This work will serve as the bases on which the development and implementation of the International Decade of Hazards Reduction will rest. It consists of four phases, the first of which has already taken place. During the second phase four main activities will be undertaken: 1. Completing the revision, editing, publication, and dissemination of the prospetus drafted during Phase I. Collecting and compiling responses to this document. 2. Initiating a study to assess the extent of and the reasons for the present worldwide underutilization of technologies for reducing natural hazards losses. 3. Seeking the input of the international investment and development communities, and tying them together with the technical and research communities to better understand the diverse objectives these organizations pursue in hazards reduction. 4. Organizing an international workshop to discuss how the International Decade will be organized and carried out, and how highly targeted research can bring about a worldwide decrease in losses from geophysical hazards. The phase II of this project will have a duration of eight months. The P.I.s are highly capable to carry it out, thus, an award is recommended. 8616067 WEIRICH An integrated, field based project will be carried out to: a) continuously monitor subaqueous debris and torpidity flows for temperature, density, velocity and travel distance in a reservoir environment; b) study flow conversions of debris flows to turbidity currents, specifically by means of hydraulic jumps, and the role of bottom geometry in such conversions; c) correlate the characteristics of the flow with the nature of the sediment deposition/erosion processes, the bottom geometry, and other parameters governing the transport processes. The work will be conducted in conjunction with a project jointly funded by the U.S. Forest Service, the Los Angeles County Fire Department, and the L.A. Flood Control District, in which oontrolled fires, pollutant and smoke effects, sediment yields and debris flows emanating from the burned areas are being studied. The site is the Lodi Canyon and Puddingstone Diversion Reservoir located in the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles, that has long hydrologic and sediment records, detailed geologic and geomorphic data available, a single sediment input source, a reservoir of manageable size, and other convenient characteristics and conditions. The results from this work will help increase the accuracy of predictions of the movement patterns and incidence of subaqueous debris and turbidity flows; the determination of threshold conditions; the probable travel distance of such events; an assessment of both, the ability of subaqueous hydraulic jumps to control the deposition of sediments, and the possible engineered use of these jumps to control the location of sediment during major flood events. The P.I. is highly capable to carry out this work, thus, an award is recommended. The grant is for one lump sum and a duration of two years.
