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Internet Information on Hazards andDisastersLinda Musser BS, MLS aa Head, Earth Sciences Library, Pennsylvania StateUniversity, University ParkPublished online: 18 Oct 2008.

To cite this article: Linda Musser BS, MLS (1997) Internet Information on Hazards andDisasters, Science & Technology Libraries, 16:1, 11-18, DOI: 10.1300/J122v16n01_03

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Internet Information on Hazards and Disasters: Resources for Researchers

Linda Musser

ABSTRACT. An annotated bibliography of Internet resources re- lated to natural disasters such as volcanoes, hurricanes, and earth- quakes. Web sites are listed in three categories: multidisciplinary; geologic and environmental hazards; and disaster relief, rescue, and investigation. Also covered are newsletters, listserv discussion groups, and bulletin boards. [Article copies available fir a f ee jbm The Haworlh Documenf Delive~y Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: gelinro@haworIlr.cor,r]

INTRODUCTION

The United Nations has declared the 1990s the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. From volcanic eruptions in the Philippines, floods in the Midwest, wildfires in the Wcst, hurricanes in Florida, and earthquakes in Russia to building collapses in South Korea, ferries sinking in the Baltic and other man-made disasters it is obvious we live in a hazardous world filled with disasters. Yet the study of hazards does not fit comfortably into any one discipline. Truly, disaster research in all its facets may be one of the longest established areas of interdisciplinary study. Materials rclating to this topic can be found scattered throughout most library collections if they are there at all. The Internet offers an opportuni-

Linda Musser, BS in Civil Engineering, MLS, is Hcad of the Earth Sciences Library, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.

The author would like to acknowledge the assistance of the Natural Hazards Research and Applications Center in producing this article.

Science &Technology Libraries, Vol. 16(1) 1996 O 1996 by The Hawonh Press, Inc. All rights reserved. I 1

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ty for libraries to provide access to a broad range of materials on hazards and disasters without a great deal of expense.

This selected list of resources focuses primarily on natural disasters although many resources support research interests in man-made disasters as well. The list is organized into three subject categories-multidisciplina- ry resources, geologic/environmental hazards resources, and disaster re- lief/rescue/investigation resources-plus a section on electronic newsletters and discussion groups.

MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESOURCES

Federal Emergency Management Agency (U.S.) (http://wwwfema.gov/) This site contains a wealth of information about disaster preparcdness, response, recovery and mitigation. FEMA has provided full text versions of many of their publications as well as images from past disasters such as the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the Midwest floods of 1993. The site provides information on career opportunities and a link to the Global Emergency Management System (GEMS), an international index of emer- gency management resources maintained by the agency.

GEMS (ht~://w.fema.gov~ema/gems.html) contains links to hundreds of organizations and is organized into the following broad categorics: emergency management agencies/organizations, fire fighting agencies, search and rescue organizations, state emergency management agencies, science and technology, federal agencieslorganizations, and other nations.

Natural Hazards Reseavch and Applications Information Center (htrp//addetxolorado.edu/-hazctr/Home.htmt) acts as a clearinghouse for the national and international natural hazards community. It provides ac- cess and links to lists of information sources, organizations, upcoming meetings, colleges and universities offering courses related to hazards, and new publications. It provides the full text of the Center's newsletters "Disaster Research" and "Natural Hazards Observer," quick response reports for recent disasters, and summaries of recent conferences.

United States Geological Survey Hazards pagc (hftp://www.usgs.gov/ hazard/index.htm[) is organized into five broad categorics of disasters- earthquakes, floods, landslides, toxic materials (i.e., radon), and volca- noes. Each category contains links primarily to USGS-related centers although some data and full text publications are available as well. There is also a link to the "Ask-a-Geologist" service of the agency. Additional resources such as fact sheets and news releases relating to hazards are available at the USGS main homepage (http://www.usgs.gov/).

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Subcommittee on Natural Disaster Reduction (http//ww~.usgs.~ov/ sndr/index.html) This multiagency committee of the U.S. government pro- vidcs a list of federal agencies which are involved to some extent in disaster mitigation, prediction or research along with a description of their activities and areas of involvement. The site provides descriptions of suc- cess stories in disastcr mitigation. While much of this site was still under development in early 1996, there appear to be planned links to information on specific types of disasters (floods, droughts, fires, etc.) and to late- breaking news and events.

HazardNet (http://hoshi.cic.sfu.ca/hazardl) is'a demonstration project of the International Decade for Natural Hazard Reduction. Its focus is on real-time hazards alerts and hazard information for locations around the world. Information is arranged first by subject then by geographic region. It also has a link to the International Decade for Natural Hazard Reduc- tion homepage (htp://hoshi.cic.sfu.ca/hazard/idnd~htm which contains descriptions of many of the IDNDR projects and activities.

Emergency Preparedness Information Exchange (http://hoshi.cic. sfu. ca/-anderson/index.htmo is provided by the Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technology, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. Its purpose is "to facilitate the exchange of ideas and information among Canadian and international public and private sector organizations about the prevention of, preparation for, recovery from and/or mitigation of risk associated with natural and socio-technological disasters." It provides links to organizations involved in hazards management. This site is also available via gopher at disaste~cprost.sfu.ca:5555. Telnet access is telnet disaste~cprost.sjiu.ca (account name = epix).

GLO-DISNET (http://blume.stanford.edu:8080/), or Global Disaster Network, provides information on risk management organizations by sub- ject and by geographic arca.

EPICENTER (http://nwlink.com/epicenter/) provided by the Emergen- cy Preparedness Information Center offers information on how to prepare for natural disasters.

Internet Disaster Information Network (http://www.disaster.net/ indexhtrnl) is a little unusual in that it has a category just for terrorism. Links in other disaster categories are not as extensive as many other sites.

GEOLOGIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS RESOURCES

National Geophysical Data Center Natural Hazards Data (http:// www. ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/hazatd/hazards.html) provides lists of resources

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available from the Center related to natural geologic hazards. Topics covered include earthquakes, tectonic strcss, and tsunamis. The tsunami database and database of significant earthquakes can be downloaded. Many color images of geologic hazards are also viewable. Images in- clude those related to the aforementioned topics (earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.) plus volcanism, landslides, and global relief. Also at this site is the Natural Hazards Data Resources Directory (hNp://www. ngdc.noaa.gov/ seg/hazard/ resource/hazdirhtml) which contains information on orga- nizations in the natural hazards community. The Directory is organized by natural hazard topic and by name of hazard-related organization. Entries are extensive but contain only text, no links. The focus is on U.S. organizations although some international and non-US. organizations are included.

Michigan Tech k Volcanoes Page (http://www.geo.mtu.edu/volcanoes/) has a worldwide volcano reference map and information on recent volca- nic events, volcanic hazards mitigation, remote sensing, and volcano hu- mor. There is a link to the Volcano Information Center (http://magic. geol.ucsb.edu/-Jisher/) with definitions and images illustrating volcanic terminology.

Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program (gopher://nmnhgoph.si.edu: 70/ll/.gvp) provides access to the "Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network" and archives of the VOLCANO listserv.

Alaska Volcano Observatory (http://www.avo.alaska.edu) has informa- tion on volcanic risks and activity in Alaska and the northern Pacific with photos, images and data on these volcanoes and volcanic hazards.

Cascade Volcanoes Observatory (http://vulcan.wrusgs.gov/) provides information on the activity, history, facts and photos of volcanic activity primarily in the western United States. It also provides links to other volcano information as well as information (definitions and images) of volcanic phenomena such as lahars and ashfall.

The National Hazards Mitigation Group (http://www.unige.ch/hazards/) features reports on work of the Volcano Mitigation Team and the Swiss Disaster Relief Unit. Also featured are pictures of volcanoes from around the world.

Earthquake Information (gopher://nisee.ce.berkeley.edu/l) is provided by the National Information Service for Earthquake Engineering (NISEE). It offers information on earthquakes and earthquake engineering, a calcn- dar of evcnts, and links to other centers.

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National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (http://nceel: eng.buffalo.edu/nceerhome.htm~ offers information on aspects of earth- quakes and earthquake cngineering. Access is provided to QUAKELINE, the Center's bibliographic database of materials related to earthquake engineering and natural hazards mitigation.

National Landslide Information Center (hftp://gldage.cl:usgs.gov/html- files/nlicsun.htmI) features full text reports, information and images from - this USGS center.

Nafional Lightning Safely Institute '(hftp://wwwlightningsafity.com/) contains lightning safety information, risk.information and a good list of links to lightning-related Web sites.

National Hurricane Center (http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/) provides in- formation about hurricanes and tropical cyclones, current and past.

FireNef (http://online.anu.edu.au/Forestry//ire/ is provided by Australia National University. It provides information on all aspects of landscape fire (as opposed to building fires). There are links to educational and training opportunities, fire images, services and publications.

DISASTER RELIEF, RESCUE AND INVESTIGATION RESOURCES

Relieweb (http://www.unicc.oug/reliefl) is managed by the United Na- tions Department of Humanitarian Affairs. The purpose of this site is "to assist the humanitarian community in more effectively preparing and re- sponding to complex emergencies and natural disasters by enhancing in- formation sharing and access to timely and reliable information." It fea- tures descriptions of project activities by country and provides a great deal of background information for each location. Each country analysis con- tains information on the socio-political situation, population, finance and trade, geography, food and agriculture, and health situations as well as a lengthy emergency profile describing medical facilities, personnel, and relief operations. An interesting feature at this site is the ability to generate a map of these countries with user-selected data dements.

Emergency-Guide to Emergency Services (htlp://wwwcatt.citri.edu.au/ eme~gency/emergency.hfm[) is a guide to emergency services on the Web. It has lots of images (accidents, vehicles, equipment, etc.) and brief narra- tives of emergency situations worldwide. On the unusual side, it also features scanned images of cloth patches from emergency organizations.

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Volunteers in Technical Assistance Emergency Digital Information Re- source Program (http://www.vita.org/disaster/disaster:h makes avail- able situation reports, travel advisories, and other disaster-related informa- tion to relief agencies around the world.

Emergency Services WWW Site (htfp://giNigan.uafadm.alaskn.edu/ www-9lI.htrn) contains extensive lists of links to cmergency services on the Web-fire, rescue, and so forth.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (http://wwwifvc.org/) provides reports and information of the activities of the Red Cross worldwide.

Emergency Response and Research Institute (http://wwwemergency. corn/) provides very timely summaries of late-breaking emergency situa- tions in categories ranging from fire to terrorism to military operations.

Global Health Disaster Network (http://hypnos.m.ehime-u.ac.jp/GHDNet/ index.html) provides information on health aspects of disasters.

lnternationnl Centerfor Disaster Mitigation Engineering (htip:N incede.iis.u-tokyo.acjp/incede-home.hl includes reports and ncwslct- ters of the center, summaries of recent research, and upcoming regional conferences. The focus is on disaster investigation and mitigation.

Published International Literature on Traumatic Stress (telnet to 1ib.dartmouth.edu; at the prompt type "select file pilots") is a database of almost 10,000 references relating to traumatic stress.

NEWSLETTERS, LISTSERVS, DISCUSSION GROUPS, AND BULLETIN BOARDS

Disaster Research, an electronic newsletter. Send an e-mail message to listproc@lists.colorado.edu with the message "subscribe hazards [your name]."

Networks in Emergency Management. Send an e-mail message to list- sew@hoshi.cic.sfu.au with the message "subscribe nets [your name]."

CSAR (Computers in Search and Rescue) Subscribe by sending an e-mail message to csarreq@hpasdd.mayfieIddhp.com with the message "subscribe CSAR [your name]."

EMERG-L (Emergency S e ~ i c e s ) . Subscribe by sending an e-mail mes- sage to listserv@vm.marist.edu with the message "subscribe EMERG-L [your name]."

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FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) e-mail News Ser- vice. Send the message "subscribe news" to majordomo@ema.gov.

FIREMEN-L (discussions about fire fighters and equipment). Subscribe by sending a message to listsew@safne~.chigafe.com with a message of "subscribe FIREMEN-L [user name@address]."

HAZMAT-L (hazardous materials issues). Subscribe by sending a mes- sage to listsew@safnef.chigafe.com with a message of "subscribe HAZ- MAT-L [user name @ address]."

MEDICAL-L (medical discussion, all are welcome). Subscribe by send- ing a message to list.serv@safnet.chigate with a message of "sub- scribe MEDICAL-L [user name@address]."

OFDA-L (U.S. AID Office of Foreign Disaster Relief). Subscribe by scnding an e-mail message to lisfproc@info.usaid.gov with the message "subscribe OFDA-L [your name]."

POLICE-L (law enforcement discussions). Subscribe by sending a mes- sage to listserv@safnef.chigate.com with a message of "subscribe PO- LICE-L [user name@address]."

QUAKE-L. Subscribe by sending an e-mail message to listserv@vml. nodak.edu with the message "subscribe QUAKE-L [your namc]."

RISKS. You can join this group by sending the message "subscribe RISKS [your name]" to listserv@ubvm.cc.buj/blo.edu.

RISKNef ("An Internet Mailing List Devoted to Risk and Insurance Issues) Subscribe by sending an e-mail message to lisfproc@mcfeeley. cc.utexas.edu with the message "subscribe risknet."

RISKANAL (Socicty for Risk Analysis List). Send the message "sub- scribe RISKANAL [your name]" to listserv@lisfserv.pnI.gov.

SAFETY-L (occupational safety and health issues). Subscribe by send- ing a message to lisfsew@sa/net.chigafe.com with a message of "sub- scribe SAFETY-L [user name@address]."

SAFNET-L (SAF-Net Network discussions). Subscribe by sending a message to listserv@safne~chigafe.com with a message of "subscribe SAFNET-L [user name@address]. "

SALEM-L (statc and local cmergency management personnel). Sub- scribe by sending a message to listsew@afnet.chigate.con~ with a mes- sage of "subscribe SALEM-L [user name@address]."

SAR-L (Search and Rescue Discussion List). Send the message "sub- scribe" to SAR-L-request@islandne~.com.

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SITREPS.LIST (disaster situation reports from various agencies) Sub- scribe by sending an e-mail message to listsew@mediccom.nordenl.com with the message "subscribe sitreps.list [your e-mail address in full]."

VOLCANO. This list is for volcano-related issues. Subscribe by sending an e-mail message to listsew@asuvm.inre.asu.edu with the message "SUBSCRIBE VOLCANO [your name]." Subscribers will automatically receive copies of the monthly reports from the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Network before they appear in print.

Vsenet Newsgroups

In addition, America Online has an emergencyJdisaster management fo- rum within its Public Safety Center.

Bulletin Board Systenis

State and Local Emergency Management Data Users ' Group (SALEM- DUG) BBS(708) 739-1312 (run by FEMA).

VoadNer (sort o f a BBS run by Voluntary Organizations Active in Disas- ter). For information, send an e-mail to al-vanderpol@ecune(.org. SAF- Net BBS(80 1) 83 1-4498.

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