Analysis of post-disaster damage and disruptive impacts on the operating status of small businesses after Hurricane Katrina

When small businesses are impacted by natural hazard events, hazard and sociological researchers may have access to collect data from a sample of open businesses, in hopes of distilling lessons that might help reduce vulnerability to future disasters. Lessons from demised businesses might be more useful in reducing business closure for increasing business sustainability to disasters. Using interviews from a random sample of 371 open and 126 closed businesses’ experiences with Hurricane Katrina, discrete choice methods examine the relationship between the impact of post-disaster damage, loss of lifelines, types of delays in reopening, and cascading damages on business continuity. This unique sample offers the opportunity to determine whether damage to operating businesses was different than that of demised businesses. Respondents provided pre-Katrina data up through the last interviews in 2013. Results demonstrate that damage may have a short-term effect on operating status; it was associated with immediate demise but had much less effect on longer-term recovery. Additionally, it is evident that there is one path to failure. Businesses that did reopen, but later closed, may have been impacted by a cascade of both exogenous and endogenous shocks.     

Dependency of typhoon intensity and genesis locations on El Ni?o phase and SST shift over the western North Pacific

The effects of the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phase and the shifting of the ENSO sea surface temperature (SST) on the intensity of tropical cyclones (TC) have been extensively investigated in terms of TC genesis locations in the western North Pacific (WNP). To advance the hypothesis for a relation of genesis location–intensity that the TC formation location hints its intensity, two cases have been compared, which include the phase of the decaying El Ni?o turning over to La Ni?a (type I) and the phase that recovers to a neutral condition (type II). In addition, the shift of ENSO SST to the central Pacific warming (CPW) from the East Pacific warming (EPW) has been examined. The genesis potential index (GPI) and the accumulated cyclone energy have been applied to compare the differences between the ENSO phase and the TC formation location. It was apparent that ENSO influences the WNP typhoon formation location depending on the cycle of the ENSO phase. In addition, the typhoon activity was affected by the zonal shift of the El Ni?o SST. The CPW, which has maximum SST over the central Pacific, tends to have a persistently high GPI over the WNP in September–November and June–August, demonstrating that the formation locations of strong TCs significantly shift southeastward compared with the EPW having SST maximum over the eastern Pacific. CPW years revealed a distinguishable relationship between the TC formation location and the TC between the tropical depression (TD) + tropical storm (TS) and the intense typhoon of category 4?+?5.     

Qualitative analysis and mapping of heavy metals in an abandoned Au–Ag mine area using NIR spectroscopy

Reflectance spectroscopy covering the visible and near-infrared ranges (400–2,400 nm) is known as a rapid and nondestructive method in the characterization and quantitative analysis of many components of interest. In this study, the potential use of spectral absorption feature parameters (SAFPs) in the range of 400–2,400 nm was investigated in terms of the prediction of heavy metals and mapping of their distribution. Parameters such as absorption depth, area, and peak ratio were derived from variations in spectral absorption shape associated with concentrations of heavy metals. Heavy metals were quantified from SAFPs using stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR) and enter multiple linear regression (EMLR). The EMLR model showed qualitative prediction performance for As and Cu, with R ² values of 0.60 and 0.81, respectively. A contour map of As and Cu concentrations based on EMLR-derived values showed similar spatial patterns to a map based on measured values.     

Behavioral patterns and <Emphasis Type="Italic">in-situ</Emphasis> target strength of the hairtail (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Trichiurus lepturus</Emphasis>) via coupling of scientific echosounder and acoustic camera data

The present study focuses on the influence of target strength (TS) changes in the swimming angle of the hairtail (Trichiurus lepturus). We measured in-situ TS at 38 and 120 kHz with luring lamps at a fishing ground for jigging boats near the coastal waters of Jeju-do in Korea. Swimming angle and size of hairtails were measured using an acoustic camera. Results showed that mean preanal length was estimated to be 13.5 cm (SD = 2.7 cm) and mean swimming tilt angle was estimated to be 43.9° (SD = 17.6°). The mean TS values were ?35.7 and ?41.2 dB at 38 and 120 kHz, respectively. The results will assist in understanding the influence of swimming angle on the TS of hairtails and, thus, improve the accuracy of biomass estimates.     

Long-term changes in rocky intertidal macrobenthos during the five years after the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Hebei Spirit</Emphasis> oil spill,Taean, Korea

The Hebei Spirit oil spill reached the west coast of Taean County, Korea, on December 7, 2007. At that time, this was the largest oil spill that had occurred in the country. The incident devastated local marine ecosystems. In this study, we examined changes in these ecosystems and the recovery pattern on impacted rocky shores. Macrobenthos monitoring of polluted and control sites was performed seasonally from January 2008 through October 2013. At polluted sites, ecological indices increased gradually from 2009, thereby providing evidence of recovery. However, the mean density of macrobenthos was still less than 50% of the level at the control site, indicating that the ecological status of the polluted sites has still not recovered to that which prevailed before the oil spill. Although densities of the most dominant species were higher in the control site than in polluted sites, the densities of Lottia spp. and Odostomia aomori were higher in polluted sites. These two taxa were found in lower numbers at the control site, where they were out-competed by Chthamalus challengeri. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordination divided the macrobenthic community structure into three clusters according to differences in the abundance of dominant species over the 6 years after the oil spill. An ANOSIM test detected significant differences between the polluted and control sites. Consistent long-term differences indicate that complete recovery had not occurred during the duration of our study.     

A simple method of correction for profile-length water-column height variations in high-resolution,shallow-water seismic data

In high-resolution, shallow-water seismic surveys, correction for water-column height variations caused by tides, weather, and currents is an important part of data processing. In this study, we present a very simple method of correction for profile-length (i.e., long-wavelength) water-column height variations for high-resolution seismic data using a reference bathymetric grid. First, the difference between the depth of the seafloor picked from seismic data and the bathymetry from the bathymetric grid is computed at the locations where the shot points of seismic profiles and the bathymetric grid points are collocated or closest. Then, the results are gridded and smoothed to obtain the profile-length water-column height variations for the survey area. Next, the water-column height variations for each seismic profile are extracted from the smoothed grid and converted to two-way traveltimes. The corrections for the remaining mis-ties at the intersections, computed within a circular region around each tie shot point, are added to the corrections for the water-column height variations. The final, mistie corrected water-column height corrections are loaded to the SEGY trace header of seismic data as a total static. We applied this method to the sparker data acquired from the shallow-water area off the western-central part of Korea where the tidal range is over 7 m. The corrections for water-column height variations range from -10 to 4 m with a median value of about -2 m. Large corrections occur locally between and near the islands probably due to the amplification and shortening in tidal wavelength caused by rapid shoaling toward the islands.     

Environmental determinism and geomancy: Two cultures,two concepts

Geomancy and environmental determinism, respectively Eastern and Western concepts which accord “nature” a primary role in shaping human life, show striking similarities and differences. Both incorporate viewpoints on environmental qualities, the dichotomy of man and nature, the application of ideas and the discipline of geography. The differences between these concepts are due largely to differing perspectives on the linkages and characteristics between man and nature.     

Adsorption of organic matter at mineral/water interfaces: I. ATR-FTIR spectroscopic and quantum chemical study of oxalate adsorbed at boehmite/water and corundum/water interfaces

The types and structures of adsorption complexes formed by oxalate at boehmite (γ-AlOOH)/water and corundum (α-Al₂O₃)/water interfaces were determined using in situ attenuated total reflectance fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy and quantum chemical simulation methods. At pH 5.1, at least four different oxalate species were found at or near the boehmite/water interface for oxalate surface coverages (Γ_ox) ranging from 0.25 to 16.44 μmol/m². At relatively low coverages (Γ_ox < 2.47), strongly adsorbed inner-sphere oxalate species (IR peaks at 1286, 1418, 1700, and 1720 cm⁻¹) replace weakly adsorbed carbonate species, and a small proportion of oxalate anions are adsorbed in an outer-sphere mode (IR peaks at 1314 and 1591 cm⁻¹). IR peaks indicative of inner-sphere adsorbed oxalate are also observed for oxalate at the corundum/water interface at Γ_ox = 1.4 μmol/m². With increasing oxalate concentration (Γ_ox > 2.47 μmol/m²), the boehmite surface binding sites for inner-sphere adsorbed oxalate become saturated, and excess oxalate ions are present dominantly as aqueous species (IR peaks at 1309 and 1571 cm⁻¹). In addition to these adsorption processes, oxalate-promoted dissolution of boehmite following inner-sphere oxalate adsorption becomes increasingly pronounced with increasing Γ_ox and results in an aqueous Al(III)-oxalate species, as indicated by shifted IR peaks (1286 → 1297 cm⁻¹ and 1418 → 1408 cm⁻¹). At pH 2.5, no outer-sphere adsorbed oxalate or aqueous oxalate species were observed. The similarity of adsorbed oxalate spectral features at pH 2.5 and 5.1 implies that the adsorption mechanism of aqueous HOx⁻ species involves loss of protons from this species during the ligand-exchange reaction. As a consequence, adsorbed inner-sphere oxalate and aqueous Al(III)-oxalate complexes formed at pH 2.5 have coordination geometries very similar to those formed at pH 5.1.The coordination geometry of inner-sphere adsorbed oxalate species was also predicted using quantum chemical geometry optimization and IR vibrational frequency calculations. Geometry-optimized Al₈O₁₂ and Al₁₄O₂₂ clusters with the reactive surface Al site coordinated by three oxygens were used as model substrates for corundum and boehmite surfaces. Among the models considered, calculated IR frequencies based on a bidentate side-on structure with a 5-membered ring agree best with the observed frequencies for boehmite/oxalate/water samples at Γ_ox = 0.25 to 16.44 μmol/m² and pH 2.5 and 5.1, and for a corundum/oxalate/water sample at Γ_ox = 1.4 μmol/m² and pH 5.1. Based on these results, we suggest that oxalate bonding on boehmite and corundum surfaces results in 5-coordinated rather than 4- or 6-coordinated Al surface sites.