Lessons Learned From the Higher Risk Perception and the Efficient Flood Mitigation in Haji-Abad, Golestan Province, Iran, 2019

Author(s):  
Mohammad Heidari ◽  
Nasrin Sayfouri ◽  
Samaneh Heidari

ABSTRACT Objective: In the present study, the factors inducing the successful immediate mitigation measures and other activities at Haji-Abad village in Golestan Province, Iran, were scrutinized. Methods: To find authentic data, information was gathered from a variety of sources, including mass media documents and interviews with the related Health House attendant (Behvarz) at Haji-Abad and the disaster liaison at the Rural-Urban Healthcare Center, both of whom were among the residents. A thematic analysis was performed on the transcriptions. Results: The findings showed that apart from the favorable geographical location of the area, appropriate education as well as vast family kinship among the residents were the major causes that induced high-risk perception, adequate collaboration and coordination among the residents and between them and the local authorities, and the women's active participation; these major effects, in turn, helped provide all of the efficient mitigation measures leading to the flood control. Conclusion: It is recommended that opportunities for people's collaboration in preparedness, mitigation measures, and resilience during the occurrence of disasters be arranged by means of providing related inclusive operational education prior to the incidents. This can simultaneously generate risk perception and help people assume themselves as the owners of the disasters.

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 1756
Author(s):  
Jania Chilima ◽  
Jill Blakley ◽  
Harry Diaz ◽  
Lalita Bharadwaj

Conflicts around the multi-purpose water uses of Lake Diefenbaker (LD) in Saskatchewan, Canada need to be addressed to meet rapidly expanding water demands in the arid Canadian prairie region. This study explores these conflicts to advance collaborative planning as a means for improving the current water governance and management of this lake. Qualitative methodology that employed a wide participatory approach was used to collect focus group data from 92 individuals, who formed a community of water users. Results indicate that the community of water users is unified in wanting to maintain water quality and quantity, preserving the lake’s aesthetics, and reducing water source vulnerability. Results also show these users are faced with water resource conflicts resulting from lack of coherence of regulatory instruments in the current governance regime, and acceptable management procedures of both consumptive and contemporary water uses that are interlinked in seven areas of: irrigation, industrial, and recreational water uses; reservoir water level for flood control and hydroelectricity production; wastewater and lagoon management; fish farm operations; and regional water development projects. As a means of advancing collaborative planning, improvements in water allocation and regulatory instruments could be made to dissipate consumptive use conflicts and fill the under-regulation void that exists for contemporary water uses. Additionally, a comprehensive LD water use master plan, as a shared vision to improve participation in governance, could be developed to direct the water uses that have emerged over time. This study suggests that these three areas are practical starting conditions that would enable successful collaborative planning for the seven areas of water uses. Focusing on these three areas would ensure the current and future needs of the community of water users are met, while avoiding reactive ways of solving water problems in the LD region, especially as the water crisis in the Canadian Prairie region where LD is located is expected to intensify.


2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S1) ◽  
pp. s141-s141
Author(s):  
E.L. Dhondt ◽  
T. Peeters ◽  
L. Orlans

BackgroundAccording to the Belgian Hospital Disaster Planning Act, all hospitals are required to have written disaster plans and to routinely conduct annual disaster drills. In 2010, the management of the Military Hospital decided to organize an evacuation exercise of the newly built 24-bed BU.AimTo evaluate this new BU's evacuation plan and drills and the overall hospital emergency incident response and command system.Methods and ResultsIt was decided to conduct a simulated evacuation exercise following an internal fire, before the BU effectively was put into use, thereby deploying fashioned simulated patients and visitors but bringing into action the regular attending medical, nursing and logistic staff. A multidisciplinary design and organizing team was launched, consisting of the hospitals disaster preparedness coordinator, the EMS-staff, external burn care, emergency incident management and operational engineering experts. The appointed objectives for evaluation were the knowledge of the regular evacuation drills, especially the clearance of an intensive care room; access to evacuation routes; visibility of safety guidelines; mission and tasks of the hospital's first response team and the medical incident manager; communication and information flow and the establishment of the hospital's coordination committee. In the mean time and following lessons learned, a number of mitigation measures have been instituted: adequate identification of evacuated rooms, new configuration of the fire detection alarm, optimized access to stairwells and elevators, adjustment of action cards and specific fire fighting training for hospital staff. Finally the decision was made not to purchase specific evacuation equipment for the movement of patients.ConclusionTaking advantage of the BU's provisional vacancy, a simulated hospital evacuation exercise increased the hospital emergency preparedness, awareness and response to disasters within the hospital, in particular in a critical care department, otherwise difficult to assess.


Author(s):  
Naoto Kasahara ◽  
Izumi Nakamura ◽  
Hideo Machida ◽  
Hitoshi Nakamura ◽  
Koji Okamoto

As the important lessons learned from the Fukushima-nuclear power plant accident, mitigation of failure consequences and prevention of catastrophic failure became essential against severe accident and excessive earthquake conditions. To improve mitigation measures and accident management, clarification of failure behaviors with locations is premise under design extension conditions such as severe accidents and earthquakes. Design extension conditions induce some different failure modes from design conditions. Furthermore, best estimation for these failure modes are required for preparing countermeasures and management. Therefore, this study focused on identification of failure modes under design extension conditions. To observe ultimate failure behaviors of structures under extreme loadings, new experimental techniques were adopted with simulation materials such as lead and lead-antimony alloy, which has very small yield stress. Postulated failure modes of main components under design extension conditions were investigated according three categories of loading modes. The first loading mode is high temperature and internal pressure. Under this mode, ductile fracture and local failure were investigated. At the structural discontinuities, local failure may become dominant. The second is high temperature and external pressure loading mode. Buckling and fracture were investigated. Buckling occurs however hardly break without additional loads or constraints. The last loading is excessive earthquake. Ratchet deformation, collapse, and fatigue were investigated. Among them, low-cycle fatigue is dominant.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (13) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Leena Lohiniva ◽  
Jussi Sane ◽  
Katja Sibenberg ◽  
Taneli Puumalainen ◽  
Mika Salminen

Understanding risk perceptions of the public is critical for risk communication. In February 2020, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare started collecting weekly qualitative data on coronavirus disease (COVID-19) risk perception that informs risk communication efforts. The process is based on thematic analysis of emails and social media messages from the public and identifies factors linked to appraisal of risk magnitude, which are developed into risk communication recommendations together with health and communication experts.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie Turcotte-Tremblay ◽  
Idriss Ali Gali Gali ◽  
Valéry Ridde

Abstract Background COVID-19 has led to the adoption of unprecedented mitigation measures which could trigger many unintended consequences. These unintended consequences can be far-reaching and just as important as the intended ones. The World Health Organization identified the assessment of unintended consequences of COVID-19 mitigation measures as a top priority. Thus far, however, their systematic assessment has been neglected due to the inattention of researchers as well as the lack of training and practical tools. Main text Over six years our team has gained extensive experience conducting research on the unintended consequences of complex health interventions. Through a reflexive process, we developed insights that can be useful for researchers in this area. Our analysis is based on key literature and lessons learned reflexively in conducting multi-site and multi-method studies on unintended consequences. Here we present practical guidance for researchers wishing to assess the unintended consequences of COVID-19 mitigation measures. To ensure resource allocation, protocols should include research questions regarding unintended consequences at the outset. Social science theories and frameworks are available to help assess unintended consequences. To determine which changes are unintended, researchers must first understand the intervention theory. To facilitate data collection, researchers can begin by forecasting potential unintended consequences through literature reviews and discussions with stakeholders. Including desirable and neutral unintended consequences in the scope of study can help minimize the negative bias reported in the literature. Exploratory methods can be powerful tools to capture data on the unintended consequences that were unforeseen by researchers. We recommend researchers cast a wide net by inquiring about different aspects of the mitigation measures. Some unintended consequences may only be observable in subsequent years, so longitudinal approaches may be useful. An equity lens is necessary to assess how mitigation measures may unintentionally increase disparities. Finally, stakeholders can help validate the classification of consequences as intended or unintended. Conclusion Studying the unintended consequences of COVID-19 mitigation measures is not only possible but also necessary to assess their overall value. The practical guidance presented will help program planners and evaluators gain a more comprehensive understanding of unintended consequences to refine mitigation measures.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 10819
Author(s):  
Shu-Mei Liu ◽  
Shu-Fang Shih ◽  
Bo Meng ◽  
Rui Zhen ◽  
Xiao-Ben Pan ◽  
...  

The outbreak of the coronavirus disease in 2019 (COVID-19) has greatly impacted the life and mental health of many people globally. The objective of this study was to investigate the factors associated with preventive behaviors and mental health among Chinese adults during their home quarantine in the COVID-19 period. An online questionnaire survey was administered in March 2020. The study participants were adults aged between 18 and 70 years old from 31 provinces in China. Of the 3878 participants, 1314 reported moderate levels of anxiety, and the remaining participants reported moderate to severe levels of anxiety. Findings revealed that females aged between 18 and 30 years old who had higher educational qualifications, greater levels of preventive knowledge, trust in the government, and resided in urban and medium-risk areas (R2 = 0.100, F = 27.97, p < 0.001) were more likely to exhibit preventive behaviors. In contrast, a higher negative emotional response was generally seen in males who had low levels of preventive knowledge and behaviors, higher risk perception of infection, lower trust in the government, and unhealthy lifestyles (R2 = 0.127, F = 32.33, p < 0.001). In addition, the high-risk perception of infection was positively associated with high odds of anxiety (AOR = 1.17, 95% CI: 1.10–1.24), whereas a greater level of preventive knowledge (AOR = 0.36, 95% CI: 0.19–0.70) and behaviors (AOR = 0.69, 95% CI: 0.57–0.84), higher trust in the government’s COVID-19 pandemic mitigation measures (AOR = 0.77, 95% CI: 0.71–0.83), and a healthier lifestyle (AOR = 0.89, 95% CI: 0.79–0.99) were negatively associated with high odds of anxiety. Results showed that a lower level of anxiety and negative emotional response were associated with better preventive behaviors against COVID-19, which were influenced by preventive knowledge, risk perception, trust in the government’s COVID-19 pandemic mitigation measures, and healthy lifestyle. Findings in this study could help formulate health interventions for vulnerable groups related to gendered vulnerabilities in the COVID-19 environment to improve their mental health and preventive behaviors, especially during the period of a pandemic.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaokun He ◽  
Shenglian Guo ◽  
Chong-Yu Xu ◽  
Kebing Chen ◽  
Zhen Liao ◽  
...  

Abstract. Joint and optimal impoundment operation of the large-scale reservoir system has become more crucial for modern water management. Since the existing techniques fail to optimize the large-scale multi-objective impoundment operation due to the complex inflow stochasticity and high dimensionality, we develop a novel combination of parameter simulation optimization and classification-aggregation-decomposition approach here to overcome these obstacles. There are four main steps involved in our proposed framework: (1) reservoirs classification based on geographical location and flood prevention targets; (2) assumption of a hypothetical single reservoir in the same pool; (3) the derivation of the initial impoundment policies by the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II); (4) further improvement of the impoundment policies via Parallel Progressive Optimization Algorithm (PPOA). The framework potential is performed on China's mixed 30-reservoir system in the upper Yangtze River. Results indicate that our method can provide a series of schemes to refer to different flood event scenarios. The best scheme outperforms the conventional operating rule, as it increases impoundment efficiency from 89.50 % to 94.16 % and hydropower generation by 7.70 billion kWh (or increase 3.79 %) while flood control risk is less than 0.06.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Majed Nahed Alrabeh ◽  
Zulkiflie Bin Samsudine ◽  
Salvador Alejandro Ruvalcaba Velarde ◽  
Faisal Mohammed Alhajri

Abstract The objective of this paper is to present the findings obtained from a detailed engineering evaluation resulting from trial testing two state-of-the-art surface horizontal pumping systems (HPS's) in two water supply wells. The two horizontal pumping systems were deployed as an alternative to downhole electrical submersible pumps (ESPs) to provide the benefits of eliminating ESP workover costs, modularity regarding wellsite deployments, and enhanced maintenance operations. For this trial test evaluation method, two HPS's were deployed to boost water production to the water injection plant (WIP). To ensure a thorough evaluation, the trial test well candidates were designed to accommodate both a subsurface ESP as well as a surface HPS to provide an accurate comparison, and representation, between the different artificial lift methods. The trial test and comparison method described in this paper focused primarily on the following items; maintenance and well intervention requirements, evaluation of operational availability, including potential for cavitation and effects of interference, maximum production rates, as well as root cause engineering evaluations for mechanical seals and cooling unit auxiliary motors. Various best practices and mitigation measures were identified and are presented in this paper. With regard to the results, it was observed that each artificial lift method comprised a set of advantages and disadvantages. The decision on which type of technology to use can be dependent on several factors. Overall, the HPS's demonstrated the ability to supply water production to the WIP. The HPS did experience operational challenges in providing higher production requirements. Additional challenges were also observed in the sealing mechanism as well as the auxiliary cooling unit. Precautionary pump tripping automated protocols were taken to prevent pump cavitation due to sub-optimal intake pressure resulting from possible interference. The HPS, unlike the ESPs, did not require any workover as it is located at the wellsite and therefore resulted in substantial cost savings and was easy to maintain due to its surface application. In summary, this paper adds a new and very beneficial evaluation of HPS's, and highlights best practices and lessons learned to the existing body of literature. The new information discussed in this paper is highly beneficial to engineering selections of artificial lift methods and to the successful implementation of HPS's in the industry.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-52
Author(s):  
Jan Folkmann Wright

The mitigation of the COVID-19 pandemic has so far revealed large variations regarding reported infectives and fatalities from different countries and regions. The differential equation models used to simulate virus dissemination and the data gathering of infectives and diseased are however susceptible to a range of observational and cognitive biases. The high initial fatality risk reported may have motivated very radical lockdown mitigation measures. The virus mitigation strategy was also influenced by interlocking contingencies between politicians and media. The effects of the mitigative measures should however be evaluated due to their potential collateral damage to the economy as well as on public health issues not directly related to the pandemic. Lessons learned from combatting the COVID-19 pandemic should be utilized to develop knowledge and contingency preparedness to meet global tragedies and new virus pandemics, including our ability to mitigate observational and cognitive biases and to respect the habitats of wildlife.


Author(s):  
Elyanora Yusufovna Menglieva ◽  
Fareeha Manzoor

The rapid shift to virtual teaching in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in emergency remote teaching (ERT) and has highlighted the numerous multilevel challenges associated with it in the countries from the Global South. This chapter aims to explore how this shift to remote teaching has affected English language teachers' level of motivation and how they have adapted to it. In addition, this study offers quantitative and qualitative insights into the effectiveness of the resources employed by EFL/ESL teachers. This is done by analyzing the surveys of 34 teachers and interviews of four teachers from Uzbekistan and Pakistan. Through thematic analysis of the interviews, a detailed account of the challenging factors and their coping strategies were found. This chapter concludes with a discussion on the lessons learned and recommendations on how to make a relatively smoother transition to remote teaching.


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