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Showing posts with the label Hazards

Tokyo - planning for disaster

A nice piece on Atlas Obscura. It describes a daily ritual which can be observed (or rather, heard) across Japan, at or around 5pm. It's the  shichouson bousai gyousei musen housou It’s known as the ‘5pm Chime’ (äŗ”ę™‚ć®ćƒćƒ£ć‚¤ćƒ ) or, more officially (and tellingly), the ‘Municipal Disaster Management Radio Communication Network’ (åø‚ē”ŗę‘é˜²ē½č”Œę”æē„”ē·š). That should give you some clue as to what it is for, and why you’ve probably never really understood it. After all, if all you’ve ever heard is eerie chimes or music at dusk, that likely means you’ve not experienced any major disasters (a good thing!) Officially then, the speaker network is part of a nationwide system set up around most villages, towns and cities to warn residents in the case of emergency – especially disaster warnings for tsunamis and informational broadcasts in response to earthquakes. Some systems are also set up to broadcast announcements of severe weather, fire, suspicious persons, dangerous wildlife or simply just...

Culture and Hazards

Over to King Edward VI 5 Ways school in SW Birmingham today. A cross-country trip with more amazing weather thanks to the current high pressure. Took a tour through the southern suburbs of Birmingham thanks to my Garmin which came into its own here. Thanks to Bob Lang and Paula Cooper for the invitation and for hosting us all so well, and giving me a guided tour of the department and the school. The school is certainly a geographical "hub". It's a Humanities school with a 'Geography' specialism, a GA branch , and the centre of an RGS local network. The teaching staff include several Chartered Geographers, and the school also holds a GA Secondary Geography Quality Mark and is a Centre of Excellence. Met up with Professor Iain Stewart from Plymouth University, and a PhD student of his: Kate Donovan, who were delivering a lecture on the theme of geological hazards and their cultural references. Iain is an honorary Vice President of the GA, and also a Primary Geogra...