Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • COMMENT

Disaster-zone research needs a code of conduct

Study the effects of earthquakes, floods and other natural hazards with sensitivity to ethical dilemmas and power imbalances.
  1. JC Gaillard

    1. JC Gaillard is an associate professor in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland, New Zealand; and extraordinary professor in the Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Lori Peek

    1. Lori Peek is professor of sociology and director of the Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado Boulder, USA; and principal investigator of the US National Science Foundation-supported CONVERGE, SSEER and ISEEER Initiatives.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

A resident stands on the ruins of a building that was destroyed by the earthquake on Palu, Indinesia

A collapsed building in the city of Palu in Sulawesi, Indonesia, after a magnitude-7.5 earthquake hit the region in September 2018. Credit: Hariandi Hafid/SOPA/Zuma Wire

A magnitude-7.0 earthquake rocked Anchorage, Alaska, in late November 2018. Roads buckled and chimneys tumbled from rooftops. Business operations were disrupted. Schools were damaged across the district. This was the largest earthquake to shake the region in a generation, and there was much to learn. What was the state of the infrastructure? Might further quakes occur? How did people respond? Teams of scientists and engineers from across the United States mobilized to conduct field reconnaissance in partnership with local researchers and practitioners. These efforts were coordinated through the clearing house set up by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute in Oakland, California, which provided daily in-person and online briefings, as well as a web portal for sharing data.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 575, 440-442 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03534-z

References

  1. Missbach, A. Crit. Asian Stud. 43, 373–398 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Nature 562, 317–318 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Kendra, J. & Gregory, S. in Disaster Research and the Second Environmental Crisis (eds Kendra, J., Knowles, S. G. & Wachtendorf, T.) 319–341 (Springer, 2019).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Beaven, S., Wilson, T., Johnston, L., Johnston, D. & Smith, R. Earthq. Spectra 32, 713–735 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Guillemin, M. & Gillam, L. Qual. Inq. 10, 261–280 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Browne, K. E. & Peek, L. Int. J. Mass Emerg. Disasters 32, 82–120 (2014); http://ijmed.org/articles/651/

    Google Scholar 

  7. Chambers, R. Rural Development: Putting the Last First (Longman, 1983).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Gaillard, J. C. Disasters 43, S7–S17 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Gaillard, J. C. & Gomez, C. Jàmbá: J. Disaster Risk Stud. https://doi.org/10.4102/jamba.v7i1.120 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Barber, K. & Haney, T. J. Sociol. Spectrum 36, 57–74 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Houston, J. B. et al. PLoS Curr. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4639320 (2015).

  12. Browne, K. Standing in the Need (Univ. Texas Press, 2015).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Bankoff, G. Disasters 25, 19–35 (2001).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Miller, A. et al. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 13, 676 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Sumathipala, A. et al. Asian Bioeth. Rev. 2, 124–142 (2007).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Collogan, L. K., Tuma, F., Dolan-Sewell, R., Borja, S. & Fleischman, A. R. J. Trauma. Stress 17, 363–372 (2004).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

  • FACULTY POSITION IN PATHOLOGY RESEARCH

    Dallas, Texas (US)

    The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern Medical Center)

  • Postdoc Fellow / Senior Scientist

    The Yakoub and Sulzer labs at Harvard Medical School-Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Columbia University

    Boston, Massachusetts (US)

    Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital

  • Postdoc in Computational Genomics – Machine Learning for Multi-Omics Profiling of Cancer Evolution

    Computational Postdoc - Artificial Intelligence in Oncology and Regulatory Genomics and Cancer Evolution at the DKFZ - limited to 2 years

    Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg (DE)

    German Cancer Research Center in the Helmholtz Association (DKFZ)

  • Computational Postdoc

    The German Cancer Research Center is the largest biomedical research institution in Germany.

    Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg (DE)

    German Cancer Research Center in the Helmholtz Association (DKFZ)

  • PhD / PostDoc Medical bioinformatics (m/f/d)

    The Institute of Medical Bioinformatics and Systems Medicine / University of Freiburg is looking for a PhD/PostDoc Medical bioinformatics (m/w/d)

    Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg (DE)

    University of Freiburg

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links