Defining disaster resilience: comparisons from key stakeholders involved in emergency management in Victoria,Australia

Three years after the introduction of the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience there remains no unanimously adopted definition of disaster resilience within Australia's emergency management sector. The aim of this study is to determine what the concept means to key stakeholders in the emergency management sector in the Australian State of Victoria, and how these conceptualisations overlap and diverge. Via an online survey, 113 people were asked how they define disaster resilience in their work in the emergency management sector. A data mining software tool, Leximancer, was employed to uncover the relationships between the definitions provided. The findings show that stakeholders see resilience as an ‘ability’ that encompasses emergency management activities and personal responsibility. However, the findings also highlight some possible points of conflict between stakeholders. In addition, the paper outlines and discusses a number of potential consequences for the implementation and the success of the resilience‐based approach in Australia.     

EIA — Its potential application to appropriate technology in developing countries

Summary Many developed countries in the Western world employ some form of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). A number of sophisticated procedures are used for the assessment of the impact of large- scale developments upon the environment. In developing countries there are both large-scale schemes that are often financed by foreign aid, and small-scale projects in which technology is less sophisticated but more appropriate to human needs. Standard EIA procedures are followed for large-scale developments but assessment of the impact of small-scale projects is often ignored.This paper attempts to define appropriate technology and to describe some of the often less apparent adverse effects of such technology upon society and the environment. The need for assessment of small-scale projects is established and the possibility of applying current EIA procedures to such developments is considered. The final paragraphs refer to the advantages and disadvantages of environmental impact assessment of small-scale technology.Dr Pamela M. Goode and Alastair I. Johnstone are both members of staff at the Environmental Institute, University of Salford, UK.     

Enhanced dichloroethene biodegradation in fractured rock under biostimulated and bioaugmented conditions

Significant microbial reductive dechlorination of [1,2 ¹⁴C] cis‐dichloroethene (DCE) was observed in anoxic microcosms prepared with unamended, fractured rock aquifer materials, which were colonized in situ at multiple depths in two boreholes at the Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) in West Trenton, New Jersey. The lack of significant reductive dechlorination in corresponding water‐only treatments indicated that chlororespiration activity in unamended, fractured rock treatments was primarily associated with colonized core material. In these unamended fractured rock microcosms, activity was highest in the shallow zones and generally decreased with increasing depth. Electron‐donor amendment (biostimulation) enhanced chlororespiration in some but not all treatments. In contrast, combining electron‐donor amendment with KB1 amendment (bioaugmentation) enhanced chlororespiration in all treatments and substantially reduced the variability in chlororespiration activity both within and between treatments. These results indicate (1) that a potential for chlororespiration‐based bioremediation exists at NAWC Trenton but is limited under nonengineered conditions, (2) that the limitation on chlororespiration activity is not entirely due to electron‐donor availability, and (3) that a bioaugmentation approach can substantially enhance in situ bioremediation if the requisite amendments can be adequately distributed throughout the fractured rock matrix. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.*     

The puzzle of North America's Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinction patterns: Test of new explanation yields unexpected results

Although Late Pleistocene extinctions disproportionately affected larger mammalian species, numerous smaller species were also lost. To date, no satisfactory explanation has been presented to account for this pattern. Beginning with the assumption that human predation caused the extinctions, we offer and test the first such explanatory hypothesis, which is predicated on considering more realistic functional response forms (i.e., those that allow for predator interference or prey sharing). We then test the hypothesis via a one-predator, six-prey ecological model that maintains transparency, minimalism of design, and maximal constraint of parameters. Results indicate that altering assumptions about one cornerstone of ecological modeling (i.e., functional response) fails to produce qualitative differences in survival–extinction outcomes—even in conjunction with a wide range of capture efficiency permutations. This unexpected finding suggests that no reasonable form of predation alone is capable of producing the survival–extinction pattern observed. We conclude that the matter of causation and the conclusions of previous Late Pleistocene extinction models remain far less certain than many have assumed.     

Are pilots at risk of accidents due to fatigue?

PROBLEM: There is concern in the aviation community that pilot schedules can lead to fatigue and increased chance of an aviation accident. Yet despite this concern, there is little empirical analysis showing the relationship between pilot schedules and commercial aviation accidents. This study attempts to demonstrate an empirical relationship between pilot schedules and aviation accidents. METHOD: Data for human factors-related accidents and pilot work patterns were identified. The distribution of pilot work schedule parameters for the accidents was compared to that for all pilots using a chi-square test to determine if the proportions of accidents and length of duty exposure were the same. If the distributions are the same, then one could infer that pilot human factor accidents are not affected by work schedule parameters. RESULTS: The proportion of accidents associated with pilots having longer duty periods is higher than the proportion of longer duty periods for all pilots. DISCUSSION: There is a discernible pattern of increased probability of an accident as duty time increases for commercial aircraft pilots in the United States. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: The analysis suggests that establishing limits on duty time for commercial pilots would reduce risk. Such a rule is likely to be expensive and could substantially impact the commercial airlines. In return, there is likely to be a reduction in the risk of commercial aviation accidents due to pilot fatigue.