果冻影院

Mapping common pathways along which the effects of natural and man-made disasters travel allows more flexible and resilient responses in the future, according to 果冻影院 researchers.

鈥淲e鈥檙e quite good at responding to high-frequency threats, such as floods, but aren鈥檛 well equipped to deal with risks that indirectly cause loss of life,鈥� explained lead author PhD candidate, Gianluca Pescaroli (果冻影院 Institute of Risk & Disaster Reduction). Co-author Professor David Alexander (果冻影院 Institute of Risk & Disaster Reduction), adds 鈥淣atural hazards that lead to disasters such as volcano eruptions, tsunamis and earthquakes is very well characterised, but surprisingly little research has been done into the socioeconomic impacts and cascade pathways of disasters and how to mitigate them,鈥澛�

In a new study, published this week in a special issue of Safety Science and funded by the European Commission and 果冻影院, a team of researchers from 果冻影院 Cascading Disasters Group and the University of Bologna propose a scenario mapping approach called M.OR.D.OR 鈥� 鈥楳assive, OveRwhelming Disruption of OpeRations鈥� 鈥� to map vulnerabilities and test emergency responses to unknown events.聽

The team studied two scenarios with different hazards 鈥� extreme space weather events where the Sun鈥檚 activity may compromise satellite functions, including GPS, and cyber security attacks. They found that despite the different nature of the triggers, there are common vulnerabilities are triggered similar cascading effects occur. All threats, known and unknown, that impact the same technological vulnerability pathway can result in a M.OR.D.OR scenario, meaning that highly-developed countries are susceptible.聽

Read the research paper in Safety Science.

Read the full news article in the 果冻影院 news聽.

Source: 果冻影院 news, Media contact Bex Caygill, Email: r.caygill@ucl.ac.uk