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Ll <br />CONTRACTS <br />AND <br />GRANTS <br />Below are descriptions of recently awarded contracts and grants related to hazards and disasters. An inventory <br />of awards from 1995 to the present is available at http: // wives. colorado .edu /hazards/resour•ces /grants /. <br />Development of Performance Based Tsunami Engineer- <br />ing (PBTE). Funding Institution: National Science Foun- <br />dation, four years. Principal Investigators: H. Ronald <br />Riggs (Solomon Yim, Ian Robertson, Kwok Cheung, Yin <br />Lu (Julie) Young), Department of Civil and Environmental <br />Engineering, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2540 Dole <br />Street, Holmes 384, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822; (808) 956- <br />6566,• e -mail: riggs@hawaii.edu. <br />In the event of a tsunami, horizontal evacuation is of- <br />ten not possible due to the potential local source of the <br />tsunami or the number of people to be evacuated. It is <br />essential that existing buildings, or new emergency cen- <br />ters, be evaluated or designed for vertical evacuation. <br />However, there has been a lack of research on the effect <br />of tsunami waves on coastal infrastructure such as build- <br />ings, bridges, and harbor facilities. Furthermore, design <br />guidelines are lacking. To overcome this deficiency, this <br />research will develop the methodology and tools for im- <br />plementation of site specific Performance Based Tsunami <br />Engineering for use in the analysis, evaluation, design, <br />and retrofit of coastal structures and facilities. <br />Social, Economic, and Physical Effects of a Natural <br />Disaster. Funding Institution: National Science Founda- <br />tion, three years. Principal Investigators: Elizabeth Frank- <br />enberg (Duncan Thomas, Thomas Gillespie, Bondan Si- <br />koki), Department of Sociology, University of California — <br />Los Angeles, 264 Haines Hall, Box 951551, Los Angeles, <br />CA 90095 -1551; (310) 267 -4967; e -mail: efranken @soc <br />ucla. edu. <br />Drawing on demography, economics, geography, <br />public health, and sociology, this project will study the <br />degree of the shock associated with the December 2004 <br />Indian Ocean tsunami, the pace and shape of the recovery <br />process, and the roles that institutions play in helping or <br />hindering the recovery process. Investigators will collect <br />data on and analyze an array of environmental, social, <br />economic, and health indicators to develop new insights <br />into how individuals, households, and communities fare in <br />the aftermath of a disaster. The project will document <br />immediate- and medium -term consequences for mortality, <br />family disruption and relocation, physical and mental <br />health, economic resources and opportunities, housing <br />stock and physical infrastructure, and the physical envi- <br />29 <br />ronment. In addition, it will trace the reconstruction of <br />lives and livelihoods, paying particular attention to the <br />roles of social and economic resources prior to the disas- <br />ter as well as kinship and social networks, community <br />resilience, and receipt and leveraging of external aid. Fi- <br />nally, the research will identify the characteristics of indi- <br />viduals, households, and communities that are associated <br />with mitigating the consequences of the shock on the <br />broad array of indicators of well- being. <br />The Sri Lankan Tsunami: Societal Resilience in Two <br />Coastal Regions. Funding Institution: National Science <br />Foundation, 18 months. Principal Investigator: Dennis <br />McGilvray (Michele Gamburd, Randall Kuhn), University <br />of Colorado at Boulder, 233 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309- <br />0233; (303) 492 -7198; e -mail: dennis.mcgilvray @colora <br />do. edu. <br />This project compares two culturally, linguistically, <br />and historically different coastal regions of Sri Lanka that <br />were both very badly damaged by the 2004 Indian Ocean <br />tsunami. By looking at subregional differences in tsunami <br />recovery efforts within a single nation -state such as Sri <br />Lanka, it will be possible to distinguish the cultural com- <br />ponents from the larger political, economic, and environ- <br />mental dimensions of the posttsunami situation. Increasing <br />the understanding of the role of local cultural factors in <br />disaster recovery will provide useful information for fu- <br />ture global disaster planning and recovery efforts. <br />Quantifying Early Indicators of Global Climate Change. <br />Funding Institution: National Science Foundation, one <br />year. Principal Investigator: Diane Debinski, Iowa State <br />University, 249 Bessey Hall, Ames, IA 50011; (515) 294- <br />2460,• e -mail: debinski@iastate. edu. <br />One of the voids remaining in the scientific under- <br />standing of global climate change is the relationship be- <br />tween climate change and the resulting changes expected <br />in ecological communities. Because a large part of North <br />America has been modified by human activities, it is diffi- <br />cult to assess whether ecological changes are being caused <br />by human activities or climate change. Thus, we must <br />look to landscapes where the modification has been less <br />severe. One area in North America where scientists can <br />still study natural processes is that of the Greater Yellow- <br />Natural Hazards Observer November 2005 <br />