Solutions

MEDICALNEWS TODAY                                                            Jan. 6, 2015

Infectious diseases are one of the many health issues that worry the organizers of mass gatherings, such as the Hajj and the World Cup. Geographers' tools of the trade can help event organizers to better plan, monitor and respond timely to such eventualities. The ways in which geographers gather, analyze, and visualize information provide health officials with clearer pictures of the transport routes and environmental factors that may further the spread of viruses to and from the attendees' home countries.

In Chapter 3 of the new book Health, Science and Place: A New Model, geographer and biologist Dr. Amy Blatt explains how geographic information is used for disease surveillance at mass gatherings.
Read complete article

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/287577.php?tw

Read excerpt from the book,chapter 3.

by Dr. Amy Blatt
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-12003-4_3

submitted by John Patten

rockinst.org - by James W. Fossett - July 2013

“We can surge troops and equipment, but you can’t surge trust.” - General Carter Ham

The American intergovernmental system needs to stop improvising the way it manages long-term recovery from major disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy and the terrorist attacks of 9/11. From financing to decisions about the proper response to long-term climate change, the American system for disaster recovery is ad hoc, uncoordinated, and reinvented from scratch after every major disaster. As a result, recoveries have been lengthy and conflictual, imposed considerable welfare costs on families and businesses, and have resulted in only marginal improvement in the vulnerability of areas afflicted by these disasters.

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Credit: dakine kane/flickr

greentechmedia.com - by Bobby Magill - October 31, 2013

New York City’s Rockaway Peninsula took the brunt of Hurricane Sandy when the storm blew ashore a year ago, leaving the Rockaways in Queens devastated from flooding and 34,000 without electricity for weeks.

In the ensuing twelve months, the city has suggested many ways to make itself more able to withstand such storms. As part of New York City’s climate change response plan, “A Stronger, More Resilient New York,” issued earlier this year, one of the city’s suggestions to help the Rockaways survive the next hurricane is for the peninsula to become the site of a microgrid pilot project that will help keep the lights on at hospitals, schools and other critical infrastructure during and after a storm.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

nysandyhelp.ny.gov

Through the Community Reconstruction Zone
(CRZ) Program, New York State is assisting communities
to rebuild better and safer based on community-
driven plans that consider current damage,
future threats to community assets, and the community’s
economic future. In keeping with the National
Disaster Recovery Framework, CRZ Plans will consider
the needs, risks, and opportunities related to
assets in the following categories of recovery support
functions: Community Planning and Capacity
Building, Economic Development, Health and Social
Services, Housing, Infrastructure, and Natural and
Cultural Resources.

By completing a successful Plan, each participating
community will position itself to obtain funding to
implement that Plan to improve the community’s
future.

NY - Recovery Resources Center

Guidance for Community Reconstruction Zone Plans -
A Planning Toolkit for CRZ Planning Committees
(81 page .PDF report)