Iowa Strategy for Homeland Security and Emergency Management 2015-2017, October 1, 2014

Address sustainability in all efforts. Sustainability should be at the core of all levels of homeland security and emergency management effort in Iowa. Capabilities need to be built for the long term, and without a sustainability plan in place, projects can quickly deplete uncertain levels of funding. Utilize an all-hazards methodology. Developing capabilities that are effective during a variety of disaster and emergency scenarios represents sound planning and resource management. Enhance capabilities through joint planning, training and exercise. Effective capabilities developed through coordinated planning efforts and an ongoing joint training and exercising program to ensure substantiate of prepared response. Utilize a collaborative approach to build capability. We will utilize whatever partnerships are necessary to build capability in the most effective manner possible. Regional partnerships have been, and will continue to be, in the forefront of the State of Iowa’s efforts to build and enhance capability. Enhance statewide capabilities. Whenever possible, we will identify and augment existing resources to provide statewide capability during a disaster or terrorist attack. Awareness, outreach and education. Open communication is critical to the success of any initiative. All projects implemented will have awareness, education and outreach components to ensure that all stakeholders are informed as to their responsibilities, capabilities and access. Information sharing and a common operating picture. The timely exchange of critical/actionable information is imperative to the success of every operation. The identification of a common operating picture allows decision makers to make informed decisions based on a unified understanding of the events around them.

Mesoscale numerical analysis of the historical November 1982 heavy precipitation event over Andorra (Eastern Pyrenees)

From 6 to 8 November 1982 one of the most catastrophic flash-flood events was recorded in the Eastern Pyrenees affecting Andorra and also France and Spain with rainfall accumulations exceeding 400 mm in 24 h, 44 fatalities and widespread damage. This paper aims to exhaustively document this heavy precipitation event and examines mesoscale simulations performed by the French Meso-NH non-hydrostatic atmospheric model. Large-scale simulations show the slow-evolving synoptic environment favourable for the development of a deep Atlantic cyclone which induced a strong southerly flow over the Eastern Pyrenees. From the evolution of the synoptic pattern four distinct phases have been identified during the event. The mesoscale analysis presents the second and the third phase as the most intense in terms of rainfall accumulations and highlights the interaction of the moist and conditionally unstable flows with the mountains. The presence of a SW low level jet (30 m s-1) around 1500 m also had a crucial role on focusing the precipitation over the exposed south slopes of the Eastern Pyrenees. Backward trajectories based on Eulerian on-line passive tracers indicate that the orographic uplift was the main forcing mechanism which triggered and maintained the precipitating systems more than 30 h over the Pyrenees. The moisture of the feeding flow mainly came from the Atlantic Ocean (7-9 g kg-1) and the role of the Mediterranean as a local moisture source was very limited (2-3 g kg-1) due to the high initial water vapour content of the parcels and the rapid passage over the basin along the Spanish Mediterranean coast (less than 12 h).

Floods in the Nishnabotna River Basin, Iowa, HR-140, 1991

Flood-elevation profiles and flood-peak discharges for floods during 1972, 1982, and 1987 in the Nishnabotna River basin are given in the report. The profiles are for the 1972 flood on the West and East Nishnabotna Rivers, the 1982 flood on Indian Creek, and the 1987 flood on the lower West Nishnabotna River. A flood history describes rainfall conditions and reported damages for floods occurring 1947, 1958, 1972, 1982, and 1987. Discharge for the 1982 flood on Indian Creek is 1.1 times larger than the 100-year recurrence interval discharge.

Iowa Flood Mitigation Board Annual Report, 2015

The Iowa Flood Mitigation Program is created within Code of Iowa, Chapter 418. The Program seeks to provide funds for fl ood mitigation projects that otherwise would not be funded. The Flood Mitigation Board is responsible for the implementation of Code of Iowa Chapter 418. The membership of the Board is comprised of four voting public members appointed by the Governor, five voting members representing state agencies, four non-voting ex officio members of the legislature, and one non-voting ex officio member representing a state agency.

Risk and global change : developing scientific methods for advocacy and awareness raising

Les catastrophes sont souvent perçues comme des événements rapides et aléatoires. Si les déclencheurs peuvent être soudains, les catastrophes, elles, sont le résultat d'une accumulation des conséquences d'actions et de décisions inappropriées ainsi que du changement global. Pour modifier cette perception du risque, des outils de sensibilisation sont nécessaires. Des méthodes quantitatives ont été développées et ont permis d'identifier la distribution et les facteurs sous- jacents du risque.¦Le risque de catastrophes résulte de l'intersection entre aléas, exposition et vulnérabilité. La fréquence et l'intensité des aléas peuvent être influencées par le changement climatique ou le déclin des écosystèmes, la croissance démographique augmente l'exposition, alors que l'évolution du niveau de développement affecte la vulnérabilité. Chacune de ses composantes pouvant changer, le risque est dynamique et doit être réévalué périodiquement par les gouvernements, les assurances ou les agences de développement. Au niveau global, ces analyses sont souvent effectuées à l'aide de base de données sur les pertes enregistrées. Nos résultats montrent que celles-ci sont susceptibles d'être biaisées notamment par l'amélioration de l'accès à l'information. Elles ne sont pas exhaustives et ne donnent pas d'information sur l'exposition, l'intensité ou la vulnérabilité. Une nouvelle approche, indépendante des pertes reportées, est donc nécessaire.¦Les recherches présentées ici ont été mandatées par les Nations Unies et par des agences oeuvrant dans le développement et l'environnement (PNUD, l'UNISDR, la GTZ, le PNUE ou l'UICN). Ces organismes avaient besoin d'une évaluation quantitative sur les facteurs sous-jacents du risque, afin de sensibiliser les décideurs et pour la priorisation des projets de réduction des risques de désastres.¦La méthode est basée sur les systèmes d'information géographique, la télédétection, les bases de données et l'analyse statistique. Une importante quantité de données (1,7 Tb) et plusieurs milliers d'heures de calculs ont été nécessaires. Un modèle de risque global a été élaboré pour révéler la distribution des aléas, de l'exposition et des risques, ainsi que pour l'identification des facteurs de risque sous- jacent de plusieurs aléas (inondations, cyclones tropicaux, séismes et glissements de terrain). Deux indexes de risque multiples ont été générés pour comparer les pays. Les résultats incluent une évaluation du rôle de l'intensité de l'aléa, de l'exposition, de la pauvreté, de la gouvernance dans la configuration et les tendances du risque. Il apparaît que les facteurs de vulnérabilité changent en fonction du type d'aléa, et contrairement à l'exposition, leur poids décroît quand l'intensité augmente.¦Au niveau local, la méthode a été testée pour mettre en évidence l'influence du changement climatique et du déclin des écosystèmes sur l'aléa. Dans le nord du Pakistan, la déforestation induit une augmentation de la susceptibilité des glissements de terrain. Les recherches menées au Pérou (à base d'imagerie satellitaire et de collecte de données au sol) révèlent un retrait glaciaire rapide et donnent une évaluation du volume de glace restante ainsi que des scénarios sur l'évolution possible.¦Ces résultats ont été présentés à des publics différents, notamment en face de 160 gouvernements. Les résultats et les données générées sont accessibles en ligne (http://preview.grid.unep.ch). La méthode est flexible et facilement transposable à des échelles et problématiques différentes, offrant de bonnes perspectives pour l'adaptation à d'autres domaines de recherche.¦La caractérisation du risque au niveau global et l'identification du rôle des écosystèmes dans le risque de catastrophe est en plein développement. Ces recherches ont révélés de nombreux défis, certains ont été résolus, d'autres sont restés des limitations. Cependant, il apparaît clairement que le niveau de développement configure line grande partie des risques de catastrophes. La dynamique du risque est gouvernée principalement par le changement global.¦Disasters are often perceived as fast and random events. If the triggers may be sudden, disasters are the result of an accumulation of actions, consequences from inappropriate decisions and from global change. To modify this perception of risk, advocacy tools are needed. Quantitative methods have been developed to identify the distribution and the underlying factors of risk.¦Disaster risk is resulting from the intersection of hazards, exposure and vulnerability. The frequency and intensity of hazards can be influenced by climate change or by the decline of ecosystems. Population growth increases the exposure, while changes in the level of development affect the vulnerability. Given that each of its components may change, the risk is dynamic and should be reviewed periodically by governments, insurance companies or development agencies. At the global level, these analyses are often performed using databases on reported losses. Our results show that these are likely to be biased in particular by improvements in access to information. International losses databases are not exhaustive and do not give information on exposure, the intensity or vulnerability. A new approach, independent of reported losses, is necessary.¦The researches presented here have been mandated by the United Nations and agencies working in the development and the environment (UNDP, UNISDR, GTZ, UNEP and IUCN). These organizations needed a quantitative assessment of the underlying factors of risk, to raise awareness amongst policymakers and to prioritize disaster risk reduction projects.¦The method is based on geographic information systems, remote sensing, databases and statistical analysis. It required a large amount of data (1.7 Tb of data on both the physical environment and socio-economic parameters) and several thousand hours of processing were necessary. A comprehensive risk model was developed to reveal the distribution of hazards, exposure and risk, and to identify underlying risk factors. These were performed for several hazards (e.g. floods, tropical cyclones, earthquakes and landslides). Two different multiple risk indexes were generated to compare countries. The results include an evaluation of the role of the intensity of the hazard, exposure, poverty, governance in the pattern and trends of risk. It appears that the vulnerability factors change depending on the type of hazard, and contrary to the exposure, their weight decreases as the intensity increases.¦Locally, the method was tested to highlight the influence of climate change and the ecosystems decline on the hazard. In northern Pakistan, deforestation exacerbates the susceptibility of landslides. Researches in Peru (based on satellite imagery and ground data collection) revealed a rapid glacier retreat and give an assessment of the remaining ice volume as well as scenarios of possible evolution.¦These results were presented to different audiences, including in front of 160 governments. The results and data generated are made available online through an open source SDI (http://preview.grid.unep.ch). The method is flexible and easily transferable to different scales and issues, with good prospects for adaptation to other research areas. The risk characterization at a global level and identifying the role of ecosystems in disaster risk is booming. These researches have revealed many challenges, some were resolved, while others remained limitations. However, it is clear that the level of development, and more over, unsustainable development, configures a large part of disaster risk and that the dynamics of risk is primarily governed by global change.

Disaster recovery of business critical 3-tiered ERP applications: Disaster Recovery of Nokia Groups SAP R/3

Nykyaikaisessa liiketoimintaympäristössä yritysten kriittisiksi resursseiksi ovat muodostuneet liiketoimintaa tukevat tietojärjestelmät. Mahdollisuus hyödyntää näitä resursseja riippuu ko. liiketoiminnalle kriittisten järjestelmien luotettavuudesta ja hyödynnettävien sovellusten saatavuudesta. Eräs tilanne jossa järjestelmien kyky tukea todellisia liiketoimintaprosesseja vaarantuu on katastrofi. Vaikutukseltaan katastrofi voi olla paikallinen tai kattaa laajojakin alueita. Eri tyyppisiin katastrofeihin on varauduttava niiden edellyttämin tavoin. Eräs kriittisten tietojärjestelmien arkkitehtuuriin vaikuttanut trendi 90-luvulla on ollut client/server lähestymistapa. Client/server paradigman mukaan sovellus jaetaan tasoihin siten että esitys-, sovellus- ja tietokantakerrokset voidaan erottaa fyysisesti toisistaan näiden silti muodostaessa loogisesti yhtenäisen kokonaisuuden. Liiketoiminnan näkökulmasta 90- luvun mullistavia IT-uutuuksia olivat toiminnanohjausjärjestelmät, joiden avulla oli mahdollista hallita koko tuotantoketjua ja muita prosessikokonaisuuksia lähes reaaliajassa. Monikerroksisten toiminnanohjausjärjestelmien luotettavuus on osoittautunut haastavavaksi sillä kaikkien kerrosten suojaaminen kaikilta mahdollisilta katastrofeilta täydellisesti on nykyisellä teknologialla mahdotonta. Kompromissien tekemiseksi on oltava selvillä kunkin menetetyn prosessin aiheuttamista taloudellisista ja liiketoiminnallisista vaikutuksista. Tämän vuoksi juuri toiminnanohjausjärjestelmät ovat mielenkiintoisia, vaikuttavathan ne liiketoimintaprosesseihin läpi koko yrityksen prosessiketjun. Monikerroksisten client/server arkkitehtuuriin pohjautuvien toiminnanohjausjärjestelmien suojaamisessa katastrofeilta onkin sovellettava useita tekniikoita ja teknologioita, ja yhdistettävä kokonaisuus prosessikehykseen. Näin voidaan luoda suunnitelmallinen osa IT strategiaa, joka ottaa kantaa liiketoiminnan jatkuvuuteen katastrofitilanteessa ja mahdollistaa nopean ja täydellisen palautumisen kaikissa olosuhteissa.

Assessing trends in insured losses from floods in Spain 1971-2008

Economic impacts from floods have been increasing over recent decades, a fact often attributed to a changing climate. On the other hand, there is now a significant body of scientific scholarship all pointing towards increasing concentrations and values of assets as the principle cause of the increasing cost of natural disasters. This holds true for a variety of perils and across different jurisdictions. With this in mind, this paper examines the time history of insured losses from floods in Spain between 1971 and 2008. It as- sesses whether any discernible residual signal remains after adjusting the data for the increase in the number and value of insured assets over this period of time. Data on insured losses from floods were sourced from Consorcio de Com- pensacíon de Seguros (CCS). Although a public institution, CCS compensates homeowners for the damage produced by floods, and thus plays a role similar to that of a private insurance company. Insured losses were adjusted using two proxy measures: first, changes in the total amount of annual surcharges (premiums) paid by customers to CCS, and secondly, changes in the total value of dwellings per year. The adjusted data reveals no significant trend over the period 1971-2008 and serves again to confirm that at this juncture, societal in- fluences remain the prime factors driving insured and economic losses from natural disasters.

Mesoscale numerical analysis of the historical November 1982 heavy precipitation event over Andorra (Eastern Pyrenees)

From 6 to 8 November 1982 one of the most catastrophic flash-flood events was recorded in the Eastern Pyrenees affecting Andorra and also France and Spain with rainfall accumulations exceeding 400 mm in 24 h, 44 fatalities and widespread damage. This paper aims to exhaustively document this heavy precipitation event and examines mesoscale simulations performed by the French Meso-NH non-hydrostatic atmospheric model. Large-scale simulations show the slow-evolving synoptic environment favourable for the development of a deep Atlantic cyclone which induced a strong southerly flow over the Eastern Pyrenees. From the evolution of the synoptic pattern four distinct phases have been identified during the event. The mesoscale analysis presents the second and the third phase as the most intense in terms of rainfall accumulations and highlights the interaction of the moist and conditionally unstable flows with the mountains. The presence of a SW low level jet (30 m s-1) around 1500 m also had a crucial role on focusing the precipitation over the exposed south slopes of the Eastern Pyrenees. Backward trajectories based on Eulerian on-line passive tracers indicate that the orographic uplift was the main forcing mechanism which triggered and maintained the precipitating systems more than 30 h over the Pyrenees. The moisture of the feeding flow mainly came from the Atlantic Ocean (7-9 g kg-1) and the role of the Mediterranean as a local moisture source was very limited (2-3 g kg-1) due to the high initial water vapour content of the parcels and the rapid passage over the basin along the Spanish Mediterranean coast (less than 12 h).

Clean development mechanism and joint implementation in China and Russia as related to industrial energy projects

Being highly discussed the problem of climate change and global warming has been keeping importance for several of decades. As a response to the world’s need in solution for climate change disasters, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted in 1992 and supplemented with the Kyoto protocol in 1997. This work is aimed to give better understanding of the Convention, Kyoto Protocol with its mechanisms and their function, related to energy projects in such case countries, as Russia and China, in order to assist evaluation of projects cost-effectiveness. It provides basic information about the Convention and the Protocol with their regulations, overview of present situation and future post-Kyoto forecasts, while the most attention is concentrated on the clean development mechanism and joint implementation step-by-step project cycles and specific regulations in given countries. The current study disclosed that CDM and JI project cycles are resulting in a complicated process. By the moment it requires step-by-step following of a number of methodologies, spending time and finance to particular project development. Uncertainties about post-Kyoto period bring additional risk to the projects and complicate any business decision concerning Kyoto Protocol.

Simulando catástrofes : recursos para la enseñanza de los riesgos naturales

Los riesgos naturales son abordados por distintas asignaturas de ciencias naturalesa lo largo de la ESO y el bachillerato. Su tratamiento en el aula es una evidencia del interés y el carácter aplicado de muchos aspectos de las ciencias de la tierra. Para facilitar su enfoque didáctico se proponen algunas actividades prácticas

Los Riesgos geológicos: algunas consideraciones didácticas

From the development of concepts related with Natural and Geological Hazards different exercises and activities are proposed. All of them can be used as didactic recourses in order to study such a subject for the most appropriate educative levels

The probabilistic risk analysis of external hazards of an interim storage for spent nuclear fuel

Tässä diplomityössä tehtiin Olkiluodon ydinvoimalaitoksella sijaitsevan käytetyn ydinpolttoaineen allasvarastointiin perustuvan välivaraston todennäköisyysperustainen ulkoisten uhkien riskianalyysi. Todennäköisyysperustainen riskianalyysi (PRA) on yleisesti käytetty riskien tunnistus- ja lähestymistapa ydinvoimalaitoksella. Työn tarkoituksena oli laatia täysin uusi ulkoisten uhkien PRA-analyysi, koska Suomessa ei ole aiemmin tehty vastaavanlaisia tämän tutkimusalueen riskitarkasteluja. Riskitarkastelun motiivina ovat myös maailmalla tapahtuneiden luonnonkatastrofien vuoksi korostunut ulkoisten uhkien rooli käytetyn ydinpolttoaineen välivarastoinnin turvallisuudessa. PRA analyysin rakenne pohjautui tutkimuksen alussa luotuun metodologiaan. Analyysi perustuu mahdollisten ulkoisten uhkien tunnistamiseen pois lukien ihmisen aikaansaamat tahalliset vahingot. Tunnistettujen ulkoisten uhkien esiintymistaajuuksien ja vahingoittamispotentiaalin perusteella ulkoiset uhat joko karsittiin pois tutkimuksessa määriteltyjen karsintakriteerien avulla tai analysoitiin tarkemmin. Tutkimustulosten perusteella voitiin todeta, että tiedot hyvin harvoin tapahtuvista ulkoisista uhista ovat epätäydellisiä. Suurinta osaa näistä hyvin harvoin tapahtuvista ulkoisista uhista ei ole koskaan esiintynyt eikä todennäköisesti koskaan tule esiintymään Olkiluodon vaikutusalueella tai edes Suomessa. Esimerkiksi salaman iskujen ja öljyaltistuksen roolit ja vaikutukset erilaisten komponenttien käytettävyyteen ovat epävarmasti tunnettuja. Tutkimuksen tuloksia voidaan pitää kokonaisuudessaan merkittävinä, koska niiden perusteella voidaan osoittaa ne ulkoiset uhat, joiden vaikutuksia olisi syytä tutkia tarkemmin. Yksityiskohtaisempi tietoisuus hyvin harvoin esiintyvistä ulkoisista uhista tarkentaisi alkutapahtumataajuuksien estimaatteja.

Ingest into the Digital Preservation Network: Standard Pipelines

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Let Go and Remember. How Finnish Communities Experienced and Memorialized School Shootings

This study examines the aftermath of mass violence in local communities. Two rampage school shootings that occurred in Finland are analyzed and compared to examine the ways in which communities experience, make sense of, and recover from sudden acts of mass violence. The studied cases took place at Jokela High School, in southern Finland, and at a polytechnic university in Kauhajoki, in western Finland, in 2007 and 2008 respectively. Including the perpetrators, 20 people lost their lives in these shootings. These incidents are part of the global school shooting phenomenon with increasing numbers of incidents occurring in the last two decades, mostly in North America and Europe. The dynamic of solidarity and conflict is one of the main themes of this study. It builds upon previous research on mass violence and disasters which suggests that solidarity increases after a crisis, and that this increase is often followed by conflict in the affected communities. This dissertation also draws from theoretical discussions on remembering, narrating, and commemorating traumatic incidents, as well as the idea of a cultural trauma process in which the origins and consequences of traumas are negotiated alongside collective identities. Memorialization practices and narratives about what happened are vital parts of the social memory of crises and disasters, and their inclusive and exclusive characteristics are discussed in this study. The data include two types of qualitative interviews; focused interviews with 11 crisis workers, and focused, narrative interviews with 21 residents of Jokela and 22 residents of Kauhajoki. A quantitative mail survey of the Jokela population (N=330) provided data used in one of the research articles. The results indicate that both communities experienced a process of simultaneous solidarity and conflict after the shootings. In Jokela, the community was constructed as a victim, and public expressions of solidarity and memorialization were promoted as part of the recovery process. In Kauhajoki, the community was portrayed as an incidental site of mass violence, and public expressions of solidarity by distant witnesses were labeled as unnecessary and often criticized. However, after the shooting, the community was somewhat united in its desire to avoid victimization and a prolonged liminal period. This can be understood as a more modest and invisible process of “silent solidarity”. The processes of enforced solidarity were partly made possible by exclusion. In some accounts, the family of the perpetrator in Jokela was excluded from the community. In Kauhajoki, the whole incident was externalized. In both communities, this exclusion included associating the shooting events, certain places, and certain individuals with the concept of evil, which helped to understand and explain the inconceivable incidents. Differences concerning appropriate emotional orientations, memorialization practices and the pace of the recovery created conflict in both communities. In Jokela, attitudes towards the perpetrator and his family were also a source of friction. Traditional gender roles regarding the expression of emotions remained fairly stable after the school shootings, but in an exceptional situation, conflicting interpretations arose concerning how men and women should express emotion. The results from the Jokela community also suggest that while increased solidarity was seen as important part of the recovery process, some negative effects such as collective guilt, group divisions, and stigmatization also emerged. Based on the results, two simultaneous strategies that took place after mass violence were identified; one was a process of fast-paced normalization, and the other was that of memorialization. Both strategies are ways to restore the feeling of security shattered by violent incidents. The Jokela community emphasized remembering while the Kauhajoki community turned more to the normalization strategy. Both strategies have positive and negative consequences. It is important to note that the tendency to memorialize is not the only way of expressing solidarity, as fast normalization includes its own kind of solidarity and helps prevent the negative consequences of intense solidarity.

Climatic changes: what if the global increase of CO2 emissions cannot be kept under control?

Climatic changes threaten the planet. Most articles related to the subject present estimates of the disasters expected to occur, but few have proposed ways to deal with the impending menaces. One such threat is the global warming caused by the continuous increase in CO2 emissions leading to rising ocean levels due to the increasing temperatures of the polar regions. This threat is assumed to eventually cause the death of hundreds of millions of people. We propose to desalinize ocean water as a means to reduce the rise of ocean levels and to use this water for populations that need good quality potable water, precisely in the poorest regions of the planet. Technology is available in many countries to provide desalinated water at a justifiable cost considering the lives threatened both in coastal and desertified areas.