ABSTRACT
Background: Coastal communities are highly exposed to ocean- and -related hazards but often lack an accurate population and infrastructure database. On January 15, 2022 and for many days thereafter, the Kingdom of Tonga was cut off from the rest of the world by a destructive tsunami associated with the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai volcanic eruption. This situation was made worse by COVID-19-related lockdowns and no precise idea of the magnitude and pattern of destruction incurred, confirming Tonga's position as second out of 172 countries ranked by the World Risk Index 2018. The occurrence of such events in remote island communities highlights the need for (1) precisely knowing the distribution of buildings, and (2) evaluating what proportion of those would be vulnerable to a tsunami. Methods and Results: A GIS-based dasymetric mapping method, previously tested in New Caledonia for assessing and calibrating population distribution at high resolution, is improved and implemented in less than a day to jointly map population clusters and critical elevation contours based on runup scenarios, and is tested against destruction patterns independently recorded in Tonga after the two recent tsunamis of 2009 and 2022. Results show that ~ 62% of the population of Tonga lives in well-defined clusters between sea level and the 15 m elevation contour. The patterns of vulnerability thus obtained for each island of the archipelago allow exposure and potential for cumulative damage to be ranked as a function of tsunami magnitude and source area. Conclusions: By relying on low-cost tools and incomplete datasets for rapid implementation in the context of natural disasters, this approach works for all types of natural hazards, is easily transferable to other insular settings, can assist in guiding emergency rescue targets, and can help to elaborate future land-use planning priorities for disaster risk reduction purposes. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40677-023-00235-8.
ABSTRACT
Disaster means any earthquake Tsunami flood drought snowfall snow rock fall landfall such natural things happen will affect the daily people life is called a disaster there is too kind of disasters of their natural and manmade or artificial Tsunami earthquake is called natural disaster the road accidents and accidents in the factories are examples for Artificial Disasters. Any disaster will affect the whole country people is called a national disaster for say some extent the covid-19 virus spread over is also an national disaster. The Government of India and Tamil nadu Government will created a separate Commission for the disaster management and rescue operations. To the better functions of the Indian disaster management the people has to give full Corporation then only their management and rescue and Rehabilitation system will function effectively, and the benefit will be fruitful, sometimes the government will give instructions such as announcements must be followed by the people properly without fear so to save the people government taking some initiatives the people as to give more responsive and cooperation. Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Disaster means any earthquake, Volcano Tsunami, flood, drought, snowfall, snow rock fall, landfall and other natural things happen, will affect the daily people life. There are two kind of disasters i.e natural and manmade or artificial. Tsunami, Volcano, earthquake, flood etc. are called natural disaster and the road accidents and accidents in the factories are examples for Artificial Disasters. Any disaster that will affect the whole people of a country, is called a national disaster Covid-19 Pandemic, which spread all over the world including our country is a national disaster. Disaster management is how we prepare for and respond to and learn from the effects of disaster whether manmade or natural. The Government of India and Tamil Nadu Government will create a separate Commission for the disaster management and rescue operations. To the better functions of the Indian disaster management, the people have to give full Corporation then only their management and rescue and Rehabilitation system will function effectively and the benefit will be fruitful, sometimes the government will give instructions such as announcements must be owed by the people properly without fear. Government take some initiatives and the people should be more responsive and cooperative. Copyright © 2022, Anka Publishers. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
In spite of the significant number of studies focused on the 1755 earthquake and tsunami, there are still many unknowns regarding this event in Lisbon, Portugal. Thus, in this research the authors compiled historical documents, including some that had never been analyzed, complemented with a field survey and tsunami numerical modeling at the historical civil parish of Santo Estevão, Lisbon. It was possible to identify 13 buildings, including three religious buildings and five palaces. Furthermore, the new data showed that contradicting the general idea, the earthquake caused significant damage to the selected territory because the number of households decreased by 52%. The number of residents decreased to about 51%, and in 1756, 1041 residents were still living in 297 temporary shelters. There were more than 44 dead and 1122 residents were unaccounted for. The fire did not hit the area, and the tsunami numerical model results were validated by the historical accounts and cartography, which indicate that the coastal area of the studied area was not significantly inundated by the tsunami. The consultation of historical documents that had never been analyzed by contemporary researchers provides a breakthrough in the knowledge of the event since it allowed a very detailed analysis of the disaster impact.
ABSTRACT
The human-nature interface has come under a critical scanner ever since the ill-effects of exploitation of nature have been the most pressing aspects of life on Earth. The twentieth century biological massacre has resulted in a grim environmental situation today-greenhouse effect, depletion of ozone layer, acid rain, air, water, soil and marine pollution, dwindling natural resources, tsunamis, untimely seasonal changes… the list goes on. The recent onslaught of Covid-19 across the globe has been an alarm waking the entire humanity to the disastrous ways it has trudged on for over centuries. There is an awareness everywhere to revisit the march of civilizations as well as the epistemology and ontological premises of human thoughts, anthropocentric knowledge of the universe, belief systems and values that have been propagated, primarily those which underlay the relationships between humans and the environment. This has led to a shift from mono-disciplinary studies to those of inter and multidisciplinary studies not just in natural sciences and social sciences but in humanities as well. Among such intersections of disciplines to gain a holistic comprehension of the universe at large, the multi-disciplinary field of Ecocriticism to engage in the study of literature from the view points of life sciences is not just interesting but yields aspects of knowledge that was hitherto not seriously deliberated upon. Coming to the fore in 1990’s, the field of ‘Ecocriticism’ actually had its antecedents in the writings of all nature-conscious litterateurs. But as American Scholars like William Rueckert, Rachel Carson, Cheryll Glotfelty,Harold Fromm, Lawrence Buell.Scott Slovic and otherswere the first to define the field, mapping its scope and contoursthereby establishing Ecocriticism as a discipline, its origins are attributed to United States. But there have been traces of eco-consciousness in Indian literature in regional languages across India as well as those written in English. Hence this paper explores aspects of ecocritical perspectives that can be evinced in Indian Fiction in English in general with specific focus on a few recent novels that exclusively delve into most pressing environmental concerns of contemporary times. The paper thereby offers methodology of ecocritical reading per se of literary texts.
ABSTRACT
An earthquake with a magnitude ranging from Mw = 6.9 (KOERI) to Mw = 7.0 (USGS) struck Samos Island in the Aegean Sea on October 30, 2020, with an epicentre 70 kms from the Izmir city centre in Turkey. The earthquake took place at 14:51 local time (11:51 UTC). The peak ground acceleration (PGA) of this earthquake was recorded to be 0.179 g at the epicentre of the earthquake. This earthquake occurred at a depth of 17.26 km (AFAD (2020) Izmir Earthquake Report, (In Turkish)) and lasted 16 s. The main shock from the earthquake triggered a tsunami that hit the building stocks built near the coast. During the gradual deregulation of COVID-19 pandemic regulations, various events caused considerable damage to the building stock, particularly in the Izmir Seferihisar and Bayrakli regions and resulted in a massive disruption of daily habits. The main shock caused 117 deaths in both Turkey and Greece, and 1632 people were also injured in Turkey. Moreover, several injuries occurred in Greece. A total of 103 buildings collapsed, 700 were severely damaged, 814 buildings were moderately damaged, and 7889 were slightly damaged. The basic aim of this paper is to briefly present the past and present seismotectonic characteristics of the region, present building stock, and former structural conditions before the earthquake, assess structural performance and classify distinguished earthquake-induced failures and damage due to the basin effect.
ABSTRACT
The tsunami caused by the Tonga submarine volcanic eruption that occurred at 13:15 Japan Time (JST) on January 15, 2022, exposed a blind spot in Japan's tsunami monitoring and warning system, which was established in 1952 for local tsunamis and expanded to distant tsunamis after the 1960 Chile tsunami. This paper summarizes how the warning system responded to the unprecedented tsunami, the actual evacuation process, and the damage it caused in Japan. Initially, the tsunami from the volcanic eruption was expected to arrive at approximately midnight with amplitudes of less than 20 cm. However, a series of short waves arrived at approximately 21:00, a few hours earlier than expected. The early arrival of these sea waves coincided with a rapid increase in atmospheric pressure; then, the short-period component was predominant, and the wave height was amplified while forming wave groups. After a 1.2 m tsunami was observed in Amami City in southern Japan at 23:55 JST, the Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning/advisory. The tsunami continued, and all advisories were cleared at 14:00 JST on January 16. Information about this tsunami and the response to it are summarized here, including the characteristics and issues of the actual tsunami evacuation situation in each region. There were no casualties, but the issues that emerged included difficulty evacuating on a winter night and traffic congestion due to evacuation by car and under the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the coastal area, damage to fishing boats and aquaculture facilities was reported due to the flow of the tsunami. In addition, damage to aquaculture facilities, including those producing oysters, scallops, seaweed and other marine products, decreased the supply of marine products, and the economic impact is likely to increase in the future.
ABSTRACT
The corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic, a zoonotic disease transmitted from bat to human originated in Wuhan, China, has rapidly spread to several countries, with various cases having been reported globally. The second wave of the corona virus is spreading like a tsunami and is growing at an alarming rate compared to the first wave. It has been seen that the mutant virus is more transmissible and its incubation period is shorter. This article mainly deals with the number of people affected in the 1st and 2nd waves of COVID-19 in India and other countries. The study included all the cases reported from March 3, 2020 - August 31, 2021. The condition of the USA is even more critical than India, Brazil, Russia, United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Argentina, Italy, and other countries. The US has reported the highest number of cases (38,802,453) while Colombia has reported the lowest number of cases (4,905,258).
ABSTRACT
This study examined the question of whether the “emergency remote teaching” that was accidentally adopted during the pandemic will eventually lead to an acceleration of digitalizing the teaching and learning processes at PNGUoT. Utilizing a mixed-method explanatory sequential design, quantitative data were collected first and followed by the qualitative data as a cross-verification strategy to increase control, generalizability, confidence, and validity of the study findings. The Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) was used to analyze numerical data obtained from 169 undergraduate students, while thematic analysis was found appropriate for interviews of 44 academic staff. The findings revealed that staff and students’ attitude, and ICT support were reliable predictors of e-learning adoption (F = 315.854, p ≤ 0.001 & F = 121.132, p ≤ 0.001). When all the four parameters of (X) were taken together, explained 57.3% variations in the dependent variable (adjusted r2 = 0.573). It was also clear that the multiple linear regression model showed a significant effect (F = 29.116, p ≤ 0.001) because the p value was less than the calculated probability (0.05) which was the minimum level of significance required in this study to declare a significant effect. Whereas the emergence of remote teaching seemed to have yielded tangible results during the pandemic, it, unfortunately, may not eventually lead to an automatic appreciation of technology in the teaching and learning processes at PNGUoT. There is a need to understand what is working and why, and use this to increase inclusion, innovation, creativity, and cooperation in PNGUoT in getting ready for the years ahead.
ABSTRACT
The Samos Island (Aegean Sea) Earthquake occurred on 30 October 2020. It produced a tsunami that impacted coastal communities, ground shaking that was locally amplified in some areas and that led to collapse of structures with 118 fatalities in both Greece and Turkey, and wide-ranging geotechnical effects including rockfalls, landsliding, and liquefaction. As a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the reconnaissance of this event did not involve the deployment of international teams, as would be typical for an event of this size. Instead, following initial deployments of separate Greek and Turkish teams, the reconnaissance and documentation efforts were managed in a coordinated manner with the assistance of international partners. This coordination ultimately produced a multi-agency joint report published on the 2-month anniversary of the earthquake, and this special issue. This paper provides an overview of the reconnaissance activities undertaken to document the effects of this important event and summarizes key lessons spanning topic areas from seismology to emergency response.
ABSTRACT
Earthquakes and tsunamis are expected to occur within the next 30 years along Japan's Nankai Trough. Existing disaster prevention plans and calculated evacuation capacities in the coastal areas that would be affected do not account for physical distancing in the context of COVID-19. Therefore, we developed a tsunami evacuation placement model incorporating physical distance guidelines for infection control and living space per person into calculations of evacuation center accommodation capacities in Aki City, Kochi Prefecture. Using available administrative, population, and tsunami inundation data, we counted and mapped evacuation centers in the estimated inundated area within three zones constructed for smooth evacuation using the ArcGIS software Build Balanced Zones Tool. We calculated the space per evacuee using the Sphere handbook standard of 3.5 m2 or double the Sphere standard at 7 m2 plus the recommended physical distance of 11 m2 per person. We then compared the results with planned capacities. A total of 27 shelters are located in the area projected to be inundated at depths of 0.3-10 m, and their planned capacity, 2 m2 for each evacuee, would accommodate 32.9% of Aki's population and result in 9639 unaccommodated evacuees. Allotting 14.5 m2 (living space) or 18 m2 (living space plus space to maintain physical distancing) would reduce accommodation capacities to 57.1% and 28.6% (12,133 and 12,371 unaccommodated evacuees, respectively). Given these accommodation shortages, we recommend that evacuation centers are set aside for vulnerable people and that alternative evacuation sites such as parking lots and mountain campsites are preplanned.