The method of commensurability was used by the authors to predict the great earthquake of magnitude 7.5 that occurred on March 31,2002 in Taiwan 70km away from Hualian. Analyzing the earthquakes of magnitude≥7.0 whic...The method of commensurability was used by the authors to predict the great earthquake of magnitude 7.5 that occurred on March 31,2002 in Taiwan 70km away from Hualian. Analyzing the earthquakes of magnitude≥7.0 which occurred in the Hualian area of Taiwan within the 20th century, the authors discovered that the occurrences of the earthquakes are commensurable. The earthquakes of magnitude 7.6 which occurred in Hualian of Taiwan, on September 20th, 1999 and of magnitude 7.5 which occurred 70 km away from Hualian, on March 31th, 2002 appeared at the commensurable point of K=2 and the period times the golden section, respectively. An extended discussion is carried out on the method of commensurability and its implied physical significance, especially on the contribution of the commensurable periodic extension made by Prof. Weng Wenbo.展开更多
Significant loss of life and damage to properties, ecosystems and marine facilities occur due to various natural hazards such as cyclones and tsunamis. Royal HaskoningDHV has developed regional hydrodynamic and wave m...Significant loss of life and damage to properties, ecosystems and marine facilities occur due to various natural hazards such as cyclones and tsunamis. Royal HaskoningDHV has developed regional hydrodynamic and wave models covering the Northern Arabian Sea to address these issues. Cyclone modelling was carried out on 11 major cyclones since 1945 and the tsunami modelling on an earthquake along the Makran Fault Line in 1945. Sample results from these modelling studies are presented in this paper. The methodology described in this article for modelling cyclones and tsunamis in the Arabian Sea could be applied to simulate these natural hazards at other sites around the world.展开更多
Social vulnerability in this study represents the differences between the capacity to cope with natural hazards and disaster losses suffered within and between places.The assessment of social vulnerability has been re...Social vulnerability in this study represents the differences between the capacity to cope with natural hazards and disaster losses suffered within and between places.The assessment of social vulnerability has been recognized as a critical step in understanding natural hazard risks and enhancing effective response capabilities.This article presents an initial study of the social vulnerability of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei(B-T-H) Region in China.The goal is to replicate and test the applicability of the United States Social Vulnerability Index(So VI) method in a Chinese cultural context.Thirty-nine variables adapted from the So VI were collected in relation to two aspects:socioeconomic vulnerability and built environment vulnerability.Using factor analysis,seven factors were extracted from the variable set:the structure of social development,the level of economic and government financial strength,social justice and poverty,family structure,the intensity of space development,the status of residential housing and transportation,and building structure.Factor scores were summed to get the final So VI scores and the most and least vulnerable units were identified and mapped.The highest social vulnerability is concentrated in the northwest of the study area.The least socially vulnerable areas are mainly distributed in the Beijing,Tianjin and Shijiazhuang core urban peripheral and central city areas of the prefecture-level cities.The results show that this method is a useful tool for revealing places that have a high level of vulnerability,in other words,areas which are more likely to face significant challenges in coping with a large-scale event.These findings could provide a scientific basis for policy making and the implementation of disaster prevention and mitigation in China.展开更多
A major natural hazard associated with LGOM (Legnica-Glogow Copper Mining) mining is the dynamic phenomena occurrence, physically observed as seismic tremors. Some of them generate effects in the form of relaxations...A major natural hazard associated with LGOM (Legnica-Glogow Copper Mining) mining is the dynamic phenomena occurrence, physically observed as seismic tremors. Some of them generate effects in the form of relaxations or bumps. Long-term observations of the rock mass behaviour indicate that the degree of seismic hazard, and therefore also seismic activity in the LGOM area, is affected by the great depth of the copper deposit, high-strength rocks as well as the ability of rock mass to accumulate elastic energy. In this aspect, the effect of the characteristics of initial stress tensor and the orientation of considered mining panel in regards to its components must be emphasised. The primary objective of this study is to answer the question, which of the factors considered as "influencing" the dynamic phenomena occurrence in copper mines have a statistically significant effect on seismic activity and to what extent. Using the general linear model procedure, an attempt has been made to quantify the impact of different parameters, including the depth of deposit, the presence of goaf in the vicinity of operating mining panels and the direction of mining face advance, on seismic activity based on historical data from 2000 to 2010 concerned with the dynamic phenomena recorded in different mining panels in Rudna mine. The direction of mining face advance as well as the goaf situation in the vicinity of the mining panel are of the greatest interest in the case of the seismic activity in LGOM. It can be assumed that the appropriate manipulation of parameters of mining systems should ensure the safest variant of mining method under specific geological and mining conditions.展开更多
Invariably, it is the poorest of the poor who are mostly affected by perverse disasters, policies and laws. A major concern in disaster research is to explore the relationship between shock experiences and victims' p...Invariably, it is the poorest of the poor who are mostly affected by perverse disasters, policies and laws. A major concern in disaster research is to explore the relationship between shock experiences and victims' perceptions of risk, as well as their possible effect on victims' behavior for resilience and adaptation. We explore this relationship on victimized households of the 1986 Lake Nyos disaster, employing a quasi-experimental design. Matching was done with non-affected households. Both groups affected and non-affected households were of adequate size, and subject to the same questionnaire. Selection of (470) test and matching households was purposely limited to nine of the ten towns accommodating both survivors and non survivors of the examined disaster. A list constructed with traditional rulers in each village allowed for random sampling of non victims for comparative analysis. We then compare households affected by the disaster with those who were not. The results reveal differentiated perceptions of risk and management behavior contingent on whether households experienced the shock or not. However, solidarity and reciprocity remained extremely high and not significantly different amongst both household types, suggesting resilience of endogenous, informal risk response mechanisms to natural shocks. The article concludes that analyzing risk perceptions can help explain why some individuals, households or communities may be resilient to shocks and others not. We argue for a combination of subjective perceptions and objective shock analysis, especially if the analyst hopes to influence policy.展开更多
In view of the fact that climate-related disasters are already taking a heavy toll, causing massive damage to crops and infrastructure and forcing some people to flee their homes, however, the potential impacts of cli...In view of the fact that climate-related disasters are already taking a heavy toll, causing massive damage to crops and infrastructure and forcing some people to flee their homes, however, the potential impacts of climate change are likely to trigger adaptive responses that influence environmental and socio-economic drivers of food system performance in positive as well as negative ways. This paper was conducted through the collection of some research materials with the projected balance of these various climate impacts on food system performance and food security outcomes at the local and global levels. More so that, food security is likely to be affected by climate change in several ways: food security depends not only on the direct impact of climate change on food production but also on its indirect impact on human nutrition and health, economic growth, trade flows and food aid policy. The paper further examined the effectiveness of managing new risks and uncertainty, improving the quality of information and its use, monitoring weather and improving scientific understanding of climate change, promoting insurance schemes, maintaining biodiversity and access to fund as some of the crucial measures for adaptation. The large amount of resources that would be necessary to avoid the worst case scenario suggests the necessity of continued support from the international community to improve food security at the local and global levels as a whole.展开更多
Alpine-cold regions are characterized as hypoxia,strong wind,heavy rain,cold climate,huge temperature difference between day and night,and vertical climate. All these make it difficult for an emergency rescue when a n...Alpine-cold regions are characterized as hypoxia,strong wind,heavy rain,cold climate,huge temperature difference between day and night,and vertical climate. All these make it difficult for an emergency rescue when a natural disaster such as earthquake happens. Based on the characteristics of emergency rescue in alpinecold region,several multifunctional protective equipments have been developed by the Quartermaster Equipment Institute of General Logistics Departmen(tGLD)of the Chinese People's Liberation Army(CPLA). These equipments are lightweight,durable and environment adaptable.展开更多
The feasibility analysis of projects for the preservation of the historical heritage buildings is an important problem concerning the evaluation of "the total cost of intervention", which includes all the future dam...The feasibility analysis of projects for the preservation of the historical heritage buildings is an important problem concerning the evaluation of "the total cost of intervention", which includes all the future damage costs. The total cost of intervention represents a suitable measure of the expected deterioration risk and its evolution obviously depends on the damage process which buildings are subjected to. That damage phenomena affecting masonry buildings pleased into an aggressive environment are suitably modelled by renewal processes: this happens both in the case of catastrophic events, or in the case of the so-called "natural aging", in which damage comes off gradually in time. In the hypothesis ofa Markovian renewal process (Mrp) describing the damage process, the total cost of all the future damage is evaluated taking into account both the damage aspects: damages due to catastrophic aspects and damages due to aggressive environment, supposing different maintenance and/or rehabilitation scenarios. A semi-Markov process (s-Mp) is defined to model the damage rehabilitation history of buildings in presence of seismic events, natural ageing and rehabilitation strategies. The expected rewards connected to the process are defined; they represent a significant measure of the risk.展开更多
Though drought is a recurrent phenomenon in the Jinghe watershed, very little attention has been paid to drought mitigation and preparedness. This article presents a method for the spatial assessment of agricultural d...Though drought is a recurrent phenomenon in the Jinghe watershed, very little attention has been paid to drought mitigation and preparedness. This article presents a method for the spatial assessment of agricultural drought risk in the Jinghe watershed of western China at a 1-km grid scale. A conceptual framework, which emphasizes the combined roles of hazard and vulnerability in defining risk, is used. The Z index method in a GIS environment is used to map the spatial extent of drought hazards. The key social and physical factors that define agricultural drought in the context of the Jinghe watershed are indentified and corresponding thematic maps are prepared. Risk is calculated by the integration of hazard and vulnerability. Results show that the risk gradient follows a north-south and west-east tendency and that agricultural droughts pose the highest risk to northern and northwestern sections of the Jinghe watershed.展开更多
The Indian subcontinent is amongst the biologically better known parts of the tropics and its bird fauna has been well documented. However, avian community composition and diversity along elevational gradients and amo...The Indian subcontinent is amongst the biologically better known parts of the tropics and its bird fauna has been well documented. However, avian community composition and diversity along elevational gradients and amongst habitat types remains unclear in India. We attempted to estimate bird assemblages in terms of diversity, species composition, status and abun- dance in urban and forest habitats of Nainital district of Uttarakhand (350-2450 m asl; 29N), Western Himalayas. We sampled different elevational gradients and to understand the effect of urbanization and season on avian community composition. Field studies were conducted during January 2005 to January 2007. Results indicated that the forest had more complex bird community structure in terms of higher species richness (14.35 vs 8.69), higher species diversity (Shannon's index 4.00 vs 3.54), higher evenness (0.838 vs 0.811) and more rare species (17 vs 5) as compared to urban habitat. However, the abundance of 11 species was higher in urban habitats. Bird Species Richness (BSR) varied considerably among study areas (91 to 113 species), was high- est (113 species) at mid elevation (1450-1700 m asl) and decreased (22 species) at high elevation (1900-2450 m asl). It seems that high BSR at mid altitudes is not caused by the presence of a group of mid altitude specialists but rather that there is an over- lap in the distribution of low land and high elevation specialists at this altitude. BSR and Bird Species Diversity fluctuated across seasons but not habitat type [Current Zoology 57 (3): 318-329,2011].展开更多
基金This work was supported by the Nation’s Natural Science Found of China (No.10373017) and the Chinese Astronomical Committee Foundation.
文摘The method of commensurability was used by the authors to predict the great earthquake of magnitude 7.5 that occurred on March 31,2002 in Taiwan 70km away from Hualian. Analyzing the earthquakes of magnitude≥7.0 which occurred in the Hualian area of Taiwan within the 20th century, the authors discovered that the occurrences of the earthquakes are commensurable. The earthquakes of magnitude 7.6 which occurred in Hualian of Taiwan, on September 20th, 1999 and of magnitude 7.5 which occurred 70 km away from Hualian, on March 31th, 2002 appeared at the commensurable point of K=2 and the period times the golden section, respectively. An extended discussion is carried out on the method of commensurability and its implied physical significance, especially on the contribution of the commensurable periodic extension made by Prof. Weng Wenbo.
文摘Significant loss of life and damage to properties, ecosystems and marine facilities occur due to various natural hazards such as cyclones and tsunamis. Royal HaskoningDHV has developed regional hydrodynamic and wave models covering the Northern Arabian Sea to address these issues. Cyclone modelling was carried out on 11 major cyclones since 1945 and the tsunami modelling on an earthquake along the Makran Fault Line in 1945. Sample results from these modelling studies are presented in this paper. The methodology described in this article for modelling cyclones and tsunamis in the Arabian Sea could be applied to simulate these natural hazards at other sites around the world.
基金Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.41401176,41201550,41201114)New Starting Point of Beijing Union University(No.ZK10201406,ZK10201302)+1 种基金Humanities and Social Science Key Research Base of Zhejiang Province(Applied Economics at Zhejiang Gongshang University)(No.JYTyyjj20130105)Incubation Programme of Great Wall Scholars of Beijing Municipal University&College(No.IDHT20130322)
文摘Social vulnerability in this study represents the differences between the capacity to cope with natural hazards and disaster losses suffered within and between places.The assessment of social vulnerability has been recognized as a critical step in understanding natural hazard risks and enhancing effective response capabilities.This article presents an initial study of the social vulnerability of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei(B-T-H) Region in China.The goal is to replicate and test the applicability of the United States Social Vulnerability Index(So VI) method in a Chinese cultural context.Thirty-nine variables adapted from the So VI were collected in relation to two aspects:socioeconomic vulnerability and built environment vulnerability.Using factor analysis,seven factors were extracted from the variable set:the structure of social development,the level of economic and government financial strength,social justice and poverty,family structure,the intensity of space development,the status of residential housing and transportation,and building structure.Factor scores were summed to get the final So VI scores and the most and least vulnerable units were identified and mapped.The highest social vulnerability is concentrated in the northwest of the study area.The least socially vulnerable areas are mainly distributed in the Beijing,Tianjin and Shijiazhuang core urban peripheral and central city areas of the prefecture-level cities.The results show that this method is a useful tool for revealing places that have a high level of vulnerability,in other words,areas which are more likely to face significant challenges in coping with a large-scale event.These findings could provide a scientific basis for policy making and the implementation of disaster prevention and mitigation in China.
文摘A major natural hazard associated with LGOM (Legnica-Glogow Copper Mining) mining is the dynamic phenomena occurrence, physically observed as seismic tremors. Some of them generate effects in the form of relaxations or bumps. Long-term observations of the rock mass behaviour indicate that the degree of seismic hazard, and therefore also seismic activity in the LGOM area, is affected by the great depth of the copper deposit, high-strength rocks as well as the ability of rock mass to accumulate elastic energy. In this aspect, the effect of the characteristics of initial stress tensor and the orientation of considered mining panel in regards to its components must be emphasised. The primary objective of this study is to answer the question, which of the factors considered as "influencing" the dynamic phenomena occurrence in copper mines have a statistically significant effect on seismic activity and to what extent. Using the general linear model procedure, an attempt has been made to quantify the impact of different parameters, including the depth of deposit, the presence of goaf in the vicinity of operating mining panels and the direction of mining face advance, on seismic activity based on historical data from 2000 to 2010 concerned with the dynamic phenomena recorded in different mining panels in Rudna mine. The direction of mining face advance as well as the goaf situation in the vicinity of the mining panel are of the greatest interest in the case of the seismic activity in LGOM. It can be assumed that the appropriate manipulation of parameters of mining systems should ensure the safest variant of mining method under specific geological and mining conditions.
文摘Invariably, it is the poorest of the poor who are mostly affected by perverse disasters, policies and laws. A major concern in disaster research is to explore the relationship between shock experiences and victims' perceptions of risk, as well as their possible effect on victims' behavior for resilience and adaptation. We explore this relationship on victimized households of the 1986 Lake Nyos disaster, employing a quasi-experimental design. Matching was done with non-affected households. Both groups affected and non-affected households were of adequate size, and subject to the same questionnaire. Selection of (470) test and matching households was purposely limited to nine of the ten towns accommodating both survivors and non survivors of the examined disaster. A list constructed with traditional rulers in each village allowed for random sampling of non victims for comparative analysis. We then compare households affected by the disaster with those who were not. The results reveal differentiated perceptions of risk and management behavior contingent on whether households experienced the shock or not. However, solidarity and reciprocity remained extremely high and not significantly different amongst both household types, suggesting resilience of endogenous, informal risk response mechanisms to natural shocks. The article concludes that analyzing risk perceptions can help explain why some individuals, households or communities may be resilient to shocks and others not. We argue for a combination of subjective perceptions and objective shock analysis, especially if the analyst hopes to influence policy.
文摘In view of the fact that climate-related disasters are already taking a heavy toll, causing massive damage to crops and infrastructure and forcing some people to flee their homes, however, the potential impacts of climate change are likely to trigger adaptive responses that influence environmental and socio-economic drivers of food system performance in positive as well as negative ways. This paper was conducted through the collection of some research materials with the projected balance of these various climate impacts on food system performance and food security outcomes at the local and global levels. More so that, food security is likely to be affected by climate change in several ways: food security depends not only on the direct impact of climate change on food production but also on its indirect impact on human nutrition and health, economic growth, trade flows and food aid policy. The paper further examined the effectiveness of managing new risks and uncertainty, improving the quality of information and its use, monitoring weather and improving scientific understanding of climate change, promoting insurance schemes, maintaining biodiversity and access to fund as some of the crucial measures for adaptation. The large amount of resources that would be necessary to avoid the worst case scenario suggests the necessity of continued support from the international community to improve food security at the local and global levels as a whole.
文摘Alpine-cold regions are characterized as hypoxia,strong wind,heavy rain,cold climate,huge temperature difference between day and night,and vertical climate. All these make it difficult for an emergency rescue when a natural disaster such as earthquake happens. Based on the characteristics of emergency rescue in alpinecold region,several multifunctional protective equipments have been developed by the Quartermaster Equipment Institute of General Logistics Departmen(tGLD)of the Chinese People's Liberation Army(CPLA). These equipments are lightweight,durable and environment adaptable.
文摘The feasibility analysis of projects for the preservation of the historical heritage buildings is an important problem concerning the evaluation of "the total cost of intervention", which includes all the future damage costs. The total cost of intervention represents a suitable measure of the expected deterioration risk and its evolution obviously depends on the damage process which buildings are subjected to. That damage phenomena affecting masonry buildings pleased into an aggressive environment are suitably modelled by renewal processes: this happens both in the case of catastrophic events, or in the case of the so-called "natural aging", in which damage comes off gradually in time. In the hypothesis ofa Markovian renewal process (Mrp) describing the damage process, the total cost of all the future damage is evaluated taking into account both the damage aspects: damages due to catastrophic aspects and damages due to aggressive environment, supposing different maintenance and/or rehabilitation scenarios. A semi-Markov process (s-Mp) is defined to model the damage rehabilitation history of buildings in presence of seismic events, natural ageing and rehabilitation strategies. The expected rewards connected to the process are defined; they represent a significant measure of the risk.
基金National Key Technology R&D Program (No. 2008BAK50B05)National Key Project for basic research (973) (No.2009CB421106)the Knowledge Innovation Program of CAS (No. KZCX2-EW-306)
文摘Though drought is a recurrent phenomenon in the Jinghe watershed, very little attention has been paid to drought mitigation and preparedness. This article presents a method for the spatial assessment of agricultural drought risk in the Jinghe watershed of western China at a 1-km grid scale. A conceptual framework, which emphasizes the combined roles of hazard and vulnerability in defining risk, is used. The Z index method in a GIS environment is used to map the spatial extent of drought hazards. The key social and physical factors that define agricultural drought in the context of the Jinghe watershed are indentified and corresponding thematic maps are prepared. Risk is calculated by the integration of hazard and vulnerability. Results show that the risk gradient follows a north-south and west-east tendency and that agricultural droughts pose the highest risk to northern and northwestern sections of the Jinghe watershed.
文摘The Indian subcontinent is amongst the biologically better known parts of the tropics and its bird fauna has been well documented. However, avian community composition and diversity along elevational gradients and amongst habitat types remains unclear in India. We attempted to estimate bird assemblages in terms of diversity, species composition, status and abun- dance in urban and forest habitats of Nainital district of Uttarakhand (350-2450 m asl; 29N), Western Himalayas. We sampled different elevational gradients and to understand the effect of urbanization and season on avian community composition. Field studies were conducted during January 2005 to January 2007. Results indicated that the forest had more complex bird community structure in terms of higher species richness (14.35 vs 8.69), higher species diversity (Shannon's index 4.00 vs 3.54), higher evenness (0.838 vs 0.811) and more rare species (17 vs 5) as compared to urban habitat. However, the abundance of 11 species was higher in urban habitats. Bird Species Richness (BSR) varied considerably among study areas (91 to 113 species), was high- est (113 species) at mid elevation (1450-1700 m asl) and decreased (22 species) at high elevation (1900-2450 m asl). It seems that high BSR at mid altitudes is not caused by the presence of a group of mid altitude specialists but rather that there is an over- lap in the distribution of low land and high elevation specialists at this altitude. BSR and Bird Species Diversity fluctuated across seasons but not habitat type [Current Zoology 57 (3): 318-329,2011].