Pohang earthquake disaster response: Beginners vs. professionals

Bong-Woo Lee and Kyoo-Man Ha

Page No. 1-10

Pohang, Korea did not culturally consider the threat of potential earthquakes until the occurrence of earthquakes in November 2017. The study aims to examine how to improve the phase of Pohang earthquake disaster response for the ultimate disaster management. The methodology is a qualitative content analysis interpreting various text data. In doing so, two approaches, such as beginners’ earthquake disaster response and professionals’ earthquake disaster response have been compared in governments, researchers, mass media, volunteers and local communities.

A key tenet is that the field of Pohang earthquake disaster response must transform its current beginners’ earthquake disaster response to professionals’ earthquake disaster response. Neighboring nations may associate with Pohang to exchange related experiences in the long term.

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Changes in urban built-up and its impact on environment: A case study of Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, India

Derwaish Usamah, Vijayalakshmi P. and Rafiq Mohammd

Page No. 11-18

Urbanisation has vast impacts on environment and society when unabated. In today's world there is a dire need of regulating this urbanization. India is a developing country and there are large scale increases in the population which has led to unplanned and rapid urbanization in many cities. Uncontrolled and unplanned urbanisation has increased the Land Surface Temperature (LST) which in turn increased the environmental disasters (mainly floods). Land Surface Temperature (LST) is a significant parameter for anthropogenic heat production and also for cooling systems, precipitation etc. Increase in temperature and energy consumption forms the Urban Heat Island. Increased urban population leads to increase in the built-up which in turn is responsible for the increases in the density of buildings, particularly in metropolitan areas. These factors lead to vast changes in the environment and meteorological parameters including the urban geometry, pollution and heat exchanges.

This study combines the techniques of remote sensing and geographic information system to detect the spatial variation of LST and to determine its quantitative relationship with building parameters and rainfall patterns. In this study we have explored a case study of Kanchipuram district of Tamil Nadu, India where large-scale changes in built-up have occurred. Almost 700 hectares of land have been converted to built-up (excluding the roads) from last 17 years. This has increased the surface temperature of the study area by 0.60C. Also, the patterns of rainfall have changed, an increase of about 54% in extreme rainfall events has been reported. This has increased both the frequency and intensity of floods which we have witnessed frequently from last few years. If the built-up increases by same rate, there is possibility of environmental disasters which will alter both land surface and atmospheric processes.

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Flood Modeling for Sustainability City in North Jakarta District

Radhen Inthan Leothriansari Vutaco, Muhammad Dimyati, Supriatna, Asep Karsidi and Astrid Damayanti

Page No. 19-24

Jakarta is one of the metropolitan areas in Southeast Asia which is located in the north of Java and is in the lowlands with an average height of 7 meters above sea level. As a capital city with coastal areas, this city is very strategic to be optimized to support the implementation of sustainable development. However, on the other hand, coastal areas are also areas that are very vulnerable to tidal flooding. Future tidal flooding can be even greater with the phenomenon of subsidence. This reduction in groundwater can cause subsidence and sea water intrusion which will have an impact on the increase in the area affected by tidal flooding. In addition, changes in land use patterns can also add to the factor of tidal flooding in the future.

The objectives of this study are: 1) To determine the effect of land subsidence in areas affected by tidal flooding; 2) To find out patterns of changes in land use and 3) To produce predictive models of areas affected by tidal flooding due to land subsidence and land use change. The flood model uses data of flood events and land subsidence while patterns of land use change are developed using the Cellular Automata model. The results of this study indicate areas affected by tidal flooding due to changes in land use and the phenomenon of land subsidence.

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Business Continuity and Resiliency Planning in Disaster Prone Area of Sabah, Malaysia

Lehan Nur Fadzlina Aini M., Razak Khamarrul Azahari and Kamarudin Khairul Hisyam

Page No. 25-32

High frequency, magnitude and intensity of natural disasters in Malaysia have driven many governmental and non-governmental initiatives to mitigate the disaster risk, yet it is very difficult to reduce its impact. Even more challenging, an increasing trend of natural disasters has significantly impacted the business community and its continuity. Few international efforts have been developed and implemented but lacking of local content and largely focused on the impact towards global and multi-national Corporations. Besides, impacts of disaster on business are normally represented by certain figures based on approximation from existing datasets, expert judgement or interviews with vulnerable business owners.

Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and its associated recovery program have been widely developed, but a comprehensive (BCP) in Malaysia is still elusive, even so for multi hazard, multi sectoral and local complexity. This study presents findings of BCP practices among the local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in disaster prone area of Kundasang, Sabah.

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Comparative study of seismic analysis of high-rise buildings

Deexith Vishnu Yadav M. and Visuvasam J.

Page No. 33-38

The rapid development of urban populations and ensuring a limitation of area have impressively altered the residential development of the city. This study mainly focuses on modern high-rise buildings and their structural design mainly governed by lateral loads and this lateral load resisting is provided by either interior or exterior structural systems. The interior system comprises shear wall core, braced frame whereas the loads are resisted by a centrally loaded system. The exterior system comprises of a framed tube, braced tube and diagrid whereas the loads are resisted by elements provided at periphery. It is noted that the selected structural system is to be well utilized in structural efficiency and also in satisfying the design requirements.

In our study, the effect of the diagrid system on seismic behavior of high rise building of 18 stories steel building of aspect ratio 4.5 has been considered. The time history analysis was performed by SAP2000. The response of the diagrid structure has been compared with braced tube structure. It has been absorbed that diagrid structure provides more lateral resistant against seismic forces compared with braced tube structure.

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Preparedness and Reality Responses of Landless Women Agricultural Labourers to Disaster: A Case Study of Moolakarai Village, Nagapattinam District, Tamil Nadu

Sivakami N., Shamala R. and Mathew Angela Rose

Page No. 39-42

Women themselves being vulnerable groups were in a position to manage doubled responsibility of caretaking of their livelihood, elders and children at home. It is significant to record the reality responses of the women landless agricultural labourers who are doubly marginalized. The present study aims at recording the reality perspectives of the landless women agricultural labourers.

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Assessment of climate change risks on surface water resources for Quang Ngai province

Huynh Thi Lan Huong, Bui Duc Hieu, Nguyen Thi Lieu, Dang Quang Thinh and Nguyen Dinh Hoang

Page No. 43-52

This study presents a method of assessing risks of climate change on surface water resources in Quang Ngai province using the new approach of IPCC on components of risks including: Hazard, Exposure and Vulnerability. Climate change risk indicators for Quang Ngai province's surface water resources were calculated using results simulated from hydrological model and provincial statistics yearbook.

Results showed that climate change risks for present are relatively low at 0.31 and may increase to 0.35 in mid-century under the climate change scenario RCP4.5. The findings of this research can serve the planning of water resources in Quang Ngai province.

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Analysis of Fire hazard in healthcare Buildings through Media Elicitation

Shirolkar Meera Pankaj and Gokhale Vasudha Ashutosh

Page No. 53-57

A large number of devastating fires in Indian healthcare buildings brings out all the lacunae in the hospitals’ fire safety in terms of presence of safety systems, safety regulations, fire-fighting equipment, rescue protocols and prevention mechanisms. Hospitals are spaces for care and rehabilitation. They often provide different levels of patient support. It is important that there is a safe environment for the patients and the employees that work in the hospital.

However, there are risk factors related to the building that can be a threat to the safety of the patients and employees like a fire in the building. This research presents analysis of past fire events in healthcare facilities in India. It includes evaluation of the past incidences through a systematic analysis of selected incidences based on media elicitation method aimed to find out the reasons, identify the issues related to evacuation process focusing on architectural parameters. Analysis and disseminating lessons from past incidents presented in this research are aimed to learn from past experience and thus improve future responses.

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Spatial Integration of Landslide Hazard Evaluation Factors and Assessment of Landslide prone areas in Vathalmalai hills, India

Kavitha G., Anbazhagan S. and Mani S.

Page No. 58-68

The study discusses about the assessment of landslide prone areas along the ghat road section of Vathalmalai hills and preparation of landslide susceptibility zones. Vathalmalai is located in the eastern part of Dharmapuri district, State of Tamil Nadu, Southern India. In this study, the landslide inventory, landslide causative factors and the procedure of landslide hazard zonation mapping using BIS LHEF method are discussed. The inherent causative parameters like lithology, structure, slope gradient, inherent causative factors namely lithology, structure, slope morphometery, relative relief, land use/land cover and hydrological condition were studied and spatially integrated for preparation of landslide hazard zonation maps. The LHZ map shows landslide prone areas in facet wise distribution. The thematic map generation and integration was done through ArcGIS software. The inherent triggering parameters like seismic activity and precipitation were also integrated as effects of corrected ratings.

The Landslide Hazard Evaluation Factor (LHEF) method was used in calculation of the Total Estimated Hazard (THED) under various facets as per the BIS guidelines [IS:14496 (Part-2) 1998] and the associated landslide hazard zonation map was generated. In the hazard map, the high hazard zones were matching with the high incidence of landslides. The LHZ of the terrain shows that out of 5 facets classified, the facet 2 was under high hazard zone (HHZ), facet 3 fell under moderate hazardous zone (MHZ), the low hazard zones (LHZ) were restricted to 1, 4 and 5 facets in the ghat road section.

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Contemporary Disaster Management Tools and Techniques

Brar Preetinder Singh and Singh Jaiteg

Page No. 69-80

Researchers across the globe are pursuing an endeavour to make precise predictions of the occurrence of natural disasters. Although predicting a natural disaster is not always possible, yet researchers have developed some tools that are proving to be immensely useful in predictions of earthquakes, landslides and tsunamis and also for post-disaster management. This study surveys the various contemporary disaster-alerting, reporting and management tools employed around the world.

Since Indian subcontinent is highly prone to natural disasters, therefore the tools employed by disaster response agencies in India have also been discussed in the study. With most of the prominent tools and techniques being reported in this study, one can get a fair idea of the same and can work on taking the research in this field to the next step.

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