The mangrove forest ecosystem acts as a shield against the destructive tidal waves, preventing the coastal areas and other properties nearby from severe damages; this protective function certainly deserves attention from researchers to undertake further investigation and exploration. Mangrove forest provides different goods and services. The unique environmental factors affecting the growth of mangrove forest are as follows: distance from the sea or the estuary bank, frequency and duration of tidal inundation, salinity, and composition of the soil. These crucial factors may under certain circumstances turn into obstacles in accessing and managing the mangrove forest. One effective method to circumvent this shortcoming is by using remotely sensed imagery data, which offers a more accurate way of measuring the ecosystem and a more efficient tool of managing the mangrove forest. This paper attempts to review and discuss the usage of remotely sensed imagery data in mangrove forest management, and how they will improve the accuracy and precision in measuring the mangrove forest ecosystem. All types of measurements related to the mangrove forest ecosystem, such as detection of land cover changes, species distribution mapping and disaster observation should take advantage of the advanced technology; for example, adopting the digital image processing algorithm coupled with high-resolution image available nowadays. Thus, remote sensing is a highly efficient, low-cost and time-saving technique for mangrove forest measurement. The application of this technique will further add value to the mangrove forest and enhance its in-situ conservation and protection programmes in combating the effects of the rising sea level due to climate change.
Introduction : Flood disaster in Johor started at the end of 2006 until the early year of 2007 causing the distruction of property and human life and it was the worse flood disaster in the history of Malaysia. The Muar and Kluang Health Office had been taken all the measures in the District Plan of Action for flood disaster in the early phase of the flood. Management of the Health and Medical team was one of the measures taken for the deployment of staff systematically and optimumly use of man power during a disaster.
Metodology : The objective for this article is to share the experience regarding human resource management during flood disaster. Data collected base on flood activities rosters used by health staff during morning briefing, analysis of record and daily flood report, interviewing the staff and flood victim involved regarding the experience and challengers they face and lastly by observing the services given to flood victim during the disasters.
Finding : There were 41 Medical and Health Team formed and responsible at 108 flood relived centre homing 26,824 flood victims in Muar District while in Kluang, 21 Medical and health Team were providing services in 60 flood relieve centre with 36,126 flood victims. All of the activities conducted by the Medical and Health team were coordinated by the district flood operation centre. District of Muar had been receiving 16 additional staff from other state while 34 additional staff had been providing services in Kluang. Challengers that had been identified include shortage of human resource compared to the increasing need and task during the flood disaster, shortage of personal protective equipments, frequent changers and inconsistency in the format use during flood reporting and lack of psychosocial support and motivation among the staff involved in the flood disaster operation.
Conclusion : Partnership among other department are very importance and the collaboration between them were very good.
Prevention and mitigation of rainfall induced geological hazards after the Ms=8 Wenchuan earthquake on May 12th, 2008 were significant for rebuild of earthquake hit regions. After the Wenchuan earthquake, there were tens of thousands of fractured slopes which were broken and loosened by the ground shaking, they were very susceptible to heavy rainfall and change forms into potential debris flows. In order to carry out this disaster reduction and prediction effectively in Longmenshan region, careful real-time monitoring and pre-warning of mountain hazards in both regional and site-specific scales is reasonable as alternatives in Wenchuan earthquake regions. For pre-warning the failure of fractured slopes induced by rainfall, the threshold value or the critical value of the precipitation of hazards should be proposed. However, the identification of critical criterion and parameters to pre-warning is the most difficult issue in mountainous hazards monitoring and pre-warning system especially in the elusive and massive fractured slopes widespread in Wenchuan earthquake regions. In this study, a natural coseismic fractured landslide in the Taziping village, Hongkou County, Dujianyan City, was selected to conduct the field experimental test, in order to identify the threshold parameters and critical criterion of the fractured slopes of Taziping. After the field experimental test, the correlation of rainfall intensity, rainfall duration and accumulative rainfall was investigated. The field experimental test was capable of identifying the threshold factors for failure of rainfall-induced fractured slopes after the giant earthquake.
Island health differs from other health care systems, particularly in that there are limited resources and referral faculties available. With globalisation and climate change, island populations have become increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters and global pandemics. This study will identify, explore, compare and report on island health issues facing in the western Pacific, before making appropriate recommendations. A review of selected health indicators in Pacific islands was collected from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other publicly available resources. In the Pacific region, 15 islands saw lower health expenditure (
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Water and sanitation are major public health issues exacerbated by rapid population growth, limited resources, disasters and environmental depletion. This study was undertaken to study the influencing factors for household water quality improvement for reducing diarrhoea in resource-limited areas.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data were collected from articles and reviews from relevant randomized controlled trials, new articles, systematic reviews and meta-analyses from PubMed, World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and WELL Resource Centre For Water, Sanitation And Environmental Health.
DISCUSSION: Water quality on diarrhoea prevention could be affected by contamination during storage, collection and even at point-of-use. Point-of-use water treatment (household-based) is the most cost-effective method for prevention of diarrhoea. Chemical disinfection, filtration, thermal disinfection, solar disinfection and flocculation and disinfection are five most promising household water treatment methodologies for resource-limited areas.
CONCLUSION: Promoting household water treatment is most essential for preventing diarrhoeal disease. In addition, the water should be of acceptable taste, appropriate for emergency and non-emergency use.
The SAR has the ability of all-weather and all-time data acquisition, it can penetrate the cloud and is not affected by extreme weather conditions, and the acquired images have better contrast and rich texture information. This paper aims to investigate the use of an object-oriented classification approach for flood information monitoring in floodplains using backscattering coefficients and interferometric coherence of Sentinel-1 data under time series. Firstly, the backscattering characteristics and interference coherence variation characteristics of SAR time series are used to analyze whether the flood disaster information can be accurately reflected and provide the basis for selecting input classification characteristics of subsequent SAR images. Subsequently, the contribution rate index of the RF model is used to calculate the importance of each index in time series to convert the selected large number of classification features into low dimensional feature space to improve the classification accuracy and reduce the data redundancy. Finally, the SAR image features in each period after multi-scale segmentation and feature selection are jointly used as the input features of RF classification to extract and segment the water in the study area to monitor floods' spatial distribution and dynamic characteristics. The results showed that the various attributes of backscatter coefficients and interferometric coherence under time series could accurately correspond with the actual flood risk, and the combined use of backscattering coefficient and interferometric coherence for flood extraction can significantly improve the accuracy of flood information extraction. Overall, the object-based random forest method using the backscattering coefficient and interference coherence of Sentinel-1 time series for flood extraction advances our understanding of flooding's temporal and spatial dynamics, essential for the timely adoption of adaptation and mitigation strategies for loss reduction.
Introduction : Major flooding that occurred in Segamat District at the end of 2006 and early 2007 was a natural disaster that has left impact on physical and mental well-being of the victims. The aim of this study is to see the impact of the major flooding to the mental health of the health staff in Segamat District.
Methodology : Cross sectional study was conducted among Segamat health staffs who were involved in the major floods. Structured questionnaire was used to assess the mental health status of the victims. Result : There were 119 health staffs from the district health office, Hospital Segamat, dental clinic and Community Nursing School were interviewed in this study. A total of 6.7% respondents claimed to have stress related symptoms with women were more effected than men. Nurses and married respondents were found to be more stressful in this study.
Conclusion : Based on findings, therefore, top management has to pay more attention to the welfare of the health staff, directly or indirectly, in particular on the psychological aspect. By giving emphasis on continuous in-service training and counseling as well as other relevant support, stress-related symptoms could be minimized which in turn lead to higher individual productivity.
Introduction : Human displacement during disaster would cause women and their dependent children to be particularly vulnerable. Yet, women failed to make their voices heard. Thus their needs, priorities and perceptions would not be identified which in turn could hinder an effective emergency response and a full recovery process.
Objective : This paper provides a general overview of problems and issues experienced by women and their dependent children during the Johore flood disaster. With this information, relevant agencies shall focus, among other considerations, on the special needs of women and children in planning and carrying out emergency responses in the future.
Methodology : This paper was written based on data and information obtained from the Johore Flood Disaster Report and observations made by the health teams on the flood victims throughout the flood period.
Findings and Discussions : Pregnant mothers with 36 weeks of gestation or more were evacuated from their homes to the health centres or hospitals when the Johore flood disaster struck. Regular maternal and child health (MCH) services were conducted at the flood relief centres. Despite the efforts by health care providers, we observed women facing some unique issues and problems. These include: 1) Effects of loss of security and protection; 2) Disruption of social relations and privacy; 3) Inadequate supply of basic items and; and 4) Economic disruption. Recommendations for future relief work are: i) Predisaster planning for emergency response must engage and involve women representatives. Women must also be recruited as emergency and relief workers; ii) Assessment of predetermined capacity of identified relief centres with gender consideration for evacuees must be done; iii) All relief centres shall have physical partition between families. Breast feeding room with access to clean water should also be provided; iv) Gender, cultural and religious sensitivity with regards to social protection and relations shall be observed at all times; v) Women should engage and be made occupied with suitable activities to encourage healthy social interaction thus avoiding feelings of boredom and helplessness; vi) Basic personal items for women and adolescent girls, such as sanitary towel and undergarments, and places to wash and hang them in privacy must be provided; vii) Elderly women may have to temporarily stay at unaffected relatives’ or old folk homes throughout the disaster period, and; viii) No smoking policy shall be enforced at all times in flood relief centres.
Conclusion : Women and their dependent children have been recognised as one of the vulnerable groups during disasters. Thus, women shall be empowered as partners in formulating any emergency response plan so that together they would be able to complement all disaster mitigation, relief and recovery efforts in amore effective manner.
Countering the dangers associated the present extreme climate not only requires continuous improvement of local disaster
prevention engineering infrastructure but also needs an enhanced understanding of the causes of the disasters. This study
investigates the geologic hazard risk of 53 slopeland villages in Pingtung county of southern Taiwan. First, remote sensing
(RS) techniques were utilized to interpret environmental geology and geologic hazard zonation, including dip slope, fault,
landslide and debris flow. GIS map overlay analysis was used to further identify the extent of the geologic hazard zonation.
As a final step, field investigation is used to comprehend geologic, topographic conditions and the geologic hazard risk
specific to each locality. Based on data analysis and field investigation results, this study successfully integrates RS, GIS
and GPS techniques to construct a geologic hazard risk assessment method of slopeland village. The results of this study
can be used to promote support for future disaster prevention and disaster mitigation efforts.
Selecting a proper support in the catalyst system plays an important role in hydrogen production via ethanol steam reforming. In this study, sol gel made alumina supports prepared for nickel (Ni) catalysts were calcined at different temperatures. A series of (Ni/AlS.G.) catalysts were synthesized by an impregnation procedure. The influence of varying the calcination temperature of the sol gel made supports on catalyst activity was tested in ethanol reforming reaction. The characteristics of the sol gel alumina supports and Ni catalysts were affected by the calcination temperature of the supports. The structure of the sol gel made alumina supports was transformed in the order of γ → (γ + θ) → θ-alumina as the calcination temperature of the supports increased from 600 °C to 1000 °C. Both hydrogen yield and ethanol conversion presented a volcano-shaped behavior with maximum values of 4.3 mol/mol ethanol fed and 99.5%, respectively. The optimum values were exhibited over Ni/AlS.G800 (Ni catalyst supported on sol gel made alumina calcined at 800 °C). The high performance of the Ni/AlS.G800 catalyst may be attributed to the strong interaction of Ni species and sol gel made alumina which lead to high nickel dispersion and small particle size.
The current Ebola outbreak, which is the first to affect West African countries, has been declared to have met the conditions for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organization (WHO). Thus, the Ministry of Health (MOH) of Malaysia has taken steps to strengthen and enhanced the five core components of preparedness and response to mitigate the outbreak. The National Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC) commands, controls and coordinates the preparedness and response plans for disasters, outbreaks, crises and emergencies (DOCE) related to health in a centralised way. Through standardised case definition and mandatory notification of Ebola by public and private practitioners, surveillance of Ebola is made possible. Government hospitals and laboratories have been identified to manage and diagnose Ebola virus infections, and medical staff members have been trained to handle an Ebola outbreak, with emphasis on strict infection prevention and control practices. Monitoring of the points of entry, focusing on travellers and students visiting or coming from West African countries is made possible by interagency collaborations. To alleviate the public's anxiety, effective risk communications are being delivered through various channels. With experience in past outbreak control, the MOH's preparedness and response plans are in place to abate an Ebola outbreak.
Climatic records for Danum for 1985-1998, elsewhere in Sabah since 1879, and long monthly rainfall series from other rainforest locations are used to place the climate, and particularly the dry period climatology, of Danum into a world rainforest context. The magnitude frequency and seasonality of dry periods are shown to vary greatly within the world's rainforest zone. The climate of Danum, which is aseasonal but subject, as in 1997-1998, to occasional drought, is intermediate between less drought-prone north-western Borneo and the more drought-prone east coast. Changes through time in drought magnitude frequency in Sabah and rainforest locations elsewhere in South-East Asia and in the Neotropics are compared. The 1997-1998 ENSO-related drought event in Sabah is placed into a historical context. The effects of drought on tree growth and mortality in the tropics are assessed and a model relating intensity and frequency of drought disturbance to forest structure and composition is discussed.
On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down, a tragedy that shocked the Dutch population. As part of a large longitudinal survey on mental health in pregnant women that had a study inclusion period of 19 months, we were able to evaluate the possible association of that incident with mood changes using pre- and postdisaster data. We compared mean Edinburgh Depression Scale (EDS) scores from a group of women (n = 126 cases) at 32 weeks' gestation during the first month after the crash with mean scores from a control group (n = 102) with similar characteristics who completed the EDS at 32 weeks' gestation during the same summer period in 2013. The mean EDS scores of the 126 case women in the first month after the crash were significantly higher than the scores of 102 control women. There were no differences in mean EDS scores between the 2 groups at the first and second trimesters. The present study is among the first in which perinatal mental health before and after the occurrence of a disaster has been investigated, and the results suggest that national disasters might lead to emotional responses.
Submarine landslides, also known as submarine mass failures (SMFs), are major natural marine disasters that could critically damage coastal facilities such as nuclear power plants and oil and gas platforms. It is therefore essential to investigate submarine landslides for potential tsunami hazard assessment. Three-dimensional seismic data from offshore Brunei have revealed a giant seabed mass deposited by a previous SMF. The submarine mass extends over 120 km from the continental slope of the Baram Canyon at 200 m water depth to the deep basin floor of the Northwest Borneo Trough. A suite of in-house two-dimensional depth-averaged tsunami simulation model TUNA (Tsunami-tracking Utilities and Application) is developed to assess the vulnerability of coastal communities in Sabah and Sarawak subject to potential SMF tsunami. The submarine slide is modeled as a rigid body moving along a planar slope with the center of mass motion parallel to the planar slope and subject to external forces due to added mass, gravity, and dissipation. The nonlinear shallow water equations are utilized to simulate tsunami propagation from deepwater up to the shallow offshore areas. A wetting-drying algorithm is used when a tsunami wave reaches the shoreline to compute run up of tsunami along the shoreline. Run-up wave height and inundation maps are provided for seven densely populated locations in Sabah and Sarawak to highlight potential risks at each location, subject to two scenarios of slide slopes: 2° and 4°. The first wave may arrive at Kudat as early as 0.4 h after the SMF, giving local communities little time to evacuate. Over a small area, maximum inundated depths reaching 20.3 m at Kudat, 26.1 m at Kota Kinabalu, and 15.5 m at Miri are projected, while the maximum inundation distance of 4.86 km is expected at Miri due to its low-lying coast. In view of the vulnerability of some locations to the SMF tsunami, it is important to develop and implement community resilience program to reduce the potential damage that could be inflicted by SMF tsunamis.
In the cold winter month of January 2012, two post graduate students from the Department of Community Health, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), went on a two weeks field attachment with the Division of International Health (Public Health), Niigata University Graduate School of Medical & Dental Sciences (NU). This report is an account of our first hand learning experience about the public health system and culture in Niigata, Japan. Famously known as the 'Snow Country', Niigata prefecture is approximately 350 kilometers north of Tokyo, in the middle of the west coast of Honshu island, facing the Sea of Japan. It borders on the east with Fukushima prefecture, which was badly affected by the great tsunami disaster in March 2011. Niigata has a population of two and a half million, of which 21.3% is above the age of 65. Niigata University is located in Niigata City, the capital of Niigata prefecture. This attachment was under the UKM-Global Student Mobility Programme (Outbound) and it was taken as an opportunity to improve the memorandum of understanding between UKM and NU. The objectives were to gain knowledge and experience in various public health issues in a developed nation like Japan. Specifically, we were interested to learn about the local public health programmes, the influenza surveillance system, public health programmes for the elderly population, the Geographical Information System (GIS) and the Japanese culture in general. (Copied from article).
The purpose of this study was to analyze the adaptation response after the eruption of Mount Sinabung in Gurukinayan Village, Karo District. This research is qualitative with an explorative phenomenological approach. Data collection was carried out through observation and in-depth interviews with key informants who were the victims of the Mount Sinabung eruption. The analysis was conducted using content analysis description and life history with 6 participants. The adaptation response results obtained from the community were maladaptive (staying/surviving in the eruption site). The impacts of this eruption are physical/health impacts (cough, shortness, flu and fever), psychological impacts (trauma, anxiety and panic), social/economic impacts (crop failure and job loss), and infrastructure impacts (damaged houses, damaged roads and clean water crisis). Post-eruption adaptation strategies are from the aspects of health (medical treatment, traditional medicine mix), social/economic aspects (carrying out community activities, cultivating land and expecting food and land assistance from donors), infrastructure aspects (building huts, repairing houses, clean water treatment, and expecting operational assistance from the government). It is recommended that in handling post-eruption of Mount Sinabung, the government or village apparatus establish a post-disaster recovery program and decision making (stakeholders) in making policies or decisions related to Eruption Disasters handling.