Comment

Arjun Katoch, leader of the UNDAC team in Japan after the Great East Earthquake in March, shares his personal insights into lessons learnt and how the Japanese Government and people responded in the aftermath of the crisis.

 Incident reports

Sinking on the River Volga

A tragic passenger cruise ship sinking on the Volga River has highlighted problems with ageing infrastructure and lack of safety enforcement on Russia’s river transportation system, according to Lina Kolesnikova

Attacks trigger tough choices

Spontaneous attacks on firefighters have diminished considerably thanks to community work by the Fire Service in Northern Ireland, says Fire Chief Peter Craig. However, there is a sinister rise in pre-planned attacks in the community and on the Fire Service

Underground terror strikes

Fifteen people died and 200 others were injured when an explosive device went off at Oktyabrskaya station on the Minsk underground in Belarus. Lina Kolesnikova reports

Features

Paediatric emergency

If newly-qualified paramedics are to be confident when dealing with paediatric pre-hospital emergency care, they must have adequate exposure to such cases while studying. Hilary Phillips looks at how this need is being met in Johannesburg, South Africa

Inter-agency working

David Holdsworth discusses his research, which reveals that there is still a lack of understanding of each others’ roles and responsibilities between emergency services

Fighting the cybercriminals

John Lyons outlines the thinking behind a new, not-for-profit organisation that has been formed to combat the aggressive rise in cybercrime around the world

Nuclear events

Dr Dave Sloggett explores what some may regard as the ultimate form of terrorism – a nuclear attack – saying that all local, private, public and voluntary sectors should prepare for the full spectrum of nuclear threats

Community resilience

Governments alone cannot provide sufficient protection and response in large-scale emergencies – the communities affected also have a role to play. David J Kaufman and Kathy Settle share joint research by FEMA in the US, and the UK’s Cabinet Office

Climate

Can we handle nature’s new norm?

William S Becker asks whether we have the information, the capacity and the political will that we need to prevent, reduce, respond to and recover from environmental crises

Climate change and emergency management

Emergency managers can no longer afford to ignore the implications and likely effects of global climate change, says John Labadie

Cities and climate

Adrien Labaeye and Anke Stoffregen argue that it is time for cities and local governments to make their voices heard in global decision-making processes on environment and sustainability

Burnt, battered, drenched

Extreme weather in the US had a significant impact on both society and emergency services in the first six months of 2011, writes William (Bill) Peterson; is this a result of climate change, natural variability or just plain bad luck?

The case for adaptation

Practical action is needed to address the UK’s increasing vulnerability to climate change and ensure its national infrastructure stands the test of time, says Dr Sebastian Catovsky

In Depth

Wildfires in Australia

In this, the first of two reports on the Australasian Region, Dr Richard Thornton reveals that Australia is one of the most fire-prone environments in the world, owing to a unique combination of vegetation, climate and landscape

Resilience: The wider view

In part two of this series, Dr Dave Sloggett widens his analysis beyond the 2005 London bombings, emphasising the importance of looking below headline casualty figures when drawing lessons from past terrorist events

Improvised CBR attacks

Andy Oppenheimer outlines the challenges emergency services would face if they were to be confronted by an improvised explosive device containing chemical, biological or radiological materials

Recovery management

The tsunami and nuclear meltdown that struck Japan in March are easier disasters to fix than the underlying problems that the country will have to face in the near future, says Professor Edward Blakely

Regular sections

Books

Preview: Emergency Services Show

Diary dates and previews

From the unknown

EU civil protection

Lessons Learned

Partners

Ahead of the game

Gaming technology is being used to create more advanced and accurate simulation software. David Blore explains how it is helping to train emergency responders to deal with increasingly complex and unpredictable major disasters in real life