The augmented unified localizable crisis scale

Trying to predict whether a crisis or emergency event is going to occur is a challenge, but attempting to do so without a quantifiable scale makes the task a virtual mission impossible. A crisis scale is also needed to perform effective post-crisis analysis. The extant scales, however, are inadequate. To address these issues, we developed the unified localizable crisis scale, but it only partially fulfills the prerequisites for effective emergency response and management. Among the features of the augmented unified localizable crisis scale that exploits the use of a critical emergency surface and a scheme for predicting when and how events can lead to emergency scenarios to improve forecasts about and responses to emergencies. Applicable to the measurement of any type of emergency or crisis, be it a natural or human-made event, the scale also enables users to compare dissimilar crisis events. This is of tremendous social value when, for example, the emergency responses to several regional or national emergencies need to be managed in parallel. In such situations, emergency response management teams can use the scale to evaluate the magnitudes and trajectories of the co-occurring emergencies, which will enable them to prioritize resource allocation and to take commensurate managerial actions. The efficacy and efficiency of the crisis scale is illustrated with several examples spanning local to national events

Parking infrastructure: energy, emissions, and automobile life-cycle environmental accounting

The US parking infrastructure is vast and little is known about its scale and environmental impacts. The few parking space inventories that exist are typically regionalized and no known environmental assessment has been performed to determine the energy and emissions from providing this infrastructure. A better understanding of the scale of US parking is necessary to properly value the total costs of automobile travel. Energy and emissions from constructing and maintaining the parking infrastructure should be considered when assessing the total human health and environmental impacts of vehicle travel. We develop five parking space inventory scenarios and from these estimate the range of infrastructure provided in the US to be between 105 million and 2 billion spaces. Using these estimates, a life-cycle environmental inventory is performed to capture the energy consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases, CO, SO2, NOX, VOC (volatile organic compounds), and PM10 (PM: particulate matter) from raw material extraction, transport, asphalt and concrete production, and placement (including direct, indirect, and supply chain processes) of space construction and maintenance. The environmental assessment is then evaluated within the life-cycle performance of sedans, SUVs (sports utility vehicles), and pickups. Depending on the scenario and vehicle type, the inclusion of parking within the overall life-cycle inventory increases energy consumption from 3.1 to 4.8 MJ by 0.1–0.3 MJ and greenhouse gas emissions from 230 to 380  g CO2e by 6–23 g CO2e per passenger kilometer traveled. Life-cycle automobile SO2 and PM10 emissions show some of the largest increases, by as much as 24% and 89% from the baseline inventory. The environmental consequences of providing the parking spaces are discussed as well as the uncertainty in allocating paved area between parking and roadways