News Updates

Striking with no warning, a landslide in the Alaska city of Ketchikan recently killed one person and damaged infrastructure, prompting the mayor to call landslides “a region-wide issue that we need to try to understand.” The experience of Sitka, Alaska, might offer insights. In Issues, researchers Lisa Busch, Robert Lempert, Max Izenberg, and Annette Patton describe working with the town to build an innovative landslide warning system. Beyond its practical capability, the team notes, the system “serves as a model of community-driven climate adaptation, while also offering an intriguing picture of how such collaborations may reenvision the way scientists and governance work.”

As evidenced during recent temblors in California, technologists are increasingly able to issue early earthquake warnings in hope of providing area residents with at least a few seconds to prepare. But Elizabeth Reddy argues in Issues that focusing on the technology underpinning earthquake alerts will not be enough. Early warning must be integrated into institutional and social infrastructure. Toward this aim, she writes, governments can reduce vulnerability and support resilience by hardening infrastructure, enforcing regulations on building construction, involving the community in decisionmaking, financially supporting people in need, and providing reliable system funding.