About Book

Disasters come in all shapes and sizes and can be very detrimental to people in many ways. It is usually associated with human suffering caused by natural events such as tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods while human created disasters stem from war, the use of sanctions, the conduct of repressive regimes, and economic and social policies. This has led to the implementation of disaster management practices in order to lessen the detrimental effects that disasters can cause. With the implementation of disaster management, comes the never-ending effort to try and gain the upper hand on disasters. Disaster management in modern society can vary greatly in scale, focus, methodologies and applications from city to city or region to region. Disaster management is an ever-changing field with new techniques, technologies and practices being created every day to make it more effective. This book sheds light in the field of disaster management. More specifically, it sheds light on policies, methodologies, technologies, disaster analysis and trends in the fields of urban and regional disaster management. It deals with diagnostic methods, mass casualty, flood disaster management, natural disaster, data assimilation, earth observation, lifeline interrelationships, interferometric analysis and disaster monitoring. There is a broad array of information compiled within this book pertaining to the urban and regional disaster management fields. This book will be found useful for teaching, learning and research alike. Coherent flow of topics, student-friendly language and extensive use of examples make this book an invaluable source of knowledge.

Preface............................................................................................................v

Chapter 1 Lifeline Interrelationships during the Tohoku Earthquake: Management of Disaster Analysis Reports Using Text Mining.....1

Abstract...................................................................................................1

1. Introduction............................................................................................1

2. Interrelation analysis in disaster reporting systems......................3

3. Lifeline interrelation analyses based on government reports....11

4. Discussion.............................................................................................14

5. Conclusions..........................................................................................15

Chapter 2 L-Band SAR Disaster Monitoring for Harbor Facilities Using Interferometric Analysis..........................................................................18

Abstract ................................................................................................18

1. Introduction..........................................................................................18

2. Synthetic aperture radar and interferometric analysis................20

3. Damage detection scheme.................................................................29

4. Examples...............................................................................................30

5. Conclusion............................................................................................37

Acknowledgements.............................................................................37

Conflict of interest..............................................................................37

Chapter 3 Emerging Trends in Crisis Management: Usability, Earth Observation and Disaster Management..............................................42

Abstract.................................................................................................42

1. Introduction: emerging trends in Earth observation and crisis

management.........................................................................................42

2. Research methodology.......................................................................45

3. Usability of EO crisis data and role of mobile technology........47

4. Challenges of using technology in crisis and disaster

management.........................................................................................49

5. Results and discussion.......................................................................51

6. Recommendation.................................................................................52

7. Conclusions..........................................................................................53

Chapter 4 Natural Disaster and International Development............................58

Abstract.................................................................................................58

1. Introduction..........................................................................................58

2. Factors in society for consideration for international

development.........................................................................................61

3. Conclusion: resilience in disasters...................................................69

Chapter 5 Improved Disaster Management Using Data Assimilation...........74

1. Introduction..........................................................................................74

2. Background...........................................................................................75

3. Data assimilation.................................................................................77

4. Review of current data assimilation applications in disaster

management.........................................................................................84

5. Conclusions..........................................................................................94

Chapter 6 Multi-Tier Networks for Citywide Damage Monitoring in a

Natural Disaster......................................................................................100

1. Introduction........................................................................................100

2. Technologies for disaster communications..................................101

3. Multi-tier networks for damage monitoring...............................107

4. Experimental system........................................................................113

5. Conclusion..........................................................................................119

Chapter 7 Considerations in Mass Casualty and Disaster Management.....123

1. Introduction........................................................................................123

2. Definitions .........................................................................................124

3. Epidemiology of disasters ..............................................................125

4. Major principles of care .................................................................131

5. Common problems ..........................................................................134

6. Mass casualty management............................................................145

7. International humanitarian response ...........................................153

8. Pandemics ..........................................................................................161

9. Emerging issues ...............................................................................163

10. The future ..........................................................................................165

11. Conclusion .......................................................................................165

12. Acknowledgment ...........................................................................166

Chapter 8 A Diagnostic Method for the Study of Disaster Management:

A Review of Fundamentals and Practices ......................................175

1. Introduction........................................................................................175

2. A diagnostic method based on major trends in the disaster

literature ............................................................................................176

3. Examination of disaster management based on four integrated

frameworks .......................................................................................177

4. A meta-analysis of four cases based on the diagnostic

method ...............................................................................................185

5. Overview of the main results ........................................................187

6. Discussion and conclusion ..............................................................202

7. Ackowledgments ..............................................................................204

Chapter 9 Lessons Unlearnt: The (Human) Nature of Disaster

Management ...........................................................................................213

1. Introduction........................................................................................213

Chapter 10 Flood Disaster Management in South Africa: Legislative Framework and Current Challenges........................................................................226

Abstract ..............................................................................................226

1. Introduction........................................................................................227

2. National Disaster Management System of South Africa..........227

3. Flood disaster response in South Africa......................................230

Citation......................................................................................................235

Index...........................................................................................................237

About Author

Sevinc Carson pursued her Master of Science in Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management from Public Research University, Leicester. Her areas of interest are disaster response technologies, recovery planning and disaster response management. Carson has spent more than a decade in the disaster management industry and has authored numerous articles and books, which have been published worldwide. She is a renowned guest lecturer of higher education programs and travels extensively for educating people across the globe.