Special Issue "Risk Management Challenges: Mitigate the Risk from Natural Hazards"
QuicklinksA special issue of Challenges (ISSN 2078-1547).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 May 2012)
Special Issue Editor
Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Douglas Paton
School of Psychology, University of Tasmania, Newnham Campus, Building O, 004 Newnham, 7248 Tasmania, Australia
Website: http://fcms.its.utas.edu.au/scieng/psychol/pagedetails.asp?lpersonId=1360
E-Mail: douglas.paton@utas.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 6324 3193
Fax: +61 3 6324 3168
Interests: community resilience; risk communication; cross cultural risk management; community recovery
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Within minutes of the March 2011 earthquake in Japan, news media provided unprecedented coverage of an unfolding natural catastrophe. Events such as this place natural disasters firmly in the public eye but only for a short time. It falls to the research community to learn the lessons offered by these events and turn them into opportunities for developing more effective risk management and mitigation strategies and identifying the factors that contribute to the vulnerability and resilience of communities and response and recovery agencies. Disasters such as the Japanese tsunami also highlight the ever-present need for systematic, rigorous research into the risk posed by natural hazards and how these risks can be managed. Of course it is vital to ensure that the findings from such research endeavours are disseminated to those who can use the findings.
This means that journals that disseminate these lessons are important resilience and adaptive resources for all those involved in risk and disaster management. Journals such as Challenges provide outlets for scholarly and professional debate on the causes and consequences of disasters and how their effects may be mitigated and managed. This special edition of Challenges will give voice to research into the causes of human and societal losses and ensure that the lessons learned from such disasters can be readily disseminated to the humanitarian, academic and political arenas where that knowledge can provide the evidence base necessary to inform effective risk management intervention.
Prof. Dr. Douglas Paton
Guest Editor
Submission
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Challenges is an international peer-reviewed Open Access biannual journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. For the first couple of issues the Article Processing Charge (APC) will be waived for well-prepared manuscripts. English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.
Keywords
- disaster risk reduction
- land use planning
- structural mitigation
- warning systems
- evacuation
- resilience
- vulnerability
- risk management
- community
- disaster preparedness
- recovery planning
Published Papers
Planned Papers
Author: Lisa M. Brown
Affiliation: School of Aging Studies, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences, University of South Florida, 13301 Bruce D. Downs Blvd., MHC 1319, Tampa, FL 33556, USA; E-Mail: lmb@usf.edu
Title: Challenges Encountered by Assisted Living Staff Providing Care to Residents During Hurricanes
Abstract: Assisted living facilities are a growing and integral part of the long-term care continuum in the United States. Relative to highly regulated nursing homes, little is known about their disaster preparedness and hurricane experiences. To address this void, questionnaire data was obtained from 142 Florida assisted living facilities, semi-structured interviews were conducted with administrators who evacuated in response to hurricane threat, and a review of assisted living regulations for 18 hurricane prone states was performed. Facilities that sheltered in place reported problems related to power outages and property damage. Administrators who evacuated noted they would modify their disaster plans and desired a stronger relationship with emergency operation center personnel. Assisted living facilities should be required to develop disaster preparedness plans with local and state emergency offices. Adequate disaster preparedness has implications for residents’ safety and well-being and consequences for direct care staff during disasters.
Type of Paper: Article
Title: The Limits of Mitigation: A Warning for Climate Change Action
Author: Geoff O’Brien, Phil O’Keefe, Janaka Jawawickrama
Affiliation: School of Built and Natural Environment, Northumbria University, Ellison Place, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK; E-Mail: geoff.obrien@northumbria.ac.uk
Abstract: Responding to risk with mitigation strategies usually means that solutions are focused on technology. As such it turns solutions from being people focused into artefacts. There are two problems with artefact solutions namely, that they tend to gigantism and favour existing capital investment. These two tendencies significantly limit option for intervention. Such a policy frame wrongly separates mitigation for adaptation. Using examples from the climate change debate, a range of energy technologies are explored to assess their usefulness.
Last update: 9 February 2012