United Kingdom

Stormageddon: Hurricane-Force Winds Batter Britain

Mon, 2013-10-28 17:40 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Brighton Sussex UK 28th October 2013 - massive waves crash over Brighton Marina as storms battered the south coast this morning The storm, called St Jude, brought the windiest weather to hit the UK since 1987.
Simon Dack/Alamy Live News

huffingtonpost.com - by Gregory Katz - October 28, 2013

LONDON (AP) — A major storm with hurricane-force gusts lashed southern Britain, the Netherlands, France and Germany on Monday, knocking down trees, flooding low areas and causing travel chaos. Seven deaths were reported.

Weather forecasters say it was one of the worst storms to hit Britain in years.

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To meet emissions goals, the U.K. is reluctantly turning to fracking of shale gas.

Sun, 2013-10-13 22:46 — Maeryn Obley

Image: Fracking fight: In mid-August, the energy company Cuadrilla Resources suspended operations of this exploratory shale gas drilling site in southeast England after protests from residents and environmentalists.

technologyreview.com - September 10th, 2013 - Peter Fairley

Proposed U.K. government policies to encourage hydrofracking of natural gas ignited a firestorm of protest this summer, with critics complaining that they were not consulted and that rules will restrict local planners’ authority. But the country appears to have few other options. The United Kingdom is in an energy quagmire that is forcing it to turn to shale gas.

The country’s aggressive carbon emissions goals call for the U.K.’s power supply to be virtually carbon-free by 2030.

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David Cameron: UK Must Accept the Potential of Fracking

Tue, 2013-08-20 00:39 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Anti-fracking protesters in Balcombe, West Sussex, last month. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA

Prime minister says the UK needs to share in the energy benefits and need not worry about environmental concerns

theguardian.com - August 12, 2013

David Cameron has insisted the UK should accept fracking, claiming the controversial method of extracting gas will attract "real public support" when the benefits are explained.

The prime minister said the process would not damage the countryside and cause only "very minor change to the landscape".

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Cameron said: "I want all parts of our nation to share in the benefits: north or south, Conservative or Labour.

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Open Data by Default – The New Mantra of G8 Leaders

Thu, 2013-06-27 17:02 — Kathy Gilbeaux

G8 David Cameron thanked NGOs and other organisations for their lobbying on transparency

submitted by Albert Gomez

ecodesk.com - June 20, 2013

G8 leaders have committed to implementing transparent strategies to report pollution levels and energy consumption through the Open Data Charter, signed by all G8 countries this week.

Environmental protection is one of the key targets cited in the charter that can be achieved through the use of open data. This is arguably the most important climate change-related commitment, as under the environmental umbrella comes natural resource use, extractive industries and conflict minerals, positive governance and budget allocation.

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Mass Population Response to Critical Infrastructure Failure

Wed, 2013-06-12 23:18 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Alexander Fekete

Mass Population Response to Critical Infrastructure Failure

Experts and advisory board meeting 4-5th June 2013, London

Critical infrastructures (CI) are
organizational and physical structures and
facilities of such vital importance to a
nation's society and economy that their
failure or degradation would result in
sustained supply shortages, significant
disruption of public safety and security, or
other dramatic consequences.

Source: Ministry of the Interior 2009: National CIP Strategy

Key Research Areas

1. Human and Natural Risks and Changes
2. Urban Resilience
3. Critical Infrastructure
4. Civil Security and Risk Governance
5. GIS & Remote Sensing

(SEE SLIDE PRESENTATION IN ATTACHMENT BELOW - 65 PAGE .PDF FILE)

http://www.f09.fh-koeln.de/fakultaet/personen/profs/alexander.fekete/index.html

http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alexander_Fekete/

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London Evacuation

Mon, 2013-06-10 23:40 — Kathy Gilbeaux

This report, produced for policy makers and practitioners, gives the results of a two-year project funded by the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) and the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) entitled ‘Game Theory and Adaptive Networks for Smart Evacuations’. The project brought together expertise from both the physical and social sciences to bring interdisciplinary work to bear on the issue of city evacuations in the 21st Century. In particular, issues of social media and mobile communications have revolutionised emergency management and evacuation policy and this was foremost in our minds when conducting the project.

City evacuations: preparedness, warning, action and recovery

Final report of the DFUSE project (41 page .PDF file)
(Game theory and adaptive networks for smart evacuations: EP/I005765/1)

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