Reducing hazard vulnerability through local government engagement and action     

David King 《Natural Hazards》2008,47(3):497-508

The concept of a natural hazard is a human construct. It is the interaction with human communities and settlements that defines a natural phenomenon as a natural hazard. Thus the end point of hazard mitigation and hazard vulnerability assessment must involve an attempt to reduce, or mitigate, the impact of the natural hazard on human communities. The responsibility to mitigate hazard impact falls primarily upon governments and closely connected non-government and private institutional agencies. In particular, it is most often local government that takes the responsibility for safeguarding its own communities, infrastructure and people. Hazard vulnerability of specific local communities is best assessed by the local government or council, which then faces the responsibility to translate that assessment into community education and infrastructural safeguards for hazard mitigation. This paper illustrates the process of local government engagement in hazard mitigation in Australia, through the Natural Disaster Risk Management Studies, as a first step towards natural disaster reduction.  相似文献   

Field vibration mitigation by honeycomb WIB for pile foundations of a high-speed train viaduct   总被引：5，自引：0，他引：5  

Hirokazu Takemiya   《Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering》2004,24(1):69-87

Environmental vibrations from recent high-speed trains are becoming a special concern in the civil and environmental engineering field since they can give detrimental effects to residents, sensitive equipments and high-tech production facilities in the vicinity of train tacks. Herein, aiming at the vibration mitigation for a specific high-tech industrial area, the low-frequency vibrations from a train viaduct are targeted over an anticipated range. A theoretically designed innovative countermeasure, called honeycomb wave impeding barrier (WIB) for a wave impeding barrier, is introduced and its effects are investigated by computer simulation. The present WIB is based on the wave dispersion phenomenon that can modulate the incoming wavelengths into the shorter wavelengths, creating an apparent wave cut-off characteristic in the wave field across WIB installation area. The shorter wavelengths are further impeded due to the impedance ratio of the WIB walls and in-fill materials and absorbed by the in-fills more. The three-dimensional FEM simulation demonstrates a dramatic reduction effect that is difficult to achieve by conventional measures.  相似文献   

Proposal of a National Mitigation Strategy Against Earthquakes in Turkey     

Bakir  P.G. 《Natural Hazards》2004,33(3):405-425

While laboratory and analytical studies can provide valuable information about earthquake hazard mitigation, the most effective educator is the impact of a full-scale earthquake on a full-scale city. The recent earthquakes in Turkey showed that the governmental as well as individual attitudes towards earthquakes did not represent proportionate responses to the risk levels concerned. Turkey had weaknesses in preparing, planning, mitigating and responding to disasters in spite of the known seismic vulnerability of the country. Many steps have been taken after 1999 earthquakes in Turkey, however, the preparations largely concentrate on the response and recovery phases and a fundamental step to reform the current disaster management system and steps to rehabilitate the vulnerable building stock has not been undertaken until today. This would involve changing the present laws and regulations and de-centralising the disaster management system. The aim of this paper is to propose a national mitigation strategy for Turkey for a time-frame of 10 years. The model proposed is a very comprehensive model for earthquake risk reduction in Turkey and within this context, the legislative and technical aspects of mitigation will be discussed in detail. Strategies for mitigating and retrofitting the existing building stock will also be proposed.  相似文献   

Felt responsibility and climate engagement: Distinguishing adaptation from mitigation     

《Global Environmental Change》2016

Policy makers and citizens must choose from among a growing variety of strategic options as they try to cope optimally with climate change. As a means of more accurately predicting different types of climate change engagement, we empirically distinguish individuals’ felt responsibility for mitigation (FRm) from felt responsibility for adaptation (FRa), and assess support for different climate action strategies (mitigation and adaptation). We surveyed two U.S. samples two months apart, and the replication study confirmed Study 1′s findings of differing predictive powers for FRm vs. FRa. Each type of felt responsibility, controlling for the other, served as a mediator between belief in global warming (as well as belief in anthropogenic cause of climate change) and its corresponding climate action strategy (mitigation vs. adaptation). FRa predicted adaptation measures but not mitigation measures, while FRm predicted mitigation measures more strongly than it predicted adaptation but did predict both action strategies. We also found important individual differences: people’s disposition toward behaving proactively correlated positively with all types of climate engagement, and political orientation (liberal/conservative ideology) interacted with climate action strategy (mitigation vs. adaptation) in predicting all engagement variables. Comparing levels of support across the political spectrum, the mitigation measures were highly polarizing, while the adaptation measures were less divisive.  相似文献   

不同类型冷却屋顶方案对城市群热环境的缓解效果     

张弥  马红云  林卉娇  李海俊  王莹 《气候变化研究进展》2021,17(1):45-57

利用耦合单层城市冠层模型的中尺度数值模式WRF/UCM,选取8组不同反照率和绿化比例的屋顶冷却方案进行敏感性试验,模拟研究不同冷却屋顶方案对长三角城市群2013年夏季城市热环境的影响,并分析其影响机制。结果表明：不同冷却屋顶方案对城市群热环境的缓解效果与屋顶参数之间呈很强的线性关系。高温热浪天气下,HR4（反照率为1.0）和GR4（屋顶绿化率为100%）方案的制冷度日数分别降低了14.7%和10.9%,节约的能源比普通夏日更多。同时,高温热浪天气会增强热岛强度,高反照率屋顶方案在白天对热岛起到更有效的缓解,热浪天气下日平均热岛强度最大可降低1.36℃。相同方案下,在高温热浪天气下的缓解效果均胜于普通夏日,平均而言,高反照率屋顶和屋顶绿化的降温效果分别增大38.5%和34.9%,增湿效果分别增大29.5%和21.9%,这主要是由于在高温热浪天气下,高反照率屋顶方案能够减少更多的净辐射通量,屋顶绿化方案能够释放更多的潜热通量。此外,城市格点密集区域的降温效果优于分散的城市区域,处于城市群中的常州区域较单独的杭州区域的降温幅度平均高32%。  相似文献   

城市地震灾害风险评价方法研究     

金江军  潘懋  徐岳仁 《内陆地震》2007,21(2):135-141

从危险性评价、易损性评价以及防灾减灾能力评价3个方面阐述了城市地震灾害风险评价内容.回顾了地震灾害风险评价研究进展,指出了现有评价方法的不足.提出了基于地震小区划的城市地震危险性评价方法、基于城市用地类型的城市地震易损性评价方法以及基于专家打分法的城市防震减灾能力评价方法.最后设计了城市地震灾害风险评价流程,并给出了城市地震灾害风险区划算法.  相似文献   

It starts at home? Climate policies targeting household consumption and behavioral decisions are key to low-carbon futures     

《Chemie der Erde / Geochemistry》2007

Through their consumption behavior, households are responsible for 72% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, they are key actors in reaching the 1.5 °C goal under the Paris Agreement. However, the possible contribution and position of households in climate policies is neither well understood, nor do households receive sufficiently high priority in current climate policy strategies. This paper investigates how behavioral change can achieve a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in European high-income countries. It uses theoretical thinking and some core results from the HOPE research project, which investigated household preferences for reducing emissions in four European cities in France, Germany, Norway and Sweden. The paper makes five major points: First, car and plane mobility, meat and dairy consumption, as well as heating are the most dominant components of household footprints. Second, household living situations (demographics, size of home) greatly influence the household potential to reduce their footprint, even more than country or city location. Third, household decisions can be sequential and temporally dynamic, shifting through different phases such as childhood, adulthood, and illness. Fourth, short term voluntary efforts will not be sufficient by themselves to reach the drastic reductions needed to achieve the 1.5 °C goal; instead, households need a regulatory framework supporting their behavioral changes. Fifth, there is a mismatch between the roles and responsibilities conveyed by current climate policies and household perceptions of responsibility. We then conclude with further recommendations for research and policy.  相似文献   

Saving lives in earthquakes: successes and failures in seismic protection since 1960   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  

Robin Spence 《Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering》2007,5(2):139-251

This paper will look at what we have and have not achieved in reducing the risks to human life from earthquakes in the last 50 years. It will review how success has been achieved in a few parts of the world, and consider what needs to be done by the scientific and engineering community globally to assist in the future task of bringing earthquake risks under control. The first part of the talk will re-examine what we know about the casualties from earthquakes in the last 50 years. Almost 80% of about 1 million deaths turn out to have been caused by just ten great earthquakes, together affecting a tiny proportion of the territory at risk from heavy ground shaking. The disparity between richer and poorer countries is also evident, not only in fatality rates, but also in their rates of change. But the existing casualty database turns out to be a very poor basis for observing such differences, not only because of the small number of lethal events, but also because of the very limited data on causes of death, types and causes of injury. These have been examined in detail in only a few, recent events. All that can be said with certainty is that a few wealthier earthquake-prone countries or regions have made impressive progress in reducing the risk of death from earthquakes, while most of the rest of the world has achieved comparatively little, and in some areas the problem has become much worse. The second part of the paper looks in more detail at what has been achieved country-by-country. Based on a new expert-group survey of key individuals involved in earthquake risk mitigation, it will examine what are perceived to be the successes and failures of risk mitigation in each country or group of countries. This survey will be used to highlight the achievements of those countries which have successfully tackled their earthquake risk; it will examine the processes of earthquake risk mitigation, from campaigning to retrofitting, and it will consider to what extent the achievement is the result of affluence, scientific and technical activity, political advocacy, public awareness, or the experience of destructive events. It will ask to what extent the approaches pioneered by the global leaders can be adopted by the rest. The final section of the talk will argue that it can be useful to view earthquake protection activity as a public health matter to be advanced in a manner similar to globally successful disease-control measures: it will be argued that the key components of such programmes—building in protection; harnessing new technology and creating a safety culture—must be the key components of earthquake protection strategies also. It will consider the contribution which the scientific and engineering community can make to bringing down today’s unacceptably high global earthquake risk. It will be suggested that this role is wider than commonly understood and needs to include: Building-in protection

•	Improving and simplifying information available for designers and self-builders of homes and infrastructure.
•	Devising and running “building for safety” programmes to support local builders.

Harnessing new technologies

•	Developing and testing cost-effective techniques for new construction and retrofit.

Creating a safety culture

•	Involvement in raising public awareness.
•	Political advocacy to support new legislation and other actions.
•	Prioritising action on public buildings, especially schools and hospitals.

Examples of some of these actions will be given. International collaboration is essential to ensure that the resources and expertise available in the richer countries is shared with those most in need of help. And perhaps the most important single task for the engineering community is work to counter the widespread fatalistic attitude that future earthquakes are bound to be at least as destructive as those of the past.  相似文献   

Climate change transformation: A definition and typology to guide decision making in urban environments     

Anna C. Hurlimann  Sareh Moosavi  Geoffrey R. Browne 《Chemie der Erde / Geochemistry》2010

Climate change presents a threat to the sustainability of cities and their societies, and must be adequately addressed. Urban environments (cities) are responsible for the creation of a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions which are the source of climate change. Cities have been increasingly the focus of action to address climate change, yet emissions are not significantly reducing. Additionally, there a lack of integration between adaptation and mitigation. This prevents responses adequate to limit global warming to 1.5^OC, and to be well adapted to anticipated changes. This paper critically analyses existing definitions and typologies of climate change actions. A definition of ‘climate change transformation’ is proposed which includes the integration of adaptation and mitigation goals to enable a new regime in which global warming is limited to 1.5^OC. A new three-part typology: ‘coping, malaction and transformation,’ is presented for categorising climate change actions by the extent to which they integrate adaptation and mitigation, and define a new regime. The typology is accompanied by illustrations to demonstrate the relationship between adaptation and mitigation. The definition, typology and illustration serve to guide effective climate change decision making, and provides principles to guide application in urban environments.  相似文献   

Assessing the likelihood of widespread landholder adoption of afforestation and reforestation projects     

《Global Environmental Change》2014

Tree planting for carbon sequestration is a commonly proposed climate change mitigation strategy, with afforestation projects forming part of voluntary and mandatory carbon offset trading schemes. Afforestation is often promoted as a new economic opportunity for private landholders. While multiple studies have identified physical and economic opportunities for afforestation, few have examined the willingness of private landholders to adopt afforestation, and the factors that influence this willingness. We examine this using data from a survey of Australian landholders. The willingness of landholders to adopt afforestation for carbon sequestration varies substantially depending on how this afforestation is designed and implemented: landholders prefer small plantings on less productive land, which minimise the disturbance afforestation presents to land management, and to landholder values about appropriate uses of agricultural land. Landholders are less willing to consider afforestation if it involves planting the large areas required by many current carbon afforestation schemes. Willingness to adopt afforestation is influenced in particular by landholder's perceptions of its potential to provide a diversified income stream, and its impacts on flexibility of land management. More broadly, it is influenced by their views about the social acceptability of afforestation, particularly whether the landholder believes trees should be planted on agricultural land, and how they believe others in the community view afforestation. Our results suggest that widespread adoption requires designing afforestation so it (i) provides a range of socio-economic benefits that go beyond provision of income; (ii) minimises disruption to land management flexibility; and (iii) is compatible with landholder beliefs about appropriate use of agricultural land.  相似文献