Poster Session Abstracts

Large-scale disasters often disrupt both formal health and social service systems as well as informal social support systems, with impacts that extend across the socio-economic spectrum. As such, disasters offer the opportunity of a natural experiment to examine the health impacts of an acute collective stressor on a population, and the contribution of formal and informal systems to population health. This cross-cohort comparison will assess the mental health status of two distinct disaster-exposed populations during a mid-term recovery phase, approximately two years after the acute collective stressor. The two randomly sampled cohorts include the Gulf Coast Child and Family Health Study, a longitudinal cohort (n=1079) of displaced and heavily-affected Louisiana and Mississippi adults, post Katrina; and the Sandy Child and Family Health Study (n=1,000) a random population sample of an exposed population in nine New Jersey counties. In each cohort, face-to-face surveys were conducted two years after the event. Findings suggest that mental health distress varies by cohort, although there is a strong association between the magnitude of disaster exposure and mental health effects, independent of lower socio-economic status. The novel study design of a cross-disaster analysis begins to provide evidence that offers generalizability beyond a single disaster, often one of the greatest limitations in disaster research. This analysis sets the stage for more complex cross-cohort analyses as a means of exploring the relationship between organizational and social systems, exposure, and population health.

Earthquake Brace and Bolt (EBB) was developed to help homeowners lessen the potential for damage to their houses during an earthquake. Owners of houses in program ZIP Codes, concentrated in high-hazard areas, are eligible for an incentive payment of up to $3,000 to help pay costs associated with seismically retrofitting their houses. In 2015, EBB plans to retrofit approximately 600 houses in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay area.

A residential seismic retrofit strengthens an existing house, making it more resistant to earthquake activity such as ground shaking and soil failure, by bolting the house to its foundation and adding bracing around the perimeter of the crawl space.

A typical retrofit may cost between $3,000 and $7,000 depending on the location and size of the house, contractor fees, and the amount of materials and work involved. If the homeowner is an experienced do-it-yourselfer, a retrofit can come in under $3,000.

EBB offers a Contractor Directory to help homeowners select a contractor. This list includes contractors who have successfully completed the Federal Emergency Management Agency training for seismic retrofit of single-family wood-frame houses. The Directory is provided as a service and is not an endorsement or approval of any contractor.

This poster will outline the EBB program including the steps required by both homeowners and contractors to participate and testimonials from homeowners who have completed their retrofits.

In Japan’s disaster management system, municipalities are the first responders to natural disasters. When disasters’ effects are beyond municipalities’ resource capacities, prefectures are expected to support the affected municipalities and, when disasters’ effects strain prefecture’s abilities to respond, the central government supports the prefectural governments’ efforts. Regarding the administration of the disaster response efforts of local governments, the central government establishes local headquarters for disaster management.

During the 1995 Kobe Earthquake response, a local headquarters was established near the Hyogo prefectural office, but it was not officially defined as such. Subsequently, the revised Disaster Countermeasure Basic Act of 1995 instituted the local headquarters’ system. Since then, the central government created onsite centers smaller than the statutory local headquarters in 2004, 2007, and 2008. These centers were not statutory and were referred to as “onsite information and coordination centers,” or “onsite support centers.” After 2007, these onsite centers were located in affected municipalities instead of the prefectural governmental offices because of a report that recommended that the central government should send staff to heavily damaged municipalities and support them if necessary.

During the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, the Japanese government positioned a statutory onsite headquarter in Miyagi prefecture and located two onsite information centers in Iwate and Fukushima prefectures. The central government was not sufficiently prepared to run all three onsite centers. The onsite headquarter in Miyagi played a key part in the disaster response and it was highly valued by the local governments according to a questionnaire survey.

Our research team has developed a tool to (1) raise awareness of college and high school students through the implementation of a published, validated educational module; (2) raise community awareness of local natural hazards and preparedness actions through community-based surveys, distributed by local students; (3) bring together local educators, first responders, emergency managers, and other community representatives to discuss the aforementioned education module, modify survey questions to ensure community applicability, and thus begin a community-based dialogue regarding preparedness and resilience to natural hazards; and (4) provide crucial data on the factors controlling a given population’s knowledge, risk perception and level of preparedness for natural hazards. Developed within the NSF-InTeGrate program, our Map your Hazards educational tool engages students in place-based exploration of natural hazards, social vulnerability, and the perception of natural hazards and risk. The surveys included in the module are designed to raise community awareness, collect data to assess what influences knowledge and risk perception, and determine the best ways to reach specific communities to promote preparedness actions. Two pilot workshops in Washington State introduced the Map your Hazards module, giving local stakeholders the opportunity to evaluate and contribute survey questions. Workshop participants provided positive reviews/feedback of the tool, encouraging the research team to proceed with the project. We will present preliminary results of our pilot study, and hope to receive feedback from the natural hazards community for pursuing the project across the Pacific Northwest.

Brand, B.D., McMullin-Messier, P., Schlegel, M., 2014. Map your Hazards! – Assessing Hazards, Vulnerability, and Risks.

This first-of-its-kind, completed project fills a large gap in recovery procedures experienced from a disaster at the community and county level. The project outcomes are expedited reconstruction procedures for homeowners to build back safer, stronger, and smarter through mitigation and adaptation methods.

Community-based guidelines and protocols have been developed with input from each community, specific to each local community and its shoreline characteristics. Social data was collected from 108 participants at five participatory community workshops using a unique ten-by-ten, damage-level-to-shoreline-type, table-top, game-board matrix.

Clear guidelines from the County government to homeowners and condominium owners are intended to preserve sensitive coastal ecosystems, often lost at the expense of protecting threatened coastal development.

Reconstruction protocols are crafted as public messages to the media by the Mayor and Planning Director for homeowners and condominium owners on Day One following a major disaster. These messages eliminate the often lengthy time gap at the local level about “what do I do?”

These message and guideline products serve as communications tools from the County government to homeowners, setting up a clear relationship between individual homeowners and its government, related to permitting, building codes, and insurance reimbursements, as well as Federal and State benefits.

The NOAA-funded project provides a new planning model that is applicable to the three islands of Maui County and can be replicated statewide as well as nationwide. Underserved and isolated communities were a project focus.

Keywords: planning, reconstruction, recovery, coastal storms, mitigation, adaptation, Sea Grant Program, NOAA, Hawaii, The Frew Group

Availability and accessibility of information is critical for all phases of Disaster Risk Management (DRM), but more so for preparedness as this can determine readiness for an imminent hazard event. Information dissemination is often predicated on the assumption of equal access across all sectors of society. Observational evidence indicates, however, that this is not necessarily the case. For example, verbal warning messages broadcast via television are not always accompanied by sign language. The current research explored the level of access to DRM information and assistance for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in the Caribbean, with the first phase centred on gathering information from ‘umbrella’ organisations serving PWDs across 15 Caribbean nations through the administration of a survey via email. The survey collected information on issues such as: types of programmes carried out for PWDs by National Disaster Organisations; availability and type of assistance for PWDs before, during, and after emergencies; as well as the views of PWDs on how the state can improve delivery of assistance for disaster preparedness. Findings are analysed within the context of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of PWDs and Jamaica’s national Disabilities Act. Results indicate that despite the existence of international convention and national law, equality of access remains problematic for PWDs.

The main objective of this study was to complete a fine-scale vulnerability assessment for coastal communities. A Level 2 Combined Hurricane and Flood model was utilized to estimate the physical damage and the housing price losses using the 1944 Cuba-Florida Hurricane scenario. The individual house (IH) was applied as mapping scale and compared with the census block (CB) scale. This study also combined a hedonic model to calculate the housing price losses from multiple hazards.

The results suggested that the more detailed the hazard/environmental characteristics, the larger the difference of the CB and IH datasets. For the wind assessment, the wind field model was designed for application at a regional scale. Therefore, the damage estimates of CB and IH were similar. For the storm surge assessment, the distribution of storm surge flooding depth was more detailed, and the CB dataset was not able to estimate realistic damage compared to IH. The comparison of combined calculations for CB and IH datasets showed that most of the difference came from storm surge damage estimates (~15 million USD). Additionally, the hedonic model result showed a strong relationship between coastal amenities and housing prices, which led to extremely high housing values of beach- and bay- front properties. These properties were more sensitive to estimates compare to those properties located relatively inland. For future applications, the CB scale would be sufficient for wind- only assessment; however, for storm surge, the IH scale with high resolution DEM for assessment is strongly recommended.

Flood damage estimated by loss function is a main factor to assess flood risk for local disaster prevention and response in addition to sustainable development. The loss function as an empirical flood depth-damage curve is generally established by Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) in a Global Regression Model (GRM). This study collects flood depths from GIS based flood inundation map and the acquired damages of local buildings from the flood damages report collected by the local government after the flooding event on August, 2012 in Gunsan City. The OLS is used to estimate damages of residential, commercial and agricultural buildings and then estimates are assessed quantitatively with coefficient of determination and spatial autocorrelation. The assessment results show that the Local Regression Model (LRM) is more adaptive than the GRM to estimate damages because the spatial patterns of residuals exhibit spatial autocorrelation. The Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) developed here as one of the LRM to establish the loss function not only capturing the spatial variations of the affecting factors but also modifying the OLS is suggested for future applications. This method provided loss functions at each spatial location which will estimate optimum damages with flood depths in each building as defined using the GIS information.

Social capital plays an important role in disaster recovery. Neighborhood or community influences a range of physical and mental health outcomes, including disaster recovery outcomes. Disorder in neighborhoods is one component of community that may influence post disaster recovery outcomes as it is a barrier to social cohesion and social capital development. Social institutions have been established as a mechanism for building social capital within communities. This study examines social institutions as an upstream factor that may influence perceptions of neighborhood disorder in the Gulf Coast Child and Family Health (G-CAFH) Study, a cohort of 1079 families heavily impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Using a theoretical model of neighborhood disorder, we examine the influence of community social institutions present in the community on individual perceived social and physical neighborhood disorder. We found that greater income (income $35,000-50,000 β= -0.17, SE =0.07), housing stability (respondents reporting unstable housing in 2010 β= -0.16, SE =0.07), social support (β= -0.09, SE =0.04), and home ownership (β= -0.10, SE =0.05) were associated with lower perceived social disorder and greater social support (β= -0.11, SE =0.04), housing stability (respondents report unstable housing in 2010 β= -0.15, SE =0.06), and income (respondents reporting $35-50K income β= -0.10, SE =0.07) were associated with lower perceived physical disorder. These findings highlight a need for the development of policies that help households meet their basic needs of housing, food, and social support to reduce the negative impacts of disasters and improve long term health outcomes.

Catastrophes like the 2011 Tohoku, Japan disaster create dynamics that could not be addressed by any single organization or jurisdiction alone. We introduce the “complex, adaptive systems of systems” approach in examining these large-scale disasters, highlighting networks of organizations that make decisions under uncertainty while adapting to rapidly cascading events. Such events are triggered by the interaction of human and natural systems. Using network analysis, we document interactions and communication flows among organizations that responded to the 2011 Tohoku disaster, and contrast observed practices with policies, plans, and practices that existed in Japan. A key policy implication drawn from this analysis is the urgent need to create an informed basis for effective action in dynamic contexts, supported by timely, valid information search and exchange processes. We introduce research outcomes taking a similar approach in the cases of Indonesia and Haiti to extend our recommendations for future disaster risk reduction globally. This research was undertaken by Louise Comfort and graduate student research staff at the Center for Disaster Management, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Keywords: information flow, extreme events, Japan, Indonesia, Haiti.

An increasing number of people are living at risk from volcanic hazards as populations around the world encroach upon the flanks of nearby volcanoes. An individual’s perception of volcanic risk and subsequent preparedness level greatly influence the effectiveness of hazard mitigation and response plans. This study of individuals living or working within the lahar zones of Mount Baker and Glacier Peak aims to (1) explore the common disconnect between accurate risk perception and adequate preparedness and (2) determine how participation in hazard response planning influences knowledge, risk perception, and preparedness. Over 500 survey responses indicate that a disconnect exists between perception and preparedness among the vast majority of respondents. While 88 percent of respondents accurately anticipate that volcanic hazards will affect the Skagit Valley in the future, no significant relationship exists between this knowledge and individual preparedness. Similarly, 82 percent of respondents feel “very responsible” for their own protection and provision of resources during a hazardous event, yet only 53 percent of these respondents have prepared half of the items recommended by local emergency managers. Even among respondents knowledgeable about the hazards, 32 percent continue to cite a lack of knowledge about relevant local hazards as a reason why they lack recommended preparedness items. Additionally, results show that participation in response-related activities minimally influences physical preparedness and fails to correspond to a better understanding of hazard maps. This study’s findings will be provided to emergency managers to assist in the development of educational programs and response plans.

The HVRI is an interdisciplinary research and graduate and undergraduate center focused on the development of theory, data, metrics, methods, applications, and spatial analytical models for understanding the fields of hazard vulnerability and resiliency science. HVRI facilitates local, state, and federal government efforts to improve emergency preparedness, planning, response, and disaster resilience through its outreach activities, including technical assistance to and translational products for practitioner communities and training emergency managers to use GIS. Current HVRI projects:

• Partnering with Florida Department of Health to Build Resilience Against Climate Extremes (BRACE) by identifying and spatially assessing interactions between climate sensitive hazards and socially/medically vulnerable populations.

• Partnering with Climate Center to update the Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI®) at the tract level for every coastal state (www.sovius.org) facilitating climate change adaptation planning.

Develop and maintain a variety of web-based tools and technologies, including:

• South Carolina’s Integrated Hazard Assessment Tool (SC IHAT) supporting county level hazard mitigation planning. (http://webra.cas.sc.edu/hvri/ihat/index.html)

• Florida Public Health Risk Assessment Tool (FPHRAT) supporting state and local public health disaster preparedness and response (https://flphrat.com/)

• South Carolina’s Comprehensive Data Management Tool enabling online editing of critical infrastructure and essential facility data for disaster modeling (www.hazusdata.org)

• Supporting disaster response and recovery efforts by tracking impacts and long term recovery trends along the hurricane coasts

• Supporting Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) by creating an International Centre of Excellence on Vulnerability and Resilience Metrics (ICOE-VARM).

More information can be found at http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/geog/hvri/front-page

Disaster events, like the 2013 floods affecting Boulder, Colorado and surrounding communities, cause damage, create economic losses and social disruptions that change how communities think about and plan for resilience. Traditional flood damage models for buildings predict trends in repair cost for flood-induced damage based on flood depth. However, these models lack a holistic view of the impact of flood risk on the entire community. This research focuses on developing probabilistic analytical and assembly-based ‘synthetic’ damage models for structures using multiple performance measures based on a case study of the 2013 Boulder, Colorado floods. Analytical building damage models were first developed by performing regression on the data set of approximately 6000 values for verified dollar losses associated with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster assistance. Using statistical tools, critical parameters were identified as contributing to increased potential damage of structures, such as foundation type and flood source (e.g. sewage vs. groundwater), in addition to flood depth. These probabilistic models were compared to synthetic models that were constructed based on unit repair prices for flood damaged components as water levels rise. In addition, interviews were conducted with stakeholders affected by flooding and possible end users of engineering damage models (including planners, contractors and residents). Qualitative analysis of these interviews will be used to assess the usefulness of the information provided by the two types of models and enhance the flood impact engineering models to better represent possible consequences of a flood event on a community.

A common axiom in the literature of natural hazards communication is that disseminating risk information to the lay public and decision-makers is a difficult, arduous, and challenging task. Reasons given range from the complexity of risk-related information produced by scientists to the lack of available processes that connect the needs of decision-makers for practical, prescriptive advice on the one hand, with the products of cutting-edge risk research on the other. In regards to coastal flooding, a larger political-institutional factor has recently been implicated: the so-called “misalignment of risks, rewards, responsibilities, and resources associated with coastal development and post-disaster recovery.” In short, where the risks, responsibilities, rewards, and resources for flood hazard reduction are borne by numerous, diffuse actors motivated by divergent objectives, the communication of flood risk may be seriously impeded. This study seeks to ascertain prospects for overcoming these impediments to flood risk communication through an examination of how residents in one highly affluent community – Newport Beach, California – receive flood risk information, and the extent to which they find this information useful and trustworthy. This study was part of a larger investigation involving visual depiction of likely flood risk. We engaged residents in a spatially dynamic mapping exercise intended to provide flood hazard information on a parcel sized basis to determine if such an exercise ultimately leads to a better form of risk communication than established FEMA flood risk maps. Central to this study was the need to first determine how residents generally receive flood risk information.

With the increasing emphasis on the need for preparing for long-term recovery it is crucial to conduct more systematic analyses of recovery outcomes and processes. Quantifying community recovery to establish empirical patterns and describe the overall picture of recovery can inform recovery and mitigation planning. Comparing sectors within a disaster helps to understand, track and compare recovery, identify assistance needs, and inform post-disaster decision-making.

This poster presents a quantitative measurement of recovery in Galveston, Texas following Hurricane Ike (2008) with two purposes. First, developing a measurable definition of recovery that integrates significant aspects of recovery. Second, quantifying community recovery to describe empirical patterns of population, economic and housing recovery. We specifically answer these questions:

-- Did Galveston as a whole recover from the impact of Hurricane Ike with respect to population return, economy and housing?

-- Did housing in socially vulnerable populations and neighborhoods recover slower?

-- Which aspects of social vulnerability were associated with slower housing recovery?

We measure recovery of Galveston in three dimensions of population, economy, and housing. Depending on the specific recovery indicator and objectives in each part of this assessment, a combination of descriptive and bivariate (partial) correlation analysis is used to track changes or build trends, compare changes, and examine relationships.

The way a risk is framed and presented influences people’s perception of the severity and importance of that risk. This study examined how different framing of earthquake risk affected risk perception. Five frames described the earthquake risk to the population of a hypothetical city. The frames were logically identical but semantically different; they varied frequencies versus probabilities, the time frame (1600 dead in 500 years, 10 percent chance of 1600 dead in 50 years, 2 deaths per year) and the sample frame (1.9 deaths per 100,000, 19 per million). Participants rated how risky each of the five frames seemed. The frame that describes the risk in a 50-year time frame and uses a fatality frequency (10 percent chance of 1600 dead in 50 years) was rated more risky than the other four statements. This finding suggests that risks from low frequency hazards should be framed in terms of the likely frequency of deaths over a life time. These results clarify which type of frame has the strongest effect on judgments of earthquake risk and can inform risk managers how to communicate risk information more effectively.

Emergency management groups work with complex systems which consist of multiple interacting dynamics. This research piloted a novel set of research methods, to help ensure that information is provided in a way which improves strategic performance within these groups. Ten professional emergency managers completed an online simulation of complex, strategic tasks faced in their normal working lives. They responded to either table- or diagram–based information about a complex emergency management strategy. Responses were rated by academic and practitioner experts using 0 to 5 point Likert scales. Analyses of the expert ratings found that certain components of macrocognitive performance reached large degrees of inter-rater reliability (ρ = .76, p = .003; ρ = .58, p = .03; ρ = .53, p = .05). Implication awareness increased by an average of 29 percent in the diagram condition (95 percent CI 2.741, -.826). Strategic change quality also increased, by an average of .38 percent (95 percent CI 3.199, -.947). A small sample size meant that these substantial increases were not definitive. Extensions of this pilot research could use larger samples and more generic simulation conditions, to increase confidence in the claim that certain displays help improve strategic emergency management planning. It is recommended that further research continues to focus on current and prospective situational awareness, as measures of strategic emergency management performance which can be reliably expert rated.

Real-time geolocated social media data during natural disasters has supplemented traditional geospatial technologies in providing information for emergency responders. This project demonstrates the ability for social media to fill gaps in remote sensing information on power outages. Hurricane Sandy caused power outages for almost 8 million people in an area of high population density, providing a unique opportunity for study. High social media presence and the availability of clear nightlight imagery allow for a comparison between the two data sources. Analysis of the brightness change detection imagery and the kernel density of power relate tweets points to a spatial relationship. There are a proportionally higher amount of tweets using power related key terms in the areas that lost power. Geolocated tweets using power related keywords can be used to describe areas of power outages where people are still located. Social media could provide valuable real time information continually over time during disaster and even before remote sensing data is available.

Severe climate hazards unevenly distributed around the world are threatening lives and livelihoods, depending on their differential exposure. At the same time, with exponential urbanization, communities’ ability to protect themselves from the worsening consequences of climate related hazards depends more on the level of their city resilience, which in term, is contingent upon factors including physical, socio-economic, and politico-administrative.

This poster describes the study being undertaken for better understanding of flood risk vulnerability in Casablanca based on an empirical study.

First, the climate profile, physical and hydrological attributes are examined as direct causes of floods.

Second, as the governmental response participates to the level of vulnerability to floods in the city, the techniques and policies that have been applied to integrate flood vulnerability into urban planning have been reviewed.

The results of this study show a lack of inclusion of flood risk assessment in the process of city decision making. Regional planning activities are characterized by a lack of data and limited coordination between different governmental actors, while cooperation with local community representatives is absent.

Conclusions recommend integrating for flood risk assessment with urban planning level.

Abstract Disaster risk management (DRM) is undergo¬ing noteworthy changes, reflecting the broader shifts in global and local levels of governance. At the global level two significant changes are of interest: (1) the shift from monolithic structures of global governance to a wide range of organizations that can be brought together for specific purposes and (2) the emergence of a globalized system of DRM, with technological, organizational, and institutional capacities enhancing DRM’s ability as a unit in near real time across the globe. At the local level there is an increase in ability to govern and develop creative solutions for complex problems that follow rapid urbanization. The importance of getting the global–local interface to work in tandem has been highlighted by recent hazard events, such as the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. From a broad view of global and local shifts, a strategic role is becoming clearer at the national level for enhancing the relationships between the global and local levels. Through the influence of a globalized system of DRM, the local level can significantly improve its capacity without the heavy investment that might have been required to develop these capacities in isolation. One key to achieving this is a diffusion of DRM higher education, supported by an en¬hanced system of information flow.

This study will examine how engaging in Team Rubicon (TR)—a volunteer organization to provide disaster relief—promotes veteran reintegration. Findings will enhance practitioners’ knowledge of contextual elements that contribute to veterans readjusting in society.

This cross-sectional observational qualitative study includes semi-structured interviews (N=9) with current TR members. All subjects were male, with a mean age of 36 years, 56 percent White, 44 percent Latino, and the average time served in the military was nine years. Data was thematically analyzed.

TR provides a venue for volunteerism which promotes reintegration through ecological factors and building on prior military experiences. Veterans were enthusiastic to volunteer in the organization because they could utilize the skills learned in the military in TR. Veterans reported that TR helped them to maintain the sense of brotherhood—established while in the army—with other vets. Serving in TR provided a sense of purpose and goodwill as they provided relief and protection to those who had been victimized by disasters.

Ecological factors, such as recreating a familiar culture of camaraderie among veterans, and building upon individual strengths that allow veterans to apply their specialized skills, helped instill a sense of connectedness and contribution to their respective civilian communities.

Researchers from the Center for Advanced Communications Policy at Georgia Tech present two development projects that improve the receipt of Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) messages and increase the likelihood of protective action behavior for people with sensory disabilities. WEAs have the potential to be a very useful method of communication for people who are Deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind or have low vision, especially when they are not near traditional communications sources. WEAs are 90-character messages sent to mobile devices using cell broadcast technology. WEAs are sent from the National Weather Service (NWS) or your authorized local emergency management agency to provide severe weather and civil emergency related messages. They are also sent by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to provide AMBER (missing children) messages. Currently, the rules and regulations for WEAs do not allow URLs, phone numbers, maps, or images. Additionally, the attention signal and vibration strength of WEA messages may vary depending on the device. Both of these are limitations that can have a significant impact on the receipt of the emergency message and subsequently the likelihood of the recipient taking proper protective action. The development projects and research displayed in our poster showcase the unique usefulness of WEAs, the current limitations, and potential solutions for this particular demographic group based on research studies. Our research studies include interviews, focus groups and surveys of people with disabilities on their current needs regarding emergency communications. In our poster, we also include considerations for the dissemination of emergency messages to people with sensory disabilities.

The project team conducted research in Louisiana, with traditional ecosystem users, and Mississippi, with natural resource managers, in order to determine a method for producing localized vulnerability/sustainability maps for accelerated sea level rise for the two study sites, and determine how and whether the results of such an approach can provide more useful information for assessing localized impacts of sea level rise. The goals of the project are to develop and refine the sea level rise visualization tools for local implementation in areas experiencing subsidence and erosion, and discover the different ways stakeholder groups evaluate risk and plan mitigation strategies associated with predicted sea level rise. The data analysis involves interviewing stakeholders, coding the interviews for themes, and then converting the themes into vulnerability and sustainability factors. Each factor is weighted according to emphasis by the experts and number of experts who mention it, in order to determine which factors are of the highest priority. These priorities are then mapped with emphasis on the vulnerability and sustainability factors. The maps are then brought back to the stakeholders and used to benefit hazard mitigation and adaptation planning.

Risk communication is an important component of emergency management. Within risk communication, much is understood about pre-event warning related to evacuation and sheltering; however risk communication during the return-entry phase when ending evacuations has been largely under-examined in the disaster literature. Understanding of the return-entry risk communication process is important because returning early or prior to issuance of the all-clear message can make returnees susceptible to post-disaster risks, and also hamper post-disaster activities such as debris removal, traffic management, utility restoration and damage assessments. Return-entry information (plans and messages) are therefore necessary to ensure the safe and efficient movement of evacuees back to their home, to coordinate traffic demands, and to ensure that the needs of returnees can be met. Guided by the Warning Components Framework and the Theory of Motivated Information Management, this study focuses on risk communication as it pertains to organizational behavior during the return-entry process by examining how local emergency management organizations develop, disseminate and monitor return-entry messages. Additionally, this study also examines emergency management organization’s information seeking strategies to gather information in order to assess risks in the development of the return-entry strategy and messages. The data is collected through semi-structured telephone interviews with county and municipal emergency management organizations in the state of New Jersey that experienced return-entry aftermath of the 2012 Hurricane Sandy. The findings are expected to provide understanding on factors, strategies, and challenges pertaining to return-entry risk communication at an organizational level.

On December 7, 2013, Wishard Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center and the only adult Burn Center in Indianapolis, Indiana, closed and moved its entire operations and patient population one-half mile to the new Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital. The unusually cold temperatures and winter weather required increased planning and situational awareness. The average temperature for this time of year is 34 degrees Fahrenheit. However, actual temperatures ranged from 10 degrees to a high of 24 degrees Fahrenheit. Recent snowfall, a total of 4.5 inches, provided additional planning considerations. Together, Eskenazi Health, Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services (IEMS) and the MESH Coalition along with hundreds of volunteers from around the city and county were able to provide a safe move for patients, staff and the community. This collaboration involved the MESH Coalition supporting communication, intelligence group to specifically monitor the weather threats, monitoring the community EMS traffic needs and social media of the move. MESH was also present in the Hospital Command Center to assist in documentation, information sharing and any other needs of the organization. IEMS coordinated with Eskenazi Health the movement and care of patients along with tracking from one site to the other. The success of the move was based on the collaboration of all involved and allowed for the move to occur with no adverse events or injuries to patients or staff. In addition, emergency services, including burn care, were available to the community at all times.

Describing floods in terms of an average recurrence internal (ARI) or “return period” (100-year) has been used for decades to convey the rareness of major flooding events. However, describing the intensity of heavy rainstorms in a similar manner has not been as routine but provides a similar perspective of extreme rainfall events. Also referred to as the Extreme Precipitation Index (EPI), real-time ARI rainfall maps provide an objective, timely and informative perspective of precipitation at all locations, including locations without traditional stream gauge information for inferring rain-induced flooding.

Relaying timely, accurate and informative rainfall information to the public is paramount to protecting property, saving lives and efficiently managing water. Expressing the rarity (or commonness) of rainfall in terms of an ARI provides an objective and useful perspective of the rainfall that most people understand, even for those not familiar with the rainfall in a particular area.

The rainfall-to-ARI conversion is based on official rainfall frequency data published by the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) with high-resolution (1 km x 1 km) gauge-adjusted radar rainfall from Weather Decision Technologies, Inc. (WDT) and the National Weather Service (NWS). Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts (QPFs) are also translated into an ARI thereby providing a powerful means of communicating where and how unusual heavy rainfall is expected to occur over the next five days.

This poster will convey how real-time and forecast ARI rainfall maps are created to provide the public with information pertaining to the magnitude and intensity of high-impact rainfall events.

This paper draws some lessons based on experiences with Cash for work (CFW) programs during the recovery process from the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident in Japan. The Japanese government allocated as much as 400 billion JPY and hired 65,729 people during the two years following the triple disasters, accounting to as much as 20 percent of the new employment.

Unlike traditional CFW schemes, the CFW programs after the March 2011 disasters offered employment in a wide range of work activities. These programs also provided a sense of hope for the future to the workers engaged in them.

Targeting of CFW programs to the most needy was not necessarily successful since large portion of the workers regarded the salary offer by such programs as a supplementary source of income for their households. However, CFW may have provided earning opportunity for those who lost their houses. Self-targeting would not function well in CFW programs, since lower wages offered by them do not attract the workers and may encourage emigration from the affected areas.

Here at Adams County Office of Emergency Management, we have taken a creative and innovative look at how we train employees. When asking people to volunteer their time to come and train on how to work in the Emergency Operations Center during a disaster we meet lots of opposition. With what little attendance we receive, we work continuously to make sure the trainings are focused and energetic. Instead of doing the typical route of asking people to sit through mindless trainings on Incident Command and Federal Emergency Management Agency typing, we consider these few questions: What do we want these people to walk away with? What capability are we trying to create? How can we make this fun? What is the most important information we wish for them to retain? These questions become our motivation. We ignore the need to fit the training in a box, pre-packaged by someone else. We take the harder route and truly consider what we need these people to be able to perform, and we go after it!

As a result of this approach, we have nearly tripled our attendance in comparison to previous years when trainings were conducted off of the State Task Books. Adams County tends to be relatively quiet in regards to annual disasters so getting people to take time to come train is difficult. Our findings have shown that for a culture like ours a strategic and creative approach is needed to build your EOC capabilities.

To respond and recover from a disaster, communities must rapidly bring together knowledge and contributions from organizations and governments to plan, design and construct infrastructure systems. This research links recovery processes employed by stakeholders and infrastructure system outcomes. Twenty housing reconstruction programs were selected for quasi-longitudinal examination during the first two years of reconstruction after Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. The research team employed fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify and analyze the combinations of strategies used in the planning, design and construction phases of projects and link these strategies to infrastructure sustainability and resilience outcomes. Using an embedded unit analysis of a project within a community; initial data on coordination, stakeholder participation and training, at six and twelve months post-disaster, were collected and analyzed for each of the twenty selected housing programs. Findings detail emergent coordination structures, benefits and limitations of participation and the role of training programs. In particular, results demonstrate the importance of bi-lateral coordination between organizations and highlight the potential of knowledge transfer through participatory programming. Ongoing work with QCA seeks to produce logical equations that describe combinations of conditions that support sustainability and resilience, or, conversely, the lack of attainment in infrastructure systems.

As of October 10, 2014 the Soft Story Mandatory Retrofit Program (MRP) has passed its phase one, screening form, deadline as well as an additional two and half week grace period . At this point all property owners are required to have, using a licensed design professional, completed a screening form and submitted that form to the Department of Building Inspection (DBI). That form is used to inform both the owner and DBI whether or not an individual building is within the scope of the program (i.e., is a target soft story building) and, if the building is within the program, by when that owner will be required to complete a retrofit of their building. As of the September 15, 2014 deadline the rate of compliance was 92 percent, with 4802 buildings required to retrofit under the MRP. On October 7, 2014 buildings that were out of compliance received a Notice of Violation (NOV) and an “Earthquake Warning” placard affixed to the subject property. Please note that building owners are only required, at this point, to have completed the screening form. These notices will remain posted until the property has complied with the screening requirement. Below we have included an analysis of the returns so far. This analysis is intended to provide a snapshot of the impacts this program will have on your district. Another such analysis will be completed in three to six months, as the remaining data becomes available.

Over the past century the United States invested enormous resources in its built environment, yet now finds major segments of it increasingly failing to stand up against natural hazards.

This work traces the history of U.S. investment to uncover the root causes of its present vulnerability. It explains the roles and relationships of government, professionals and the private sector and how these underlying causes continue to drive non-resilience to this very day. The United States becomes a learning case study to help the rest of the world better understand what 'to do' and 'not to do' when it comes to resilience.

The work explains the analytic relationship between disaster risk and urban concentration. It analyzes the history and role of the property insurance industry, construction materials providers, builders, and engineering professionals. It shows how the green building movement has failed to account for disaster resilience. It reveals how many government policies worsen disaster vulnerability, rather than strengthen resilience. It presents examples of private initiatives that aim to counter the deteriorating trend line.

The author, Aris Papadopoulos, relies on decades of buildings-related construction experience to shine a light and demystify how the 'system' actually works. He uses language that is both relevant and relatable for everyone. The book concludes with 30 lessons applicable to any country seeking resilience, particularly for those who anticipate major built environment investments in the coming decades. It is available online at www.buildingresilient.com

Youth Creating Disaster Recovery and Resilience (YCDR) is a research project focused on the potential of youth to act as powerful catalysts for change following disasters. Despite often being highlighted as a potentially vulnerable population, the needs of children and youth in disaster recovery are often overlooked. They also remain a largely untapped resource in disaster recovery and resilience enhancement efforts in their homes, schools, and communities.

The YCDR project is empowering disaster-affected youth to have a voice in shaping disaster recovery theory and practice through creative engagement in research. Participating youth take part in arts-based activities and digital storytelling to contribute their insights and ideas about how disasters affect youth, and how youth can best be supported and encouraged to contribute to their own and to others recovery. The findings and outputs from this project are intended to refine existing theories of disaster recovery and contribute to evidence-informed, inclusive, and community-based approaches to understanding disaster recovery and resilience from the perspectives of youth. The stories youth share are designed to encourage peer-to-peer networking and have contributed to the development of an online repository for youth-centered creative expression following disaster available at www.ycdr.org.

This poster (1) provides an overview of the YCDR project and highlights some of our ongoing research with youth in disaster-affected communities in Canada and the United States, (2) discusses preliminary findings from our completed fieldwork, and (3) displays some of the visual outputs from youth. This project is a joint endeavor of Royal Roads University and Colorado State University, and is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Emergency management practitioners have increasingly recognized the potential of online social media to diffuse information apropos disasters (manmade or natural). These informal communication networks can mitigate the impact of disasters by reaching more people in less time. However, this is still a burgeoning field with many crucial information gaps. The HEROIC consortium seeks to address these gaps. The HEROIC consortium is comprised of researchers from the Universities of California at Irvine, Kentucky, Washington and Colorado at Colorado Springs. Over several years, the consortium has collected a multitude of data that has been used to further our understanding of formal and informal communication in response to hazardous events. In this poster, we highlight recent work that focuses on how message content influences the rate, quantity and spatial distribution of message retransmission along with the structural features of networks that are derived from states’ emergency operation plans. More specifically, we present results from the first multi-hazard message retransmission study that includes message content and network structure as predictive features, and similarly, we show how these features impact the rate at which messages are retransmitted. Second, we examine the determinants of rumoring activity across large spatial scales in the aftermath of severe disaster events. Finally, we analyze the structural features that are inherent within States Emergency Operations Plans, which assign emergency support functions to organizations within and outside the state bureaucracy. Taken together, these results inform emergency management organizations on how to best alert the general public during hazards.

On March 22, 2014, over 168,000 gallons of oil spilled into Galveston Bay when two vessels collided in the Texas City Ship Channel. Within an hour of the Texas City “Y” Spill, the Central Texas Coastal Area Committee (CTCAC) sent emails to subscribers informing them of the incident to mobilize volunteers. These alerts continued throughout the emergency response.

Under the Oil Spill Pollution Act of 1990, the CTCAC develops and activates the Area Contingency Plan in the event of oil spills in navigable waters of Galveston Bay. This case study focuses on CTCAC’s mobilization of citizen volunteers in response to the spill. Based on varying experience, volunteers were grouped into different tasks from scouting for affected wildlife or helping with hazardous cleanup. For this research, participants in this cleanup were interviewed and CTCAC news releases, emails and planning documents were reviewed to show how participation contributed to cleanup success.

As the seventh largest estuary in the United States, Galveston Bay plays a vital role in the greater Houston/Galveston metropolitan area, which is home to the nation’s second busiest port. The watershed fringes on major urban development as far north as Dallas; therefore, half of the population of Texas lives within its boundaries. The Texas City “Y” Collision demonstrates the urgency for organizations such as CTCAC to respond quickly to spills.

Major flooding occurs almost every year somewhere in the world; nevertheless, flood risk is not well understood by the general public. An unexpected flood can be extremely dangerous and costly, as indicated by the catastrophic flooding in September 2013 that occurred in and around Boulder, Colorado. This study is an essential step to verify the results that have been generated by flooding response surveys with hypothetical flood scenarios and/or flood risk perception surveys of flood risk area residents who lacked recent flood evacuation experience. The purposes of this study were to qualitatively examine emergency managers’ evacuation decision-making and information dissemination strategies and to conduct household questionnaires to better understand the ephemeral nature of household disaster response data.

Utilizing data from household questionnaires, which were disbursed throughout five affected counties, the researchers present preliminary findings. First, those with higher education levels are more likely to evacuate, to use the Internet and other social media platforms to receive flood risk information, and to be more likely to have previous knowledge of flood risk. Secondly, this study confirmed that women are more likely to have negative emotions during flooding. In addition, respondents’ belief that the flood would result in severe damage to their home and/or community was positively correlated with most of the negative emotions. Lastly, the researchers identify county differences on flood intensity perception, information source, and evacuation destination variables.

Progress in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery is hampered by the relative absence of scientific data that can guide systems development, protocols and procedures, citizen action, and use of medical countermeasures. Short and long term health consequences to a variety of exposures are often unknown and responders have recognized the need to conduct disaster research for years. A major barrier to implementing disaster studies is the inability to conduct disaster research in the immediate post-disaster period when critical information is most perishable. In response to this need/information gap, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in collaboration with the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has embarked on a NIH Disaster Research Response (DR2) Project, a pilot program designed to create a disaster research system to help overcome current barriers to disaster research. The elements of the proposed research system include: a broadly defined and pre-approved research protocol; a web-based toolkit consisting of questionnaires, pre-programmed electronic data collection instruments in EpiInfoTM, training materials, and manuals to support data and biological sample collection; identification and rostering of a trained network of disaster and environmental health researchers, subject matter experts, and community engagement; and other infrastructure that can be activated and deployed during disasters. The NIH DR2 project (http://dr2.nlm.nih.gov/) has been constructed to build a sustainable infrastructure that empowers researchers to perform time-critical human health research in a disaster setting.

Enhanced dispersion and concentration of contaminants such as trace metals and organic pollutants through storm-induced disturbances and sea level rise (SLR) are major factors that could adversely impact the health and resilience of communities and ecosystems in coming years. A major limitation of conducting pre- and post-Sandy comparisons was the lack of baseline data in locations proximal to potential contaminant sources and mitigation activities, sensitive ecosystems, and recreational facilities where human and ecological exposures are probable. To address this limitation, a Sediment-bound Contaminant Resiliency and Response (SCoRR) strategy with two operational modes, Resiliency (baseline) and Response (event-based), has been designed by leveraging existing interagency networks and resources. In Resiliency Mode, sites will be identified and sampled using standardized procedures prioritized to develop baseline data and to define sediment-quality based environmental health metrics. In Response Mode, a subset of sites within the network will be evaluated to ensure that adequate pre-event data exist at priority locations. If deficient, pre-event samples will be collected from priority locations. Crews will be deployed post-event to resample these locations allowing direct evaluation of impacts, as well as redefining baseline conditions for these areas. A tiered analytical and data integration strategy has been developed that will identify vulnerable human and environmental receptors, the sediment-bound contaminants present, and the biological activity and potential effects of exposure to characterized sediments. Communication mechanisms are in development to make resulting data available in a timely fashion and in a suitable format for informing event response and recovery efforts.

The development of federal government agencies devoted to preparing for disaster shows how politicians and bureaucrats have both claimed credit for the government's successes in preparing for and responding to disaster, while they were also blamed for failures outside of the government’s control. New interventions have created precedents and established organizations and administrative cultures that accumulated over time and produced a general trend in which citizens, politicians, and bureaucrats expect the government to provide more security from more kinds of disasters. The trend reached its peak when the Federal Emergency Management Agency adopted the idea of preparing for “all hazards” as its mantra. Despite the rhetoric, however, the federal government's increasingly bold claims and heightened public expectations are disproportionate to the ability of the federal government to prevent or reduce the damage caused by disaster.

The Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre draws together Australia and New Zealand's fire and emergency service authorities with leading international researchers to explore the causes, consequences and mitigation of natural disasters. Our mission is to conduct end-user inspired applied research to:

• Reduce the risks from bushfire and natural hazards.

• Reduce the social, economic and environmental costs of disasters.

• Contribute to the national disaster resilience agenda.

• Build internationally renowned Australian research capacity and capability.

We undertake research spanning:

• Risk reduction.

• Readiness.

• Response.

• Recovery.

We focus on sudden onset natural hazards such as bushfires, cyclones, floods, storms, earthquakes, tsunamis and heat waves. The utilization of the research by the end users to the benefit of the broader Australian and New Zealand community is central to our mission.

Our research program draws on the capabilities of over 300 people from:

• Over 25 national, state and territory emergency and natural resources agencies.

• More than 20 Australia and NZ universities.

• 3 Commonwealth R&D organisations

• NGOs, including Australian Red Cross, Save the Children and RSPCA Queensland.

• Numerous international R&D organisations.

In addition, the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC

• Is the Australian National Committee for the International Research on Disaster Risk initiative of UNISDR, ICSU and ISSC.

There remains little research regarding the role that states play in disaster recovery, including a sound understanding of these roles and their effect on short- and long-term recovery outcomes. This research seeks to better understand this gap in knowledge, including the key roles assumed by executive and mid-level managers, namely governors, their cabinet, and state agency officials tasked with disaster recovery duties. A comparative case study approach is used in which the states of North Carolina and Mississippi are analyzed following Hurricanes Floyd and Katrina, both of which represent the worst disasters in each state’s respective history. Analysis involves the review of documents, direct and participant observation, and personal interviews conducted with governors and state agency officials involved in disaster recovery. The filmed interviews will also provide the basis for a set of video-based training modules for use by Federal Emergency Management Agency, states, professional organizations, and the new UNC Graduate Certificate in Natural Hazards Resilience.

Since 2003, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has collaborated with professional media organizations (e.g., Ad Council) to develop a public service campaign to change the culture of disaster preparation in the United States. Ready.gov seeks to “educate and empower Americans to prepare for and respond to emergencies including natural disasters and potential terrorist attacks.” In terms of donated media and measures of information-seeking behavior (e.g., web hits, calls to toll-free numbers, file downloads), Ready.gov is one of the most successful campaigns in the Ad Council’s history. Assuming that this campaign represents an important thread of mainstream discourse around disaster preparation and response, we evaluate the ideas, presentation style, and factual information conveyed in approximately 20 videos published since 2010 and ranging from 10 seconds to 4:11 minutes in length. We compare messages conveyed to major themes represented in natural disaster research and consider possible gaps in preparation strategies being promoted. These strategies are primarily disaster neutral and focused on nuclear families. In keeping with the scholarly literature, disasters are represented as abrupt discontinuities capable of inverting fortunes. Building a kit, making a plan, and getting informed are presented as antidotes to unpredictability, while strategies for promoting emergent prosocial behavior and self-efficacy through successful improvisation are largely unexplored. Non-familial authority figures are positively represented but appear explicitly in only ~20 percent of ads. Differential vulnerability to natural disasters, a major theme in the professional literature, appears only in a small number of ads with reference to people with disabilities and pets.

A 20-minute film was created to accelerate the rate at which Nepalese communities retrofit or rebuild their local public school buildings to be life-safe in the event of a major earthquake. It features local Nepalese as role models who have already strengthened their schools, and is based on the theory of communicating actionable risk and social cognitive theory. Public schools in Kathmandu Valley with buildings in need of seismic work were assessed for eligibility in the study. Of these, 16 were selected and matched into eight pairs based on relative level of seismic work required. One school in each pair was randomly assigned to see the intervention film and the other to see a film on an unrelated topic. Pre and post observations were recorded from 761 adult participants, using a questionnaire created for this purpose. With the school as the unit of analysis, when compared to the control schools, the schools whose community members saw the intervention film exhibited a statistically significant improvement in the following factors: 1) knowledge of specific actions to take in support of earthquake-resistant construction, 2) belief that the outcome of such actions would be effective, 3) willingness to support seismic strengthening of the local school building, and 4) likelihood to recommend to others that they build earthquake-resistant homes. This outcome suggests that employing cost-effective mass media featuring community members who have already taken the desired action may accelerate adoption of risk reduction actions by others who are similar to them. Future research will be discussed during the conference session, Risk Communication: The Earthquake Context.

Land-use planning is often described as an opportune tool available for reducing or even eliminating risks to natural hazards. To assist in fulfilling its potential, a risk-based land use planning toolkit was launched in New Zealand in 2013. Two years on, many local governments are taking a risk-based approach to their plans, and natural hazard risk is being proposed to be included in land use planning legislation. So what is risk-based planning, and how is it different from hazard-based approaches?

Rather than being hazards based (i.e. a focus on likelihood only), a five-step risk-based approach (i.e. with a focus on consequences and likelihood) to natural hazards has been developed, with associated community engagement and consultation at each step. The five steps are:

1. Know your hazard;

2. Determine the severity of the consequences;

3. Evaluate the likelihood of an event;

4. Take a risk-based approach; and

5. Monitor and evaluate.

The result is a framework where land use is assessed on risk. It is about smarter development, not necessarily no development. This poster will present the risk-based approach developed in New Zealand, which enables levels of risk to be qualified and measured.

The second priority of the recently launched Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (SFDRR) is to strengthen disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk. To achieve this, the SFDRR states it is important to “review and promote the coherence and further development […] of national and local frameworks of laws, regulations, and public policies” (SFDRR Art. 27a). It is therefore timely that we have recently undertaken a comparative analysis of natural hazard plans between New Zealand, Mexico, Norway, and Taiwan. These countries are susceptible to similar natural hazards, and represent countries with a diversity of political systems and institutional strengths and weaknesses.

The cross-comparisons show there is no standard imperative to include sustainability and resilience into legislation that can then filter down to local level plans. At the national level, none of the four countries specify the term ‘risk reduction’ in their national level land use planning; however, at city level reference is made to risk reduction and risk mitigation. Except for New Zealand, gaps are observed between the national, regional and local level plans analyzed for Mexico, Norway and Taiwan. When considering the linkage of provisions within plans it is observed that all four countries vary with regard to the quality of the conceptual content and risk reduction strategies, with New Zealand in the best position and Mexico in the worst.

The second priority of the recently launched Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (SFDRR) is to strengthen disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk. To achieve this, the SFDRR states it is important to “review and promote the coherence and further development […] of national and local frameworks of laws, regulations, and public policies” (SFDRR Art. 27a). It is therefore timely that we have recently undertaken a comparative analysis of natural hazard plans between New Zealand, Mexico, Norway, and Taiwan. These countries are susceptible to similar natural hazards, and represent countries with a diversity of political systems and institutional strengths and weaknesses.

The cross-comparisons show there is no standard imperative to include sustainability and resilience into legislation that can then filter down to local level plans. At the national level, none of the four countries specify the term ‘risk reduction’ in their national level land use planning; however, at city level reference is made to risk reduction and risk mitigation. Except for New Zealand, gaps are observed between the national, regional and local level plans analyzed for Mexico, Norway and Taiwan. When considering the linkage of provisions within plans it is observed that all four countries vary with regard to the quality of the conceptual content and risk reduction strategies, with New Zealand in the best position and Mexico in the worst.

Recent results are presented to illustrate how predictions of tsunami wave impact and tsunami warning messages can be improved by including information about multiple large-amplitude wave arrivals over longer time durations and at refined spatial resolution. Following focus group research, revised tsunami messages are evaluated via online experiments with the public, to determine how revised message content, in contrast with the original message, affects message receiver understanding, believing, and personalizing, all of which are pre-decisional sense making activities. This research activity is then evaluated in light of results from geophysical analysis of recorded Tohoku tsunami data. In March 2011, a deployment of ocean bottom seismometers off the coast of Southern California recorded the Tohoku tsunami on 22 seafloor-mounted pressure sensors. The tsunami records across the entire array show multiple large-amplitude, coherent phases arriving one hour to more than 36 hours after the initial tsunami phase. A quantitative method is applied to the pressure gauge data to determine the compass angle and travel time associated with the arriving tsunami energy. This is used to identify potential geographic source regions—for example the Aleutian Islands, southernmost Emperor seamount chain, or offshore southern California Patton Escarpment—of the later-arriving, large-amplitude, tsunami waves. These results are mapped into modified tsunami warning messages to show how a time-varying hazard could be communicated with more effective message format and content. The results are demonstrating the effects of including clearly described locations, time of impact, and hazard impact consequences on message perception among the public.

Hurricane Sandy made landfall in the New York City (NYC) area on October 29, 2012. As part of its post-disaster efforts, the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) contacted health care sites in severely impacted areas of NYC to determine capacity of health services.

DOHMH conducted surveys from March to May 2014 at primary care sites on the Rockaway Peninsula. Surveys were conducted with physicians or practice administrators who were with the practice at the time of Sandy and were familiar with operational challenges.

Eighty-seven percent (40/46) of sites completed the survey. Most sites were in their current location for more than 10 years (73 percent) and were a small practice (1 or 2 physicians) pre-Sandy (75percent). Ninety-five percent of sites had to temporarily close or relocate. All sites experienced electrical problems, which impacted their landline, fax, and internet. During the Sandy response, very few sites worked with mobile medical vans (n=1), restoration centers (n=2), community organizations (n=3), or received outside support from government agencies or non-profit organizations (n=8). However, 43 percent worked with pharmacies and 38 percent coordinated with other primary care providers.

Hurricane Sandy had a substantial impact on the ability of primary care providers to provide care to patients on the Rockaway Peninsula. Sandy caused operational issues which impacted access to care and forced practices to relocate. Greater emergency planning and response coordination is needed in the primary care sector, including with government agencies, to minimize disruptions of access to primary care during disaster recovery.

The Department of the Interior (DOI) Strategic Sciences Group (SSG, www.doi.gov/strategicsciences) provides the DOI with a standing capacity for strategic science in response to an environmental crisis. When deployed by the Secretary of the Interior, the SSG convenes a multi-disciplinary expert “crisis science team” to develop science-based scenarios and interventions for DOI leadership to support decision-making.

The SSG borrows culture from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a predecessor of the CIA formed during World War II, where the ideal OSS candidates were “PhDs who could win a bar fight.” In this spirit, the SSG has formed partnerships with over 15 professional societies and academic centers across the physical, life, and social sciences to expedite the formation of crisis science teams by helping to identify and vet potential team members. For the SSG, ideal team members have expertise suited to the crisis, a history of teamwork and innovation under pressure (including field research and/or prior crisis response experience), and a positive professional reputation.

To date, the SSG has supported response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (2010) and long-term recovery efforts following Hurricane Sandy (2013) and is poised for future response efforts. Lessons learned from previous deployments demonstrated the need to improve the SSG’s network of experts across disciplines to more rapidly and efficiently assemble crisis science teams when deployed. We discuss the efficacy of partnering with professional societies and academic centers to roster experts for rapid response and describe lessons learned to apply to future deployments.

After a major event such as the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami or the 2015 Nepal earthquake, there is interest in knowing if similar events have occurred in the area in the past and how often they have occurred. The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI, formerly the National Geophysical Data Center) and co-located World Data Service (WDS) for Geophysics Historical Natural Hazard Event Databases can provide answers to these types of questions. The NCEI global historical tsunami, significant earthquake, and significant volcanic eruption databases include events that range in date from 4350 B.C. to the present. The database includes all tsunami events, regardless of magnitude or intensity; and all earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that either caused fatalities, moderate damage, or generated a tsunami. Searching the database will reveal the date, time, location of the event, magnitude of the phenomenon, and socio-economic information such as the total number of fatalities and dollar damage. In addition, information on tsunami runups includes locations where tsunami waves were observed by eyewitnesses, field surveys, tide gauges, or deep ocean sensors. NCEI integrates the natural hazard event databases to allow users to easily find information about related events via one search interface. The data are accessible over the Web as tables, reports, and interactive maps. An overview of the databases and some database statistics from a few key significant events will be presented.

Disaster risk reduction (DRR) programs seek to reduce loss of property and lives as the result of extreme events. These programs invest significant resources in collecting participatory information and developing scientific forecast information in order to help them achieve their goals. This is despite significant evidence that such information does not necessarily contribute as intended to DRR goals. Using the Policy Sciences’ social and decision process frameworks, this research will map two DRR decision processes: one involving participatory information and another involving forecasts. Document review, semi-structured interviews, and observation of stakeholder interactions will be used to identify when, how and why these kinds of information are sought and how they are actually incorporated into DRR planning and implementation. By clarifying the relationship between information and the broader processes that shape its production and use, this study hopes to identify possible avenues for improving the relationship between information and DRR decision-making.

During June 2013, the University of Science and Technology of China conducted a survey of residents’ responses to the Avian Influenza A (H7N9) outbreak by personally handing questionnaires to residents in Anhui’s provincial cities of Hefei, Huainan, Huaibei, Suzhou, Bozhou and Guangde. A year later, in May and June of 2014, the Texas A&M University Hazard Reduction & Recovery Center conducted a mail survey of households’ expected responses to seasonal flu in the Bryan-College Station area, Texas. Both surveys assessed the respondents’ perceptions of nine stakeholder types in the categories of authorities, news media, and peers on three stakeholder characteristics—expertise, trustworthiness, and protection responsibility. Respondents in both the China and Texas samples perceived significant differences among the nine stakeholder types on the three stakeholder characteristics. Moreover, both China and Texas respondents rated expertise, trustworthiness, and protection responsibility as highest for public health authorities and lowest for internet/social media. However, the results of information reliance between Texas and China samples were totally different. For information about influenza, China respondents relied most on national TV channels and least on peers. However, Texas respondents relied most on local TV channels and least on internet/social media. These findings suggest that, in order to protect the public’s health and reduce the numbers of illness and deaths, public health authorities in different countries need to understand how their citizens view different information sources so they can ensure that people pay attention to the most accurate information about influenza threats.

Public perceptions of terrorism risk are important because they affect behavioral intent and their identification can inform the responses of public officials as they make decisions to warn, inform, or assist those who are both directly or indirectly affected. To date, much terrorism risk perception research has been conducted through post-event surveys or pre-event experiments to measure threat knowledge or dread risk factors. Studies that examine real time risk perceptions have been lacking. In this study we investigate public messages collected from the online social network Twitter, to examine comments that align with four significant terrorism events in the United States and England in 2013. Informed by the psychometric paradigm, we conduct content analysis on a systematic random sample of 1,600 messages that contain the keyword “terrorism,” to identify variations in “risk talk.” We find that there are three dominant risk perception concepts (controllability/preventability, global catastrophe, and expert knowledge) that correspond with all four of our selected terrorism events; seven additional risk perceptions are found to vary in response to the objective characteristics of each threat. Through this research we show that previously identified risk perception constructs are complex and multi-faceted, as demonstrated by variations in public “risk talk” on short messages. We also show that the collection and analysis of short messages delivered via online social networks is an important methodological strategy for future theoretical and applied research on risk communication. Our findings have the potential to inform risk communication strategies and practices for terrorism as well as other extreme events.

Significant issues were identified by coastal emergency managers and harbor masters in the wake of the 2010 Chile and 2011 Japan tsunamis in California: 1) real-time tsunami response tools for small to moderate tsunamis and forecasts which do not consider impacts from tidal conditions or storm surge; 2) planning products to help guide maritime communities in their tsunami response and mitigation activities; and 3) lack of tsunami hazard planning products that will help with land-use planning and project-level evaluation of risk. We are working with FEMA, the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program, and other tsunami experts to provide communities with new tsunami planning tools:

• Detailed “Playbooks” for secondary evacuation zones have been developed for various tsunami scenarios. An analytical tool called the FASTER approach incorporates local factors influencing tsunami flood hazard including Forecast Amplitude, Storm, Tides, forecast Error, and Run-up potential.

• Response playbooks and mitigation plans have also been developed for ports and harbors identifying tsunami current hazards for various size events. Knowing this allows harbor personnel to move ships or strengthen infrastructure prior to distant source tsunamis.

• A probabilistic tsunami hazard analysis (PTHA) for a number of risk levels has been initiated in the state to assist land-use planning and project-level development assessment. The PTHA products will address multiple applications, now and in the future, including Seismic Hazard Zonation in the state, FEMA flood insurance rate maps, and Tsunami Design Zone in the building codes.

Since floods are the most common natural hazard within the United States, it is essential to ensure communication of flood risk and vulnerability is done in a timely and efficient matter in order to reduce the loss-of-life and property. Hydrologists and meteorologists at the National Weather Service (NWS) are responsible for disseminating flood product and it is vital that these flood forecasts and warnings are communicated well to local decision makers such as: emergency managers and non-profit employees.

The purpose of this study is to understand how flood forecasts and warning information (issued at the National Weather Service Forecast Office-Grand Forks) are perceived and interpreted by local decision makers. The study specifically focuses on an interdisciplinary approach towards risk communication. A mail-based survey was used to evaluate participant knowledge and understanding of flood forecasts and warning information. In addition, the information provided by the mail-based survey was used to create a flood guide, used as an educational outreach tool for the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Grand Forks, North Dakota.