Flood Risk Perception

The folks at the (Congressional) Hazards Caucus Alliance recently diostributed an interesting paper ... "Flood risk perception in lands ‘‘protected’’ by 100-year levees"... MORE INFO

The discussion in the paper on the perceptions of the folks living behind levees in the California Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta was most interesting.

FYI ... Stefan Zink who was then at Michael Baker Jr., Imc. presented a paper at the March 4, 2008 meeting of the Bay Area HAZUS User Group that might also be of interested to the flood community. This paper addresses some of the problems in trying to use HAZUS-MH to model levee related flooding in the Sacramento region.

Behind Levee Scenarios in HAZUS: Exploring Possibilities with Different Data Sources, DOWNLOAD

The Geospatial Desktop - Open Source GIS & Mapping

The Geospatial Desktop provides a foundational level of knowledge for understanding GIS and the open source desktop mapping applications that are available for use, for free, today. Special sections include focused learning on the Quantum GIS and GRASS GIS software platforms but other packages are also introduced. MORE INFO at Amazon.com

HAZ-I Tools to Internationalize Hazus-MH

This presentation discusses a simplified approach (4 steps) to create a HAZUS study region for international applications.

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FEMA's Emergency Management Institute HAZUS Training for 2012

E170	Hazus-MH for Hurricanes Enroll	Jan 9- 12, 2012
E172	Hazus-MH for Flood Enroll	Jul 16-19, 2012
E174	Hazus-MH for Earthquake Enroll	Dec 19- 21, 2011
E176	Hazus-MH for Floodplain Managers Enroll	Apr 23- 26, 2012
E179	Application of Hazus-MH for Disaster Operations Enroll	Feb 13- 16, 2012
E190	ArcGIS for Emergency Managers Enroll	Apr 30- May 3, 2012
E296	Application of Hazus-MH for Risk Assessment Enroll	Jan 16- 19, 2012 Sep 17-20, 2012
E313	Basic Hazus-MH Enroll	Apr 2-5, 2012 Aug 20-23, 2012
E317	Comprehensive Data Management for Hazus-MH Enroll	Jun 18-21, 2012

Great Central Shakeout 2012

On February 7, 2012, at 10:15 a.m.*, thousands of people across eight states will participate in the 2012 Great Central U.S. ShakeOut ... will you be shaking?

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Resolve to be Ready in 2012

Those who make New Year's resolutions are 11 times more likely to have continued success in achieving a goal than individuals who have not made a resolution, according to the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Use the resources at Ready.gov to keep resolutions by providing the tools and resources needed to take four important steps: be informed about the different types of emergencies that can happen in your area and their appropriate responses, make a family communications plan, build an emergency kit, and get involved in community preparedness. MORE INFO

HAZUS.org suggests that you join with the Ready Campaign in promoting Resolve to be Ready during 2012.

2011 will be the year with the highest catastrophe-related economic losses in history

According to preliminary estimates from the annual Swiss Re’s sigma team, total insured losses for the global insurance industry from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters reached USD 108 billion in 2011. This is more than double the figure of USD 48 billion in 2010. Claims from natural catastrophes alone reached USD 103 billion in 2011, compared to only USD 43 billion last year. MORE INFO