HR: 15:45h
AN: U23A-08 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: A Global System of in situ Sensors, Communication Satellites and in situ Actuators Dedicated to the Nearly-Real-Time Detection and Mitigation of Natural Disasters
AU: * Bevis, M
EM: mbevis@osu.edu
AF: Ohio State University, School of Earth Sciences 275 Mendenhall Laboratory 125 South Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210, United States
AB: Most of the ~ 230,000 lives lost in the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 2004 could have been saved if the victims had had 5 - 15 minutes notice of the tsunami's arrival, provided that the local authorities had had some evacuation plan in place, e.g. running up hill when a klaxon sounded, or retreating to low cost shelters constructed to provide a vertical escape from inundation. Similar structures, equipped with supplies of drinking water, food, blankets, etc., could save countless thousands of people from drowning in flood-prone locations such as Bangladesh or the delta region of Burma, or dying in the aftermath of such events. Given sufficiently rapid communications, a disaster nowcasting system could also order the closing of gas mains, or the powering down of electricity networks, as well as the sounding of klaxons, only tens of seconds before an earthquake wave strikes a major city such as Los Angeles. The central and critical requirement for mitigating natural disasters is two-way communication. Imagine a globally accessible internet collecting event-triggered messages from arrays of sensors (that detect inundation, for example) so they can be analyzed by centralized computer systems in nearly real-time, which then send instructions to alarm systems and actuators in the areas at risk. (Of course, local authorities would have to be involved in planning the local responses to alarms, in constructing rescue facilities, and in educating their populations accordingly). Only a constellation of satellites could provide a communications system with global accessibility and the required robustness. Such an infrastructure would allow the international community to exploit the many common elements in the detection, assessment and response to unfolding disasters. I shall describe some of the elements of such a system, for which I propose the working name CELERITY.
DE: 6300 POLICY SCIENCES (7964)
SC: Union [U]
MN: 2009 Joint Assembly