WeatherZine WeatherZine Number 5, August 15 1997
"What's happening on the Societal Aspects of Weather WWW Site."

Contents:

Editorial
Two Faces of Mitigation
A New Look to Our Site

Community News
The U.S. Weather Research Program Has a New Web Site
What to look for in coming months

New Additions to the WWW Site Subscription & Posting Information


Editorial


Two Faces of Mitigation

The concept of "mitigation" is central to the natural disaster policy in the United States. At the same time, the concept of "mitigation" is also central to ongoing debate about global climate change. But as used by the natural disaster community and the climate change community, the term "mitigation" takes on almost exactly opposite meanings.

Natural hazard mitigation is defined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as "a sustained action taken to reduce or eliminate the long-term risk to people and property from natural hazards and their effects." A recent FEMA report on Costs and Benefits of Natural Hazard Mitigation provides examples of mitigation which include business interruption insurance, wind shutters, building codes, and community relocation.

Climate change mitigation is defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as "actions that prevent or retard the increase of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations by limiting current and future emissions from sources of greenhouses gases and enhancing potential sinks." What the natural hazards community calls mitigation, the climate change community calls "adaptation" which the IPCC defines as "any adjustment — whether passive, reactive, or anticipatory — that can respond to anticipated or actual consequences associated with climate change."

All clear? We thought so.

The different use of terminology creates a situation that is potentially confusing for policy makers and other practictioners. While academics often work in communities that are relatively isolated from one another, policy makers typically do not. And since natural hazards are one of the threats being associated with climate change, it is probably worth paying attention to the words used in this regard.

At a minimum, the conflicting terminology is symptomatic of the general lack of interaction between the hazards and climate change communities. In the climate change world, there is a tension between those who seek to prevent (i.e., climate change mitigation) climate change through energy policies and those who emphasize adaptation (i.e, natural hazards mitigation). To date, the advocates of prevention have dominated the debate. This creates a disincentive for the natural hazards community to play a significant role in the development of climate policy, which is unfortunate, as without a doubt the knowledge gained by the hazards community has an important role to play in the climate policies of the future.

— Roger A. Pielke, Jr.

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A New Look to the Our Site


You have probably noticed that our site looks a bit different. We have changed the organization of the site with the objective of making it a little easier to find your way around.

How does it work?

We have the same main 5 categories (User Groups, Phenomena, Economic & Casualty Data, Community and Research Tools, and Site Information) from which you go to each related subcategory. You can now jump between the 5 main categories without going back to the main page, or jump between subcategories without going back to the "parent" page.

The bar on the left side of the page has your options, and also lets you know where you are located. To get a better understanding of the site, go to the "map" page.

We hope this will make navigating through the site a bit easier, and as always, we look forward to receiving any comments or contributions you may have.

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Community News


The U.S. Weather Research Program (USWRP) Has a New Web Site

A better forecast for the general public — as well as for weather-sensitive economic sectors — is the ultimate goal of a very complex multiagency program now gaining steam. The USWRP is attempting to leverage and coordinate current research at its participating laboratories.

The program now has a new Web Site!

It is hoped that the site will evolve toward a serious medium of exchange for ongoing research within the program, including real-time experimental forecasts. While the research section of the web site is mostly a shell at the moment, researchers whose field is USWRP related are welcome to convey their results via this site. The site also contains science team and workshop reports, including the Prospectus Development Team reports (a unique way to participate in USWRP planning), sometimes in draft form, for community critique and programmatic feedback to the co-sponsoring agencies. Announcements of opportunity to compete for USWRP funding will also be posted, as well as all the information required to be responsive to near-term program foci and the longer-term program goals. For regular visitors to the site, there is a "What's New" icon, where all recent additions are posted.

http://uswrp.mmm.ucar.edu/uswrp.html
http://uswrp.mmm.ucar.edu/uswrp/PDT.html

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What to look for in coming months


In coming months we are going to focus our efforts on two activities to enhance the value of the Societal Aspects of Weather Site.

We are going to invest in building the Vjournal sufficiently such that it can provide researchers with a useful bibliographic resource. We will begin by entering references to the literature associated with floods and hurricanes. We will then focus on the literature on the sociology of disasters more generally. This project can be greatly enhanced with your contributions. If you have bibliographic information that would be appropriate to reside in the Vjournal, be all means, email them to us and we will enter them in the database.

The most frequent request that we receive is for data on the economic and other societal impacts associated with weather as well as guidance for how to use these data. As a result of these requests, we have initiated a project to develop a Sourcebook on Economic and Other Measures of Weather Impacts on the United States. Our goal is two-fold: first, to collect and display as much of the publicly available data that we can locate and then to provide these data in a user-friendly manner. And second, we will provide guidance as to how best to use these data. If you have data or other information that you would like to contribute to this effort, please contact us.

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New Additions to the WWW Site


Emergency Management

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Floods

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Tropical Cyclone

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Lightning

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General Public

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People & Organizations

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