Immediate Aid and Long-Term Recovery Efforts
In the wake of the recent Nepal earthquake, the distribution of immediate aid is at the forefront of response efforts made by the Nepali government, the United Nations, and other local and foreign aid organizations. However, long term recovery efforts are just as important in order to prevent a similar state of affairs in the […]
Maps and Infographics of Earthquake Impact
Please see the link below for: Death toll by region Extent of outdoor shelters Mount Everest maps and diagrams Destruction estimates Aftershocks within various time-frames post-main event http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/25/world/asia/nepal-earthquake-maps.html Curated topics from the April 25, 2015, Nepal Earthquake to help inform reconnaissance activities, identify impacted regions, and help document the timeline of earthquake response/recovery. Information […]
Issues with Coordinating Aid Effort
In the days following the earthquake, the United States, China, and India began an aid effort in Nepal by organizing and sending search-and-rescue teams, foreign aid workers, and medical supplies to the country. A week after the earthquake, 16 countries have sent materials and supplies for aid relief. Organizations such as Unicef were prepared for the earthquake prior to […]
Planning for the Future: How to create a resilient and sustainable Nepal
One of the biggest questions after a natural disaster is: “how will we rebuild?” This is a careful balance of rebuilding too fast with poor construction, and taking too long to plan. The media puts a lot of pressure on governments to plan and rebuild quickly after a disaster; however, strategic planning and reflection upon […]
Volunteering as an Emergency Responder
If you’re interested in becoming an emergency responder, one way to go about it is by adding yourself to the database organized by the Structural Engineering Emergency Response (SEER) Committee of NCSEA. Here is their matrix of requirements for emergency responders. The Applied Technology Council (ATC) has posted online a recorded version of a webinar on ATC-20. Here’s an […]
How You Can Help: Crowdsourced Volunteering
People like to help. But not everyone can, or should, go to Nepal to help out in person. There are, however, a variety of different ways you can help out from home. And considering today’s large aftershock, there may be a renewed need for online volunteers. What follows is an assortment of resources. Check them out, see […]
How technology has improved emergency response in Nepal
Search and Rescue With new natural and man made disasters comes new applications of existing technology. The recent earthquake in Nepal has highlighted this through crowdsourcing data (check out our previous post), and more recently through the application of NASA technology to find people trapped under rubble. The search-and-rescue technology called FINDER (Finding Individuals for Disaster and […]
World Affairs Council: Rebuilding in Nepal
On May 13, 2015, the World Affairs Council hosted a panel discussion that focused on Rebuilding in Nepal. The event took place in downtown San Francisco, CA. The panel consisted of the following three individuals: Norbu Tenzing, Vice President of American Himalayan Foundation Elizabeth Hausler, Founder and CEO of Build Change Birger Stamerdahl, President and CEO of Give2Asia The […]
Volunteering for Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team: A Guest Post!
A couple of years ago, I spent eighteen months living in South-East Asia. At weekends, keen to truly experience a part of the world I had dreamed of as a child, I would head out exploring, either by booking a cheap flight or just by heading out on my bike. Like all good explorers, I […]
Preparing for the unforseen: How Nepal is preparing for large aftershocks and monsoons
The nation of Nepal has had many trials to overcome with rebuilding a number of cities and villages due to the damage and destruction caused by the April 25th Gorkha earthquake and with the monsoon season imminently approaching. However, on May 12th, another devastating earthquake of magnitude 7.3 hit Nepal near Kodari, which is in the […]