Two recent items re new efforts:
Let’s hear it for women, and in particular for women bloggers in the field of emergency management! Come to think of it I cannot name any. Got any names for me?
Why the web has challenged scientists’ authority – and why they need to adapt
Academia is in the midst of a crisis of relevance. Many Americans are ignoring the conclusions of scientists on a variety of issues including climate change and natural selection. Some state governments are cutting funding for higher education; the federal government is threatening to cut funding for research. Resentful students face ever increasing costs for tuition.
And distrustful segments of society fear what academia does; one survey found that 58 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say colleges and universities have a negative effect on the way things are going in the country.
There are multiple causes for this existential crisis, but one in particular deserves special attention. The web is fundamentally changing the channels through which science is communicated – who can create it, who can access it and ultimately what it is. Society now has instant access to more news and information than ever before; knowledge is being democratized. And as a result, the role of the scientist in society is in flux.
According to NextGov, the DHS Inspector General will be looking into information tech management problems at FEMA. See: The Federal Emergency Management Agency isn’t fixing its outstanding IT management issues and the acting inspector general says he plans to find out why.
Here is another version of the matter from Homeland Security Today: OIG: FEMA Has Made Limited Progress in Improving its IT Management
From the Homeland Security Newswire: Flood risk for Americans is greatly underestimated,
A new study has found that forty-one million Americans are at risk from flooding rivers, which is more than three times the current estimate—based on regulatory flood maps—of thirteen million people. The study is based on a new high-resolution model that maps flood risk across the entire continental United States, whereas the existing regulatory flood maps produced by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) cover about 60 percent of the continental United States. Avoiding future losses is particularly important as average flood losses in the United States have increased steadily to nearly $10 billion annually.
Here is another take on the topic from Vox: We’ve radically underestimated how vulnerable Americans are to flooding. New research claims that official estimates lowballed the risk by, uh, about a factor of three.
From Yankee magazine, this account of the effects of rising seas on the New England Coast: Rising Seas | New England Climate Change. New England was built upon the coast. Its fate will depend upon how well we adapt to a future that can no longer be ignored. How rising seas are changing the New England coastline.
From the WashPost, this story about planning issues in Boston: As giant storms hammer Boston, officials are doing little to prepare for them.
Of special concern is that the once-in-a-generation flooding has now happened twice in two months.
For a metropolitan areas that includes many fine academic institutions,the state capital, and federal regional offices it is baffling to the Diva why the local planning processes are so inadequate. Then again the area is famous for its political conflicts.
From Bloomberg Business News: Why Is California Rebuilding in Fire Country? Because You’re Paying for It. “After last year’s calamity, officials are making the same decisions that put homeowners at risk in the first place.”
From Governing: Mainland Mayors Partner With Puerto Rico Leaders to Help Rebuild. More than 40 city leaders have joined a new exchange to share disaster relief expertise with their local counterparts on the island.
By way of background, the existing mutual aid system is EMAC. Here is an article from the same source about how it works: The Pact Changing How Governments Respond to Disaster
Recovery Diva 