Still falling short: protection and partnerships in the Lebanon emergency response

The Israeli–Hezbollah conflict in the summer of 2006, although brief, had a lasting impact on the region and prompted an intense humanitarian response. The conflict raised challenging questions for the United Nations (UN) about how to assist a middle‐income yet extremely vulnerable population in a context where global and local relations are highly politicised. This paper focuses on two key questions that emerged from the humanitarian response. First, how can humanitarian agencies, and particularly the UN, improve the protection of civilians, and was what they did in Lebanon enough? Second, how can humanitarian agencies create partnerships with local actors and still remain true to core humanitarian principles when local actors are fiercely divided along confessional lines and influenced by external actors, and when some, such as Hezbollah, are parties to the conflict? This paper argues that despite the importance of protection and partnerships to the humanitarian response, their role in the UN emergency response still falls short.     

The political economy of complex emergency and recovery in northern Ethiopia

During the 1980s Ethiopia experienced the effects of conflict, drought and famine on a scale far greater than many CPEs elsewhere. In May 1991, after the decisive defeat of the military dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam by the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and after decades of civil war, drought and famine, Ethiopia faced the prospects of peace and of much needed development. This paper explores both Ethiopia's experience of conflict and humanitarian intervention in areas of Tigray held by the Tigray Peoples' Liberation Front (TPLF) during the 1980s, and its experience of post-conflict rehabilitation and reconstruction in the 1990s. It first deals with the roots of the conflicts within Ethiopia: political marginalisation, heavy state intervention and highly extractive relations between state and peasants, inappropriate and failed development policies, ethnic identity and the politicisation of ethnicity. The Mengistu regime's counter-insurgency measures are then contrasted with the policies and programmes of the TPLF, Ethiopia's most effective opposition movement and the leading element in the EPRDF, and its achievements in mobilising popular support: its establishment of democratically elected structures of local governance and its famine relief distribution programme.     

Malnutrition in Emergencies: How Can We Do Better and Where Do the Responsibilities Lie?

Over many years, the international relief system has been repeatedly criticised in terms of slowness of response, poor inter-agency co-ordination, and technical incompetence on a larger or smaller scale. Notwithstanding many initiatives to improve co-ordination and other aspects of international relief performance, relief failures, including epidemic malnutrition, continue to occur. The reasons for these failures are discussed from the perspective of the characteristics of the international system, and the way in which this would be expected to perform under different conditions. The chief limitations of the international system identified are: the lack of any focus for imposing co-ordination, other than governments of affected countries; the lack of any requirement for donor nations to ensure that adequate resources are supplied; and a tendency for the system to respond uncritically to the international media. A broad typology of international responses is proposed. It is suggested that relief failure can be recast in terms of the lack of any system which can ensure the correct allocation of food and other resources between emergencies, and ensure the systematic distribution of such resources as are supplied. It concludes that the scope for further improvement in the performance of the international relief system is now limited, but that the most promising area for investment would, where possible, support governments in affected countries to take greater control of the management of the international relief system.     

Gender and international crisis response: do we have the data,and does it matter?

For more than a decade the humanitarian community has been mandated to mainstream gender in its response to crises. One element of this mandate is a repeated call for sex-disaggregated data to help guide the response. This study examines available analyses, assessments and academic literature to gain insights into whether sex-disaggregated data are generated, accessible and utilised, and appraised what can be learned from existing data. It finds that there is a gap between policy and practice. Evaluations of humanitarian responses rarely refer to data by sex, and there seems to be little accountability to do so. Yet existing data yield important information, pointing at practical, locally-specific measures to reduce the vulnerability of both males and females. This complements population-level studies noting the tendency for higher female mortality. The study discusses some possible obstacles for the generation of data and hopes to spur debate on how to overcome them.     

Integration of different data bodies for humanitarian decision support: an example from mine action

Geographic information systems (GIS) are increasingly used for integrating data from different sources and substantive areas, including in humanitarian action. The challenges of integration are particularly well illustrated by humanitarian mine action. The informational requirements of mine action are expensive, with socio-economic impact surveys costing over US$1.5 million per country, and are feeding a continuous debate on the merits of considering more factors or 'keeping it simple'. National census offices could, in theory, contribute relevant data, but in practice surveys have rarely overcome institutional obstacles to external data acquisition. A positive exception occurred in Lebanon, where the landmine impact survey had access to agricultural census data. The challenges, costs and benefits of this data integration exercise are analysed in a detailed case study. The benefits are considerable, but so are the costs, particularly the hidden ones. The Lebanon experience prompts some wider reflections. In the humanitarian community, data integration has been fostered not only by the diffusion of GIS technology, but also by institutional changes such as the creation of UN-led Humanitarian Information Centres. There is a question whether the analytic capacity is in step with aggressive data acquisition. Humanitarian action may yet have to build the kind of strong analytic tradition that public health and poverty alleviation have accomplished.     

城市内涝灾害防治困境的突破——基于数据治理模式的研究

城市内涝灾害已成为威胁人们生命财产安全、 滞缓社会经济发展的城市\"顽疾\",内涝灾害防治能力的提升迫在眉睫.首先从排水管网建设、城市蔓延、\"信息孤岛\"三个维度分析了城市内涝灾害防治所面临的困境,而后引入数据治理理念;在建立数据治理模型并对其原则框架、范围框架及实施和评估框架作出解读的基础之上,提出管网建设智能化、数据共享...     

Complementing institutional with localised strategies for climate change adaptation: a South-North comparison

Climate change and disasters pose a serious risk to sustainable development. In the South, local coping strategies are an important element of adaptation to climate and disaster risk. Such strategies have emerged because of the limited assistance provided by urban actors and associated social security and governance systems. In the North, in contrast, local coping strategies are comparatively poorly developed. However, the extent of the changing climatic conditions is also reducing the capacity of Northern institutions to deal with climatic extremes and variability, which emphasises the need for more local-level engagement in the North. This paper analyses the differences in local and institutional responses to climate change and disasters in a Southern and a Northern city (San Salvador, El Salvador, and Manchester, United Kingdom, respectively), and highlights how the lessons learned might be translated into an improved distributed governance system; that is, an 'integrated engagement model', where local and institutionalised responses support rather than hinder each other, as is currently the case.     

江苏省地震前兆观测台网的数字化建设及存在的问题

简要介绍了江苏数字地震前兆台网的概况及其技术特点,列出了目前存在的问题,并对其中一些问题提出了改善建议。     

地震作用下土石混合体边坡稳定性分析研究∗

目前对边坡进行的动力分析多是针对土质边坡或岩质边坡,忽略了土石混合体边坡这一特殊岩土体边坡,而少有的研究中都是将土石混合体边坡简化为等效均质土坡,忽略了块石的存在。利用数字图像处理技术,建立某一实际土石混合体边坡的细观结构模型,利用有限差分软件 FLAC3D 的动力分析模块分析对比了等效均质土坡与土石混合体边坡在地震荷载作用下的变形及稳定性。结果表明：土石混合体边坡在地震作用下首先在坡脚处出现剪切破坏,随作用时间增加逐渐在顶部产生拉裂破坏,最终形成完整的破坏带;土石混合体边坡的滑面受石块位置制约,具有“绕石现象”;在相同地震荷载作用下,土石混合体边坡破坏区贯通比等效均质土坡慢,最终产生的永久位移比等效均质土坡产生的永久位移小,块石的存在增加了土石混合体边坡的抗剪强度,提高了其稳定性。     

2001年11月14日昆仑山口西8.1级大震前徐州台数字化形变观测仪器记录的异常

北京时间 2 0 0 11114T 17∶2 6 ,在昆仑山口西发生了 8 1级地震。震中为 36 2°N ,90 9°E。这次地震前徐州地震台体应变仪、水管仪、伸缩仪数字化形变观测记录到了较明显的短临异常信息。本文试对这些异常进行分析。     

X射线数字成像技术在电力设备故障诊断中的应用

用传统的带电检测方法对电力设备进行故障诊断时,检测结果仅是基于非直接特征表象的判断,这使得诊断结果存在漏判或误判的可能。通过介绍X射线数字成像技术,将X射线数字成像技术运用到电力设备的缺陷检测中,在不打开电力设备本体的前提下,对电力设备进行X射线透射,通过对生成图像进行分析,可以发现设备内部存在的缺陷或瑕疵,应用效果表明X射线数字成像技术可用于高效开展电力设备可视化无损检测,结果清晰准确,为电力设备的故障诊断及检修提供了直观的依据。     

银川供电公司数据通信网络改造

针对银川供电公司数据通信网不能满足业务应用承载需求和信息安全需求的问题,对银川供电公司数据通信网现状及存在问题进行深入分析,提出将信息内、外网络物理隔离,地市公司网络架构采用“口”字型双联方式与省电力公司相连,信息内网采用多个业务虚拟专用网络(Virtual Private Network,VPN)管理的解决方案。应用结果表明:该方案实现了银川地区数据通信网络精益化管理,提升数据通信网的安全性、规范性、先进性和稳定性。