International Journal of Disaster Management
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The global COVID-19 outbreak has hit the world in the last two years. Indonesia itself recorded positive cases of COVID-19 of approximately 4 million cases as of September 15, 2021. In addition, the frequency of occurrence of natural disasters in Indonesia, which is relatively high every year, requires our collective attention. In early 2021, there have been several natural disasters, including floods in South Kalimantan, earthquakes in West Sulawesi, and others. If the impact of the natural disaster makes residents must do the evacuation, a proper shelter (evacuee camp) and prioritizes health protocols are needed. Therefore, this study discusses the design innovation of disaster response shelters in the form of smart folding and floating shelters designed for a shelter with a capacity of one family (4-5 people). This capacity limitation is to maintain health protocols and suppress the transmission of the Coronavirus in evacuation areas. Our designed shelter prepared in a compact form to facilitate evacuation mobility and can be implemented in all types of disasters with a folding and floating structure system (the shelter can float and be folded). The material used is light steel as the main structure and cork wall as a material that allows the shelter to float. We designed natural ventilation to regulate air circulation, integrated with an ultraviolet C (UVC) lamp. The UVC lamp is intended as a disinfectant against the Coronavirus. Thus, the application of natural ventilation and disinfection using UVC can provide a cleaner air supply. This air supply and circulation are shown in our simulation results using ANSYS Fluent. These results show that smart folding and floating shelter designs can be used for disaster mitigation.

Though the possibility of terrorist groups obtaining chemical weapons and inflicting mass destruction are relatively low, the relevance of chemical agents still remains high since use of such chemical agents in causing potentially dangerous consequences remains very high. Sporadic chemical attacks and chemical disasters happen all over the world and they cause long lasting damages. Easy accessibility to variety of toxic industrial chemicals and the relatively simple know-how needed to synthesize chemical agents pose a serious threat. However, technological developments and the easy availability of information have empowered the security forces and the law enforcement agencies to formulate responsive mechanism to mitigate the ill effects of chemical disasters. Though the international and national agencies strive hard to ward off the debilitating effects of chemical agents and disasters, the capability of such efforts in addressing the potential risks remains doubtful. This review describes the characteristics and classification of chemical agents and toxic industrial chemicals, their physico – chemical properties, detection, decontamination and response by the security agencies and first responders in addressing the threat to mankind in the form of chemical terrorism and chemical disasters.

This study reported lightning climatology and human vulnerability to lightning in a 20 km × 20 km high-density school area in Colombo city in Sri Lanka from 1998 to 2014 using Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) flash data of NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). An average annual flash density recorded over the study area was 9.43 flashes km-2 year-1. A maximum of 49% lightning flashes happened during the first inter-monsoon season. There were only 4% lightning flashes that occurred during 06.00-12.00 LT and during 18.00-24.00 LT, it was 67%, whereas 94% of lightning flashes within a day had occurred after 14.00 LT. It is recommended that, without having proper lightning hazard preventive measures, schools in the study area should avoid or minimalize scheduling their outdoor activities in high lightning risk months of April and November. Especially, after-school outdoor activities should be planned with proper safety measures during the aforementioned months as per the diurnal analysis. Moreover, May to September and December to February were the months with the least lightning risk levels. It is recommended to follow the proposed five-level lightning safety guideline which includes, schedule outdoor activities by considering the variation of lightning activities, follow the 30-30 rule whenever required, avoid staying at the most hazardous locations which are vulnerable to lightning accidents, crouching action if required and providing first-aid whenever necessary. Not only for the Sri Lankan context but also the study is crucial and highly applicable for all schools and other institutes especially in other tropical countries.

Every year, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is exposed to different natural hazards. However, flash floods have been the most common hazard during the previous few decades. Between 2000 and 2020, over 1,000 people lost their lives from flash floods, resulting in an economic loss amounting to billions of US dollars. By focusing on flash floods, a systematic review of the extracted data was conducted. They were analyzed based on the suitability of their content and data for emergency planning requirements and disaster management challenges in the KSA. A total of 104 articles, papers, and plans were reviewed, of which only 18 complete papers met the inclusion criteria, including one plan and the General Directorate of Civil Defense (GDCD) website. The author has concluded that: 1) the essential requirements for emergency planning in the KSA include: conducting studies that show potential natural hazards, their locations, and their implications, and taking appropriate measures that reduce the possible causes of natural hazards; 2) The challenges facing the disaster management in the KSA are: lack of policies; the ambiguity of legislation and plans; poor coordination between stakeholders; lack of databases. This is the first investigation into emergency planning requirements and challenges of disaster management in the KSA. Furthermore, a scientific consensus predicts an increase in the frequency and magnitude of flash floods in the KSA. Therefore, the gaps need to be addressed in order to reduce the impact on inhabitants and infrastructure.

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic has had catastrophic health and economic impacts worldwide. As of 20 September 2020, Indonesia ranked the third highest of fatalities due to COVID-19 infection in Asia and the second highest of confirmed cases in Southeast Asia.  Aceh, a province in the westernmost of the country, has also been impacted by the virus infections.This study aims to investigate the current Central and Aceh provincial government-led responses to COVID-19 pandemic from January to May 2020. It utilises existing regulations, official reports and relevant websites in order to assess and analyse the responses. The findings identify delayed early responses taken by Central and Aceh governments to stop and prevent the virus transmission; the absence of lockdown implementation (border restrictions at entry points such as borderland areas, seaports and airports); premature introduction of the new normal era; the absence of checkpoints and village alert teams throughout 23 districts; and inadequate enforcement of the established regulations to halt the spread of the virus in the province.Various recommendations are provided to enhance the current responses to COVID-19 in the province in order to reduce the pandemic risk to the community going forward, and strengthen the pandemic preparedness and response system.  

Clinical clerkship students are one of the communities who are always in the hospital environment and have been provided with fire disaster management materials through training and simulations. The hospital has provided complete fire disaster management facilities and infrastructure. However, the problem is that there is no information about clinical clerkship student preparedness for fire disasters in hospitals. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between perceptions of the availability of hospital facilities and infrastructure to the level of fire disaster preparedness among clinical clerkship students in the Zainoel Abidin Hospital. This study used an analytical method with a cross-sectional design. The sample of this study was the clinical clerkship students of the Faculty of Medicine, Syiah Kuala University, who were taken by proportional stratified random sampling, totaling 117 people. The data was collected using an online questionnaire that has been tested for its validity and reliability. Data analysis was performed univariate and bivariate using the chi-square test. The results showed that the clinical clerkship student had a good perception regarding facilities and infrastructure in the hospital (68.4%), while the attitude of preparedness to face fire disasters in the hospital showed a high level (80.3%). The Chi-square test results showed that there was a significant relationship between the clinical clerkship student perception regarding facilities and infrastructure in hospitals and fire disaster preparedness (p = 0,000). The conclusion of this study showed that the good perceptions of clinical clerkship students about the availability of fire disaster management facilities and infrastructure increase fire disaster preparedness in the hospital. This study recommends the importance of training and fire disaster management simulation to be continuously carried out on clinical clerkship students to improve the quality of disaster preparedness communities.

This study examines the impacts that an emergency had on people’s preparedness levels, using the December 2013 Ice Storm in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) as a case. A questionnaire consisting of three sections was developed to measure the associated impacts, people’s reactions/opinions, as well as their preparedness levels before and after the ice storm. The goal of the research is not only to discuss the factors that influenced people’s ability to prepare, respond to and recover from the ice storm but also to generate useful insights for future disasters that are similar in nature. Our analysis includes various aspects such as the effectiveness of advance warnings and their ability to disseminate information to mass audiences. The findings show that, most of the respondents believe that they learned a lot about ice storms and their impacts because of their prior experience; a significant majority believe that it is the city’s/municipality’s responsibility to prepare for emergencies like ice storms; home ownership was significantly associated with the previous ice storm preparedness; and, power outage experience was significantly associated with the next ice storm preparedness.

The flood is one of the extreme weather events in the world. In Sri Lanka, it is a major natural disaster and mainly occurs in the South-West and the North-East monsoon seasons. The human response strategies are explained in the concepts of disaster management cycle in PRE and POST stages. People do not satisfactorily respond during these stages in the study area. There have been no systematic studies conducted on how people are responding before, during, and after the flood in Kandawalai. The main objective of this study was to examine the human responses in PRE flood situations (mitigation and preparedness). This study selected three GN divisions. Questionnaires, surveys, and interviews were carried out to collect primary data and information. The data were analyzed through quantitative and qualitative methods. Some preparedness and mitigations were undertaken by the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) in Kilinochchi during the PRE flood stage. The community has been using very simple mitigations for minimizing floods. Only 43% of them participated in the awareness programs on how to evacuate the flood areas and how to react to the early warning system. 57% of respondents mentioned that the flood impact can be reduced through better structural mitigation strategies. 10% of the respondents recommended controlling the illegal activities of sewage disposal and soil mining in the Kanakarayan River. The PRE-flood activities should be considered by relevant stakeholders together with the community participation, but the government has the main responsible to mitigate the impacts of floods in this particular area.

Fire disaster preparedness (FDP) is of paramount importance in preventing the globe’s most prevalent disaster. This has been a big issue for developing nations. The study investigated FDP among residents in a high-income community of a part in Southwestern Nigeria. The aim of the study was to identify the preparedness of residents regarding fire disasters in residential buildings in Parakin, Ife Central Local Government Area of Osun State, Nigeria. To achieve the objectives, a quantitative study was carried out, primary data was sourced from structured, self-administered questionnaires. 80 buildings was purposively selected for the study. Affiliated literature was reviewed. Descriptive statistical tools such as frequency distribution and percentage was used in analysing the data. Chi-square tests at a significance level of 0.05 was done. SPSS version 23.0 was used in analysing all the data. Findings revealed that FDP is very low in the study area as respondents have very little or no firefighting facilities or gadgets, awareness, training about FDP. Chi-square tests revealed that there was no statistical significance between age of respondents and preparedness, ownership of home and preparedness, education and preparedness and sex and preparedness. It was established that preparedness for fire is very low. The study, however, recommended the provision of active and passive fire protection facilities in buildings, proper training of building users on FDP, enabling laws are also needed to promote the installation of fire protection, prevention, detection and suppression.

Family resilience has a very important role, especially in dealing with prolonged problems or crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The absence of family resilience might result in family breakdown, decreased family function in decision making, and destroy values in family life. This study aims to determine the effect of belief system, organizational patterns, and family communication on COVID-19 prevention behaviour within the framework of family resilience. The study focuses on factors that most likely influence COVID-19 prevention behaviour. This research is a descriptive analytic study using a cross-sectional approach. A total of 100 respondents representing households in the Banten province filled out or an online a questionnaire using Google Form. In this study, the multivariate analysis used is multiple logistic regression.  The analysis showed that the variables that had significant relationships with COVID-19 prevention behaviour were the belief system (p = 0.005), family organization (p = 0.008) and family communication (p = 0.001). The results of this study also show that the family communication is the most related variable with an odds ratio of 2694, which means that family communication has the greatest influence of 2-3 times of ?? in efforts to prevent COVID-19.