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Archive for July, 2018

Report of the 43rd Natural Hazards Workshop, Colorado

By Rebekah Yore, on 30 July 2018

Blog post by Justine Uyimleshi and Emmanuel Agbo

 

The natural hazard workshop is an annual event organised by the Natural Hazard Centre in collaboration with the University of Colorado Boulder around the field of disaster management and emergency response to trigger interactions and contributions from different experts in the field of disaster management and humanitarian responses. This year’s workshop, which was held in Omni Interlocken Hotel Boulder, Broomfield Colorado, from 8 – 11 July 2018 attracted over five hundred participants including disaster managers, emergency response personnel, practitioners and academia from around the world with different expertise in interactive sessions around pertinent issues that globally result in loss of lives, property damage, loss of economic values and human displacement. As a part of the IRDR strategy for promoting continuous research around disaster risk reduction (DRR) and expansion of networks in strengthening collaborations with other disaster management and emergency response entities across the world, the Institute through its research assistance funding provided support for two of its PhD researchers, Justine Uyimleshi and Emmanuel Agbo, to take part in this international event. Our participation in the workshop availed us the opportunity of interaction amid experts with different knowledge about disasters and present our research to the international communities.

Presenting our research

The workshop was full of several concurrent sessions that created opportunities for vast interaction around social media and disasters, data and partnership need for improved disaster response, cascading disasters, institutional settings, community impact and recovery from disasters, Health and wellbeing of disaster respondents, among others which enriched our understanding of the different thematic areas of disaster management. Most interestingly, the workshop further availed us the opportunity during the researcher’s meeting to moderate sessions of paper presentations as efforts in promoting the IRDR commitment in global events.  Also, of great attention from the workshop was our meeting with Jim Murphy, project director, Civil/Water Resource Engineering, DC Metro Area. Jim in admiration of our presence in the workshop and presentation during the workshop sessions demonstrated a benevolent act towards us and offered us a tour to the wild fire and flood devastating sites in Broomfield.

On this tour, we were able to see the available response facilities, and measures that are in place to quell the likely impact from future occurrence of these hazards. Finally, we extended the exploration of Colorado to the Gold hill town, where the coal exploit took place and the city mountains, which are part of the historical features of Colorado. Resulting from our experience of this workshop, we wish to express our profound appreciation to the IRDR for their continuous support. The workshop was greatly an event worth attending.

A Short Tale of Fieldwork

By Claudia Sgambato, on 26 July 2018

Fieldwork represents a fundamental part of my PhD research, and, as a geologist, it is also my favourite part of the job. In June 2018, I flew to Italy for the first of many fieldtrips, with Joanna Faure Walker, my primary supervisor. Together we worked for five days to conduct detailed mapping of and data collection from the Auletta fault, located in Campania, Southern Italy.

The Italian Apennines are undergoing a southwest-northeast extension, associated with earthquakes of moderate and large magnitudes, occurring on active normal faults. The exact location of these faults and rates of movement across them represents an important factor for the seismic hazard.

The fault studied is located in the Vallo di Diano, one of the extensional intramontane basins that characterise this sector of the Southern Apennines; the basin, filled by river and lake fan and slope deposits, is bordered on the East side by a major fault system, terminating to the North with the 3 km long fault strand that was the object of this study.

The Auletta fault scarp seen about half way up the slope as a grey line that offsets the topography, where my fieldwork was focussed. This fault scarp crosses the Cretaceous carbonates of Mt. San Giacomo for about 3km (photograph credit: Claudia Sgambato).

Many large magnitude earthquakes have struck the Southern Apennines in the past 1000 years, with an average of one event every 50 years. For instance, in 1694, a M=6.9 event with epicentre in Irpinia caused about 6000 casualties; in the same area, in 1980, a M=6.9 earthquake caused about 3000 deaths. Some events had damage consistent with them possibly occurring on the Auletta fault, like the two events in 1561 (M=6.7) that caused 600 casualties. Moreover, there is a debate on the location and nature of the structure responsible for one of the strongest earthquakes in the area, which occurred in 1857 in the Northern Vallo di Diano and Val d’Agri, causing between 10,000 – 20,000 casualties.

The main aim of my fieldwork on this trip was to collect detailed data along the fault scarp of the fault geometry (strike and dip), together with offset and slip direction data, to understand how these vary along what we consider the termination, or tip, of the fault. In fact, my research project investigates how the geometry of both individual faults and fault arrays in the Central and Southern Apennines influences the seismic hazard. All these data collected in the field, such as the fault orientation, length, strike and dip, slip to length ratios, will be used to study what controls the variability in slip-rates along the faults and how the fault geometry and faults interaction can affect earthquake recurrence intervals.

Joanna is taking measurements of the strike and dip of the fault (photograph credit: Claudia Sgambato).

Our typical day in the field started with an early breakfast, to avoid the heat and to reach the fault scarp at an elevation of 750m, as soon as possible. Then we walked along the scarp, taking measurements of strike and dip and slip vector, and where possible, measuring the throw using a meter ruler, which requires lying on the ground and sliding through the slope for about 100m.

You would think that the best part of fieldwork is the immersion in nature, with the fresh breeze and the warm sun of an early summer in Italy. Indeed, growing up in southern Italy means I have many such memories. But, there is the other side of the coin: imagine starting a day by facing some steep, slippery, muddy, slopes, covered in thistles, the kind that grows taller than you! Then later in the day, while working in the sun, suddenly heavy clouds cover the sky and rain, loud long-lasting thunders, and all the things you don’t expect from an Italian summer, happen, every day over those five days. And while you are trying to save your precious maps and notebook from the pouring rain, your legs and arms experience all kinds of thorns and stings. Well, this is fieldwork! The joy of working in the best “office” in the world, and all the (mis)adventures that come with it.

Negotiating through the thistles on my way up to the fault scarp – the Vallo Di Diano in the background – my “office” view (Photograph credit: Joanna Faure Walker).

Even if this field trip wasn’t exactly as expected, I learned a lot thanks to Joanna. We had a fun time, enjoying the stunning views, and more importantly, we brought back some interesting data that will keep me busy while I am already organising my next trip.

Happy to have escaped the thunderstorm, after anticipating its coming and climbing to the top (Photograph credit: Joanna Faure Walker).

Pressure Cooker in Mexico City

By Lucy K Buck, on 5 July 2018

On the 14th May 2018 I found myself in a room in the beautiful Palacio de Mineria in Meixco City. Me and 34 other young researchers from various different disciplines were there to be part of the first 24-hour Pressure Cooker, organised by the Water Youth Network as part of the Understanding Risk Conference. We were to be split into groups to work on case studies looking at either hazards either in Izapalapa, Meixco City or Dzilam de Bravo, Yucatan. The aim was to develop a risk communication strategy for hazards, such as flooding, subsidence and fracturing, that these areas suffer from.

And this is where it became clear why we were in Mexico. Mexico suffers from geological (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, subsidence, fracturing and landslides), hydrological (flooding and drought), meteorological (hurricanes) and anthropological (over fishing, pollution, over exploitation of resources, over population) hazards. In fact, the area that my group was given, Izapalapa, suffers from both extreme flooding and water shortages, and often people’s houses are flooded but they have no drinking water. Of course many of these are interconnected, compounding the problem (shortage of drinking water -> over extraction of ground water -> subsidence -> flooding).

Iztapalapa, con el poder de la gente – with the power of the people

 

Iztapalapa

With a population of roughly 1.8 million Iztapalapa is the most populous and fastest growing district of Mexico City. It is also the poorest with most of the population living in substandard conditions, often without running water and electricity. However, the area has a very strong sense of community and a high literacy rate, only 4% of the population over the age of six is illiterate. This is a community that is very well aware of the problems the district faces but has very little knowledge about how they can have a meaningful impact in reducing these risks.

Go Team 1!

 

The Challenge

We had 24 hours to come up with a viable communication plan to help reduce the vulnerability and increase the resilience of this community. With support from experts in communication, urban planning and relevant hazards, as well as representatives from the local Government. As well as the different specialities represented by our team (my team included a geophysicist, an urban planning, a psychologist and more!) we had the best chance to come up with a meaningful solution.

We decided the best strategy was to engage kids, getting them involved and helping solve the problem themselves.

We discovered that Mexico City had run a test pilot scheme where people would use a rain catcher to provide grey water for the house, reducing pressure on aquifers and the leaking water infrastructure and in the long term reduce subsidence and flooding risk. We decided to extend this to children. Teaching them how to make their own water catchers, which also lets them to contribute to the household and cut bills. Along with this we introduced our ‘Water Ambassador’ group where we would teach children about the importance of water conservation, this came with a badge once you built your own water catcher and helped conserve water in your home, and the ‘Guardians of the Drain’ which also came with a badge and organised teams of older children/teens to clean waste from the drainage systems to help stop flash flooding from these systems overflowing (this would obviously come with safety lessons).

Building a demo rain catcher at 1AM

 

After 24 hours straight of hard work, feeling very tired but gratified, we presented out communication plan to the rest of the participants as well as various experts and local representatives.

The vulnerability of Iztapalapa was highlighted the next day when, on a fieldtrip to the district, a 5.1 earthquake hit the city. Demonstrating how resilience methods can work, the early warning system had meant many homes had been evacuated and no damage or injuries occurred.

However, the most lasting and important outcome of this challenge were the connections and friendships that we all built during the exercise. These relationships are the best foundation on which to develop disaster risk reduction.

Some of the UR family

 

A massive thanks to the Water Youth Network and NERC, without whom this experience would not have been possible. Can’t wait for next time!