DISASTER INFORMATION ON THE WEB:

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DISASTER INFORMATION ON THE WEB

• providing an efficient index to current and
  reliable information
• E.B. JoyceVIEPS, University of Melbourne

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Acknowledgements

• This presentation discusses IDNDR Project
  12/99, sponsored as part of the Australian
  International Decade for Natural Disaster
  Reduction (IDNDR) program for 1999/2000

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Outline

• Aim of the project and likely users
• Disasters in Victoria and the need for a disaster
  index site
• An earlier Web disaster index site
• Web sites and searches
• Problems and solutions
• The new site under development
• Conclusions and the future

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Aim of the Project

• The aim of the project is to provide on the Web
  quick and reliable access to accurate and up to
  date disaster information
• To make the system work, a group of researchers
  will take joint responsibility for finding and
  updating information, with a concentration on
  current disasters, initially in Victoria
• The proposed team approach under the Victorian
  Institute of Earth and Planetary Sciences (VIEPS)
  in Melbourne will provide consistent monitoring
  and updating of this new disaster index site

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Some likely users of the information

• Media - radio, TV, newspaper media (often
  inexperienced or busy)
• Science writers for media
• Education - schools and universities - both staff
  and students
• Disaster researchers - planning field studies, or
  remote data collection
• Aid organisations and workers
• Tourists seeking reassurance about safe travel
• Relatives and friends of those living or
  travelling in the disaster area

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Some disasters in Victoria

• Warrnambool 1903 earthquake
• Black Friday 1939 and Ash Wednesday 1983 fires
• The 1983 Melbourne dust storm
• The 1934 Melbourne flood
• The 1997 Anthrax outbreak at Shepparton
• The Longford gas fire 1998

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A disaster index site in Victoria

• As one of the major developed countries which
  have rapidly adopted the Internet and in
  particular the Web, Australia is well placed to
  make use of this communications technology in
  dealing with disasters
• Victoria has a well developed IT industry,
  including strong government interest

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• www.jeff.com

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An earlier Web disaster index site

• GD-PRIME at Beijing Workshop 1995
• GD-PRIME stood for Global Disasters - Prompt,
  Reliable Information Made available
  Electronically
• It was planned as an international clearing house
  for global disaster information
• By contrast, the new site is starting in Victoria
  and only later will extend across Australia and
  the Pacific

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The Web

• There were over 800 million documents at last
  count
• From one Web page to any other takes a maximum of
  19 hyperlinks

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What puts people off the Web

• Pages too long
• 90 will not scroll down - so have SHORT pages
• Sites hard to use
• 87 will go away - so have a SIMPLE layout
• Sites too slow to load
• 84 will go away - so use small files to load
  QUICKLY
• Australians will sometimes wait up to 20 seconds,
  but Americans only 8 seconds!
• Sites too boring
• 56 will go away - so PROVIDE data promptly

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The Web is littered with dead disaster sites

• GLO-DISNET of 1995 is now missing
• Disaster Information Network at
  http//www.disaster.net/ was established after
  the Okalahoma City Bombing in 1995 and seems to
  have stopped in 1997
• HazardNet (http//hoshi.cic.sfu.ca/hazard/hazardne
  t.intro.new.html) at EPIX (the Emergency
  Preparedness Information eXchange Project) is
  another 1995 site now largely inactive since 1997
• Recent Earth Quakes site at sfu.ca lists 27th
  May 95 as the latest event!

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Searching the Web

• Search engines - Yahoo, Alta Vista
• Searching inside the Web site eg DNRE Victoria
• Using Disaster Web sites
• Portals and Index sites (the human input!)

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A Summary

• There are many comprehensive overseas sites with
  earthquake and volcano archives, often with some
  details of current disasters, and a major tsunami
  warning site - none cover all types of disasters.
• Disaster! Finder http//ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/ndrd/
  disaster/links/ (NASA) recently produced only one
  site for "Victoria" (and that was in Victoria,
  Canada) and only five links for Australia - none
  of these was a site of the type proposed here.

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New places to look on the Web

• Since 1995 radio, television newspaper Web
  sites have appeared, and these are now generally
  the first places on the Web where new disaster
  information is posted
• Many government departments e.g. DNRE in
  Victoria, are developing extensive and data-rich
  sites

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Problems and solutions

• The problem with maintaining a disaster index
  site is continuity
• The solution is control by a working group set-up
  within a well-established organisation
• Regular, repetitive searches by experts are
  necessary, rather than relying on Search Engines

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Disasters - a list

• Earthquakes
• Landslides, avalanches and subsidences
• Volcanic eruptions
• Tsunamis
• Floods, urban and rural
• Coastal erosion
• Severe storms
• Tropical cyclones
• Snow  falls and storms

• Dust storms, sand storms and sand drifts
• Fires
• Droughts
• Heatwaves (extreme cold)
• Land degradation
• Biological disasters
• Human-caused
• Technological origin
• Extra-terrestrial (comet or asteroid impact)

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The new Web site - DISASTER index page

• DISASTER index page
• Level 2 pages - one for each disaster and showing
  date-related links
• Level 3 - information (provided and updated by
  Working Group)

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The four elements

• Earth
• Air
• Fire
• Water

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Earthquake!

• Epping Earthquake, August 19th 1999

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Earthquake!

• Earthquake near Mount Baw Baw

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Dust Storm!

• 1983 Melbourne dust storm
• A city stops!
• Panic in the streets!

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Fire!

• A personal experience - the Greendale fire of
  1983
• Where to turn?
• Searching the CFA and DNRE Web sites for Hot News

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Floods!

• Melbourne flood of 1934
• Elizabeth Street flood of 1971
• Bureau of Meteorology site with flood warnings
  http//www.BoM.GOV.AU/weather/vic/

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Some further examples

• Biological disasters
• Landslides
• Volcanic eruptions

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Biological!

• Anthrax outbreak in 1997
• Sheep and cattle diseases in Victoria still
  continuing (Johnes disease as an example)

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Landslide!

• Thredbo coverage - radio and TV
• The casualty list? (Comparison with the Okalahoma
  bombing and student paper Web site)

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Volcanic Eruption!

• 400 volcanoes erupted in the last 5 million years
  in Victoria
• Thus one volcano erupted on average every 12,500
  years
• The last eruption was Mt Gambier and dated at
  5,000 years ago
• Next eruption?

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NEWS FLASH
330 pm, April 9, 1998

• We interrupt this program to report that a
  volcanic eruption is occurring near the southern
  end of Lake Corangamite, between Colac and
  Camperdown. Clouds of steam and dust are
  billowing hundreds of metres into the air. A
  small cone has been built above the lake surface
  although no lava has been observed so far.

source Birch 1994 Volcanoes in Victoria
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• Melbourne eruptions?

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Conclusions

• The need for this new site has been demonstrated
• It will be available soon
• It will provide a service to media and the
  public, as well as disaster practitioners

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Next stage

• Within Victoria
• Trialling at a university
• Trialling at schools
• Offer to Victorian government
• Then
• Extend to the rest of Australia, and the Pacific
• This new site will "improve community
  awareness of risk,preparedness and response"
  (Australian Goal 1) and also help provide useful
  information for school (IDNDR Major Theme 2.
  Education 2000)

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Warrnambool cemetery earthquake damage 7th
April 14th July 1903

• Acknowledgement
• Irene Williams for slide layout and
• preparation