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Event sponsored by the Institute for Hazard, Risk and Resilience (IHRR), Durham University. Organised by the Citizens’ Panel attached to the Centre for Social Justice and Community Action (CSJCA), Durham University.
This event follows on from a very successful Institute of Advanced Study-sponsored series of activities in 2012: ‘New storylines for living with environmental change: citizens’ perspectives’. During this series, a Citizens’ Panel was formed with the overall aim of developing an approach to public engagement with science – exploring the social and ethical implications of different emerging and potentially contested technological responses to ‘living with environmental change’. Our first event of 2013 was held on 7th March, and was entitled ‘Responsible Science and Public Engagement: A Scientific Dilemmas Café.’
Monday 3rd June 2013, 4.00pm – 6.00pm
Holgate Centre, Grey College, Durham University
South Road, Durham DH1 3LG. Phone: 0191 334 5900 Read more
The Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience is hosting a unique forum for postgraduate researchers interested in learning more about fieldwork from a variety of perspectives.
Friday 24 May 201310.15-12.30 (followed by lunch) Joachim Room, Hild Bede College, Durham University
The forum is an opportunity to mix with Postgraduate Students from around the University and exchange ideas and experience about the challenges and opportunities of carrying out fieldwork and practical work at postgraduate level. Presentations will be given by postgraduate students on their international field work experiences in hazard and risk research. Early career researchers will also be available for a Q&A session about doing field work.
To register for the Postgraduate Forum please send an email to ihrr.pg@durham.ac.uk with name and dietary requirements.
Rob Parker (University of Cardiff) and Dave Petley
The Mw = 7.8 earthquake on Tuesday in Iran was the largest event in that country for about 50 years. Fortunately, the depth of the earthquake (82 km) and the low population density in the affected areas meant that loss of life was low for an event of this size. Indeed, reports suggest that only one person died in Iran, although there are reports of 40 deaths in Pakistan. This single fatality in Iran was the result of a landslide, and one of the images on the BBC reports about the earthquake also seems to show landslides:
Over the last three years or so, we have been working with our colleagues Alex Densmore and Nick Rosser, funded by the Willis Research Network, to develop a model that will allow us to make an initial assessment of landslide impacts in earthquakes. Rob recently submitted his PhD, and has now moved to a post-doctoral position at Cardiff. However, we thought that this event would be an interesting first application of the model, which has been produced through a statistical (logistic regression) analysis of spatial patterns of landslides (with areas larger than 11,000 square metres) triggered by four large earthquakes in the USA, New Zealand, Taiwan and China. The model provides a first-order prediction of the probability of hillslope failure across the region affected by seismic shaking, based on the strength of ground motions and the gradient of hillslopes. Areas likely to have experienced high levels of landslide activity are shown in red, and while areas we expect to be less affected by landslides are shown in green and then blue. Here, landslide probability has been estimated using preliminary ground motion data published by the USGS and hillslope gradients derived from the ASTER global elevation model. Read more
Programme for Disaster Interventions and Humanitarian Aid
19th April 2013, 10:00 to 13:00, Elvet Riverside 2, Room 231, Durham University
Weather-related disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity leading to more cold spells, flooding and droughts and other extreme weather events. These can cause loss of life and livelihoods as well as damage the environment. These can be stressful for local communities, sometimes requiring extensive external assistance, often delivered as emergency and/or humanitarian aid. This seminar considers disaster research findings from one project based in Sri Lanka and another in the UK and raises important questions of interest to emergency planners and humanitarian aid workers. There will be opportunities for practitioners to discuss issues that arise for them. This event is co-organised by IHRR associate director Prof Lena Dominelli.
Places are limited, so please contact Carole Pickering at c.a.pickering@durham.ac.uk to book.
Yesterday I was deeply honoured to present the AQA Annual Lecture at the Geographical Association annual conference in Derby. I talked on the topic of Future Trends in Natural Hazard Losses - essentially a review of what we expect to see in the next few decades on a global basis. I started the talk by looking at recent trends, and then looked forward to what we might expect. I finished with an example of one of the mega-quakes that we fear – in this case a large earthquake in Western Nepal.
The slides are on Authorstream – you can download the Powerpoint file there – and should also appear below:
Re-blogged from Dave Petley’s Landslide Blog
