Search results for "Security studies"
showing 10 items of 314 documents
Supporting group decision makers to locate temporary relief distribution centres after sudden-onset disasters
2020
International audience; In the humanitarian response, multiple decision-makers (DMs) need to collaborate in various problems, such as locating temporary relief distribution centres (RDCs). Several studies have argued that maximising demand coverage, reducing logistics costs and minimising response time are among the critical objectives when locating RDCs after a sudden-onset disaster. However, these objectives are often conflicting and the trade-offs can considerably complicate the situation for finding a consensus.To address the challenge and support the DMs, we suggest investigating the stability of non-dominated alternatives derived from a multi-objective model based on Monte Carlo Simul…
Driving through floodwater: Exploring driver decisions through the lived experience
2019
Abstract More than half of unintentional flood-related drowning deaths in Australia are due to driving through floodwater, despite on-going public campaigns. Currently, there is a knowledge gap in understanding why individuals choose to drive through floodwater and the decisions that may lead to such actions. We propose that a more complete understanding of individuals’ decisions to drive through floodwater needs to be considered in the context of the lived experience. Australian drivers (N = 20) who had intentionally driven through floodwater participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis based in an interpretivist approach. Past experience, indivi…
Search without rescue? Evaluating the international search and rescue response to earthquake disasters
2020
Earthquakes around the world are unnecessarily lethal and destructive, adversely affecting the health and well-being of affected populations. Most immediate deaths and injuries are caused by building collapse, making search and rescue (SAR) an early priority. In this review, we assess the SAR response to earthquake disasters. First, we review the evidence for the majority of individuals being rescued locally, often by relatives and neighbours. We then summarise evidence for successful live rescues by international SAR (ISAR) teams, along with the costs, ethics and other considerations of deployment. Finally, we propose an alternative approach to postdisaster ISAR, with the goal of reducing …
Towards European Dimensions of City Resilience
2016
International audience; Disaster resilience is becoming more important and raises the highest concerns worldwide, including in Europe. Cities have a vital role for resilience because a majority of the population resides in the cities. Despite the recognition of the importance of city resilience, there is no strong consensus what city resilience is and its dimensions, and how the resilience concept should be transferred into management practice in the cities. In this paper, we conduct a survey of EU sectorial approaches in terms of EU-funded projects related to climate change and critical infrastructure, where urban or city resilience are in focus. The goal is to obtain an overview of how th…
A multisite-cooperative research programme on risk assessment of transgenic crops
1999
Genetically modified plants are now being commercialised in several countries as regulatory authorities consider that the balance of risk versus benefit is beneficial. However, numerous questions remain unanswered, especially the impact of these plants when used over large areas and under a range of variable environmental conditions. Some issues need to be re-evaluated [1, 2]. Risk/safety analysis, as well as prospects of transgenic crops depend on the scale which is to be considered. Extrapolation of methods, and laboratory and greenhouse results, to large-scale farmers’ fields, may provide useful preliminary data, but is not a sound approach to the study of the consequences of the commerc…
Performance and feasibility of biotrickling filtration in the control of styrene industrial air emissions
2017
Abstract The performance and feasibility of a pilot unit of biotrickling filter (BTF) for the treatment of industrial emissions polluted by styrene was investigated for one year at a fiber reinforced plastic industrial site. The pilot unit was packed with a structured material with a volume of 0.6 m3. Monitoring results have shown successful treatment of the industrial styrene emissions working at empty bed residence times (EBRT) between 31 and 66 s. The best performance was obtained after 300 days when a more stable biofilm had been developed, obtaining the highest elimination capacity of 18.8 g m−3 h−1 (removal efficiency of 75.6%) working at 31 s of EBRT. In addition, a photocatalytic re…
Analysis of Possibility of Yeast Production Increase at Maintained Carbon Dioxide Emission Level
2016
Abstract Main parameters polluting of technological wastewater (dregs from decantation and thicken of the wort) from yeast industry are: nitrogen, potassium and COD. Such wastewater are utilized mostly on agricultural fields. Unfortunately, these fields can only accept a limited amount of wastes. The basic parameter limiting there the amount of wastewater is nitrogen. When capacity of the production is large sewages are often pretreated at an evaporator station. However, due to the fairly high running costs of the evaporator station currently such a solution is applied only to a small amount of wastes (just to meet legal requirements). Replacement of the earth gas with a biomass being suppl…
Wood pellets for home heating can be considered environmentally friendly fuels? Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in their ashes
2016
This paper reports the results of the first quantitative investigations of PAHs in wood pellet ashes. Investigations were carried out into the fifteen PAHs identified by the US-Environment Protection Agency (US-EPA) as requiring priority monitoring; other non-US-EPA listed PAHs and perylene were also investigated. The total concentrations for the 17 investigated compounds, expressed as the sum of the concentrations (∑PAHs), in the ashes produced by the wood pellet combustion, ranged from 0.064mg kg-1 to 0.90mg kg-1 of dry weight with a means of 0.31mg kg-1. The lowest concentrations (<0.1mg kg-1) were measured in the conifer ash samples. Concentrations of PAHs found in this paper will al…
Climate Change and Disasters
2017
Ideas and approaches proven successful within disaster risk reduction (DRR) literature and practice are either bypassed or inadequately considered by contemporary climate change work. This chapter explores the intersections between climate change and hazards, vulnerability, and risk, looking at climate change as both a hazard driver and a hazard inhibitor. The implications of the narrow interpretations of vulnerability employed in climate change work are examined, as well as the ways in which climate change has come to act as a scapegoat for issues, events, and processes caused by hazard-independent factors. The chapter formulates a case for climate change adaptation (CCA) to be seen as a s…
Resilience to flash floods in wetland communities of northeastern Bangladesh
2018
Globally, a number of catastrophic hydrometeorological hazards occurred in 2017 among which the monsoon floods in South Asia was particularly disastrous, killing nearly 1200 people in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The wetland region (Haor) of northeastern (NE) Bangladesh was severely affected by flash floods early in 2017, affecting nearly 1 million households and damaging US $450 million worth of rice crops. This study investigates how the NE Bangladesh experienced the 2017 flash floods, and to what degree the wetland communities are vulnerable and resilience to flash floods. Focus group discussion, key informant interviews, and household questionnaire surveys (n = 80) were applied in the s…