Early Warning Systems for Natural Disaster Reduction

Written for a broad audience this book offers a comprehensive account of early warning systems for hydro meteorological disasters such as floods and storms, and for geological disasters such as earthquakes. One major theme is the increasingly important role in early warning systems played by the rapidly evolving fields of space and information technology. The authors, all experts in their respective fields, offer a comprehensive and in-depth insight into the current and future perspectives for early warning systems. The text is aimed at decision-makers in the political arena, scientists, engineers and those responsible for public communication and dissemination of warnings.

Natural Disasters and Early Warning.- Bringing Early Warning to the People.- Bringing Early Warning to the People — Public and Partnership Responsibilities for Early Warning.- Early Warning Systems for the Reduction of Natural Disasters in China.- The Human Factor in Early Warnings: Risk Perception and Appropriate Communications.- Scientific Contributions to Effective Early Warning in an Environmental Context.- Natural Disaster Early Warning: The Role of NGOs.- Community Mobilisation for Early Warning in the Philippines.- Disaster Management and Cyclone Warning System in Bangladesh.- Early Warning and Public Communication.- Public Communication of Warnings.- Public Communication of Early Warnings: Role of the Government.- The Role of the Media in Public Communication of Early Warnings.- Early Warning: Community Interpretations and Perceptions — A Case of Recurrent Floods and their Warnings in Delhi (India).- Disaster Early Warning and Individuals with Special Needs: In Aggregate, the Underserved Represent a Significant Portion of Society.- Bringing Early Warning to the People: Electronic Technology: The Role of the Internet.- Aspects of Disaster Management, Emergency and Social Response with Respect to Early Warnings.- Systems and Problems of Early Warning in Germany.- Benefits of Early Warning from the Viewpoint of the Insurance Industry.- Natural Risks in Albania and the Role of Related Warning Systems.- Interaction and Cooperation Between Russia and NIS in the Area of Preventing Emergency Situations of Technogenic and Natural Character.- Gender, Age and Social Class in Psychological Work in Disaster Situations.- Psychological Interventions in Disaster Situations.- Early Warning Systems for Hydrometeorological Hazards.- The Role of the WMO World Weather Watch System in Mitigating Hydro-Meteorological Disasters.- Meteorological and Hydrological Early Warning Systems.- Early Warning Systems for Tropical Storms.- Track Forecast Guidance Improvements for Early Warnings of Tropical Cyclones.- The Tropical Cyclone Warning System in the Southwest Pacific.- Early Warning System for Tropical Storms in India.- Success and Failure of Early Warning Systems: A Case Study of the Gujarat Cyclone of June, 1998.- From Good TC Track Forecasts Towards Good Early Warning of Intensity Changes.- Improving the Tropical Cyclone Warning System and its Effective Dissemination in Mauritius.- Early Warning Systems for Floods.- Real-Time Flood Forecasting: Problems, Possibilities and Proposed Solutions.- Satellite Monitoring of Floods as a Part of the Early Warning System.- Snowmelt Forecasting as a Contribution to Operational Flood Warning: A System Integrating Remote Sensing Data and Meteorological Model Output.- Short-Time Flood Forecast Methodology Using a Hydro-Meteorological Risk Concept for Flood Plains.- Hydro-Meteorological Tools for Flood Protection in River Basins.- Extreme Runoff Events in Small Catchments — the Need for a Proper Modelling Strategy for Early Warning Systems.- Using Real Time Data and a Flow Prediction Model to Assist in the Operation of the Orange River.- GISELE: A New Capability for Flash Flood Early Warnings Over Garonne River Sub-Basins.- The Passage of the ?97 Flood Wave on the Lower Odra.- The Oder River Flood in Summer 1997 from Brandenburg’s Point of View.- Cultural and Political Obstacles to Accepting Early Warnings of the Aral Sea Disaster.- Early Warning Systems for the Detection and Response to Severe Floods.- Early Warning Systems Related to Drought and Mitigation of Famine.- Prediction of African Rainfall and Household Food Security.- Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture: Appropriate Technology and Institutional Development Challenges.- Early Warning and Geography: Space, Time and User Needs (Examples from Famine Early Warning).- Agrometeorological Information System for Mitigation of the Effects of Drought in Hungary.- Early and Dynamic Warning: An Integrated Approach to Drought Management.- Monitoring and Early Warnings Related to the El Niño Phenomenon.- Monitoring and Early Warning Systems Related to the El-Niño Phenomenon — An Overview.- Towards Operational Prediction of El Niño by a Coupled Ocean — Atmosphere Model.- Operational Seasonal Predictions in Australia.- ECMWF Seasonal Forecasting System: Performance and Evaluation.- Early Warning Systems for Severe Weather Phenomena in mid and High Latitudes.- Services from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute Can Reduce the Effects of Disasters — Both Natural and Man-Made.- The Early Warning and Forecasting System (EWFS) for the Reduction of Serious Atmosphere-Hydrosphere Disasters.- Early Warning Systems for the Mitigation of Geological Hazards.- Early Warning Systems for the Mitigation of Geological Hazards — an Overview.- Early Warning Systems for Earthquakes.- Earthquake Early Warning Systems: Current Status and Perspectives.- Earthquake Disasters: Prediction, Prevention and Early Warning.- Towards an Earthquake Early Warning System for the Megacity of Istanbul.- The Seismic Alert System in Mexico City and the School Prevention Program.- Earthquake Early Warning System in Japan.- UrEDAS: The Early Warning System for Mitigation of Disasters Caused by Earthquakes and Tsunamis.- On the Establishment of an Automatic Earthquake Information Broadcast System in Taiwan.- European Warning System.- 25 Seconds for Bucharest.- Early Warning Success for the 1976 Tangshan Earthquake: A Best Practice Integrating Public Administration and Science.- Predictions and Social Response Capacities in Face of the 1995 Menglian Earthquake (M = 7.3): An Overview.- Project of Creation of an Earthquake Early Warning System for Armenia.- Can Plate Motion Surveys by GPS Measurements be Considered as an Alert System in Earthquake Occurrence?.- Early Warning Systems for Volcano Monitoring and Eruption Warnings.- Volcano Monitoring and Eruption Warnings.- Geochemical Monitoring on Merapi Volcano, Indonesia.- Remote Sensing of Subglacial Eruptions in Iceland and the Development of Related Warning Systems.- Information and Warnings to Authorities and to the Public About Seismic and Volcanic Hazards in Iceland.- The Merapi-Project — Interdisciplinary Monitoring of a High-Risk Volcano as a Basis for an Early Warning System.- Early Warning Systems for Tsunami.- Early Warning Systems for Tsunami — an Overview.- Tsunami Warning System in Japan.- Advances in the Chilean Tsunami Warning System and Application of the TIME Project to the Chilean Coast.- A Tsunami Warning System in the SW Aegean Sea, Greece.- Early Warning Systems for Mountain Hazards.- Early Warning Systems Related to Mountain Hazards.- Movement Studies to Forecast the Time of Breaking off of Ice and Rock Masses.- Avalanche Warning Switzerland 2000.- Monitoring the Conditions of Dangerous Lakes in Uzbekistan and Contiguous Territories.- Early Warning Systems for Fire and Other Environmental Hazards.- The Contribution of the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) for Early Warning and Management of Wildfires.- Application of Logistic Models to Predict Human-Caused Forest Fires in Siberia.- The Use of Microsatellites in the Fight Against Pest Plagues.- ECPC’s Global to Regional Fire Weather Forecast System.- Overview of Lightning Detectors: Their Role in Risk Management of the Lightning Hazard.- Meteorology and Desert Locust: Experience and Implementation of a Monitoring System.- Early Warning Systems for Asteroid Impacts.- Space-Borne Autonomous On-Board Recognition of High Temperature Events.- Dedicated Earth Monitoring and Disaster Warning Applications by Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN).- The Finnish Forest Fire Index Calculation System.- Satellite Based Forest Fire Detection and Automatic Alert System — Pilot Experiment.- Early Warning Systems for Rapid Damage Assessment and the Mitigation of Technological Hazards.- Technological Hazards.- Early Warning Systems for Mitigation of Earthquake-Related Technological Risks.- A New Concept for the Earthquake Vulnerability Estimation and its Application to the Early Warning System.- Real-Time City Gas Network Damage Estimation System: SIGNAL.- GPS Monitoring of Structures: Recent Advances.- The Earthquake Early Warning System of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant.- Concept for Seismic Alarm and Monitoring of Soviet-Designed Nuclear Power Plants.- Optimizing the Seismic Early Warning System for the Tohoku Shinkansen.- The Role of Satellite Techniques in Early Warning Systems: State-of-the-art and Perspectives.- Toward an Integrated Space Strategy for Disaster Management.- The Satellite Techniques in Early Warning Systems for Large Towns and Megacities.- Monitoring Fires with European Remote Sensing Satellite, ERS-2: The “Rush ATSR Fire Product” Demonstration.- Remote Sensing and GIS for Warning of Geological Hazards: Application in Vietnam.- The SAF Concept: European Networked Approach for Organising the Generation of Products Based on Satellite Data.- Use of Advanced Earth Observation Capabilities for Disaster Management — The Example of the Oder Flood 1997.- The Use of NOAA/AVHRR Data for Flood Disaster Monitoring in the Mekong River Delta.- Special Problems of Early Warning Systems for Developing Countries and Small Island States.- An Early Warning System for Use in Developing Countries and Small Island States.- Small Island States and Early Warning Systems.- Tropical Cyclone Warnings and the Factors that Influence Response: The Trinidad and Tobago Experience.- Special Problems Faced by Sri Lanka as a Small Island State with Regard to Early Warning Systems for Cyclonic Storms.- Transferring Flood Warning Technology to Vulnerable Communities in Jamaica.- Future Technology Needs, Accessibility and Affordability of Early Warning Systems.- Technical Requirements for Early Warning Systems.