Lessons Learned from Fukushima
This webcast offers a National Research Council assessment of the Fukushima disaster and how lessons learned might apply to nuclear safety in the United States. Topics discussed include the causes of Fukushima, reevaluations of spent fuel and radioactive waste storage, and possible improvements in nuclear safety regulations
MappyHealth
Don’t worry (about your health), be Mappy! This new site uses Twitter data to track diseases by location, type, and trend, with fascinating results. Traveling to Toledo? They were all tweeting about the flu last week, but now it’s more about common colds. What’s the latest bug buzz? Diphtheria has been pretty popular in the last 24 hours.… The site compiles info using 223 terms, which are then matched to 26 condition sets, and mapped using Twitter geo-location data and profile locations. The result is a handy way see what conditions are just around the corner—you can even drill down to the tweets themselves.
Crisis Tracker
While Mappy mines Twitter for information useful in tracing disease outbreaks, Crisis Tracker is doing something similar for crises. The system tracks keywords and creates “stories” of crisis and disaster when tweets on a topic or situation begin reaching critical mass. Users can examine stories, see events on a map, read individual tweets, and see how stories are being shared in the Twittersphere. Crowdsourced tagging allows for further granularity, and mapping tools can help responders and government officials organize and present the information.
FAS Federal Emergency Management Agency Archive
The Federation of American Scientists has collected a treasure trove of documents for anyone who’s ever wanted to take a retro look at how FEMA works. With disaster-related reports, memos, letters, charts, and handbooks that date back to the 1980s, there’s sure to be plenty of perspective to be gained from this long look back.
Humanitarian Icons
If a picture is worth a thousands words, then these icons will save a lot of breath when trying to communicate emergency information during a crisis. The collection of icons, revised by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the fifth year running, can be used to quickly overcome barriers such as language, culture, or even confusion when you need to communicate warnings or coordinate responses. The icon set is available in a variety of formats.
Himalayan Glaciers: Climate Change, Water Resources, and Water Security
With the Himalayan glaciers of the Hindu Kush retreating, there’s bound to be impacts on water security for the region—but scientists don’t know exactly what they will be. This National Academies report found that while water at lower elevations won’t be immediately impacted, there’s no clear picture of what the long-term effects will mean in terms of groundwater depletion and altered river flows. Throw in a little climate change to intensify snow and rain variability and you’ve got the makings of a water wait-and-see.