Landslide Fatalities
Dave Petley has recently published an online paper in Geology on "Global patterns of loss of life from landslides".
See here for cumulative frequency landslide fatality data over the past 10 years - with earthquake-induced fatalities and without.
Earthquake Secondary Hazards
Researchers at Durham University, UK, spearheaded by Alexander Densmore and Mark Allen, are investigating the cascading effect of earthquakes in a project "When the Shaking Stops". This is primarily looking at the effect of earthquakes on landslides and river basin changes, the secondary effects of large earthquakes.
Hurricane Vulnerability
A recent study by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, based in Boulder, Colorado, has found that people are more vulnerable to hurricanes further inland from the coast in the USA than previously thought. This is mostly due to people being less prepared to deal with hurricanes than those who live on the coast. A 2000 study found that this was "often as the result of intense rain, flooding, mudslides, and tornadoes" - which I would consider cascading hazards.
Thursday 20 September 2012
Thursday 6 September 2012
Maplecroft's Natural Hazards Risk Atlas 2012
In August, Maplecroft published their new Natural Hazards Risk Atlas 2012. This excerpt is taken directly from their website:
"Maplecroft’s Natural Hazards Risk Atlas 2012 is designed to help business, investors and international organisations compare the risks of natural hazards within 197 countries and assess their resilience during and after the occurrence of a natural hazard. The Atlas includes indices and interactive subnational maps of 12 natural hazard risks, as well as scorecards for all countries. In addition, the Atlas also measures countries’ overall economic exposure and socio-economic resilience to natural hazards."
What is great about htis map is that although it on a global scale, the resolution is much finer than national-level. It also appears to take a social perspective on natural hazards. I haven't been able to uncover much detail however about what indices were used and exactly how the map was created. It is unclear how the 12 hazards were collated - aggregated or whether interacting effects were taken into consideration. Although it was probably not the latter..... Something to improve on in the future?
"Maplecroft’s Natural Hazards Risk Atlas 2012 is designed to help business, investors and international organisations compare the risks of natural hazards within 197 countries and assess their resilience during and after the occurrence of a natural hazard. The Atlas includes indices and interactive subnational maps of 12 natural hazard risks, as well as scorecards for all countries. In addition, the Atlas also measures countries’ overall economic exposure and socio-economic resilience to natural hazards."
What is great about htis map is that although it on a global scale, the resolution is much finer than national-level. It also appears to take a social perspective on natural hazards. I haven't been able to uncover much detail however about what indices were used and exactly how the map was created. It is unclear how the 12 hazards were collated - aggregated or whether interacting effects were taken into consideration. Although it was probably not the latter..... Something to improve on in the future?
Tuesday 4 September 2012
New Review Paper on Mult-Hazard Risk and Cascading Hazards
I have recently come across a new paper out in July this year reviewing multi-hazard risk (including cascading hazards). This is a great paper written by Melanie Kappes, who I met at the EGU in 2011. It covers the current available literature on the subject and identifies challenges in dealing with multi-hazards. It is the first of it's kind to synthesise the current state of research and point the way forward to common issues which will need to be dealt with in the future of this field.
Particularly for my own research, there is a section on cascading hazards ('dealing with relations between hazard types') that gathers together all references to these phenomena in the literature. Several different approaches to investigating cascading events are outlined such as interaction matrixes and event trees. And it is always comforting to know that noone has published work on what you are researching for your PhD! There's always a little worrying thought that the research may have slipped past without you noticing.
For anyone who is interested in cascading hazards, this is a key paper and an ideal starting point to follow the references. I wish this had been available in my first year of PhD, and had intended to write a similar paper on the sme topic later this year as it was really needed for the field.
I hope the paper helps people as much as it has helped me.
Kappes, M., Keiler, M., Elverfeldt, K., and Glade, T., (2012), "Challenges of analyzing multi-hazard risk: a review", Nat Hazards.
(Thanks to J.Gill for making me aware of the paper!)
Particularly for my own research, there is a section on cascading hazards ('dealing with relations between hazard types') that gathers together all references to these phenomena in the literature. Several different approaches to investigating cascading events are outlined such as interaction matrixes and event trees. And it is always comforting to know that noone has published work on what you are researching for your PhD! There's always a little worrying thought that the research may have slipped past without you noticing.
For anyone who is interested in cascading hazards, this is a key paper and an ideal starting point to follow the references. I wish this had been available in my first year of PhD, and had intended to write a similar paper on the sme topic later this year as it was really needed for the field.
I hope the paper helps people as much as it has helped me.
Kappes, M., Keiler, M., Elverfeldt, K., and Glade, T., (2012), "Challenges of analyzing multi-hazard risk: a review", Nat Hazards.
(Thanks to J.Gill for making me aware of the paper!)
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