General Information on Tsunamis and Disaster Management

Annotated Bibiliography by Emmanuel Lorenzo de los Santos

(Last Updated: September 22, 2005)

Hot zone responder.(2004). Medical Post, 40(28), 8.

The hot zone responder was created by Ontario's Emergency Medical Assistance Team (EMAT). It is basically a mobile unit that contains important items for disaster response (tents, food and water supply, and a communications backbone).

Adger, W. N., Hughes, T. P., Folke, C., Carpenter, S. R., & Rockstrom, J. (2005). Social-ecological resilience to coastal disasters. Science, 309(5737), 1036-1039.

Studies a coastal community's ability to adapt to a disaster or their resilience to a disaster. Diversity and knowledge of the possibility of a disaster are important factors in a society's resilience to a disaster. They also stress the importance of formal and informal agencies adapting to rapid change as an important tool for the ability of a community to successfully rebuild after a disaster.

Alvarez, R. A., & Williams, A. T. (2003). Vulnerability assessment as a tool for hazard mitigation. NATO advanced research workshop on underwater ground failures on tsunami generation, modeling, risk, and mitigation (2001 : Submarine landslides and tsunamis), Istanbul, Turkey, 303-313.

Presents a Methodology for Vulnerability Assesment. This can be used to predict where resources should be deployed in the event a tsunami hits.

Inventory( Buildings, Demography, Ecology, Human Activit) -> GIS -> Identification of Damage Reduction Alternatives -> Hazzard Assesment Decision -> Effectiveness(Cost-Benefit Analysis) -> Mitigation (Methodology for Vulnerability Assesment, Alvarez et. al.)

Anagos, J., Lawson, S., Bouabid, J., & Bouhats, M. (1997). Use of national loss estimation methodology for risk management. In G. Housner, & R. Chung (Eds.), National disaster reduction (pp. 84-85). USA: American Society of Civil Engineering.

Discusses a program that does data analysis to estimate the amount of damage done in a region. The program is PC-based, user friendly, and GIS-integrated. A similar program specific for Peru and Micronesia Might want to be considered.

Gonzalez, F. I., Titov, V. V., Mofjeld, H. O., & Newman, J. C. (2003). Short term inundation forecasting for tsunamis. NATO advanced research workshop on underwater ground failures on tsunami generation, modeling, risk, and mitigation (2001 : Submarine landslides and tsunamis), Istanbul, Turkey, 277-284.

SIFT is a program which asseses the different variables of a tsunami and gives a forecast of the damage on land. This is important when making critical decisions on who to rescue. Current limitations are that its scope is presently only certain sites in Hawaii. The Program is also only currently accurate in predicting the impact of the first few waves.

Kelman, I. (2004). Linked cultures: Breaking out of the 'disaster management rut'. UN Chronicle, 41(3), 42.

The author describes the "disaster cycle", preparing for a disaster through mitigation then doing post-disaster operations, as a disaster management rut. The author sees more educational efforts, assessing the local context of the situation and coordination on all levels as a way to get out of the disaster management rut and manage disasters more effectively.

Kuroiwa, J. (2002). Sustainable cities, a regional seismic scenario, and the 6-23-2001 arequipa, peru earthquake. Natural Hazards Review, 3(4), 158-162.

Compares the data in the 1992-1995 RSS (Regional seismic simulation) to the actual data from the 6/23/01 earthquake. Results showed that the RSS predicted accurately the resulting damege on coastal cities. The tsunami RSS showed that Peru is in danger of tsunami runups between 7 and 10 meters. It also calculated that the worst case scenario for tsunami arrival time to be 10 minutes. The information from the Arquipa quake showed that a 6m high tsunami hit Camana 20-22 minutes after the sea recessed.

Kuroiwa, J., & Zurka, D. (1997). Peru's program for disaster mitigation 1992-1995. In G. Housner, & R. Chung (Eds.), National disaster reduction (pp. 84-85). USA: American Society of Civil Engineering.

Discusses a study conducted by Peru with the UNDHA that looked at simulations of potential disasters. Towns with a tsunami risk in Peru were determined to be Chala, Islay, Mollendo, Mejia, Ila, Boca del Rio. The study also added other data such as tsunami height and arrival time.

McGuire, B. (2005). Global disaster paves way for global thinking. Geographical, 77(3), 14.

The author says that the lessons learned from the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami Disaster should be applied to future disasters to lessen the impact of such disasters. The importance of global cooperation of relief efforts was stressed, because tsunamis are indeed a global disaster. The author also stressed the point that relief agencies should focus on preventive efforts more than being reaction agencies.

McKenna, J. T. (2005, Sep 12). The time for helicopters ; best rescue option is often an afterthought. USA TODAY, pp. A.23.

The author looked at the fact that helicopters were an underused resource in disaster relief and proposed that measures be placed into effect that will allow rescue agencies to use private helicopters to expidite relief efforts.

Moffett, S. (2004, Oct 25). After japan's latest earthquake, government's response improves. Wall Street Journal, pp. A.17.

The article showed how Japan's response was much more effective in their latest earthquake. This was because of changes in protocol and procedure made by the Japanese government. It shows us that a lot of improvement can come by simply streamlining laws for easier relief efforts in areas where the propensity for a disaster is high.

Ozerdem, A., & Barakat, S. (2000). After the marmara earthquake: Lessons for avoiding short cuts to disaters. Third World Quarterly, 21(3), 425.

The article talked about the necessary improvements that have to be made to an area that is disaster prone to minimize the damage when indeed a disaster strikes. It also pointed out the potential "upside" of a disaster striking by revealing flaws in the current system which can be corrected. It also leaves room for sustainable development afterwards.

Preuss, J., Raad, P., & Bidoe, R. (2001). Mitigation strategies based on local tsunami effects. Tsunami Research at the End of a Critical Decade, , 47-64.

Looks into the different issues dealing with the reduction of tsunami damage. These range from land policies to physically reducing the net force of the tsunami.

Roeder, L. W. (1999). The global disaster information network. American Society for Information Science.Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science, 26(1), 25.

The article discusses the potential of the Global Disaster Information Network, a system already in place set up by the UN for easy worldwide communication during a disaster. This of course is dependent on how much effort is put into developing it as well as how much infrastructure support it is given.

Sanchez, G. (2000). Peru. In C. Sheppard (Ed.), Seas at the millenium an environmental evaluation (pp. 687-697). Europe: Elsevier Science Ltd.

Gives general information about the coastline of peru. The coastline of Peru is 3,080 km long. The capital city, Lima is near the coastline. The coastline also has hills up to 200m high. As of a 1993 survey there were 13,277,079 people living near the coast.

Shuto, N. (2003). Tsunamis - science, disasters and mitigation. NATO advanced research workshop on underwater ground failures on tsunami generation, modeling, risk, and mitigation (2001 : Submarine landslides and tsunamis), Istanbul, Turkey, 1-8.

General information on tsunamis, their causes, how they propagate. mathematical models describing them, damage caused as well as general mitigation information.

Synolakis, C. (2004, Dec 29). Why there was no warning. Wall Street Journal, pp. A.8.

Highlighted the failure of the Pacific tsunami watch to communicate to the other communities not part of its scope of the impending tsunami danger. It called for new research into tsunami detection and communication. The current tsunami deep sea detection technologies took 30 years to develop which is why new tsunami research has to begin today.

Voit, S. S. (1987). Tsunamis. Moscow, USSR: P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Academy of Sciences USSR.

The source predicting the behavior of a tsunami using fluid dynamics. It shows us how many factors are involved in the propagation of tsunamis. This makes it hard to predict their exact behavior.

Waldrop, & Sheri. (2002). Physical therapists' vital role in disaster management. PT [H.W.Wilson - GS], 10(6), 42.

Discusses the importance of physical therapists in disaster management. This is because physical therapists can take a huge load of the doctors by looking at less serious sprains and other injuries which they are qualified to treat allowing doctors to treat more serious injuries.

Wattanawaitunechai, C., Peacock, S. J., & Jitpratoom, P. (2005). Tsunami in thailand - disaster management in a district hospital. The New England Journal of Medicine, 352(10), 962.

Discussed the protocol of a hospital in taiwan during the tsunami disaster. The hospital classified injuries into different degrees to establish who got treated first. It also described the different treatments done to the victims of the tsunami.