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Assessing the Resilience of Drinking Water Systems to Disasters.
Abstract not provided.
Defense & Disaster Deployable Turbine (D3T) DWEA Conference.
Abstract not provided.
Modeling and Analysis of Infrastructure Dependencies: an example for natural disaster planning.
Abstract not provided.
Modeling the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster with QUIC-DEPDOSE
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Development and Implementation of Real-Time Information Delivery Systems for Emergency Management
The disaster management community has an on-going need for real-time data and information, especially during catastrophic events. Currently, twin engine or jet aircraft with limited altitude and duration capabilities collect much of the data. Flight safety is also an issue. Clearly, much of the needed data could be delivered via over-the-horizon transfer through a uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAV) platform to mission managers at various locations on the ground. In fact, because of the ability to stay aloft for long periods of time, and to fly above dangerous situations, UAV's are ideally suited for disaster missions. There are numerous situations that can be considered disastrous for the human population. Some, such as fire or flood, can continue over a period of days. Disaster management officials rely on data from the site to respond in an optimum way with warnings, evacuations, rescue, relief, and to the extent possible, damage control. Although different types of disasters call for different types of response, most situations can be improved by having visual images and other remotely sensed data available. "Disaster Management" is actually made up of a number of activities, including: - Disaster Prevention and Mitigation - Emergency Response Planning - Disaster Management (real-time deployment of resources, during an event) - Disaster / Risk Modeling All of these activities could benefit from real-time information, but a major focus for UAV-based technology is in real-time deployment of resources (i.e., emergency response teams), based on changing conditions at the location of the event. With all these potential benefits, it is desirable to demonstrate to user agencies the ability to perform disaster management missions as described. The following demonstration project is the first in a program designed to prove the feasibility of supporting disaster missions with UAV technology and suitable communications packages on-board. A several-year program is envisioned, in which a broad range of disaster-related activities are demonstrated to the appropriate user communities.
Handling Emergency Management in [an] Object Oriented Modeling Environment
It has been understood that protection of a nation from extreme disasters is a challenging task. Impacts of extreme disasters on a nation's critical infrastructures, economy and society could be devastating. A protection plan itself would not be sufficient when a disaster strikes. Hence, there is a need for a holistic approach to establish more resilient infrastructures to withstand extreme disasters. A resilient infrastructure can be defined as a system or facility that is able to withstand damage, but if affected, can be readily and cost-effectively restored. The key issue to establish resilient infrastructures is to incorporate existing protection plans with comprehensive preparedness actions to respond, recover and restore as quickly as possible, and to minimize extreme disaster impacts. Although national organizations will respond to a disaster, extreme disasters need to be handled mostly by local emergency management departments. Since emergency management departments have to deal with complex systems, they have to have a manageable plan and efficient organizational structures to coordinate all these systems. A strong organizational structure is the key in responding fast before and during disasters, and recovering quickly after disasters. In this study, the entire emergency management is viewed as an enterprise and modelled through enterprise management approach. Managing an enterprise or a large complex system is a very challenging task. It is critical for an enterprise to respond to challenges in a timely manner with quick decision making. This study addresses the problem of handling emergency management at regional level in an object oriented modelling environment developed by use of TopEase software. Emergency Operation Plan of the City of Hampton, Virginia, has been incorporated into TopEase for analysis. The methodology used in this study has been supported by a case study on critical infrastructure resiliency in Hampton Roads.
Personal Resiliency Index
A plethora of information exists in literature focusing on different aspects of personal resilience. There are a number of questionnaires available to measure resilience in different aspects of an individual’s life, such as mental health. However, there is a lack of comprehensive information on the subject of personal resilience to natural and man-made disasters. A Personal Resiliency Index identifying four key areas of resilience related to natural and man-made disasters will help fill this gap by providing individuals an idea of where the stand comparatively to their peers on this topics. As an increasing amount of man-made disasters, natural disasters and pandemics occur, we realize that preparation is key.?“Crisis can be experienced at individual, group and mass levels and at local, regional, national or supra-national levels.” 1? Dr. Ron Fisher, the principal investigator has over 20 years’ critical infrastructure protection including developing vulnerability assessment methodology, risk and resiliency analyses and infrastructure interdependencies. Dr. Fisher and his team will research and develop a voluntary survey which evaluates the user’s personal resilience level to natural and man-made disasters. The research team is focusing on 4 main categories:? financial resilience, cyber security, physical and mental health, and emergency preparedness.?The web based application will?provide a resilience score for each of the categories and also a comprehensive personal resiliency score based on the voluntary survey. The application will also provide feedback to the user on actions to take to become more resilient to natural and man-made disasters. Through this effort, we will also be able to identify the areas where participants are excelling as well as opportunities for improvement in terms of resilience. This information will provide insight into areas of further investigation and identify potential areas of support needed for the general public to adopt strategies to become more resilient. 1 Lynott, William. “Surviving a Natural (or Man-Made) Disaster: How to Prepare for and Bounce Back? from a Crisis in Your Business | 2018-02-01 | NOLN.” Home Page, NOLN, 1 Feb. 2018, https://www.noln.net/articles/2683-surviving-a-natural-or-man-made-disaster-how-to-prepare-for-and-bounce-back-from-a-crisis-in-your-business.
A whole wilderness of warning: Assessing economic consequences of nuclear releases - 15494
The consequences of the Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster may provide a useful analogue for assessing the consequences of an accident involving the transport of spent nuclear fuel in the United States. An unexamined, to date, aspect of the Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster is the wide disagreement about the economic consequences of the release. There exist a variety of different estimates and different models and methods for performing these estimates, but not a systematic way to address the range of issues such a disaster generated. This paper examines the sources, methods, data, and assumptions used to prepare economic consequence estimates of the disaster. This paper compares and contrasts these estimates and evaluates them for their reliability. The wide dispersion of consequence assessments as defined by various media and agency impact reports in the post-Fukushima era are evidence that such variability does not serve the industry, regulators, government or researchers well. While a protocol exists to gauge the intensity of an incident (INES Scale) no pre-existing methodology exists to measure the various socioeconomic impacts associated with a radiological disaster, be it induced by a natural disaster incident or human initiated. This paper argues that an improved method will be necessary and suggests some parameters for such a method. Nevada has started the dialogue on such a comprehensive methodology (Ballard 2012, Ballard 2014). Despite this effort by a stakeholder, the regulatory agencies involved in nuclear waste shipments in the United States appear reluctant to begin a dialogue about how to address the full range and scope of issues. Resolution of this problem will be a necessary prerequisite to any large scale shipping program. It will be necessary to adopt a standardized methodology to assess consequences of a radiological emergency and incorporate this into the environmental impact statement process for the shipping program. This analytical deficiency should be addressed by these agencies/regulators and in preparation for the potential movement of nuclear waste in the quantities necessary to service the nuclear power industry and to address the existing spent nuclear fuel (SNF) stockpiles across the United States. It will be necessary to demonstrate to stakeholders that the benefits of shipping radioactive substances this dangerous outweigh the costs of a possible accident or terrorist incident. The nuclear energy industry should support funding for these assessment studies in order to provide a basis for discussions about the costs and benefits of the shipments. The studies would provide stakeholders with clarity about the possible consequences of the program. The studies will also assist Japan in its efforts to understand what their disaster means for that country. This paper will begin the dialogue on how such analytical protocols could be constructed to pre-stage the research necessary to assess such consequences. (authors)
Demonstrating Acquisition of Real-Time Thermal Data over Fires Utilizing UAVs
NASA-Ames Research Center, in collaboration with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. has been developing real-time data acquisition and information delivery systems employing uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV) technology for disaster mitigation and assessment demonstrations. Working in conjunction with the US Forest Service, a disaster community agency responsible for wildfire management and mitigation, we developed a large-scale wildfire demonstration called the First Response Experiment (FIRE). During that experiment in late summer 2001, the participants demonstrated the melding of innovative technologies such as UAV platforms, real-time data processing, and data telemetry for quick analysis of a disaster event. The General Atomics ALTUS UAV, the Airborne Infrared Disaster Assessment System (AIRDAS) and Over-The-Horizon (OTH) satellite data telemetry equipment were employed over a controlled burn to test the feasibility of a disaster monitoring and mitigation platform for hazardous duty. The ALTUS UAV was employed to demonstrate the long duration, altitude, and payload capability of unmanned platforms for acquiring disaster related data. The ALTUS has an operational altitude to 45,000 feet (13,700 in), with a flight duration of twenty-four hours and a payload capacity of over 300 lbs. (148.5 kg). This allows the platform to operate under the conditions that would be necessary for monitoring and mitigating disaster events throughout the Unites States. The four channel AIRDAS data (calibrated thermal infrared digital imagery of the fire event) was sent from the ALTUS UAV via a satellite communications system (NERA transponder and INMARSAT satellite) to a data archive server and an image processing work station at NASA-Ames Research Center, 400 miles away.
Comprehensive Severe Weather Impact Assessment and Monitoring using Synthetic Aperture Radar and Auxiliary Data
Remote sensing datasets, particularly acquired by Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors, have become increasingly important in severe weather disaster impact studies given their ability to observe the Earth largely irrespective of weather and sunlight conditions. The reliability of existing SAR change detection products applied on a pair of SAR images is constrained by the limitation of current methods to differentiate and classify disaster specific changes from anthropogenic surface alterations. Moreover, the inherent properties of the sensors, variations in SAR backscatter due to changes in surface conditions, and other factors exacerbate these limitations. We proposed a novel procedure expanding on earlier SAR-based change detection methods to exclude anthropogenic alterations and other sources of ambiguity that might lead to inaccurate mapping of the impacts of severe weather disasters. We applied the proposed procedure that is based on long term interferometric and amplitude-based change detection analyses of Sentinel- 1 SAR imagery to two study sites recently impacted by severe weather disasters (Flooding post severe weather events in urban centers; Hailstorm damage on crops). For the first case study, Sentinel-1 SLC scenes from two flood events in the Houston area (April 2016 flooding event and Hurricane Harvey of August-September 2017) were used to construct a flood map depicting areas repeatedly affected by the flood. Pixels with consistent coherence values in the pre-disaster coherence stack were retained for comparison with the pre- and post-disaster coherence stack and pixels with significant decline (greater than 60%) in coherence values were retained in the final flood map. The findings of the applied technique were calibrated and validated through datasets from NOAA/NWS Service storm reports, aerial imaging (NOAA and Civil Air Patrol), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reporting, and targeted collections of NASA’s L-band UAVSAR data. Findings and products derived from the adopted methodology can be useful in disaster response and mitigation activities.
Household energy resilience in extreme weather events: An investigation of energy service importance, HVAC usage behaviors, and willingness to pay
Household energy resilience, particularly maintaining essential energy services within an acceptable and affordable level, is critical during extreme weather events (e.g., winter storms, heat waves) with power shortages or outages. However, the research on the importance and acceptable compromise levels of energy services, HVAC usage behavior changes, and willingness to pay (WTP) for energy services during disasters is limited. Therefore, this study investigates the importance and compromise of household energy services, HVAC usage behaviors, and WTP, as three key dimensions of household energy resilience, in both normal days and disaster scenarios through surveys (n=485). First, 12 common residential end-uses are grouped into high, mid, and low-priority services using hierarchical clustering, in which high-priority services (perceived as important and un-compromisable) include food cooking and storage (refrigerator and freezer) and thermal comfort (space heating and cooling), mid-priority services involve water heating and lighting, while low-priority services are mostly related to entertainment and housework (e.g., TV, laundry). Also, HVAC use patterns demonstrate that occupants become more energy conservative during disasters, e.g., reducing durations of running HVAC and adjusting temperature setpoints to save energy. In terms of energy cost, approximately 60% of respondents are willing to pay more to maintain energy services during disasters, although only 13% are prepared to pay over double the normal energy prices. The regression models further reveal that household energy resilience varies across different sociodemographic groups (e.g., age, income, family size) and is impacted by disaster experience and beliefs in clean energy and climate. In conclusion, these research findings provide important perspectives to understand household energy resilience and inform measures for disaster adaptation of households in extreme weather events.
Resilient Solar and Storage Roadmap
Resilience to natural disasters is imperative for safe, economically productive cities. In the immediate aftermath of an earthquake, flood, or other disaster, one key element of resilience is continued operation of shelters and critical emergency management facilities. Operation of these facilities depends on reliable emergency power. Traditional emergency power systems use diesel generators with storage tanks, which provide power for only a few days in the absence of the electric or gas grid. However, a recent study has shown that gas and electric networks can require days or weeks to recover from a disaster, leaving facilities with generators at risk of running out of fuel. This has already been experienced in New York City after Hurricane Sandy where a combination of lengthy outages and high flood waters compromised the traditional diesel storage and generator backup infrastructure at hospitals and shelters. With the risk of natural disasters increasing due to climate change, we must turn to more resilient solutions for providing backup power to shelters, medical centers, and emergency operations centers. From 2015 to 2017, the City and County of San Francisco Solar and Storage for Resilience Project examined the use of microgrids and stand-alone solar electric generation with battery storage to provide resilient post-disaster power to critical facilities. The project evaluated 1,263 potential congregation and shelter sites across the city, 67 of which were identified as shelter sites with power requirements and opportunities to develop resilient infrastructure through solar and storage. Site visits were conducted for 18 of these buildings, spanning all 11 supervisor districts in San Francisco and a range of normal and emergency use types. The project team used observations from these site visits to create representative emergency power profiles for all 67 shelters in San Francisco. Using these profiles, the team found that 8.2 megawatts (MW) of photovoltaic panels and 12.9 MW of battery storage would be required to provide resilient backup power for San Francisco’s shelters following a disaster. Given the high capital cost of deploying this large resource, the project team investigated various financing options — a public-private partnership was found to be a viable pathway for financing resilient solar and storage. Given the added benefit of energy cost savings in normal operation, a public-private partnership financing model would save the City and County of San Francisco 6% over a traditional design-bid-build approach over a 20-year portfolio lifetime. This roadmap documents the project’s steps of identifying critical facilities, surveying power requirements, assessing renewable potential, evaluating financing options to develop the solar and storage systems for resiliency, and modeling individual sites for solar and storage installation. This roadmap also examines the challenges critical facilities face in providing resilient power, such as key technical, political, and financing barriers, as well as the opportunities and policy recommendations to further advance resilient solar and storage development in San Francisco. While this report focuses on a detailed study of San Francisco, the methods and outcomes are applicable to any city or town.