Estimating flood risks and managing disasters combines knowledge in climatology, meteorology, hydrology, hydraulic engineering, statistics, planning and geography – thus a complex multi-faceted problem. This study focuses on the capabilities of multi-source remote sensing data to support decision-making before, during and after a flood event. With our focus on urbanized areas, sample methods an...

Developing countries are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of disaster management systems, and increasing efforts are being made to streamline preparedness, response and recovery mechanisms at all levels. It is well known that many developing countries, including India, are not always well-prepared to deal with disasters. A lack of well-developed disaster management plans results in...

This comprehensive analysis addresses the United States' alarming lack of preparedness to respond effectively to a massive disaster as evidenced by Hurricane Katrina. First, a timeline of problematic response events during and after Hurricane Katrina orients readers to some of the specific problems encountered at different levels of government. Second, a list of the "Dirty Dozen"--12 major fail...

The importance of our infrastructure systems as the foundations for our civilization, maintaining the health of our society and serving as the engines for our economy has been articulated by the NSF and other government agencies since the 1970’s. The National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP), created by the US Congress by the Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act of 1977 was based on rec...

Damage estimates from 80 U.S. earthquakes since 1900 are “normalized” to 2005 dollars by adjusting for inflation, increases in wealth, and changes in population. Factors accounting for mitigation at 1 and 2% loss reduction per year are also considered. The earthquake damage record is incomplete, perhaps by up to 25% of total events that cause damage, but all of the most damaging events are acco...

Increasing precipitation by climate change and the growing number of impervious areas present greater risk of disaster damage in urban areas. Urban green infrastructure can be an effective mitigation alternative in highly developed and concentrated area. This study investigates the effect of various types of urban green infrastructure on mitigating disaster damage in Korea. Tobit model is used ...

This paper examines the relationships between social participation and disaster risk reduction actions. A survey of 557 households in tsunami prone areas in Phang Nga, Thailand was conducted following the 2012 Indian Ocean earthquakes. We use a multivariate probit model to jointly estimate the likelihood of undertaking three responses to earthquake and tsunami hazards (namely, (1) following dis...

After Aceh’s quake many earthquakes have struck Indonesia alternately and even other disasters have been a threat for every citizen in this country. Actually an everyday occurrence on earth and more than 3 million earthquakes occur every year, about 8,000 a day, or one every 11 seconds in Indonesia there are 5 to 30 quakes prediction everyday. Government’s responsibility to protect the citizen ...

As natural and man-made disasters become increasingly common, ensuring effective disaster response, mitigation and recovery is growing into a high-priority task for governments and administrations globally. This paper describes the challenges of collaboration within multi-organisational hastily formed networks for post-disaster response, which are increasingly relying on emerging ICT infrastruc...