate because of poverty, disability, mental illness, or circumstance, how can and should emergency management respond? Investigators expect the project to have major implications for disaster evacuation modeling, particularly where those models assume choices that people may not have.
The Dynamics of Collaboration in Emergency Planning for America’s Schools. Funding Organization: National Science Foundation, 15 months, $95,217. Principal Investigator: Scott Robinson, University of Texas at Dallas, School of Social Sciences; (972) 883-4043; scottr@utdallas.edu. The chaos following Hurricane Katrina made it clear that effective emergency response requires the collaboration of many different types of organizations. A central question in emergency response after Katrina is how to achieve successful collaboration. This study will provide insight into the factors promoting high quality emergency planning in schools (with special attention to the role of collaboration in the emergency planning process) and the dynamics of collaboration in planning in public agencies.
Investment Planning for Regional Natural Disaster Mitigation. Funding Organization: National Science Foundation, three years, $250,000. Principal Investigator(s): Rachel A. Davidson (Linda K. Nozick), Cornell University, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering; (607) 255-7155; RAD24@cornell.edu. This project will develop a set of models to help guide an optimal expenditure of regional natural disaster mitigation funds and provide insight into the factors that interact to determine the best mix of mitigation strategies for a given region. By merging optimization and loss-estimation modeling, investigators hope to provide new insights into resource allocation decisions for mitigation.
Science and Technology Center for Coastal Margin Observation and Prediction. Funding Organization: National Science Foundation, five years, $18,960,000. Principal Investigator(s): António M. Baptista (John A. Barth, Bruce A. Menge, Peter Zuber, and David L. Martin), Oregon Health and Science University, Department of Environmental and Biomolecular Systems; (503) 748-1147; baptista@ccalmr.ogi.edu. This cooperative agreement will establish a center to study coastal margins using integrated observation and prediction technologies as critical infrastructure for research, education, and knowledge transfer. The rationale for the center is that coastal margins are among the most densely populated and developed regions in the United States and there is a critical need for improved understanding of coastal margins and the stresses placed on them by natural events and human activities.
Protecting Interdependent Critical Infrastructures from Multi-Mode Attacks and Failures: Vulnerability, Consequences, and Mitigation for Linked Urban Water and Fire Response Systems. Funding Organization: National Science Foundation, two years, $109,000. Principal Investigator: James K. Brumbelow, Texas A&M University, Zachry Department of Civil Engineering; (979) 458-2678; kbrumbelow@civil.tamu.edu. This project addresses the risk, consequences, and protective strategies related to a multimode attack or failure (MMAF) that simultaneously disables the water system and ignites an urban fire. The project will proceed in three phases. First, techniques for vulnerability analysis of urban areas to potential MMAF water-fire events will be developed. Second, a dual-system simulation tool for consequence analysis of MMAF water-fire events will be developed and tested using a “virtual city.” And third, mitigation strategies will be developed in response to the damage scores determined in the second phase.
Cyberinfrastructure Preparedness for Emergency Response and Relief: Learning the Lessons from Hurricane Katrina. Funding Organization: National Science Foundation, one year, $200,000. Principal Investigator: Chaitanya K. Baru, University of California San Diego, San Diego Super Computer Center; (858) 534-5035; baru@sdsc.edu. During Hurricane Katrina, this team helped with the creation of an application that tracked missing persons (as well as those who were safe). They developed the systems and processes as the disaster unfolded. This project will leverage this experience to analyze the needs and requirements of such an emergency response application and to design and develop an even more effective tool for use in future emergencies.
Vulnerability Beliefs and Actions following a Tornado Disaster. Funding Organization: National Science Foundation, one year, $98,216. Principal Investigator(s): Jerry Suls (Paul D. Windschitl), University of Iowa, Department of Psychology; (319) 335-0569; jerry-suls@uiowa.edu. On April 13, 2006, at least five F-2 tornadoes struck downtown Iowa City, inflicting serious injuries and extensive damage to several businesses, over 1,000 homes and apartments, and hundreds of automobiles. This research team will use this disaster to examine questions about perceptions of vulnerability. The research will determine whether people return to unrealistic optimism after a disaster and will address theoretical and practical questions about whether the degree of personal exposure and consequences of a disaster influence beliefs of nonvulnerability and emergency preparedness behaviors.
Social Networks and Mitigation in Areas of Chronic Disasters. Funding Organization: National Science Foundation, one year. Principal Investigators: Linda M. Whiteford (Graham A. Tobin), University of South Florida, Department of Anthropology; (813) 974-0818; lindaw@chuma1.cas.usf.edu and Arthur D. Murphy, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Anthropology Department; (336) 256-1189; admurphy@uncg.edu. These researchers will investigate network structures as potential strategies for decreasing the harmful effects of continual exposure to a hazard. In the context of communities in southern Mexico exposed to a volcano that regularly deposits ash across the landscape, they will look at exposure, impact, risk-perception, well-being, and personal relationships to ascertain how differently structured networks constrain individual outcomes.
Correctly Interpreting Near-Miss Events for Hurricanes. Funding Organization: National Science Foundation, one year. Principal Investigator (s): Robin L. Dillon-Merrill (Catherine H. Tinsley), Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business; (202) 687-5398; rld9@georgetown.edu. This research will examine how near-miss events influence future decisions. It theorizes that rather than heeding precursors as warnings, decision makers often make decisions that reflect more, not less, risky behavior. Moreover, they often do not seek additional information that might improve future decision making. The research will document specifically where and why near-miss information influences decision making, as well as how the near-miss bias may be exaggerated or attenuated by characteristics of the decision context.
Dynamic Programming-Based Health Monitoring and Prognostics for Levee and Communication Infrastructures. Funding Organization: National Science Foundation, one year, $55,699. Principal Investigator(s): Jagannathan Sarangapani (Can Saygin), University of Missouri-Rolla, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; (573) 341-6775; sarangap@umr.edu. This project will employ novel methods, based on computational intelligence and learning, to develop a system to couple health monitoring sensors and wireless communications to provide real-time assessment of the levee system in New Orleans and other similar areas.
Social Vulnerability Assessment: The Case Study of the Tsunami Disaster in Thailand. Funding Organization: National Science Foundation, 18 months, $11,700. Principal Investigator: David Pijawka, Arizona State University; David.Pijawka@asu.edu. This doctoral dissertation research award will support development of new methods for creating social vulnerability indices in the context of Thailand’s recovery from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The researcher will look at how social vulnerability can be analyzed more contextually and deeply, especially in postdisaster events and in developing countries.