Australian bushfire fatalities 1900–2008: exploring trends in relation to the ‘Prepare,stay and defend or leave early’ policy

In many jurisdictions, including parts of the US, authorities often dictate mandatory evacuations of communities threatened by bushfire (wildfire). Prior to the 2009 ‘Black Saturday’ fires in Victoria, Australian fire authorities in all States advised residents to decide whether they would prepare to stay and defend homes or leave early. The clear intent of that policy was to avoid late evacuations and the risks to life that this could entail. This study re-examines evidence underpinning this policy using analyses of a database of bushfire fatalities. The database contains information on 552 civilian (non-fire fighter) fatalities obtained from print media archives at Risk Frontiers and forensic, witness and police statements contained within coronial inquest reports for all bushfire fatalities between 1901 and 2008. This data, compiled before the Black Saturday fires, clearly show the dangers of being caught outside during a bushfire and the gendered division of the circumstances of these deaths. While men have been most often killed outside while attempting to protect assets, most female and child fatalities occurred while sheltering in the house or attempting to flee. The database provides a benchmark against which the Black Saturday experience can be examined.     

Environmental circumstances surrounding bushfire fatalities in Australia 1901–2011

This paper describes the development and analysis of a dataset covering bushfire related life loss in Australia over the past 110 years (1901–2011). Over this time period 260 bushfires have been associated with a total of 825 known civilian and firefighter fatalities. This database was developed to provide an evidence base from which an Australian national fire danger rating system can be developed and has benefits in formalising our understanding of community exposure to bushfire. The database includes detail of the spatial, temporal and localised context in which the fatalities occurred. This paper presents the analysis of 674 civilian fatalities. The analysis has focused on characterising the relationship between fatal exposure location, weather conditions (wind speed, temperature, relative humidity and drought indices), proximity to fuel, activities and decision making leading up to the death.The analysis demonstrates that civilian fatalities were dominated by several iconic bushfires that have occurred under very severe weather conditions. The fatalities from Australia's 10 worst bushfire days accounted for 64% of all civilian fatalities. Over 50% of all fatalities occurred on days where the McArthur Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI) exceeded 100 (the current threshold for declaring a day as ‘catastrophic’) proximal to the fatality.The dominant location category was open air representing 58% of all fatalities followed by 28% in structures, and 8% in vehicles (6% are unknown). For bushfires occurring under weather conditions exceeding an FFDI value of 100, fatalities within structures represented over 60% of all fatalities. These were associated with people dying while attempting to shelter mainly in their place of residence. Of the fatalities that occurred inside a structure in a location that was specifically known, 41% occurred in rooms with reduced visibility to the outside conditions. Over 78% of all fatalities occurred within 30 m of the forest.     

Constructing risks – Internalisation of flood risks in the flood risk management plan

Traditional flood protection methods have focused efforts on different measures to keep water out of floodplains. However, the European Flood Directive challenges this paradigm (Hartmann and Driessen, 2013). Accordingly, flood risk management plans should incorporate measures brought about by collaboration with local governments to develop and implement these measures (Johann and Leismann, 2014). One of the challenges of these plans is getting and keeping stakeholders involved in the processes related to flood risk management. This research shows that that this challenge revolves around how flood risks are socially constructed.Therefore it is essential to understand and explain the risk perception of stakeholders. System Theory by Luhmann provides the analytical distinction between ‘internal risk’ and ‘external danger’ as key concepts to understand whether or not stakeholders will take action (Luhmann, 1993). While perceptions of ‘external danger’ will not lead to action, perceptions of ‘internal risk’ urge stakeholders to take action.The cases of the rivers Lippe and Emscher in the dense populated region between Duisburg and Dortmund in Germany illustrate how these theoretical concepts materialise in practice. This contribution shows how flood risks are socially constructed and how this construction is influenced by the European flood risk management plan. While clearing up some of the difficulties from the Flood Directive, the research shows a gap between the Flood Directive and the current theory and planning practice, which needs to be addressed in further research.     

Resilience in practice: Five principles to enable societies to cope with extreme weather events

The concept of resilience is used by many in different ways: as a scientific concept, as a guiding principle, as inspirational ‘buzzword’, or as a means to become more sustainable. Next to the academic debate on meaning and notions of resilience, the concept has been widely adopted and interpreted in policy contexts, particularly related to climate change and extreme weather events. In addition to having a positive connotation, resilience may cover aspects that are missed in common disaster risk management approaches. Although the precise definition of resilience may remain subject of discussion, the views on what is important to consider in the management of extreme weather events do not differ significantly. Therefore, this paper identifies the key implications of resilience thinking for the management of extreme weather events and translates these into five practical principles for policy making.     

The effectiveness of flood risk communication strategies and the influence of social networks—Insights from an agent-based model

Flood risk management is becoming increasingly important, because more people are settling in flood-prone areas, and flood risk is increasing in many regions due to extreme weather events associated with climate change. It has been proposed that appropriately designed flood risk communication campaigns can stimulate floodplain inhabitants to prepare for flooding, and encourage adaptation to climate change. However, such campaigns do not always result in the desired action, and the effectiveness of communication in raising flood risk awareness and improving flood preparedness has hardly been studied. We evaluate different flood risk communication strategies, using an agent-based modelling approach, which is especially suitable for examining the effect of communication on each individual, and how flood risk communication can propagate through an individual’s social network. Our modelling results show that tailored, people-centred, flood risk communication can be significantly more effective than the common approach of top-down government communication, even when tailored communication reaches fewer individuals. Furthermore, communication on how to protect against floods, in addition to providing information about flood risk, is much more effective than the traditional strategy of communicating only about flood risk. Another main finding is that a person’s social network can have a significant effect on whether or not individuals take protective action. This leads to the recommendation that flood risk communication should aim at exploiting this natural amplifying effect of social networks, for instance, through the use of social media.     

曹妃甸配套产业区产业转型前后潜在地震灾害损失分析

曹妃甸配套产业区特殊的地理位置决定了它面临着地震灾害的威胁,伴随经济的高速发展,潜在地震灾害损失呈现放大效应。本文通过曹妃甸配套产业区转型前后灾害承灾体、灾害损失的对比分析,提出在进行产业转型前,除需要论证经济可行性外,还必须对该区域进行潜在灾害调查,对灾害潜患区进行防灾规划。     

1961-2009年四川极端强降水变化趋势与周期性分析

利用四川1961-2009年141个站点逐日降水资料和1998-2007年灾情资料,采用气候倾向率、Mann-Kendall检验、复Morlet小波、Gumbel分布、信息扩散等方法,分析了7个区域5个指数的变化趋势、突变特征和周期性特点,以及重现期降水极值和洪灾损失风险的区域差异,其主要结论是:川西南山地极端降水呈显著增多增强趋势,并在1980年代初发生了突变,盆地东北部和川西高原南部也有增多增强趋势,但不显著,盆地西北部、盆地南部和川西高原北部则有减少减弱趋势,盆地中部则表现出频数增多强度减弱的变化趋势;多数区域和多数指数都存在25 a左右的长周期和6~9 a的短周期,从25 a的长周期看,目前极端降水正处于增多增强的变化过程之中;用Gumbel分布拟合的日最大降水量,其极值区位于盆周山区和高原与盆地的过渡带,3个极值中心主要位于盆地西南部、西北部和东北部,50 a一遇的日雨量在230 mm以上;盆地大部50 a一遇的洪灾损失率在38%左右,盆地东北部可达45%,广元西南部可达60%。     

Attitudes to and practices regarding sex selection in China

This paper explores the problem of China's ‘missing’ girls—estimated to run into many millions. It considers the impact of the underpinning Confucian value system in China that has produced a culture of son preference and which, together with China's compulsory family planning program and ‘one child policy’, has effectively established a ‘one son policy’. Discussion of the various means by which the birth or survival of daughters have traditionally been prevented provides the context for identifying the contribution of new sex selection procedures to the maintenance of son preference in contemporary Chinese society. The paper concludes that China's son preference is not simply a personal problem for the millions of ‘missing girls’ who were destined to live a shorter life and for the surviving girls who continue to face considerable discrimination simply because they are of the ‘wrong’ sex; it heralds a social and demographic disaster of major proportions for which neither the government nor the people of China appear to have the will or the means to forestall. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

内嵌POT损失分布拟合模型的风暴潮灾害风险价值测算

近年来,全球气候的异常变化导致风暴潮灾害频发,给我国造成了巨大灾害性损失。科学测算风暴潮灾害的风险价值,对于度量风暴潮灾害风险、估计风暴潮灾害损失、指导灾害风险有效分散具有重要意义。针对中国风暴潮灾害损失数据鲜明的频率低、厚尾性特征,本文引入极值理论的POT模型完成风暴潮灾害直接经济损失分布拟合,测算出不同置信水平下的风险价值,并通过了Kupiec失败频率检验。研究表明,运用POT模型测算不同置信水平下的风险价值可以作为今后中国风暴潮灾害风险科学度量以及单次灾害最大可能损失合理估计的基础。     

核密度估计在海洋灾害保险纯保费厘定中的应用——以风暴潮灾害为例

频发的海洋灾害给人类社会正常的生产生活造成了不可估量的损失。总结日本灾后重建经验,本文认为提高居民防灾减灾能力、建立海洋灾害保险机制是我国社会发展中亟待解决的问题。由于有限的海洋灾害风险统计数据会降低传统的参数估计方法在海洋灾害保险费率厘定中的有效性,故本文引入非参数模型中的核密度估计方法对海洋灾害风险损失数据进行拟合,得到相应的期望损失,并以此为基础厘定海洋灾害保险的纯保费;在考虑风险附加后,文章对海洋灾害保险的费率进行了校正,以风暴潮为例进行实证分析,最终完成海洋灾害保险纯保费的厘定,并针对如何提高我国海洋灾害风险管理能力提出了若干对策建议。     

综合关联分析在火灾分析中的应用

应用灰色综合关联分析理论,以1994年至1998年中国火灾成因及后果的统计数据为样本,选取了造成火灾的5种原因,分别以事故起数、死亡人数、直接经济损失为系统特征,对系统进行了综合关联分析和优势分析,为掌握火灾发生规律及进行火灾预防等提供了依据.     

辽宁沿海地区海水入侵的发展不容忽视

介绍了近几年辽宁沿海地区，海水入侵状况．由于海水入侵现象的日益发展，使水资源的污染逐渐加剧．即影响国民经济的发展，同时也将给人畜用水带来很大的危害．为了防止海水入侵的进一步发展，防止水环境的污染．应加强对水资源开采的统一管理，使水资源的使用走向良性循环的道路．     

Modelling economic impacts and adaptation to extreme events: Insights from European case studies

Adaptation to climate change in Europe has only recently become a true policy concern with the management of extreme events one priority item. Irrespective of future climatic changes increasing the need for systematic evaluation and management of extremes, weather-related disasters already today pose substantial burdens for households, businesses and governments. Research in the ADAM project identified substantial direct risks in terms of potential crop and asset losses due to combined drought and heatwave, as well as flood hazards in Southern and Eastern Europe, respectively. This paper focuses on the indirect, medium to longer term economic risks triggered by the direct risks and mediated by policy responses. We present a selection of three economic impact and adaptation assessments and modelling studies undertaken on extreme event adaptation in Europe. Responding to a need for more economically based adaptation assessments, we address some relatively unresearched issues such as the understanding of past adaptation, the role of market response to impacts as well as government’s ability to plan for and share out extreme event risks. The first analysis undertakes an empirical exploration of observed impacts and adaptation in the agricultural sector in the UK comparing the impact of consecutive extreme events over time in order to determine whether adaptation has occurred in the past and whether this can be used to inform future estimates of adaptation rates. We find that farmers and the agricultural sector clearly have adapted to extreme events over time, but whether this rate can be maintained into the future is unclear, as some autonomous adaptation enacted seemed rather easy to be taken. Markets may mediate or amplify impacts and in the second analysis, we use an economic general equilibrium model to assess the economic effects of a reduction in agricultural production due to drought and heatwave risk in exposed regions in Spain. The analysis suggests that modelled losses to the local economy are more serious in a large-scale scenario when neighbouring provinces are also affected by drought and heatwave events. This is due to the supply-side induced price increase leading to some passing on of disaster costs to consumers. The simulation highlights the importance of paying particular attention to the spatial and distributional effects weather extremes and possibly changes therein induced by climate change may incur. Finally, we discuss how national governments may better plan their disaster liabilities resulting from a need to manage relief and reconstruction activities post event. We do so using a risk based economic planning model assessing the fiscal consequences associated with the coping with natural extremes. We identify large weather-related disaster contingent liabilities, particularly in the key flood hot spot countries Austria, Romania, and Hungary. Such substantial disaster liabilities (“hidden disaster deficits”) when interacting with weak fiscal conditions may lead to substantial additional stress on government budgets and reduced fiscal space for funding other relevant public investment projects. Overall, our paper suggests the importance of respecting the specific spatial and temporal characteristics of extreme event risk when generating information on adaptation decisions. As our adaptation decisions considered, such as using sovereign risk financing instruments are associated with a rather short time horizon, the analysis largely focuses on the management of today’s extreme events and does not discuss in detail projections of risks into a future with climate change. Such projections raise important issues of uncertainty, which in some instances may actually render future projections non-robust, a constraint to be kept in mind when addressing longer term decisions, which at the same time should account for both climate and also socioeconomic change.     

东北典型黑土区沟蚀发生风险评价研究

选择黑龙江省乌裕尔河和讷谟尔河两流域所涉及的东北典型黑土区作为研究区,以SPOT 5 影像为基础数据源, 获取了研究区2005 年的侵蚀沟分布数据,并且利用该数据对研究区沟蚀现状进行了评估。同时基于1:50 000 地形图数据插值求取的DEM,提取了与沟蚀形成相关的11 个地形因子。最后基于沟蚀数据和无共线性的8 个地形因子构建了Logistic 模型,据此模型对研究区沟蚀发生风险进行了评价,进而进行了沟蚀发生风险分级评价研究。结果表明研究区当前侵蚀沟共有14 184 条,密度为322.11 m/km²,吞噬耕地约100.36 km²;基于Logistic模型获取的沟蚀发生风险空间分布图与研究区沟蚀分布现状较为吻合,以0.4 分界时,研究区73%的侵蚀沟都发生在具有高危发生风险地区,评价结果能够反映研究区的沟蚀发生风险分布状况;通过风险分级图表可以评估研究区不同发生风险等级的沟蚀分布面积、分布特征和空间分布格局,便于管理者找出较为严重的侵蚀区,为有针对性地进行沟蚀防治提供依据。     

Maximising synergies between disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation: Potential enablers for improved planning outcomes

Recent extreme weather events worldwide have highlighted the vulnerability of many urban settlements to future climatic change. These events are expected to increase in frequency and intensity under climate change scenarios. Although the climatic change may be unavoidable, effective planning and response can reduce its impacts. Drawing on empirical data from a 3-year multi-sectoral study of climate change adaptation for human settlements in the South East Queensland region, Australia, this paper draws on multi-sectoral perspectives to propose enablers for maximising synergies between disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation to achieve improved planning outcomes. Multi-sectoral perspectives are discussed under four groups of identified enablers: spatial planning; cross-sectoral planning; social/community planning; and strategic/long term planning. Based on the findings, a framework is proposed to guide planning systems to maximise synergies between the fields of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation to minimise the vulnerability of communities to extreme weather events in highly urbanised areas.     

Governance of sustainable transitions: about the 4(0) ways to change the world

Transitions are radical system innovations that usually take 1–2 generations. Using Cultural Theory as a heuristic, this paper presents four archetypical approaches to transition management. The fatalist approach refrains from transition management (motto: ‘First, disaster must happen’). The system is in a stalemate that no experiment or hierarchy can break; external events must bring the window of opportunity for change. The hierarchic approach relies on a dominant actor coalition to steer change (motto: ‘Let's put a man on the moon!’). The individualist approach relies mainly on changing the financial ground rules (motto: ‘Sustainability through the market’). Finally, the egalitarian approach relies on process management, doing experiments, etc. (motto: ‘A good transition arena will solve it all’). This approach makes sense if the situation is not clear enough to be managed via one of the other approaches, and there is a clearly identifiable learning objective.     

Numerical simulation of small area fires

Plume dynamics and smoke injection into the atmosphere from large area fires ensuing a nuclear exchange are currently simulated by prescribed burns of smaller areas (radius < 1 km). The extent to which small area fire plumes accurately characterize those from larger urban fires (radius > 5 km) is not well established. A ‘large’ fire has a radius comparable to the stratification scale height of the atmosphere. Numerical simulations of smoke plumes and condensed-moisture clouds generated by small area fires are presented for three fire sizes and two ignition patterns for ‘average’ September Pacific Northwest atmospheric conditions. We find that the plume rise from small area fires is governed by the total heat release and entrainment, whereas that from large area fires is controlled primarily by the fire heating rate per unit area and the atmospheric stratification.     

济南市极端降水变化特征及趋势分析

本文采用济南市1951—2012 a的逐日降水资料,由百分比阈值定义出极端降水事件,并运用spss软件、线性回归、M-K检验分析和Morlet小波分析等方法分析济南市极端降水特征及变化趋势。研究表明：济南市过去62 a极端降水总体变化为上升趋势。极端降水事件较多发生在持续降水中,并且极端值与正常值相比差值越来越大,极端性增强。极端降水日数在增加,并且多日数的极端降水事件分布逐渐密集。虽然连续的极端降水有所减少,但是突发性强,引致城市内涝的风险反而增大。济南市从21世纪开始极端降水有明显突变增加现象。极端降水量数序列分别存在30 a、10 a左右的周期振荡,较大尺度30 a上的周期振荡非常明显,10 a左右的周期说明每个极端降水增强的大周期中都存在逐渐增强的小周期。未来济南市极端降水还会明显增强,及时加强灾害预防对于城市发展意义重大。     

Unruly pathogens: eliciting values for environmental risk in the context of heterogeneous expert knowledge

This paper examines some of the theoretical and methodological issues arising from the process of conceptualising and eliciting values for environmental risk in the context of heterogeneous expert knowledge. Drawing on the experience of a recent research project examining the relationship between livestock farming systems and microbial watercourse pollution the paper reflects critically upon efforts to develop an interdisciplinary assessment of the factors that may affect the loss of potential pathogens from agricultural land to water courses as the basis for targeting high risk fields and farms. The paper describes the procedures for designing the natural and cultural parameters that surround microbial risks and the issues that are raised for making whole system assessments workable based on contrasting and unstable systems of disciplinary insight. Situated within claims about the need for generating reliable and widely applicable assessments of environmental risk the paper suggests that interdisciplinary working raises important issues about the role of ‘uncertain’ knowledge in the management of ‘known’ risks.     

Insuring Southeast Asian commercial forests: Fire risk analysis and the potential for use of data in risk pricing and reduction of forest fire risk

The author uses his own data gleaned from over 10 years of commercial forestry insurance across the world to propose that despite a low intrinsic fire risk across most of Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia, commercial fire losses are unacceptably high, and could be reduced substantially within the current financial legal and political framework within which forestry companies operate. Opening with a statement about the dearth of forest fire loss data in the commercial sector, it is observed that the consequent inability of general insurers to estimate the rate of fire loss leads to very low insurance participation in forestry within Indonesia. A summary is then provided of the financial and environmental benefits of insurance participation in commercial forestry were this situation to be changed. A short discussion on risk perceptions is introduced to make the point that without reliable commercial forest fire loss data, risk perceptions of fire exposure in Southeast Asia by the financial sector, including insurers, is a barrier to risk transfer and investment. While real fire risk and perceived fire risk for Indonesia seem at present to be in agreement, the paper challenges that this should the case. Comparisons are made with different parts of the world with the knowledge that, in commercial terms, plantations in the low latitudes behave similarly everywhere in terms of fire causes, fire propagation factors, and characteristics of plantation or managed mixed forest fires. A review of the fire sizes within commercial forests is a good indicator of the efficiency of fire management strategies, and profiles from a high fire risk territory and Indonesia are compared. Using commercial and unidentified data the author then demonstrates that commercial growers in Indonesia have a high annual rate of forest fire loss and may also have a significant catastrophe fire exposure. This ‘cat’ exposure is far greater than for equivalent plantations in clearly higher fire risk environments. These conclusions are and should be discussed with forestry companies to change attitude and investment levels. Practical points for improved plantation fire management are made along with comments about the resources required. A parallel discussion then reviews fire risk assessment and management by the insurers to prevent their own ‘forest fire’ losses if they are to get further involved with the provision of Indonesian commercial forest risk transfer. The explanation of how insurers price risk within a portfolio helps identify the specific data needed for a proper risk management strategy to be developed.