Natural disaster risk-informed for a better public infrastructure asset planning in Indonesian Central Government

The natural disasters incident that frequently hit Indonesia are floods, severe droughts, tsunamis, earth-quakes, volcano, eruptions, landslides, windstorm and forest fires. The impact of those natural disasters are significantly severe and affecting the quality of life of the community due to the breakdown of the public as-sets as one source to deliver public services. This paper is aimed to emphasis the importance of natural disaster risk-informed in relation to public asset management in Indonesian Central Government, particularly in asset planning stage where asset decision is made as the gate into the whole public asset management processes. A Case study in the Ministry of Finance Indonesia as the central government public asset manager and in 5 (five) line ministries/governmental agencies as public asset users was used as the approach to achieved the research objective. The case study devoured three data collection techniques i.e. interviews, observations and document archival which will be analysed by a content analysis approach. The result of the study indicates that Indonesian geographical position exposing many of public infra-structure assets as a high vulnerability to natural disasters. Information on natural-disaster trends and predictions to identify and measure the risks are available, however, such information are not utilise and integrated to the process of public infrastructure asset planning as the gate to the whole public asset management processes. Therefore, in order to accommodate and incorporate this natural disaster risk-information into public asset management processes, particularly in public asset planning, a public asset performance measurements framework should be adopted and applied in the process as one sources in making decision for infrastructure asset planning. Findings from this study provide useful input for the Ministry of Finance as public asset manager, scholars and private asset management practitioners in Indonesia to establish natural disaster risks awareness in public infrastructure asset management processes.

Assessing the suitability of existing spatial data for disaster planning and mitigation in Queensland

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in 2003 gave in-principle approval to a best-practice report recommending a holistic approach to managing natural disasters in Australia incorporating a move from a traditional response-centric approach to a greater focus on mitigation, recovery and resilience with community well-being at the core. Since that time, there have been a range of complementary developments that have supported the COAG recommended approach. Developments have been administrative, legislative and technological, both, in reaction to the COAG initiative and resulting from regular natural disasters. This paper reviews the characteristics of the spatial data that is becoming increasingly available at Federal, state and regional jurisdictions with respect to their being fit for the purpose for disaster planning and mitigation and strengthening community resilience. In particular, Queensland foundation spatial data, which is increasingly accessible by the public under the provisions of the Right to Information Act 2009, Information Privacy Act 2009, and recent open data reform initiatives are evaluated. The Fitzroy River catchment and floodplain is used as a case study for the review undertaken. The catchment covers an area of 142,545 km2, the largest river catchment flowing to the eastern coast of Australia. The Fitzroy River basin experienced extensive flooding during the 2010–2011 Queensland floods. The basin is an area of important economic, environmental and heritage values and contains significant infrastructure critical for the mining and agricultural sectors, the two most important economic sectors for Queensland State. Consequently, the spatial datasets for this area play a critical role in disaster management and for protecting critical infrastructure essential for economic and community well-being. The foundation spatial datasets are assessed for disaster planning and mitigation purposes using data quality indicators such as resolution, accuracy, integrity, validity and audit trail.

An integrated framework for assessing community resilience in disaster management

Climate change is predicted to increase the frequency and severity of extreme weather events which pose significant challenges to the ability of government and other relief agencies to plan for, cope with and respond to disasters. Consequently, it is important that communities in climate sensitive and potential disaster prone areas strengthen their resilience to natural disasters in order to expeditiously recover from potential disruptions and damage caused by disasters. Building self reliance and, particularly in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, can facilitate short-term and long-term community recovery. To build stronger and more resilient communities, it is essential to have a better understanding of their current resilience capabilities by assessing areas of strength, risks and vulnerabilities so that their strengths can be enhanced and the risks and vulnerability can be appropriately addressed and mitigated through capacity building programs. While a number of conceptual frameworks currently exist to assess the resilience level of communities to disasters, they have tended to differ on their emphasis, scope and definition of what constitutes community resilience and how community resilience can be most effectively and accurately assessed. These limitations are attributed to the common approach of viewing community resilience through a mono-disciplinary lens. To overcome this, this paper proposes an integrated conceptual framework that takes into account the complex interplay of environmental, social, governance, infrastructure and economic attributes associated with community resilience. The framework can be operationalised using a range of resilience indicators to suit the nature of a disaster and the specific characteristics of a study region.

A critical analysis of crisis escalation models : understanding stages and severity in infrastructure disturbance

A range of authors from the risk management, crisis management, and crisis communications literature have proposed different models as a means of understanding components of crisis. A generic component of these sources has focused on preparedness practices before disturbance events and response practices during events. This paper provides a critical analysis of three key explanatory models of how crises escalate highlighting the strengths and limitations of each approach. The paper introduces an optimised conceptual model utilising components from the previous work under the four phases of pre-event, response, recovery, and post-event. Within these four phases, a ten step process is introduced that can enhance understanding of the progression of distinct stages of disturbance for different types of events. This crisis evolution framework is examined as a means to provide clarity and applicability to a range of infrastructure failure contexts and provide a path for further empirical investigation in this area.

BIM support for disaster response

The introduction of Building Information Modelling (BIM) to the design, construction and operation of buildings is changing the way that the building construction industry works. BIM involves the development of a full 3D virtual model of a building which not only contains the 3D information necessary to show the building as it will appear, but also contains significant additional data about each component in the building. BIM represents both physical and virtual objects in a building. This includes the rooms and spaces within and around the building. The additional data stored on each part of the building can support building maintenance opera- tions and, more importantly from the perspective of this paper, support the generation and running of simula- tions of the operation of the building and behaviour of people within it under both normal and emergency scenarios. The initial discussion is around the use of BIM to support the design of resilient buildings which references the various codes and standards that define current best practice. The remainder of the discussion uses various recent events as the basis for discussion on how BIM could have been used to support rapid recovery and re- building.

Collaboration to improve evacuation centre operations in disaster-affected communities

Emergency sheltering is a temporary source of safety and support for people affected by disasters. People access emergency sheltering just prior to or soon after a disaster; therefore they are often scared, stressed, and/or experiencing loss/grief. The gathering of people in shelters also increases several environmental health risks. Therefore ensuring emergency shelters contain adequate facilities (permanent or temporary) and are well managed is essential in providing immediate support to disaster-affected communities and providing a level of assurance that the agencies involved are capable of supporting them through the recovery process. This paper will be presented by representatives of Australian Red Cross and Environmental Health Australia (Queensland), which both have an interest in emergency sheltering in Queensland. The paper will cover the development, content and application of the ‘Preferred Sheltering Practices for Emergency Sheltering in Australia’ and the roles of various organisations in relation to emergency sheltering. The importance of or- ganisational collaboration will also be discussed, with a focus on the experience of the two organisations fol- lowing the 2011 floods in Queensland and how they are collaborating to improve future operations in evacu- ation centres, which are a common form of emergency sheltering in Queensland. The organisations are con- tinuing to work together with the ultimate goal of improving services to disaster-affected communities and supporting such communities to start the recovery process.

Reconstruction of a multi-vent kimberlite eruption from deposit and host rock characteristics: Jericho kimberlite, Nunavut, Canada

The Jericho kimberlite (173.1. ±. 1.3. Ma) is a small (~. 130. ×. 70. m), multi-vent system that preserves products from deep (>. 1. km?) portions of kimberlite vents. Pit mapping, drill core examination, petrographic study, image analysis of olivine crystals (grain size distributions and shape studies), and compositional and mineralogical studies, are used to reconstruct processes from near-surface magma ascent to kimberlite emplacement and alteration. The Jericho kimberlite formed by multiple eruptions through an Archean granodiorite batholith that was overlain by mid-Devonian limestones ~. 1. km in thickness. Kimberlite magma ascended through granodiorite basement by dyke propagation but ascended through limestone, at least in part, by locally brecciating the host rocks. After the first explosive breakthrough to surface, vent deepening and widening occurred by the erosive forces of the waxing phase of the eruption, by gravitationally induced failures as portions of the vent margins slid into the vent and, in the deeper portions of the vent (>. 1. km), by scaling, as thin slabs burst from the walls into the vent. At currently exposed levels, coherent kimberlite (CK) dykes (<. 40. cm thick) are found to the north and south of the vent complex and represent the earliest preserved in-situ products of Jericho magmatism. Timing of CK emplacement on the eastern side of the vent complex is unclear; some thick CK (15-20. m) may have been emplaced after the central vent was formed. Explosive eruptive products are preserved in four partially overlapping vents that are roughly aligned along strike with the coherent kimberlite dyke. The volcaniclastic kimberlite (VK) facies are massive and poorly sorted, with matrix- to clast-supported textures. The VK facies fragmented by dry, volatile-driven processes and were emplaced by eruption column collapse back into the volcanic vents. The first explosive products, poorly preserved because of partial destruction by later eruptions, are found in the central-east vent and were formed by eruption column collapse after the vent was largely cleared of country rock debris. The next active vent was either the north or south vent. Collapse of the eruption column, linked to a vent widening episode, resulted in coeval avalanching of pipe margin walls into the north vent, forming interstratified lenses of country rock-rich boulder breccias in finer-grained volcaniclastic kimberlite. South vent kimberlite has similar characteristics to kimberlite of the north vent and likely formed by similar processes. The final eruptive phase formed olivine-rich and moderately sorted deposits of the central vent. Better sorting is attributed to recycling of kimberlite debris by multiple eruptions through the unconsolidated volcaniclastic pile and associated collapse events. Post-emplacement alteration varies in intensity, but in all cases, has overprinted the primary groundmass and matrix, in CK and VK, respectively. Erosion has since removed all limestone cover.

Reconstituting identity and history in post-war Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina

This paper by Carl Grodach demonstrates the careful unravelling of complexity, diversity, contestation and contradictions involved in the reconstruction of symbolic urban spaces after violent conflict, and the allied processes of cultural reinterpretation, political reconfiguration and material revaluation which accompany it. The paper analyses the reconstruction and redevelopment of the 16th-century historic centre of Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, following the Bosnian Wars of 1992–1995. Reconstruction efforts centre around Stari Most, the 16th-century Ottoman bridge destroyed by Bosnian Croat military in 1993. In Mostar, both international and local organizations are in the process of reinterpreting Bosnia’s legacy of Ottoman city spaces. This research and analysis illuminates how such spaces can be central to contemporary projects to redefine group identities and conceptions of place. It provides insight into the ways various groups are attempting to reshape outside perceptions of the city—and Bosnia’s ethnic conflict—to articulate a new definition of local identity and ethnic relations and to remake a stable tourist economy through Mostar’s urban spaces.

Postoperative soft tissue defects in the ankle area : The etiology and methods of reconstruction

The risk is obvious for soft tissue complications after operative treatment of the Achilles tendon, calcaneal bone or after ankle arthroplasty. Such complications after malleolar fractures are, however, seldom seen. The reason behind these complications is that the soft tissue in this region is tight and does not allow much tension to the wound area after surgery. Furthermore the area of operation may be damaged by swelling after the injury, or can be affected by peripheral vascular disease. While complications in this area are unavoidable, they can be diminished. This study attempts to highlight the possible predisposing factors leading to complications in these operations and on the other hand, to determine the solutions to solve soft tissue problems in this region. The study consists of five papers. The first article is a reprint on the soft tissue reconstruction of 25 patients after their complicated Achilles tendon surgeries were analysed. The second study reviews a series of 126 patients after having undergone an operative treatment of calcaneal bone fractures and analyses the complications and possible reasons behind them. The third part analyses a series of corrections of 35 soft tissue complications after calcaneal fracture operations. The fourth part reviews a series of 7 patients who had undergone complicated ankle arthroplasties. The last article presents a series of post operative lateral defects of the ankle treated with a less frequently used distally based peroneus brevis muscle flap and analyses the results. What can be conducted from these studies is that in general, the results after the correction of even severe soft tissue complications in the ankle region are good. For the small defects around the Achilles tendon, the local flaps are useful, but the larger defects are best treated with a free flap. We found that a long delay from trauma to surgery and a long operating time were predisposing factors that lead to soft tissue complications after operatively treated calcaneal bone fractures. The more severe the injury, the greater the risk for wound complication. Surprisingly, the long-term results after infected calcaneal osteosyntheses were acceptable and the calcaneal bone seems to tolerate chronic infections very well if the soft tissue is reconstructed successfully. Behind the complicated ankle arthroplasties, unexpectedly high number of cases experiencing arteriosclerosis of the lower extremity was found. These complications lead to ankle fusion but can be solved with a free flap if the vascularity is intact or can be reconstructed. For this reason a vascular examination of the lower extremity arteries of the patients going to ankle arthroplasty is strongly recommended. Moreover postoperative lateral malleolar wound infections which typically create lateral ankle defects can successfully be treated with a peroneus brevis muscle flap covered with a free skin graft.

A post processing technique for improved harmonic/percussion separation in polyphonic speech

In this paper we propose a postprocessing technique for a spectrogram diffusion based harmonic/percussion decom- position algorithm. The proposed technique removes har- monic instrument leakages in the percussion enhanced out- puts of the baseline algorithm. The technique uses median filtering and an adaptive detection of percussive segments in subbands followed by piecewise signal reconstruction using envelope properties to ensure that percussion is enhanced while harmonic leakages are suppressed. A new binary mask is created for the percussion signal which upon applying on the original signal improves harmonic versus percussion separation. We compare our algorithm with two recent techniques and show that on a database of polyphonic Indian music, the postprocessing algorithm improves the harmonic versus percussion decomposition significantly.

Machine Vision Enhanced Post-earthquake Inspection

Camera motion estimation is one of the most significant steps for structure-from-motion (SFM) with a monocular camera. The normalized 8-point, the 7-point, and the 5-point algorithms are normally adopted to perform the estimation, each of which has distinct performance characteristics. Given unique needs and challenges associated to civil infrastructure SFM scenarios, selection of the proper algorithm directly impacts the structure reconstruction results. In this paper, a comparison study of the aforementioned algorithms is conducted to identify the most suitable algorithm, in terms of accuracy and reliability, for reconstructing civil infrastructure. The free variables tested are baseline, depth, and motion. A concrete girder bridge was selected as the "test-bed" to reconstruct using an off-the-shelf camera capturing imagery from all possible positions that maximally the bridge's features and geometry. The feature points in the images were extracted and matched via the SURF descriptor. Finally, camera motions are estimated based on the corresponding image points by applying the aforementioned algorithms, and the results evaluated.

POCS-based reconstruction of multiplexed sensitivity encoded MRI (POCSMUSE): A general algorithm for reducing motion-related artifacts.

PURPOSE: A projection onto convex sets reconstruction of multiplexed sensitivity encoded MRI (POCSMUSE) is developed to reduce motion-related artifacts, including respiration artifacts in abdominal imaging and aliasing artifacts in interleaved diffusion-weighted imaging. THEORY: Images with reduced artifacts are reconstructed with an iterative projection onto convex sets (POCS) procedure that uses the coil sensitivity profile as a constraint. This method can be applied to data obtained with different pulse sequences and k-space trajectories. In addition, various constraints can be incorporated to stabilize the reconstruction of ill-conditioned matrices. METHODS: The POCSMUSE technique was applied to abdominal fast spin-echo imaging data, and its effectiveness in respiratory-triggered scans was evaluated. The POCSMUSE method was also applied to reduce aliasing artifacts due to shot-to-shot phase variations in interleaved diffusion-weighted imaging data corresponding to different k-space trajectories and matrix condition numbers. RESULTS: Experimental results show that the POCSMUSE technique can effectively reduce motion-related artifacts in data obtained with different pulse sequences, k-space trajectories and contrasts. CONCLUSION: POCSMUSE is a general post-processing algorithm for reduction of motion-related artifacts. It is compatible with different pulse sequences, and can also be used to further reduce residual artifacts in data produced by existing motion artifact reduction methods.

Post-trauma: Is evidence based practice a fantasy?

Trauma, bereavement, and loss are universal human experiences. Much has been written about the process that the bereaved go through following the loss of a loved one. Recent events such as 9/11, earthquakes in Turkey, genocides in Rwanda, community conflict in Northern Ireland, and the Asian Tsunami Disaster have drawn unprecedented public attention to the subject of traumatic bereavement. Increasingly, it is recognised that while most people are able to cope with loss generally by eventually restructuring their lives, those bereaved in traumatic circumstance often find it extremely difficult. As a consequence, a plethora of interventions have emerged, however, to-date, little is know about their actual effectiveness in helping the bereaved. With the emphasis of health and welfare professions on evidencebased practice (EBP) greater than ever and a raising awareness of accountability as key element of ethical practice, the call for EBP in traumatic bereavement is compelling. Using examples from work carried out in Northern Ireland, we look at the backdrop of the issues involved, describe some of the most commonly used therapeutic interventions, and explore the possibility of evidence-based practice.

Labor and Place: The Contours of Freedpeoples' Mobilization in Reconstruction South Carolina

Important advances in scholarship on the post-emancipation South have made possible a new synthesis that moves beyond broad generalizations about African American agency to identify both the shared elements in black life across the region and the varying capacity of freedpeople to assert their interests in the face of white hostility. Building on a number of recent studies of Reconstruction this article seeks to demonstrate that the varying capacity of freedpeople in South Carolina to shape and defend the new society that would emerge after the end of slavery was rooted in their relative strength at work and in their communities. In Charleston and its lowcountry rural hinterland, demographic strength combined with deeply-rooted traditions of collective assertion to sustain a remarkably vibrant grassroots movement that persisted beyond the overthrow of Reconstruction. From very early on, by contrast, former slaves dispersed across the rural interior found their freedom severely circumscribed by a bellicose and heavily-armed white paramilitary campaign.

Incised palaeo-channels of the Late Middle Pleistocene Thames: age, origins and implications for fluvial palaeogeography and sea-level reconstruction in the southern North Sea Basin.

Multidisciplinary investigations of the infills of steeply-incised buried channels on the coast of Essex, England, provide important insights into late Middle Pleistocene climate and sea-level change and have a direct bearing on the differentiation of MIS 11 and MIS 9 in terrestrial records. New data are presented from Rochford and Burnham-on-Crouch where remnants of two substantial palaeo-channels filled with interglacial sediment can be directly related to the terrace stratigraphy of the Thames. The sediments in both channels accumulated in an estuarine environment early in an interglacial when mixed oak forest was becoming established. Lithological evidence suggests that the interglacial beds post-date the brackish-water infill of an older palaeo-channel ascribed to the Hoxnian and correlated with part of MIS 11, and pre-date terrace gravels (Barling Gravel) ascribed to MIS 8. An MIS 9 attribution is supported by molluscan biostratigraphy, palaeo-salinity and amino-acid racemization data. The relative sea-level record in this area thus includes evidence for two major marine transgressions during MIS 11 and MIS 9, with local maxima of >10 m O.D. Both are associated with sediments that show ‘Hoxnian’ palynological affinities. The wider significance of these findings, and of an intermediate phase of pronounced fluvial incision during MIS 10, is discussed.