“节约·环保·减灾·平安”科普征文活动启事

为了在全社会倡导节约、环保的工作,生活和消费模式,中国科普作家协会将于今年6-12月,在全国举办主题为“节约·环保·文明”的科普征文活动,此次活动得到国家发改委、中共中央宣传部和中国科学技术协会等单位的支持。     

“5·12防灾减灾日”全国防震减灾科普活动集锦

安徽省铜陵市 2017年5月12日,安徽省铜陵市教育局联合市地震局举行了全市教育系统2017年应急演练汇报会,铜陵市地震局指导了整个活动.同日,铜陵市地震局应邀参加了“一县三区”防空防震消防减灾应急综合演练活动.5月12日期间,按照要求,全市中小学校均开展了应急疏散演练,做到全覆盖.市地震局与市教育局签订协议,组织全市各类学校,分批参观防震减灾科普馆,国家防灾减灾日期间,共有10所学校参观体验科普馆.     

记住5·12

去年的5月12日14时28分,汶川发生了8级特大地震,这是继1976年7月28日唐山大地震之后的又一次重大灾难。突如其来的地震,不仅在瞬间震倒了数以万计的房屋,更加令人痴心的是造成了6．9万余人遇难,近1．8万余人失踪,57万余人受伤,并引发了堰塞湖、泥石流、大面积山体塌方等地质灾害。人员伤亡之多、破坏力之强、影响范围之大,使整个中国乃至全世界为之震惊。由此所带来的心灵伤痛和巨大损失至今让我们印象深刻,将永远无法忘却。     

5·12汶川强震的特征与成因——访中国地震局地质研究所所长张培震

5·12汶川大地震已经过去两个多月了,回顾和总结这次地震给我们带来的经验教训对今后的防震减灾工作有着非常重要的指导意义。这场特大地震具有哪些特征？地表破裂带究竞在哪里？地震的根本原因是什么？面对地震我们能做些什么？就这些社会公众关注的问题,《防灾博览》杂志社于近期采访了一直在震区组织科学考察的中国地震局地质研究所所长、国家汶川地震专家委员会南北带地震构造研究组组长张培震。     

每年的5月31日为"世界无烟日",世界各国——重拳出击严禁烟

为了引起国际社会对烟草危害人类健康的重视,世界卫生组织于1987年11月建议将每年的4月7日定为＂世界无烟日＂,并于1988年开始执行。这一天正好是世界卫生组织成立40周年的纪念日。     

‘Are you prepared?’ Representations and management of floods in Lomanikoro,Rewa (Fiji)

The islands of Fiji, in the Western Pacific, are exposed to a wide range of natural hazards. Tropical storms and associated floods are recurring natural phenomena, but it has been regularly alleged that Fijians lack preparation, over‐rely on state assistance in post‐disaster situations or engage in risky behaviours that aggravate the negative impact of floods. Risk reduction strategies, which are now implemented by government authorities and international organisations, heavily promote the principle of ‘community preparedness’. Both community awareness programmes and capacity‐building programmes are conducted throughout the country in the most vulnerable communities. This paper analyses how the inhabitants of Lomanikoro village, in the low areas of the Rewa Delta, perceive and manage existing flood risks. It examines social and cultural factors that contribute to shape risk response locally—in particular, why villagers may be reluctant to adopt some recommended preparedness measures and resettle in higher, safer zones.     

Survivor needs or logistical convenience? Factors shaping decisions to deliver relief to earthquake‐affected communities,Pakistan 2005–06

In Bureaucratizing the Good Samaritan , Waters (2001) argues that bureaucratic rationality distracts humanitarian agencies from the needs of the people they are supposed to assist, in favour of other values that their institutional frameworks dictate. We test his claim by investigating the response to the Pakistan 2005 earthquake. One of us (Dittemore) worked with the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre in the theatre, managing a relief cargo shipment database. The response, known as 'Operation Winter Race', was hampered by extreme logistical challenges, but ultimately succeeded in averting a second disaster resulting from cold and starvation. We use statistical models to probe whether survivor needs significantly guided decisions to deliver relief to affected communities. Needs assessments remained incomplete and incoherent. We measure needs through proxy indicators and integrate them, on a Geographic Information System (GIS) platform, with logistics and relief delivery data. We find that, despite strong logistics effects, needs orientations were significant. However, the strength of decision factors varies between commodity types (food versus clothing and shelter versus reconstruction materials) as well as over the different phases of the response. This study confirms Thomas's observation that logistics databases are rich 'repositories of data that can be analyzed to provide post-event learning' (Thomas, 2003, p. 4). This article is an invitation for others to engage in creative humanitarian data management.     

“一一·二四”海难渤海风场的数值模拟

用中尺度数值模式MM5对1999年11月24日烟台附近发生重大海难事故的渤海风场进行了数值模拟,探讨了该次冷锋大风的风场特征和影响机制.结果表明用90km的粗网格可以成功地模拟地面冷高压与锋面的发展和移动,以及高空环流形势的演变.而通过30km细网格的模拟发现,在冷锋后的行星边界层中,存在着一条宽度为200km的中尺度强风带,最大风速位于925hPa,它与高空的极锋急流并不相连;细网格还模拟出了渤海中尺度低压的发展过程,它使近地面层大风的强度显著加强.模拟还表明,海陆差异对近地面的风场分布有重要的影响,强风带移入渤海后,在渤海海域形成一个200～300 km的中尺度强风区.因此,采用具有较高分辨率的中尺度数值模式,对提高渤海大风的预报水平,避免海难事故的发生更具有重要意义.     

Return or relocate? An inductive analysis of decision‐making in a disaster

This paper proposes an inductive analysis of the decision as to whether to return or to relocate by persons in the State of Louisiana, United States, who evacuated after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in August and September 2005, respectively. Drawing on interviews with evacuees in these events and extensive fieldwork in the impacted area, the paper seeks to identify the folk dimensions of the decision‐making process, assess their arrangements, and situate the process in the larger context of risk and resilience in an advanced society. It suggests that, despite the material and emotional upheaval experienced by affected persons, the decision‐making process is a rational endeavour combining a definite set of tightly interconnected factors, involving material dimensions and substantive values that can act in concert or in conflict. In addition, it indicates that there are significant variations by geographic areas, homeownership, and kind of decision. Some theoretical implications, practical measures, and suggestions for future research are examined.     

Does need matter? Needs assessments and decision‐making among major humanitarian health agencies

Disasters of physical origin, including earthquakes, floods, landslides, tidal waves, tropical storms, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions, have affected millions of people globally over the past 100 years. Proportionately, there is far greater likelihood of being affected by such disasters in low‐income countries than in high‐income countries. Furthermore, low‐income countries are in need of international assistance following disasters more often than high‐income countries. The funding of international humanitarian assistance has increased from USD 12.9 billion in 2006 to an estimated USD 16.7 billion in 2010. The majority of this funding is channelled through humanitarian agencies and is supposed to be distributed based on the need of those affected, as assessed using needs assessments. Such needs assessments may be used to inform decisions internally, to influence others, to justify response decisions, and to obtain funding. Little is known about the quality of needs assessments in practical applications. Consequently, this paper reports on and analyses the views of operational decision‐makers in major health‐related humanitarian agencies on needs assessments.     

Is the environment becoming more hazardous?—A global survey 1947 to 1980

This paper examines the assertion that natural disasters are increasingly destructive using evidence from disaster reports during the period 1947–1980. The criteria for judging the impact of a given natural disaster are chiefly loss of life and the extent of the geographical area affected. In spite of uneveness and bias in the reporting of sudden impact disasters the conclusions are that both the frequency of disasters and number of people killed are increasing. Further research into the social consequences of disasters and the need for disaster preparedness training programmes are recommended.     

Integrated disaster relief logistics: a stepping stone towards viable civil–military networks?

The twenty‐first century has seen a significant rise in all forms of disasters and this has resulted in military and humanitarian organisations becoming more frequently engaged in the provision of support to those affected. Achieving an efficient and effective logistic preparation and response is one of the key elements in mitigating the impact of such events, but the establishment of mechanisms to deliver an appropriately integrated civil–military approach remains elusive. Not least because of the high percentage of assistance budgets spent on logistics, this area is considered to represent fertile ground for developing improved processes and understanding. In practice, the demands placed on civilian and military logisticians are broadly similar, as is the solution space. Speaking a common language and using common concepts, it is argued, therefore, that the logistic profession should be in the vanguard of the development of an improved civil–military interface.     

How Is Household Vulnerability Gendered? Female‐headed Households in the Collectives of Suleimaniyah,Iraqi Kurdistan

This research tries to reach an understanding of the well-being of female-headed household members through a comparison to male-headed household members in the collectives of the Suleimaniyah governorate in Iraqi Kurdistan. Research was undertaken in five collectives in Suleimaniyah during the summer of 1998. The research contributes to the current gender and development debates which are concerned with improving the understanding of the specific gendered forms of disadvantage faced by female-headed households rather than assuming the universal poverty of this group. An understanding of well-being is approached through a broad conceptualisation of vulnerability in preference to a narrow poverty definition. That the findings of this research are complex attests to the multi-dimensional and mutually constitutive gendered experiences of vulnerability. The definitive conclusion to emerge from this research is a refuting of the rhetoric-fuelled stereotype that households headed by women are at a disadvantage in all the dimensions of vulnerability in comparison to households headed by men. The research also establishes the methodological necessity of examining intra-household distributive mechanisms that determine individuals' well-being.     

Selling displaced people? A multi‐method study of the public communication strategies of international refugee organisations

The world has seen a major increase in forced displacement since 2011. As a growing number of states implement restrictive refugee policies, public communication has become essential for refugee organisations. This study analysed, therefore, three international refugee organisations’ discursive strategies towards the recent Syrian crisis, as well as their production and the social context. A critical discourse analysis of international press releases (N=122) and six semi‐structured interviews with press and regional officers revealed that the observed actors largely dehumanise displaced people and subordinate them to the ‘Western self’ and state interests; displaced people hardly ever acquire their own voice. The study found that the medium characteristics of press releases and the importance of media attention result in a depersonalising humanitarian discourse. In addition, there were indications of a post‐humanitarian discourse that reproduced the humanitarian sector's ‘marketisation’. Finally, the examined organisations use the political realist cross‐issue persuasion strategy, displaying displaced people as resettlement objects.     

The Yellow Fever Epidemic in Western Mali,September—November 1987: Why Did Epidemiological Surveillance Fail?

Recent yellow fever epidemics in West Africa have underlined the discrepancy between the official number of cases and deaths and those estimated by a retrospective epidemiological investigation. During the yellow fever epidemic that broke out in western Mali in September 1987, a total of 305 cases and 145 deaths were officially notified, but estimates revealed true figures abut five times higher. This paper attempts to discuss the factors that hindered early case detection and more complete reporting. They were, first, the insufficient training on the clinical diagnosis, the blood sampling method for laboratory confirmation, and the curative treatment of patients (resulting in low utilization of services); second, the lack of an action plan to prepare in advance a quick response to the epidemic, affecting reporting procedures at the peripheral level and active case-finding during the outbreak; and third, the lack of laboratory facilities for a quick confirmation of the disease.
The difficulties experienced during the yellow fever epidemic in Mali demonstrated the importance of a preparedness strategy for epidemic control, based on an integrated approach of epidemiological surveillance within basic health service activities. The need for regional collaboration and for institutionalized funds in the donor community that could be mobilized for epidemic preparedness activities is also emphasized.