Social media networks enable flood‐affected individuals to obtain and share credible information; however, their full potential is not recognised by official institutions. This study evaluates flood‐related usage of Facebook and Twitter by organisations in Northern Ireland. Data collection involved extraction of publicly visible flood‐related Facebook and Twitter posts, over a 9‐month period, from official accounts of selected organisations. NVivo was used to conduct a content analysis of the data. The results concluded that flood‐related information are predominantly distributed at the flood response stage, illustrating the present reactive social media presence of organisations. Twitter accounted for a higher proportion of broadcasting information, while Facebook was more likely to encourage specific behaviour. Public preference was associated with information provided by emergency services and information transmitted at the response stage. Policy implications include the need for an established proactive social media presence among organisations with a flood‐related function and community consultation to identify public information needs.
During the past 30 years, floods have resulted in over 200,000 fatalities and affected more than 2.8 billion others worldwide. Flood victims are vulnerable to long-term physical and psychological health effects, which persist for an undefined time period in the aftermath of a flood event. Following a flood event, secondary stressors, which are indirectly related to the event, can potentially prolong and intensify the health impacts on affected individuals and communities. These secondary stressors consist of economic stressors, including loss of income, but also social stressors such as isolation due to prolonged flooding. A significant gap in the research to date is in relation to repeated flooding and its impact on the extent to which individuals are affected by these secondary stressors. This review examined studies focusing on repeated flooding, concentrating on the secondary stressors resulting from repeated flood events. It also considered the awareness, preparedness and resilience of the study populations in order to determine the potential for these communities to be impacted by secondary stressors. This review indicated that both rural and urban communities in developed and developing countries are significantly affected by economic, social and psychological secondary stressors. The majority of communities do have a basic awareness of flood risk; however, many residents do not take flood risk seriously and thus take little preventative action. Community resilience was higher in urban and rural areas in developing countries, but also in rural areas in developed countries. Future work should take into consideration the secondary stressors that affect different communities and how to minimise their impact in order to increase resilience.
This paper is intended to source literature, identifying the adverse impacts on human health, from the pollutants released from residential burning from both fossil fuel and biomass sources. The literature sourced was ascertained through the conduction of a systematic literature review. The author assessed peer-reviewed English language articles, which had been published within the last five years. The studies reviewed indicated a clear increase in the burning of residential solid fuels. The findings suggest that residential solid fuel combustion is occurring in developed countries, primarily as a secondary source of heating during the winter months. The study concluded that similarly to bituminous coal, the domestic burning of wood also had adverse effects on human health. The intentions of UK Climate Change Act 2008 are to achieve an 80% reduction by the year 2050 in the net carbon account from the 1990 baseline. It is recommended for countries to meet the European 2050 targets, long-term measures need to be adopted. This includes switching from residential solid fuel burning to heating methods such as oil and gas, which are necessary in improving overall air quality and public health.
Clean air is a basic requirement for health and well-being. One of the main sources of air pollution is traffic. It emits harmful pollutants including nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter. There is a large body of existing evidence regarding the public health impact of air pollution. A wide range of health problems including respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses have been found. The evidence in relation to the impact of traffic related air pollution is inconsistent therefore the aim of this paper is to provide clarity on the strength of evidence. In addition, the review will consider the impact of environmental and personal exposure factors. To identify relevant research, the database Science Direct was used along with a search strategy. This review found there is a large body of evidence in relation to air pollution from traffic, health impacts and environmental factors. Due to methodological limitations and the complexity of the interactions the strength of this evidence is mixed. Links to cardiovascular illnesses were considered the most significant. A number of environmental factors such as weather and built environment have significant impacts on traffic related air pollution levels. The review highlights the lack of comprehensive and robust evidence linking environmental factors, traffic related air pollution and health impacts. Future work should use appropriate methodologies to address these gaps.
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