Public Safety meetings & conferences

International Smoke Symposium

Presented by the International Association of Wildland Fire, in conjunction with National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) Smoke Committee and Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP)

October 21-24, 2013 The Marriott Inn & Conference Center, University of Maryland University College, Adelphi, Maryland, USA

As the extent of global wildland fire and smoke increases, changes in air quality and climate will result in greater threats to human health, ecosystems, and infrastructure in the United States and internationally. The International Smoke Symposium will provide a venue to explore the complex issues surrounding wildland fire and smoke; discuss different management strategies adopted around the world; and identify knowledge gaps within the field of smoke science for future research, innovation, and development.

This symposium will serve as a nexus of interdisciplinary research, management, and policy. Research specialists, managers, and policy makers from non-governmental organizations, government agencies, tribes, and private institutions will be able to discuss and evaluate current practices and the latest research and technological developments that inform decision making and provide a critical sounding board for future research needs and practical solutions to management challenges.

OBJECTIVES

The Symposium will:

Create an international forum to discuss complex smoke issues surrounding both wildland and agricultural fire.

Identify research gaps and priorities for smoke science and air quality communities to address and meet contemporary challenges regarding public health, transportation safety, fire personnel exposure and changes in climate.

Increase awareness of ongoing smoke science research for professionals engaged in fire activities, air quality management, resource stewardship, military land-use activities, and emergency services.

Provide innovative training opportunities for managers and operational professionals through a virtual platform.

Showcase contemporary science and technologies to promote pioneering management and policy strategies.

Raise awareness of the global diversity of approaches, issues, ideas and mitigation strategies in fire behavior and smoke management as they pertain to ecological concerns, social perceptions, and economic issues.

Contact Us:

Mikel Robinson
Executive Director
International Association of Wildland Fire
1418 Washburn Street
Missoula, Montana 59801 USA

(01) (406) 531-8264
Toll Free from US & Canada:
(888) 440-IAWF (4293)
execdir@iawfonline.org

Risk, Perception, and Response Conference

March 20-21, 2014 Harvard School of Public Health Boston, Massachusetts

First International Conference on ICTs for Disaster Management

March 24-25, 2014 Algiers, Algeria

ICT-DM'2014 is the inaugural edition for a new conference event on the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Disaster Management. The conference aims to bring together academics and practitioners who are involved in the emergency services, emergency planning, disaster management and allied professions, to learn about latest developments, share research, experiences and information about this area.

Disasters are events that cause dramatic losses of life and property and disrupt the normal functioning of the economy and society on a large scale. Disaster management is multifaceted process for developing strategies to reduce the impact of disasters and provide assistance to affected populations. Disaster management involves information- and communication-intensive activities before, during and after disaster strikes. The revolutionary potential of ICTs lies in their ability to instantly and continuously facilitate rapid communication and flow of information, capital, ideas, people and products. Because of this potential, ICTs have made incredible leaps in their usefulness for many application areas and this makes everyone agrees to consider that they have the potential to revolutionize the disaster management area too.

The conference will include paper presentations describing original work on the current state of research and practices in technologies and systems for prevention, preparation, response and recovery of disasters. The themes include (but not limited to) emergency communication, collaboration and coordination, decision enhancement systems, security and privacy, geo-information and space technologies, multi-sensor data collection, information dissemination and early warning and standardization efforts.

There will also be invited presentations by experts from academia, industry, and government as well as special sessions dedicated to case studies, demonstrations and experiences based on pragmatic approaches. This way, the conference will provide a forum for supporting and encouraging both academic researchers, as well as practitioners involved in practice-focused research.

Requests can be sent to:

E-Mail: ictdm2014@gmail.com

Fax: +213 (0) 21 91 21 26

2013 North American Agricultural Safety Summit

September 25-27, 2013 Minneapolis, Minnesota

Dialog with agricultural producers, manufacturers, employers and their organizational leadership!

Theme: Translational Research in Agricultural Safety and Health

MOUNTAINHAZARDS 2013

Natural Hazards, Climate Change and Water in Mountain Areas

The conference will be held in Bishkek , Kyrgyzstan in September 16 – 18th.

Natural Hazards, Climate Change and Water in Mountain Areas

High mountain environment is one the most complex and sensitive ecosystems on the Earth. Due to strong altitude differences and complicated morphology, several climatic levels are found within short vertical distance. Seasonal differences are very conspicuous. The presence of glaciers even complicates the situation. Besides, current climate changes influence considerably the natural processes in high mountains over the world.

Hundreds of millions of people live in mountains being dependent on natural changes of environment, facing the harsh climate, difficult life conditions and various kinds of natural hazards. One of the most important hazards is potential change of water resources due to reduction of glacier mass and changes of amount and spatial distribution of precipitations.

Central Asia (CA) is one of the world’s regions most vulnerable to current climate variability and impacts of future climate change. This is as a result of a combination of a number of natural and anthropogenic factors

Climate change is likely to manifest in CA: increasing temperatures; changing rainfall patterns; increasing aridity; an increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and climate-related disasters (such as droughts, floods, debris-flows, glacial lake outbursts, landslides and avalanches). Indeed, trends over the last few decades indicate that these predicted changes are already being experienced in CA countries and worldwide, and current climate variability is already adversely impacting development, especially on sectors such as water, agriculture, and energy.

Furthermore, although the region is prone to earthquakes, the majority of disasters are triggered by hydro-meteorological hazards, including drought, floods, extreme temperatures and rainfall-related landslides, debris-flows, lake outbursts; all of which are likely to increase under a changing climate. Unless timely, coordinated and sustainable Climate Risk Management (CRM) measures are implemented, CA is likely to experience considerable economic loss, humanitarian stresses and environmental degradation as a result of climate-related disasters and incremental change in climate conditions.

The forthcoming conference is aimed at the discussion of different topics related to the aforementioned processes. It will give an opportunity for scientists and experts from various countries to present the results of their work and research of natural processes, climate change adaptation and disaster risk mitigation measures in high mountain regions, as well as the results of recent studies of glacier cover change Central Asian mountains and other mountainous regions. The main topics of these discussions will cover relevant kinds of natural hazards: glacial lakes outbursts, landslides and rock-falls, earthquakes and debris flows. The research, risk assessment and mitigation and adaptation measures will be on focus. The discussion on interdependencies of climate changes, glacier retreat and water resources will be the special topic of the conference. Results of studies and research and specific approaches for Central Asia , Himalayan region, Europe and other parts of the World are the main expected outputs of this conference.

Tight international cooperation is strongly needed to effectively address the challenges presented above.

A number of scientific, environmental and public organisations will take part in the conference. A special attention will be paid to the current and future activities of UNDP and other UN Agencies and multilateral organisations in the region. Representatives of the organisations and individual projects will take stock of what has been achieved and what are the main gaps so far. Another important result of the conference will be a coordinated basis for international aid in Central Asia and beyond for the coming years.

Forthcoming event follows-up the meetings held in Bishkek in 2009 (“Mountainhazards2009”) and in Dushanbe in 2011 (“Mountainhazards2011”).

The information on previous conferences is available on the web sites: www.mountainhazards2009.com and www.mountainhazards2011.com.

Goal of the conference

The goal of the conference is the discussion on investigation of hazardous natural processes and climate in high mountain environment and the experience in monitoring the phenomena, methods of risk assessment and possibilities of risk mitigation and adaptation measures.

Contacts:

Conference administration: mountainhazards2013@gmail.com

Michal Cerny: jezera @seznam.cz

Yegor Volovik: yegor.volovik @undp.org

The Eye, The Brain, and The Auto 2013

September 16-18, 2013

Conference Location:  The Henry, Autograph Collection, Dearborn, Michigan

Presented by:  Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology The Research and Education Division of Henry Ford Health System Department of Ophthalmology www.henryford.com

This 6th biennial three-day conference dedicated to improving our understanding of the relationship between vision and the safe operation of motorized vehicles.  Collegiality facilitates collaboration, collaboration accelerates progress.

Should you have questions about The Eye, The Brain & The Auto, please feel free to contact any member of the Conference Organizing Committee (see below).

Co-Organizers:

Edward R. O’Malley, MD
Physician-in-Charge, Henry Ford Medical Center, Cottage Campus
eromalley@comcast.net

Cynthia Owsley PhD
Professor of Ophthalmology
Vice Chair for Clinical Research
Director of the Clinical Research Unit
Department of Ophthalmology School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Owsley@uab.edu

Philip C Hessburg MD
Medical Director, Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology, Department of Ophthalmology, Henry Ford Health System
pchessburg@dioeyes.org

David J. Goldman, MD
Assistant Medical Director, Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology
Department of Ophthalmology, Henry Ford Health System
dgoldman@hfhs.org

Gerald McGwin MS PhD
Professor, Vice Chairman
Depoartment of Epidemiology
University of Alabama at Birmingham
mcGwin@uab.edu

Joanne Wood PhD
Professor, Queensland University of Technology
School of Optometry
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
j.wood@qut.edu.au

Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine 57th Annual Conference

September 22-25, 2013 Quebec City, Canada

AAAM's conference is regarded as the most authoritative forum on current knowledge in traffic injury control and presents active and published research in multidisciplinary appraoches to automotive-related trauma in areas such as epidemiology, biomechanics, treatment and management, transport psychology, accidentology, and human factors.

Who attends?

AAAM's conference is attended by 150 experts, including emergency physicians or nurses orthopedic surgeons, trauma surgeons, neurosurgeons, radiologists, physiatrists, urologists, emergency medical providers, epidemiologists, biomechanics or vehicle design engineers, automotive engineers, crash investigators, health policy specialists, internists, psychologists, sociologists, or other human factor specialists, accident reconstructionists, or road safety specialists.

Meeting highlights

The meeting will begin with the 4th Annual Student Symposium Sunday, September 22, in which student researchers present their works in progress.

International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting--IAFP 2013

July 28–31, 2013 Charlotte, North Carolina

Each year, the International Association for Food Protection hosts an Annual Meeting, providing attendees with information on current and emerging food safety issues, the latest science, innovative solutions to new and recurring problems, and the opportunity to network with thousands of food safety professionals from around the globe. Held in various locations throughout North America, this meeting has grown over the years to become the leading food safety conference worldwide.

The IAFP Annual Meeting is attended by more than 2,500 of the top industry, academic and governmental food safety professionals from six continents. This renowned event owes its reputation and success to the quantity, quality and diversity of each year’s program; the quality and relevance of exhibits sharing the latest in available technologies; leading experts speaking on a variety of timely topics; and special recognition of outstanding professionals and students for their contributions in the food safety field.