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Using Technology to Coordinate Disaster Assessment and Response Allegheny County’s distinctive three rivers have played a major role in the development of the region; however, these rivers have also been the cause of natural disaster and hardship. Often the region’s numerous local governments and aid agencies have struggled to coordinate response to flooding and other large-scale emergency events. The Interactive, Intelligent, Spatial Information System’s (IISIS) Laboratory, designed by GSPIA Professor Louise Comfort and Pitt’s Department of Computer Science, has developed a prototype decision support system that will enable communities to increase their capacity for coordinated action to emergencies. Using the prototype IISIS, communities in the Pittsburgh metropolitan region will be able to make decisions about the vulnerability of infrastructure, the degree of threat to local residents, and the capacity of local emergency services to respond effectively to disaster situations. This fall, IISIS will be on display at the Annual Conference of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) in Pittsburgh. Conference attendees will have an opportunity to tour many affected areas of the Monongahela Valley and witness a demonstration of coordinated disaster response. “IISIS is consistent with GSPIA’s goal of serving as a regional asset, in this case, assisting municipal managers with the daunting responsibility of ensuring public safety,” said Interim Dean David Y. Miller. Thanks to the capabilities of the IISIS Laboratory, local municipal leaders now have more options to manage their resources and implement effective response strategies during natural disasters. Community Revitalization Takes Shape In spite of the difficulties in revitalizing older communities in Pennsylvania, officials and citizens are willing to make the effort, according to Leon Haley, Nonprofit Clinic director and professor of public and urban affairs. Twelve local communities received technical assistance from GSPIA’s Nonprofit Clinic, which served as the coordinator of teams of faculty and students from GSPIA and other colleges and universities throughout Pennsylvania. The technical

assistance projects, carried out as part of the Federal Home Loan Bank’s Blueprint Communities Initiative, assessed major issues facing these local communities such as residential housing demand, crime reduction, strategic planning, commercial revitalization, and community and business needs. Haley said that each of the 12 communities receiving technical assistance had measurable civic participation and strong lo cal leadership. “They simply refuse to give up hope on the communities and neighborhoods they and their ancestors have called home for many generations,” he said. Students gained invaluable experience by getting directly involved in the communities and helping to initiate neighborhood improvement. “Our students get a real feel for the dynamics of community development…we’re working with the people who want to make a difference to turn their communities around,” said Haley. Five of the 12 communities identified housing demand as one of the top priorities for study by the technical assistance project teams. Haley believes that determining the housing needs of at-risk communities is important for helping developers make the right choices--choices, he says, that will bring more families, more businesses, and eventually greater economic viability to the neighborhoods. New Publication Explores China’s Rise China's Rise and the Balance of Influence in Asia, the latest volume in The Security Continuum: Global Politics in the Modern Age series, is now available from the University of Pittsburgh press. Edited by Matthew B. Ridgway Center Director William Keller and University of Pittsburgh Economics Professor Thomas G. Rawski, this installment adds a new perspective to the Ridgway Center's continuing studies of international security, counterterrorism strategies, and demographical trends around the globe. "China is rising – will the rise be peaceful?" says Keller, stating the major theme of the book. As a significant world economic power, this Asian nation is making great strides, especially in the technology sector: It is a leader in semiconductor produc tion and has graduated an estimated 951,000 engineers from its universities, a figure that outpaces the number of newly graduated American engineers by approximately 886,000. In the book, China's continuing economic and political developments are examined from a number of angles, including technological advances, immigration rates, trade, and the policy-making of other major nation-actors on the world stage relative to China. Publication Examines Human Trafficking A new publication from the Ford Institute for Human Security, Human Trafficking, Human Security and the Balkans, was released in mid-September. The book, co-edited by Simon Reich, director of the Ford Institute and H. Richard Friman, professor of international studies at Marquette University, features new research on human trafficking in the Western Balkans , including Kosovo, Macedonia, and Serbia. According to Reich, the book explores “what happens to human trafficking in the aftermath of a civil war.” He adds, “Human security, as we characterize it, is really about direct threats to the human population.”

Last updated on November 19, 2007

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