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Monday, September 19, 2011

MONITORING TSUNAMI UPDATES

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Tsunami monitoring on a global scale is now a possibility. This isn’t aimed to mitigate a tsunami that is in progress, an act that is next to impossible. Efficacious monitoring can rather make forecasts and rapid precautionary mobilizations become more effective and prudent.

Take the case of the previous Japan tsunami. A scientist based in Brazil was able to observe the phenomenon way before the tsunami hit the shores of Japan. It was just a matter of making tighter the coordination and information sharing by the observers and the forecast affected parties to effect a quicker response and avoidance of casualties and damages.

Below is an update report about global tsunami monitoring.

[Philippines, 19 September 2011]

Source: http://www.scidev.net/en/news/global-tsunami-monitoring-could-follow-from-discovery.html

Global tsunami monitoring could follow from discovery

Henrique Kugler

18 August 2011

[CURITIBA, BRAZIL] A scientist's chance glimpse of a reflection in the atmosphere of the tsunami that devastated Japan earlier this year could lead to the first global tsunami monitoring system — which could also be faster and more efficient than the current systems.

Researchers from Brazil, France and the United States, using a highly sensitive, wide-angle camera at the top of Haleakala volcano in Hawaii, detected the 'airglow' signature in the atmosphere of the 11 March tsunami that devastated Japan, demonstrating that the genesis of a tsunami leaves a fingerprint in the ionosphere — an ionised zone of the atmosphere more than 80 kilometres up.

Tsunamis usually cause the sea level to rise rapidly by a few centimetres, which displaces the air immediately above it. This creates waves in the air that move quickly upward, eventually reaching and disturbing the ionosphere. Interaction with the charged ionosphere creates a faint red glow, the signature airglow that can be detected.

This effect was predicted in the 1970s, but little progress has been made since then on using these observation methods. The researchers presented their observations in a paper in Geophysical Research Letters last month (7 July).

"We have been studying the ionosphere since 1999, but we didn't expect to end up with a new method for tsunami detection," Jonathan Makela, an electrical engineer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States, and the lead author of the paper, told SciDev.Net.

Currently tsunamis are detected by monitoring the sea surface level or the pressure of the water near the seabed. While this is efficient, it is limited to areas where adequate equipment is installed — the new finding could now lead to a global remote sensing system that would not need equipment on the ground.

"A new global system could be set up," said co-author Philippe Lognonné, from the Institute of Earth Physics of Paris, at Paris Diderot University in France. "We could detect tsunamis in zones deprived of geophysical monitoring, as well as tsunamis generated by effects other than quakes [such as volcanic eruptions and underwater landslides]."

Lognonné said that the new system would allow us to detect tsunamis well before what is possible with the current system.

With just three satellites, a world-wide tsunami forecast system would be in place. Such a system would need "about 50 kilograms of equipment onboard future telecommunications satellites," he said.

The European Space Agency is evaluating the idea of taking a recording instrument on board one of its satellites for a demonstration mission — the instrument would cost €10 million (around US$14 million), according to Lognonné.

Makela said this system would not replace the current ones, but complement them to give a much wider monitoring capacity.

Victor Gallardo, a professor of oceanography at the University of Concepción, Chile, told SciDev.Net: "If it really works, I see advantages for a long country like Chile, where a repetitive, expensive tsunami alert system would be necessary.

"The installation of this technology in satellites should be a priority for the existing dedicated international organisations. Our scientific and engineering communities should examine this option very carefully and urgently".

John Largier, professor of coastal oceanography at the University of California, Davis, United States, who has been working on the use of radar for tsunami detection, said that airglow was "quite an amazing phenomenon … that may have value in providing some low-cost global coverage".

But he added: "I don't see how it will give the detail on wave amplitude and currents that can be obtained from data on the ocean itself".

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Link to UN secretary-general's 'Global geospatial information management' report [217kB]

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EQUITABLE DATA ACCESS BY GLOBAL GEOSPATIAL GROUP

EQUITABLE DATA ACCESS BY GLOBAL GEOSPATIAL GROUP

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Geospatial information can empower decision-making. Access to information, however, is as unequal as it could get across the globe.

To address the problem of inequitable access to information, diverse geospatial groups across the continents have been holding consultative talks. Incidentally, a UN agency, the Economic and Social Council or ECOSOC, had taken the role to spearhead the global talks to promote greater equitable data access.

Such an access was once the monopoly of developed countries or DCs notably the OECD countries. From climatological mapping to mineneralogy assessments, the exclusivity of access by the Northern countries was very marked. The information was then used by multinational companies and business stakeholders to corner contracts and investments in the developing countries to the dis-advantage of the latter.

Below is a summary report about the ongoing geospatial initiatives.

[Philippines, 19 September 2011]

Source: http://www.scidev.net/en/news/global-geospatial-group-to-promote-equitable-data-access.html

Global geospatial group to promote equitable data access

Gozde Zorlu

18 August 2011

A high-level global group promoting geospatial information could help developing countries gain better access to data to help tackle issues such as climate change, conservation and disaster management.

The UN has set up an expert committee and a programme on global geospatial information management under its Economic and Social Council to encourage international cooperation and establish best practice on the use of geographic data, collected by technologies such as remote sensing and the global positioning system (GPS).

The decision, announced last month (27 July), was triggered by a report earlier this year by the UN secretary-general that concluded that many developing countries have a "serious lack of institutional capacity to harness the enormous potential of geospatial information technologies and to build a sustainable national infrastructure".

There have been several efforts to manage such information, including the Permanent Committee for Geospatial Data Infrastructure of the Americas (PC-IDEA) and the Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific (PCGIAP).

"But these discussions have been regional in focus," said Paul Cheung, director of the new initiative and head of the UN's statistics division in New York.

"There is a need for a global platform, for all countries to come together and focus on all of the issues. That is why we have created this committee," he told SciDev.Net.

A key task will be to standardise geospatial information and applications to enable the sharing of data and services across borders.

According to Cheung, geospatial data is increasingly owned by multinational corporations, which sell software and platforms to developing countries that may not have the capacity to know what the best products are or how best to use them. The new committee could help represent developing countries and advise them on building up their national institutions.

"Spatial information and analysis lie at the heart of nearly all major international peace, global health and economic development problems," Mark Becker, a geospatial applications expert at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, United States, told SciDev.Net.

"Having a central committee focused on setting standards for accuracy of data and guidelines for the fair redistribution of data is essential," he said.

Becker added that the new committee could increase the efficient use of spatial information in projects for developing countries, such as managing refugee centres and immunisation programmes.

"If you can easily discover and download data that is critical for your operations and not have to create it yourself you have increased your efficiency," he said.

Geospatial information can empower decision-making on "extremely important" concerns in developing countries, such as development and environmental conservation, said Susan Wolfinbarger, from the Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

"Given the rapid development of technologies such as remote sensing, mapping and GPS, a group of experts on geographic technology is essential to help develop standards for data quality, cooperation and use of geospatial information," Wolfinbarger added.

The first UN high-level forum on geospatial information management is scheduled to take place in Seoul, Korea, in October to bring together countries, international organisations and the private sector.

"But at the end of the day, it is governments that will have to decide on issues," said Cheung.

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Monday, August 29, 2011

HORN OF AFRICA: MORE ON DROUGHT-RELATED MIGRATION

HORN OF AFRICA: MORE ON DROUGHT-RELATED MIGRATION

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

The famine that is now taking shape in the Horn of Africa is the subject of news features in canned Big Media outfits today. The alarm bells raised by international organizations regarding the matter have been quite successful in rapidly surfacing the malady before the public mind via sensationalized media reports.

As already noted earlier, 11 millions of folks are forecast to face starvation in the short-run largely due to drought. The congestion of migrants in resource-rich areas is complicating the issue, by depletion and competition for resources, thus deteriorating such regions into hovels of famine, hunger, diseases, and deaths.

Below is a report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on the same subject.

[Philippines, 22 August 2011]

Source: http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/media/press-briefing-notes/pbnAF/cache/offonce/lang/en?entryId=30061

Drought Related Migration on the Increase in the Horn of Africa
Posted on Tuesday, 19-07-2011

Horn of Africa - The severe drought which is affecting vast areas of Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti is leading to a considerable increase in complex, multi-directional migration flows, both within and across international borders, according to IOM missions in the region.

Those population movements involve not only refugees and asylum seekers but large numbers of migrants and pastoralists who have little choice but to move along numerous complex migration routes, initially from rural to urban areas and for many tens of thousands, across international borders to neighbouring countries.

Although information on many of these routes remains sketchy, increased population movements have been observed from drought affected areas in southern and central Somalia towards the capital Mogadishu, where heavy rains over the past few days have wrecked havoc among vulnerable displaced persons.

Displaced Somalis are also moving along perilous land routes from impoverished rural areas towards Somaliland and the self declared autonomous state of Puntland. Others continue their journey towards neighbouring Djibouti and across the treacherous Bab el Mandeb (Gate of Grief in Arabic) to Yemen and the Gulf States.

Recent reports in the Sudanese press of Somalis drowning in the Red Sea south of the city of Port Sudan could indicate the establishment of a new hazardous migration route from Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia to Sudan's Red Sea State and then onto Saudi Arabia.

The situation in drought-affected regions of Somalia has led to a major increase of people seeking assistance in Ethiopia and Kenya, with some 50,000 new arrivals reported in June. Over the past three weeks, some 11,000 people have arrived in Ethiopia and more than 8,600 in Kenya, with daily arrivals now averaging 2,000 in Ethiopia and 1,200 in Kenya.

In Ethiopia, where the drought directly affects an estimated 4.5 million people, pastoralist communities are particularly in need of assistance because of the weakening or the death of their livestock. Their cross border movements in search of water and pasture for their livestock are creating a higher risk for resource-based conflict and further displacement, particularly in the drought-affected Northern Kenyan districts of Turkana, Wajir and Mandera, where Global Acute Malnutrition now exceeds 30 per cent among children, pregnant and lactating women.

The situation in Ethiopia is further complicated by the return of Ethiopian migrants from Yemen, where evacuation operations started in November 2010 resulted in the return of thousands of individuals to date. Major return areas are Oromiya, Tigray, and the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region (SNNPR) and Amhara regions, which are experiencing drought, crop failure and a dramatic increase in food and fuel prices.

The impact of these returns to resource-constrained communities has not yet been fully assessed, but it can be estimated that about 30 per cent returned to drought affected areas.

"Drought related migration is exacerbating an already complex situation of displacement and movement, triggered by conflict and instability and the returns of many Ethiopians and Somalis from Yemen," says IOM's Director of Operations and Emergencies Mohammed Abdiker. "Drought recognises no borders. The response to the current crisis has to take into account internal and cross border mobility as a survival strategy for large populations."

IOM and UN partners have been working with governments in the Horn and East Africa to facilitate safe movement of pastoralists across border regions as a climate change coping mechanism.

The Security in Mobility (SIM) initiative called on regional governments to develop a policy to facilitate the safe movement of pastoralists within their countries and across borders using a collaborative approach that encompasses provision of humanitarian assistance, provision of basic services, facilitated migration and comprehensive security initiatives.

"Of all the key mitigation and coping mechanisms, mobility stands out as the most essential for pastoralists," says IOM's Abdiker. "No country in the region can singlehandedly tackle the complex challenges of climate change and migration. A concerted regional effort is therefore urgently needed."

For more information, please contact:

Mohammed Abdiker
IOM Geneva
Tel: +41 22 717 93 79
E-mail: mabdiker@iom.int

Jean-Philippe Chauzy
IOM Geneva
Tel: +41 22 717 93 61
E-mail: jpchauzy@iom.int

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Link to article abstract in Disasters

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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

DISASTER RELIEF SEEDS: KENYA’S DIVERSITY CHALLENGE

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Disasters in the form of floods and droughts do not only destroy natural ecology, flora and fauna, they destroy seeds as well. Thus, the idea of ‘relief seeds’ has turned out to be among the challenges for materialization by disaster-prone habitats with food production as their primary economic engagement.

Among rice planters, the idea of diverse seeds was long addressed with the founding of the International Rice Research Institute or IRRI. Based in Laguna, Philippines, the IRRI had generated a total of 90,000+ rice seeds, all of which are properly stored in the ‘seed bank’ of the noble institute.

Below is a country case on recognizing the relief seed challenge in Africa as exemplified by Kenya.

[Philippines, 03 August 2011]

Source: http://www.scidev.net/en/news/disaster-relief-seeds-should-be-more-diverse--1.html

Disaster relief seeds 'should be more diverse'

George Achia

6 July 2011

[NAIROBI] African farmers who lose their seeds in floods and droughts could restore their crop biodiversity quicker by trading local seed varieties at markets and through informal social links than by receiving seeds from aid agencies, a study suggests.

The genetic diversity of crops allows plant populations to adapt to changing environments and provides the raw materials for crop improvement programmes. It is crucial for ensuring food security through the traditional African cropping system.

But, after natural disasters, relief efforts may fail to provide a sufficiently diverse range of seeds.

"Disasters, as well as subsequent relief and recovery activities, have significant impacts on agro-biodiversity, including diversity of crops and their varieties that may exist in a farming system," said Morag Ferguson, a researcher at the Nairobi-basedInternational Institute of Tropical Agriculture and the study's lead author.

Aid agencies provide farmers with seeds from formal seed distributors, often from neighbouring countries. But these foreign seeds may fail to restore local biodiversity, putting traditional farming systems that rely on diversity at risk, according to the study published in Disasters (31 May).

The study explored cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) diversity in Gaza Province, Mozambique, following the 2000 floods and 2001 droughts, which caused some farmers to lose all their seed.

Researchers found a narrowing of the genetic base, with fewer rare alleles (alternative forms of a gene), although most of the biodiversity was regained within two and a half years.

Most farmers obtained new seeds from local markets, but these were mostly from the relief efforts and did little to restore diversity. But almost a third got them from friends and relatives in areas without floods.

"It appears that diversity was regained primarily through social networking in the form of loans or gifts of seed from friends and relatives," Ferguson told SciDev.Net.

The study recommends that future seed distribution efforts target social networks and provide more local seeds at markets.

Shem Wandiga, the director of the UNESCO-associated Centre for Science and Technology Innovation, in Nairobi, advocates storing seeds of important crops to increase genetic diversity after natural disasters.

"To prevent loss of biodiversity, collecting the germplasm of various plants and storing it for future use is the surest way of avoiding the total loss of some species," said Wandiga. But the best way to prevent biodiversity loss, he added, is to create protected areas where human activity and resource exploitation are limited.

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Friday, August 05, 2011

CLIMATE CHANGE & ENERGY

CLIMATE CHANGE & ENERGY

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

‘Smoke stack’ industries have to a great extent factored into the climate change patterns, with dire consequences of more erratic weather patterns that we experience today. ‘Smoke stack’ industries—those utilizing ‘hot process’ technologies—have for so long employed fossil fuels as energy sources, thus compounding the pollution arising from the manufacturing sector.

The tall order is for manufacturing to eventually shift to ‘cold process’ technologies and the utilization of renewable energy or RE sources. Scale wise, the days of very large-scale, energy-intensive production, e.g. plant churning out over a million tons per annum of steel, should be scaled down to more manageable levels, which hopefully will utilize RE.

A long-term total shift to RE must be envisioned and put into action, with the additional consequence of reversing the climate change patterns of the day. It isn’t too late yet for such a reversal job to undertake, so let’s see what is in store in the UNIDO that resonates with the overall vision.

[Philippines, 14 July 2011]

Source: http://www.unido.org/index.php?id=1001541

Energy and Climate change

Issue

Energy is closely linked with key contemporary global challenges the world faces – social development and poverty alleviation, environmental degradation and climate change and food security – and is therefore a defining issue of our time. Industry needs reliable and affordable energy. At the same time, there has to be an appropriate balance between growing demand for energy and the urgent need to protect environment and climate.

Objective

UNIDO seeks to tackle these challenges. Indeed, climate change and energy policies are inextricably linked – two thirds of our emissions come from the energy we use. Decisions in one field cannot be made without considering the impacts in the other. Thus, UNIDO's Energy Strategy aims at helping developing countries and countries in transition to achieve the following objectives:

Increase the competitiveness of their industries by reducing industrial energy intensity

Reduce their impact on climate change by decreasing the carbon emissions of their industries and by promoting renewable energy technologies

Increase the viability of their enterprises, particularly in rural areas, by augmenting the use of renewable energy sources

Activities

The responsibility of UNIDO is to promote access to energy for productive uses while at the same time supporting patterns of energy use by industry that mitigate climate change and are otherwise environmentally sustainable. More broadly, UNIDO's services can be categorized as follows:

Renewable and Rural Energy
Industrial Energy Efficiency and Climate Change
Energy Policy and Partnership

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