Here's the latest from DISASTER RESEARCH - May 29, 1996

               DISASTER RESEARCH 197
                TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1)  An Article from the Next "Natural Hazards Observer"
2)  Calling All GIS/Hazards Researchers
3)  Seeking Information on Pets and Disasters
4)  Seeking Everything There Is to Know About Disaster Warnings
5)  FEMA to Take Lead Role in New National Earthquake Program
6)  Information Available on the Convention on the Provision of
    Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief
    Operations
7)  Tsunami Report Available
8)  Emergency Response Guidebook Available
9)  Good Ideas Available
10) Conferences and Training

1)----------

       An Article from the Next "Natural Hazards Observer"

[The Natural Hazards Observer is the Natural Hazards Center's
bimonthly printed newsletter. Disaster Research and the Observer
contain some of the same information, but they are by no means
identical. The Observer is available free to subscribers within the
U.S. Subscriptions elsewhere cost $15. To subscribe, contact the
Center's publications clerk, Janet Clark: jclark@colorado.edu.]

                 Mitigation from the Ground Up:
                Sustainable Cities in California
                                        -- an invited comment

A popular notion in land use management is that communities should be
sustainable. However, this concept often overlooks the importance of
hazard mitigation for encouraging sustainability, often only including
elements relating to environmental resource protection, energy
efficiency, and economic self-sufficiency. In addition, sustainability
has been reduced in the popular literature to its simplest terms, that
is, "not borrowing against the future."

In this sense, the concept should be expanded to encompass predisaster
hazard mitigation. By paying billions of dollars in disaster
reimbursements under the Stafford Act, we are borrowing against our
financial future while not mitigating hazards very well.

This realization has helped motivate FEMA's National Mitigation
Strategy, which will place a new obligation on states to encourage
predisaster mitigation. Some states already have effective mandates
for local hazard mitigation, and mandates matter, as May and Burby
have documented (see the Natural Hazards Observer, Vol. XX, No. 5,
p. 1).

 - Building Codes -

The Hanshin-Awaji and Northridge earthquakes, hurricanes Andrew and
Iniki, and the Oakland Hills fire provide obvious lessons that
building codes are important. Following the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake,
it was determined that buildings constructed under new standards
adopted since 1981 performed well, while older buildings rebuilt
hastily after World War II, without proper mitigation, suffered great
damage.

 - Beyond Codes to Community Design -

Part of the long-term solution is for localities to implement
disaster-resistant community design. The broad purpose of this concept
is to create new communities in an overall pattern that is more
resistant to the effects of natural hazards.

Disaster-resistant community design includes, but moves well beyond,
code solutions to embrace site and neighborhood design approaches that
take into account the more complex interaction of natural hazards with
the built environment. Common examples of design practices fostering
effective mitigation in flood-, earthquake-, fire-, and landslide-
prone areas include:
 - limiting development densities and/or requiring large lot sizes;
 - transferring allowable densities to safer areas on- or off-site;
 - setting buildings back from flood, landslide, and fault hazard
   zones;
 - requiring adequate minimum paved street widths;
 - limiting street grades to assure fire truck access;
 - requiring second access points into each development in case
   primary access is blocked during an emergency;
 - restricting the lengths of cul-de-sacs as well as the number of
   dwelling units on them;
 - developing adequate water supply, maintaining adequate flow to
   fight fires, and providing redundant storage locations; and
 - using open space easements for fire breaks, equipment staging, and
   evacuation areas.

Such practices are often classified in the hazards literature as "land
use measures" - a catchall term tinged with skepticism shared by those
social scientists, engineers, and emergency managers who perceive city
planning with some distrust due to its relationship to politics.

However, disaster-resistant community design practices are being used
effectively in various states and cities to mitigate hazards during
development. In California, such practices are grounded on local
general plan safety elements mandated by state law, or they may be in
response to a hazard identified in an environmental impact report
under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Now evolving within many city governments is a rather sophisticated,
multidisciplinary, teamwork approach to hazard reduction. In such
model circumstances, planning departments coordinate with building,
fire, police, public works, parks, transportation, and other city
staff to bring about a reduced level of risk in relation to recognized
hazards. In many cases, effective mitigation is the product of skilled
negotiation by planners with developers and property owners based on
local policy commitments to build safe communities.

 - Rebuilding Existing Communities -

We are far from achieving uniform application of disaster-resistant
design principles in new development; yet, perhaps the greatest
challenge is what to do with the vast number of communities already
built up without sufficient mitigation.

In some communities with serious vulnerability to hazards, there is a
growing awareness that the community is living on borrowed time.
Commonly recognized measures to counteract this threat include:
 - geological investigations to identify the existence, severity, and
   location of potential hazards;
 - upgrading of building codes to increase disaster resistance in new
   construction as the city is redeveloped;
 - retrofitting existing unreinforced masonry (URM), tilt-up,
   non-ductile concrete, and other buildings that are especially
   susceptible to earthquake damage;
 - widening existing roads to provide for improved emergency access
   and evacuation movement; and
 - increasing water supply and distribution for greater fire
   protection.

To accomplish mitigation projects within existing communities,
financial incentives are often needed. In California, this need has
been addressed partly through the formation by property owners of
self-taxing benefit assessment districts that support issuance by
cities of bonds providing long-term, low-cost financing for
mitigation. Examples include:
 - formation by the city of Long Beach in 1991 of a district to
   underwrite $17.3 million worth of seismic upgrading for
   approximately 200 URM buildings, with low payments over 24 years;
 - formulation by the city of Los Angeles of separate benefit
   assessment districts for retrofitting commercial and apartment
   buildings with fire sprinklers;
 - creation after the Oakland Hills fire of a benefit assessment
   district covering the entire hillside area in the city of Oakland
   to minimize hazards through vegetation management and improved fire
   protection.

 - An Investment in Safer Living -

In the long run, it is much safer and cheaper to build communities
right the first time. Real mitigation is much harder to achieve
following a disaster in a built-up community because of the pressures
to rebuild quickly and the costs of retrofitting existing structures.
The problem in both newly developing and built-up communities is
reluctance by localities to act on their own to force property owners
and developers to pay mitigation costs in the absence of a state
mandate requiring all communities to do so.

Disaster-resistant community design instead treats mitigation costs as
an investment, the returns for which are reduced life and property
losses and vastly less expensive recovery. Through mandates, examples,
and incentives, it is possible to create inducements for newly
developing communities to mitigate hazards more effectively. As
savings from predisaster mitigation accrue, resources can be
redirected to the tough long-term task of redeveloping existing cities
in more disaster-resistant form.

At this juncture, we need to stop tiptoeing around the so-called "land
use measures" issue and pursue through the National Mitigation
Strategy a full-scale effort at the national, state, and community
levels to use proven disaster-resistant community design and financing
practices both in developing and redeveloping safer communities. We
owe it to our children and grandchildren.

                                     Ken Topping, AICP
                                     Topping Jaquess Consulting
                                     Pasadena, California


2)----------
                 Calling All GIS/Hazards Researchers

For the past couple of years, the Natural Hazards Center has
maintained on its Web site a list of researchers using or
investigating the use of geographical information systems (GISs) in
hazards/disaster research.

Well, quite frankly, that list languished in the last year, but now
the Hazards Research Laboratory (HRL) at the University of South
Carolina, one of the primary centers of GIS/hazards research in the
nation, has offered to take over this index and update it (hooray for
them!)

So, we ask any and all GIS/hazards researchers to contact the HRL with
a brief note describing who they are and what they are doing. Please
be sure to include contact information - addresses, phone/fax numbers,
e-mail addresses, and Web URLs, if available.

Please send information to Mike Scott, mscott@ecotopia.geog.sc.edu.

Once this information is updated, we will announce its availability in
Disaster Research.

Thanks, everybody . . .

3)----------
             Seeking Information on Pets and Disasters

Hello,

I am a Masters student at James Cook University, North Queensland,
Australia. My current area of research is "community vulnerability in
times of tropical cyclones and storm surge." I am about one year into
my project and at the present time I am writing a chapter dealing with
"pets" in a disaster situation and in an evacuation. I would be very
grateful if you could direct me to any publications or recent research
that may be relevant to this topic.

Yours in Research,
Linda Berry


4)----------
    Seeking Everything There Is to Know About Disaster Warnings

We are researchers of the Institute of Torrent & Avalanche Control of
the University Vienna, Austria. Now, we are studying the "Alarming and
Warning System of Disasters" (Earthquakes, Landslides, Floods, etc).
Would you be so kind to send us information on developments in this
field?  Thanks lot!
Guest Researcher
Mr. Geng Dayu
GENG@edv1.boku.ac.at
Universitaet fuer Bodenkultur Wien

5)---------
>From the FEMA Office of Emergency Information
& Public Affairs . . .

      FEMA to Take Lead Role in New National Earthquake Program

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been given the
responsibility to lead and coordinate the National Earthquake loss
reduction Program (NEP), a new interagency earthquake mitigation
effort.

President Clinton's chief science advisor, Dr. John H. Gibbons,
announced the formation of the NEP at a meeting of the American
Geophysical Union in Baltimore, MD, earlier this month. Dr. Gibbons,
who is director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the
White House, said that the new program will focus scarce government
research and development dollars on finding the most effective means
for saving lives and property and limiting social and economic
disruptions from future earthquakes.

Gibbons explained that FEMA will provide leadership and coordination
of the NEP to ensure that federal earthquake mitigation research
remains focused on priority goals, that duplication among agencies is
avoided, and that cooperation with state and local jurisdictions and
the private sector is expanded to stimulate the use of more effective
mitigation strategies.

FEMA Director James Lee Witt has appointed one of the agency's senior
career staff, Robert H. Volland, to serve as the NEP Program Office
Director, effective immediately.

Gibbons explained that the NEP is intended to strengthen and expand
the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP), established
by Congress in l977. NEP will involve a number of agencies beyond the
four NEHRP member agencies - FEMA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the
National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards
and Technology. While NEHRP has been successful in conducting research
into earthquake hazards and engineering techniques to reduce
earthquake loss, actions based on research results, such as the
adoption of earthquake-resistant building codes by state and local
governments, have not kept pace with expectations.

The following NEP goals were announced at the meeting:
 - Provide leadership and coordination for federal earthquake
   research;
 - Improve knowledge of earthquake processes and effects;
 - Continue to expand technology transfer and outreach;
 - Improve engineering of the built environment;
 - Improve data for construction standards and codes;
 - Continue the development of seismic hazards and risk assessment
   tools;
 - Analyze seismic hazard mitigation incentives;
 - Develop understanding of societal impacts and responses related to
   earthquake hazard mitigation;
 - Analyze the medical and public health consequences of earthquakes;
   and
 - Continue documentation of earthquakes and their effects.

The document establishing the NEP, "Strategy for National Earthquake
Loss Reduction," is available on the White House Worldwide Web site:
   http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/OSTP/NSTC/html/NSTC_Home.html

6)----------
              Information Available on the
 Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources
       for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations

The third draft for the "Convention on the Provision of
Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief
Operations" has recently been published, and is now available at the
URL of the drafter, Professor Fred Cate:
          http://www.law.indiana.edu/law/disaster/
together with other related documents, and, as hardcopy from the
secretariat of the Working Group on Emergency Telecommunications
(WGET) - contact Hans Zimmermann; e-mail: hans.zimmermann@itu.ch.

The draft was first presented at the African Regional Telecommunica-
tions Development Conference (AF-RTDC/96) of the ITU (Abidjan, May
1996). Further presentations will take place at Americas Telecom 96
(Rio de Janeiro, 10-15 June 1996) in a special session of the
Strategies Forum on 12 June; at the Pan Pacific Hazards 96 Conference
(Vancouver, BC, Canada, 29 July - 2 August 1996), and in several other
events.

The WGET and the drafters welcome comments on the document. They can
be forwarded to the address given below, or, for subscribers to the
emergency-telecoms e-mail list, directly to the list. A further
revision of the present draft is scheduled for September 1996. A final
draft will then be submitted for adoption to an intergovernmental
conference, tentatively scheduled for early 1997. Further information
on the WGET and on emergency telecommunications in general is also
available from
               http://www.unog.ch/freq/freq1.htm

7)----------
                    Tsunami Report Available

The report "The 1996 Sulawesi Tsunamis" by E.Pelinovsky, D.Yuliadi,
G.Pratseya, R.Hidayat is published now in English as the preprint of
the Institute of Applied Physics No.392 (1996), 35 pp. The report,
covering the earthquake and tsunami on Sulawesi Island (Indonesia)
January 1, 1996, contains:
1. Introduction
2. Historical tsunami data
3. Earthquake of 01.01.96 and its manifestations
4. Measurement of tsunami wave runup
5. Reports of eyewitnesses
6. Tsunami action on shores and installations
7. Estimation of tsunami risk in central part of Sulawesi Island
8. Conclusions

It is available from me (20 copies). Indicate your address.

Efim Pelinovsky
Professor
Institute of Applied Physics
Russian Academy of Sciences
46 Uljanov St., 603600
Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Tel: +(8312)384339
Fax:   +(8312)365976
E-mail: enpeli@appl.sci-nnov.ru

8)----------
             Emergency Response Guidebook Available

[The following was forwarded to us from who know where . . .]

The 1993 Emergency Response Guidebook has been replaced by the 1996
North American Emergency Response Guidebook (NAERG96) and is now in
distribution. Canada, the U.S, and Mexico cooperated in the revision
of this new version and the result is a major improvement in quality
and content over the previous versions. The Windows software version
of the guidebook also has numerous improvements and will be shipping
soon. This year it will be available in English, Spanish and French,
as will the guidebook. Read more about and pre-order the Windows
version at:
             http://members.aol.com/naerg/erg.htm


9)----------
>From FEMA via the Web . . .

                      Good Ideas Available

A new resource for Family Preparedness Program organizers and others
who promote disaster preparedness is now available from the Federal
Emergency Management Agency. The FEMA "Good Ideas Book" contains
ideas, case studies, materials and art work, and "how to" steps for a
variety of simple and more complex preparedness activities. The Good
Ideas Book is a "living document" that will be  supplemented and
updated on an ongoing basis. To obtain the latest edition, contact
FEMA and ask for item #8-1108, "The Good Ideas Book":
FEMA
P.O. Box 2012
Jessup, MD 20794-2012
1-800-480-2520
Fax: (301) 497-6378

Or, better yet, download the items you want from the FEMA World Wide
Web site:
            http://www.fema.gov  (look under "preparedness")

10)----------
                 Conferences and Training

These are the latest meeting announcements we've received. Most
previous issues of DR contain additional notices. For a *comprehen-
sive* list of upcoming disaster-related conferences, see our World
Wide Web page:
          http://adder.colorado.edu/~hazctr/Home.html
                                            ^(Capital "H")

Internet 101, or What the Heck is the Internet: Emergency Information
and the Internet. Sponsor: Business and Industry Council for Emergency
Planning and Preparedness (BICEPP). Los Angeles, California: June 5,
1996. Contact BICEPP, c/o Life Goes On, P.O. Box 3137, Canyon Country,
CA 91386-8137; tel: Diana Gross, (805) 298-4277.

Multiple Workshops on Critical Incident Stress. Sponsors:
International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF) and others.
Stockton, California: July 11-14, 1996. Contact: ICISF, 5018 Dorsey
Hall Drive, Suite 104, Ellicott City, MD 21042; (410) 750-9600; fax;
(410) 750-9601

Multihazard Building Design Summer Institute. Sponsor: Federal
Emergency Management Agency's Emergency Management Institute (EMI).
Emmitsburg, Maryland: July 15-19, 1996 (earthquake and wind mitigation
design); July 22-26, 1996 (flood and fire safety design). Contact:
EMI, 16825 South Seton Avenue, Emmitsburg, MD 21727; WWW:
http://www.fema.gov/EMI/mbdsi3.htm

Retrofitting Flood-Prone Residential Buildings Course. Sponsors:
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Mitigation Directorate and
Emergency Management Institute. Emmitsburg, Maryland: September 9-13,
1996. Contact: Dan Bondroff, NETC, 16825 South Seton Avenue,
Emmitsburg, MD 21727; (301) 447-1278; WWW: http://www.fema.gov/EMI/
emi_gram.htm.

Analyzing Risk: Science, Assessment, and Management: Sponsor: Harvard
Center for Risk Analysis. Boston, Massachusetts: September 24-27,
1996. Contact: Center for Continuing Professional Education, Harvard
School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, LL-23, Boston, MA
02115-6023; (617) 432-1171; fax: (617) 432-1969; e-mail:
contedu@sph.harvard.edu.

The Southern California Emergency Services Association (SCESA) 1996
Annual Statewide Conference: "Surfing the Emergency Management Highway
- Disaster Planning into the Year 2000." Santa Barbara, California:
October 28-29, 1996. Contact Laura Hernandez, Program Chairperson,
(310) 458-8686.

Sixth International Conference of Disaster Medicine and Technical
Exhibition of Medical and Logistic Equipment for Disaster Situations.
Budapest, Hungary: November 3-6, 1996. Contact: Conference
Secretariat, Asszisztencia Congress Bureau Ltd., Oktober 23. u.
17.III/3, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary; tel/fax: +361 161 0149; e-mail:
assziszt@odin.net.

Eighth U.S. National Conference on Wind Engineering. Baltimore,
Maryland: June 5-7, 1997. A call for papers has been issued and two-
page abstracts are due by November 30, 1996. Contact: Prof. Nicholas
P. Jones, 8th U.S. National Conference on Wind Engineering, Department
of Civil Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
21218-2686; (410) 516-7874; fax: (410) 516-7473; e-mail:
8usncwe@jhu.edu; WWW: http://www.ce.jhu.edu/~8usncwe/index.html

Coastal Zone '97: "Spotlight on Solutions - Charting the Future of
Coastal Zone Management for the Next 25 Years."  A call for papers has
been issued; abstracts are due September 1. Contact: Dr. Martin C.
Miller, USAE Waterways Experiment Station, Attn: CEWES-CR-O, 3909
Halls Ferry Road, Vicksburg, MS 39180.

----------
DISASTER RESEARCH (DR) is a moderated newsletter for creators and
users of information regarding hazards and disasters. Queries,
conversations, and contributions are encouraged. Items received will
be posted unless otherwise indicated. Questions and messages for the
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                  hazctr@spot.colorado.edu

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For an introduction to the Hazard Center, send this message:
                       INFORMATION HAZARDS

The Hazard Center also maintains a World Wide Web site with extensive
indexes, bibliographies, and other information compiled by the Center:
       http://adder.colorado.edu/~hazctr/Home.html
                                         ^ (Capital "H")

In the U.S., Disaster Research is available via modem on several
Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) including: the State and Local Emergency
Management Data Users Group (SALEMDUG) BBS - (708) 739-1312; VITANET
BBS - (703) 527-1086; Safety Connection BBS (SAFNet) - (801) 831-4498,
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Australian Disaster Management Information Exchange (ADMIX) - (054)
215 262, FIDO 3:632/387; and the Wireless Institute Civil Emergency
Network (WICEN) - 03-802-0913, FIDO 3:632/404.

In addition, all issues of Disaster Research are available through
Canada's Emergency Preparedness Information Exchange (EPIX), which can
be reached via the Internet: gopher disaster.cprost.sfu.ca 5555; or
telnet disaster.cprost.sfu.ca (user id is "epix"; no password
necessary); or World Wide Web: http://hoshi.cic.sfu.ca/~anderson/.
Back issues can also be requested via FTPMail from the MedicCom BBS,
(419) 389-6642; e-mail ftpmail@mediccom.norden1.com with the command
"list drnews" and then, when you know the file you want, "get drnews"
.

The Hazards Center has available on-line its publications list
(approximately 200 items), a list of information sources (NGOs,
university programs and centers, government organizations, overseas
organizations) regarding hazards and disasters, a list of useful
periodicals covering disasters, a list of useful Internet resources,
and other information. To obtain any of these files, consult the
Center's WWW site:
         http://adder.colorado.edu/~hazctr/Home.html
or contact hazctr@colorado.edu.

A bimonthly printed newsletter, the "Natural Hazards Observer," is
also available from the Center and is free to subscribers within the
U.S. International subscriptions are $15.00. To order the "Observer,"
contact the Center's publications clerk, Janet Clark:
jclark@colorado.edu. If you prefer "snail mail," all questions or
subscription requests can be sent to:
         Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center
         Campus Box 482
         University of Colorado
         Boulder, Colorado  80309-0482
         USA
            Telephone: (303) 492-6819
            Fax: (303) 492-2151