Emberi veszteségek csökkentése természeti veszélyhelyzetekben

Tsunami Délkelet-Ázsiában, hurrikán New Orleansban, földrengés Szecsuán tartományban, mindmegannyi természeti katasztrófa, melyek sok kudarcot de számos pozitív tapasztalatot is hoztak az emberáldozatok mérséklésében. A szakemberek szerint a hasonló vészhelyzetekben az életvédelmi, kárcsökkentési és kárfelmérési intézkedések földtudományi, technológiai támogatása mellett teret kell szenteljenek a társadalmi és viselkedési kérdéseknek is. A HUNAGI mai postájában Claudia Mengelt, Ph.D., Senior Program Officer , Ocean Studies Board , The National Academies (500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20001) írta:
"Please forward this message to your colleagues and consider submitting your abstracts to the following session:
NH06: Reducing Human Losses to Natural Hazards
Sponsor: Natural Hazards
CoSponsor: Public Affairs
Conveners:
Brian F Atwater (atwater@u.washington.edu) U.S. Geological Survey at Dept. of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington
John Orcutt (jorcutt@ucsd.edu) Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego
Kevin T M Johnson (kjohnso2@hawaii.edu) Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Ester Sztein (esztein@nas.edu) Board on International Scientific Organizations, National Academy of Sciences

Description: Worldwide losses to floods, droughts, landslides, earthquakes, and tsunamis depend to a large extent on population density, standard of living, governance, and preservation of natural environments, as shown most recently in the 2009 report from the UN’s International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Secretariat. The losses mount despite advances in science and engineering that have improved the detection, forecasting, and mitigation of natural hazards.
This special session provides a forum on how geophysics, in the broad sense of AGU’s vision, succeeds and fails in disaster reduction. Assessments from social and behavioral sciences are encouraged, as are presentations on geophysics and engineering that focus on applications to loss reduction."