Informal education for disaster risk reduction

Our children are the future: their school buildings must be safe in the face of natural hazards and children must be empowered with an understanding of natural hazards and actions they can take to be better prepared for the next “event”. With respect to natural hazards, educational institutions have dual roles of caretakers who must ensure the safety of students in their charge and teachers responsible for educating students about natural hazards. This article presents a comparative study on earthquake risk reduction efforts in primary and secondary schools, based on surveys conducted in areas of varying seismic hazard in Iceland, Italy, and Portugal. The study evaluated the degree to which local authorities were involved in the dissemination of earthquake risk and hazard mitigation information, and specifically how this information was channelled to schools. Vulnerability mitigation for school building interiors (contents) and efforts towards educating pupils towards a culture of safety were also measured. In addition the article presents the risk reduction efforts implemented in Icelandic institutions that serve groups who are especially vulnerable in emergencies and compares those efforts with the efforts made in schools.     

Global telescope networks for astronomy education

Ever wanted to give school students or the public a closer look at the stars, without worrying about the vagaries of the UK weather? Paul Roche and Rachel Dodds from the Faulkes Telescope Project explain how you can do just that – without even leaving the classroom!     

University environmental education: The role of international programmes

In universities throughout Europe, environmental education is characterized by expansion and change. The increased emphasis on the environment is requiring universities to consider the most appropriate means of meeting the wide-ranging needs of students, employers and society. International programmes do have a key role in enhancing the quality of teaching, learning and research in universities. This is especially so in the case of the environment, where problems are multinational or global, and they can only be solved by determined international collaboration. This paper considers some of the benefits (and difficulties) for universities arising from involvement in international programmes, with reference to specific examples in European environmental education and training.     

Environmental technology education: Models for international collaboration

International collaboration within environmental technology education is seen as one of the tools for an international dimension in the prevention and cure of environmental problems. Several different models for international collaboration have been found: researcher education, university-enterprise collaboration, summer universities, international organizations' activities, East-West and North-South university collaboration. International collaboration is found both within pollution prevention and pollution control. Tools found are: PhD programme, researcher course programme, student courses, student exchange, student-placement exchange in enterprise, university-university exchange, university-enterprise exchange, train-the-trainers activities, transfer of concepts, exchange of concepts, workshop and conferences, surveys and inventories, and working groups.     

国外网站面向少儿的地震知识教育

基于对美国地震学研究联合会(IRIS)、美国地质调查局(USGS)、瑞士地震服务中心(SED)、美国国家地震信息中心(NEIC)、美国多学科地震工程研究中心(MCEER)以及美国国家地震台网(USNSN)等6家国外网站少儿地震知识栏目的调查,总结了12大类面向少儿进行地震知识教育的有效途径。这些方法可以提高对地震知识的学习兴趣,提高防震减灾意识和能力。     

市场经济条件下地震系统的继续教育管理

根据地震系统继续教育面临的形势和任务,对建立市场经济条件下的继续教育管理体系以及运行机制进行了探讨,并根据新形势,提出了促进地震系统继续教育工作发展的几点建议。     

Reach for the stars: education & public outreach special

Over the next 15 pages we present a snapshot of current astronomy outreach programmes, targeting schools, children and adults, by means of observatories, robotic telescopes, podcasts and more. Much of this activity was presented and discussed at the National Astronomy Meeting this year in Preston, in a well-attended session organized by Paul Roche and Carolina Ödman.     

我国地震防灾减灾科普教育的瓶颈及对策分析

地震灾害已经成为影响我国经济发展和社会安全的重要因素,我国防震减灾事业存在很多难以快速解决的问题,因此在当前的基本国情下,加强地震防灾减灾科普教育,提高群众防灾避险意识和能力,对缓解地震中人员伤亡有着非常重要的作用。本文就地震防灾减灾工作中,地震防灾减灾科普教育的重要性,以及现阶段我国地震防灾减灾科普教育存在的问题,进行了分析和探讨;并针对上述问题,提出了相应的对策。     

Conservation of biodiversity of the coastal resources of Sundarbans,Northeast India: an integrated approach through environmental education

The Indian Sundarbans, a diversified coastal wetland on the southern fringe of the State of West Bengal, harbors a luxuriant biodiversity and acts as a potential refuge of living marine resources. Girdled with thick mangrove foliage, this estuarine delta system offers an excellent nursery ground for most of the brackishwater finfish and shellfish. Since supply of hatchery-produced tiger prawn seed (Penaeus monodon) is highly inadequate in West Bengal, the aquaculture farms of this region largely depend on the supply from natural resources. Being motivated by a regular cash income, the majority of coastal people from Sundarbans have adopted prawn seed collection as their profession almost throughout the year as an important source of earning. The users are neither trained nor guided at any stage from collection to marketing and are fully dependent on traditional methods. They first sort out the tiger prawn seeds (mainly the postlarval stage PL 20) accounting only 0.25-0.27% of the total catch and thereafter the major portion of the haul are thrown away on the beach flats or the tidal mudflats. This wasted by-catch contains the juveniles of economic and uneconomic varieties of finfish and shellfish along with a bulk of holoplankters and meroplankters (non-target species). This practice causes several ecological and occupational consequences, namely, (i) the huge destruction of the pelagic biota that can lead to severe stock depletion as well as hamper the energy transference through the marine ecosystem food webs; (ii) constant dragging of nets along the coast and tidal creeks paves the way for soil erosion, uprooting the mangrove seedlings and saltmarsh vegetation; (iii) the water quality is deteriorating in the catchment areas due to mud erosion and (iv) due to constant contact with the seawater, the collectors are affected with waterborne diseases, skin infections, reproductive tract disease in women and many other contagious diseases.This paper, in addition to identifying the challenge to environmental quality and resource abundance, emphasizes the need for grass-root public education so that local people come to understand, support and implement sustainable resource conservation and environmental protection activities now and in the future. As a follow-up course of action, the authors have initiated a general awareness program for developing consciousness among the coastal people regarding proper use of natural resources. Initiatives are taken for educating coastal people by holding workshops and seminars with the use of educational resource materials. Exclusive awareness camps and grass root level training for coastal people are also being proposed as a future course of action by means of exhibitions, audiovisuals etc. It is proposed that local government bodies come forward to mitigate this problem with scientific and rational approaches and to take proper actions towards conservation.     

美国“未雨绸缪(Ready)”项目及其对我国防震减灾宣传的启示

美国的"未雨绸缪(Ready)"项目致力于在全国范围内开展防灾公益宣传,包含面向企业、儿童、老人及残疾人等社会群体的若干扩展项目。自实施以来,它通过多种渠道广泛宣传减灾知识,取得了较高的社会关注度,在面向不同群体的应急宣传中发挥了巨大作用。该项目在广泛动员社会力量、细化宣传对象、充分利用现代媒体技术等方面的宣传经验对我国防震减灾应急宣传具有积极的借鉴意义。     

Volcanic risk and tourism in southern Iceland: Implications for hazard,risk and emergency response education and training

This paper examines the relationship between volcanic risk and the tourism sector in southern Iceland and the complex challenge emergency management officials face in developing effective volcanic risk mitigation strategies. An early warning system and emergency response procedures were developed for communities surrounding Katla, the volcano underlying the Mýrdalsjökull ice cap. However, prior to and during the 2007 tourist season these mitigation efforts were not effectively communicated to stakeholders located in the tourist destination of Þórsmörk despite its location within the hazard zone of Katla. The hazard zone represents the potential extent of a catastrophic jökulhlaup (glacial outburst flood). Furthermore, volcanic risk mitigation efforts in Þórsmörk were based solely on information derived from physical investigations of volcanic hazards. They did not consider the human dimension of risk. In order to address this gap and provide support to current risk mitigation efforts, questionnaire surveys were used to investigate tourists' and tourism employees' hazard knowledge, risk perception, adoption of personal preparedness measures, predicted behaviour if faced with a Katla eruption and views on education.Results indicate that tourists lack hazard knowledge and they do not adopt preparedness measures to deal with the consequences of an eruption. Despite a high level of risk perception, tourism employees lack knowledge about the early warning system and emergency response procedures. Results show that tourists are positive about receiving information concerning Katla and its hazards and therefore, the reticence of tourism employees with respect to disseminating hazard information is unjustified.In order to improve the tourism sector's collective capacity to positively respond during a future eruption, recommendations are made to ensure adequate dissemination of hazard, risk and emergency response information. Most importantly education campaigns should focus on: (a) increasing tourists' knowledge of Katla, jökulhlaup and other volcanic hazards and (b) increasing tourist and employee awareness of the early warning and information system and appropriate behavioural response if a warning is issued. Further, tourism employees should be required to participate in emergency training and evacuation exercises annually. These efforts are timely given that Katla is expected to erupt in the near future and international tourism is an expanding industry in Þórsmörk.     

兰州地震研究所发展的三段历史回顾

对兰州地震研究所的三段历史作回顾,分别为国家地震局、中国地震局兰州地震研究所的体制沿革变迁,中国科学院地球物理研究所;中国科学院兰州地球物理研究所观象台早期创建;兰州地震研究所硕士点早期阶段。