Project description:In recent years, global natural disasters have been frequent and resulted in great casualties and property loss. Since Wenchuan earthquake, the disaster emergency rescue system of China has obtained considerable development in various aspects including team construction, task scheduling, personnel training, facilities and equipments, logistics, etc. On April 25, 2015, an earthquake that measured 8.1 on the Richter scale attacked Nepal. Chinese government firstly organized a medical team, named China Medical Team, and sent it to the attacked region in Nepal to implement medical rescue. The medical team completed the rescue mission successfully and creatively based on their experiences.
Project description:BackgroundThe 2015 earthquake in Nepal caused massive damages and triggered relief activities to minimize human suffering. The post-earthquake nutrition and food security situation in the hardest hit areas remains uncertain.MethodsTwo national cross-sectional surveys were conducted in 2014 and 2016 among households (HH) with pre-school aged children or newly married women. Of the 21 village development committees (VDCs) included in this sample, 7 fell within "earthquake-affected" areas. This paper presents data from 982 HH, 1015 women, and 883 children from 2014 and 1056 HH, 1083 women, and 998 children from 2016 living in these areas, with longitudinal overlap of about 55%. Prevalence estimates and 95% confidence intervals were calculated, and logistic regression was used to calculate p-values, both using robust estimates of standard errors to account for clustering.ResultsFrom 2014 to 2016, child wasting (weight-for-height z score <-2) fell from 4.5% (95% CI 3.3%- 6.1%) to 2.1% (1.4%- 3.1%) and food insecurity (assessed using the household food insecurity access scale) dropped from 17.6% (11.7%- 25.6%) to 12.4% (6.9%- 21.2%). Child stunting prevalence remained similar at both time-points. Improvements were also evident in dietary diversity and breastfeeding indicators.ConclusionsNutrition and food security conditions remained comparable or improved one year after the earthquake despite evidence of structural and other damage. Livelihood resilience to shocks and/or effective nutrition, food or health interventions may have helped buffer the impact on nutrition, although this hypothesis requires further exploration.
Project description:BackgroundAssistance from non-professional disaster volunteers (hereinafter, volunteers) is essential for disaster victims to recover physically and rebuild their lives; however, disaster victims in some areas are reluctant to accept assistance from volunteers. This study explored factors that may influence collaborative activities between volunteers and victims of earthquake disasters.MethodsFrom July to September 2008, a self-reporting questionnaire survey was conducted with all 302 leaders of neighborhood associations in a city within Niigata Prefecture at the time of the Niigataken Chuetsu-oki Earthquake in 2007. Each factor was determined based on the Health Belief Model. Multiple regression analysis was conducted, using collaborative activities as the objective variable.ResultsFrom 261 valid responses received (response rate 86.4%), 41.3% of leaders collaborated with volunteers, and 60.2% of associations had residents who collaborated with volunteers. Collaboration with volunteers was significantly and positively related to perceived severity of an earthquake disaster (standardized partial regression coefficient ??=?0.224, p<0.001) and neighborhood association activities during the earthquake disaster (??=?0.539, p<0.001). A positive and marginally significant relation was found between such collaboration and sense of coherence within a community (??=?0.137, p?=?0.06), social capital (??=?0.119, p?=?0.08), and perceived benefits (??=?0.116, p?=?0.09).ConclusionCollaboration between disaster victims and volunteers during the response to an earthquake may require the preemptive estimation of damage by residents during normal times and the enhancement of neighborhood association activities during a disaster. For residents to have such estimation abilities, public institutions should provide information related to anticipated disaster damage and appropriate disaster prevention training and education. In addition, residents should create a disaster prevention map with other residents. Lastly, promoting neighborhood association activities may require the participation of many residents in disaster drills and education as well as a preemptive discussion of neighborhood activities during a disaster.
Project description:BackgroundIn areas affected by the tsunami of the great East Japan Earthquake, smoking behavior may have deteriorated due to high stress and drastic changes in living environment. Surveys were conducted to reveal changes in smoking behaviors among victims.MethodsA population-based random-sample home-visit interview survey of victims in Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures affected by the tsunami disaster was conducted in 2012 (n = 1978), while a population-based nationwide survey was conducted in 2013 (n = 1082). A panel survey in 2014 was conducted with respondents of the 2012 survey (n = 930). Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to reveal factors related to smoking status after the disaster.ResultsThere was high smoking prevalence of both sexes in the tsunami disaster area (current smoking rate in coastal area, 50.0% for male, 21.4% for female; inland area, 34.7% for male, 7.6% for female). Low prevalence of male quitters was observed (quitter rate in coastal area, 20.8% for male, 8.0% for female; inland area, 23.4% for male, 5.5% for female). The prevalence of nicotine-dependent people assessed by FTND (Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence) in the coastal area was also higher than in the inland area or other areas of Japan. Smoking behavior among victims worsened after the disaster and did not improve 3 years from the disaster. Post-disaster factors related to smoking were living in coastal area, complete destruction of house, and living in temporary housing.ConclusionsSmoking prevalence and the level of nicotine dependence of tsunami victims were still high even 3 years after the disaster. It is important to emphasize measures for smoking control in the disaster areas for an extended time period.
Project description:The 7.8 Mw earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25th, 2015 triggered over 21,000 landslides over an area of more than 25,000 km2. These landslides contributed to mass wasting, partially compensating the tectonic uplift by the earthquake. In this paper we quantify the volume balance resulting from the 2015 earthquake uplift (or subsidence) and landslide erosion. Starting from a new complete earthquake-induced landslide inventory, we calculated landslide volume by adopting different strategies for low-mobility and high-mobility landslides, considering also the potential supply of sediments to the drainage network. The results show that the contribution of earthquake-induced landslides to erosion is about one order of magnitude smaller than the vertical coseismic displacement. We found landslide volume values, due to the 2015 Nepal earthquake, ranging between 251 (- 15/ + 16) Mm3 up to 1503 (- 183/ + 210) Mm3 based on the adopted method, and a volume due to coseismic vertical displacement of 2134 (± 1269) Mm3 for the whole area. The volume balance of the 2015 Nepal earthquake is strongly dominated by tectonic displacement. We show that these estimates depend on several uncertainties. We identified and quantified uncertainties related to: (1) the choice of empirical volume-area scaling relationships and their parameters; (2) the completeness and quality of landslide inventory through comparison with available inventories; (3) the approach adopted for the assessment of elongated landslide volume; (4) the InSAR displacement data.
Project description:The ground motion and damage caused by the 2015 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake can be characterized by their widespread distributions to the east. Evidence from strong ground motions, regional acceleration duration, and teleseismic waveforms indicate that rupture directivity contributed significantly to these distributions. This phenomenon has been thought to occur only if a strike-slip or dip-slip rupture propagates to a site in the along-strike or updip direction, respectively. However, even though the earthquake was a dip-slip faulting event and its source fault strike was nearly eastward, evidence for rupture directivity is found in the eastward direction. Here, we explore the reasons for this apparent inconsistency by performing a joint source inversion of seismic and geodetic datasets, and conducting ground motion simulations. The results indicate that the earthquake occurred on the underthrusting Indian lithosphere, with a low dip angle, and that the fault rupture propagated in the along-strike direction at a velocity just slightly below the S-wave velocity. This low dip angle and fast rupture velocity produced rupture directivity in the along-strike direction, which caused widespread ground motion distribution and significant damage extending far eastwards, from central Nepal to Mount Everest.
Project description:We conducted a study to examine the effect of seasonal variations and the disruptive effects of the 2015 Nepal earthquake on microbial communities associated with drinking water sources. We first characterized the microbial communities of water samples in two Nepali regions (Kathmandu and Jhapa) to understand the stability of microbial communities in water samples collected in 2014. We analyzed additional water samples from the same sources collected from May to August 2015, allowing the comparison of samples from dry-to-dry season and from dry-to-monsoon seasons. Emphasis was placed on microbes responsible for maintaining the geobiochemical characteristics of water (e.g., ammonia-oxidizing and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria and archaea and sulfate-reducing bacteria) and opportunistic pathogens often found in water (Acinetobacter). When examining samples from Jhapa, we identified that most geobiochemical microbe populations remained similar. When examining samples from Kathmandu, the abundance of microbial genera responsible for maintaining the geobiochemical characteristics of water increased immediately after the earthquake and decreased 8 months later (December 2015). In addition, microbial source tracking was used to monitor human fecal contamination and revealed deteriorated water quality in some specific sampling sites in Kathmandu post-earthquake. This study highlights a disruption of the environmental microbiome after an earthquake and the restoration of these microbial communities as a function of time and sanitation practices.
Project description:Strong-motion records of earthquakes are used not only to evaluate the source rupture process, seismic wave propagation and strong ground motion characteristics, but also to provide valuable data for earthquake disaster mitigation. The Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, which is characterised by having soft sediments that have been deposited in an earthquake-prone zone, has experienced numerous earthquakes. We have operated four strong-motion stations in the Kathmandu Valley since 2011. These stations recorded the 2015 magnitude 7.8 Gorkha Nepal earthquake that occurred in the Himalayan continental collision zone. For several months after the mainshock, we deployed four additional temporary stations. Here, we describe the seismic data for 18 earthquakes over magnitude 5.0 collected by this array, including the 2015 magnitude 7.3 Dolakha earthquake of maximum aftershock and three large aftershocks of magnitude 6-class. These data are essential for validating the sedimentary structure of the basin and for evaluating the hazard and risk of future earthquakes in the Kathmandu Valley.
Project description:BackgroundNatural disasters cause long term psychological consequences, especially post-traumatic stress disorders. It has been regarded as the most prevalent of psychiatric disorders after a natural disaster. The purpose of this study is to estimate the prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and determine its associated factors in adult survivors three years after the 2015 Nepal earthquake.MethodsA cross-sectional descriptive design was used where 1076 adults within the age range of 19-65 were randomly selected and interviewed from four adversely affected districts due to the 2015 earthquake. Instruments included a demographic questionnaire, an earthquake exposure questionnaire, the Oslo Social Support Scale (OSSS), and the Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C). Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 16 for data analysis.ResultsThe prevalence of PTSD among earthquake survivors was 18.9%. The multivariate logistic regression showed that gender, ethnicity, education, occupation, social support and severity of damage to house and property were significantly associated with PTSD. Odds of having PTSD was 1.6 times higher among females (AOR = 1.6, 95% CI: 1.1-2.3) and nearly 2 times higher amongst illiterate survivors (AOR = 1.9, 95% CI: 1.2-2.8). Participants from the Janajati ethnic group and those who had a business occupation had a 50% lower risk of having PTSD. Around 39% of the participants had moderate social support and had 60% lower odds of having PTSD compared to those with poor social support (AOR = 0.4, 95%CI: 0.2-0.5, p < 0.001). Participants with medium and very high-level damage to personal property were more likely to have PTSD.ConclusionPost-traumatic stress disorder remained prevalent amongst survivors three years after the 2015 Nepal Earthquake. It is important to provide psychological and social support for survivors to decrease the health burden from PTSD. Socio-demographic characteristics such as females, farmers, those survivors who endured significant personal property damage were at higher risk.
Project description:Fluid-earthquake interplay, as evidenced by aftershock distributions or earthquake-induced effects on near-surface aquifers, has suggested that earthquakes dynamically affect permeability of the Earth's crust. The connection between the mid-crust and the surface was further supported by instances of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with seismic activity, so far only observed in magmatic context. Here we report spectacular non-volcanic CO2 emissions and hydrothermal disturbances at the front of the Nepal Himalayas following the deadly 25 April 2015 Gorkha earthquake (moment magnitude Mw = 7.8). The data show unambiguously the appearance, after the earthquake, sometimes with a delay of several months, of CO2 emissions at several sites separated by > 10 kilometres, associated with persistent changes in hydrothermal discharges, including a complete cessation. These observations reveal that Himalayan hydrothermal systems are sensitive to co- and post- seismic deformation, leading to non-stationary release of metamorphic CO2 from active orogens. Possible pre-seismic effects need further confirmation.