What we are writing about is a risk hazards generalist.
The work involves a dependence upon the work of specialists who prepare data
bases in useable formats.
There are no scientists who are natural hazards generalists because the data
is either not collected, or is not collected in cross platform formats.
I consider myself to be a natural hazards generalist, and although I do work
that meets some scientific standards, the purpose of the work is not
primarily scientific in nature.
There are also insurance actuaries, that are also natural hazards
generalists. Some can be called scientists, but the work is directed by
insurance companies. Their work may or may not meet scientific standards,
but by it's nature the work is usually proprietary in nature and therefore
not subject to review.
One of the things that I have attempted to do is to quantify the events
responsible for the largest number of deaths in the last century in the
United States. What I discovered, very quickly, is that no one knows. I
began my study with the data base collected by OFDA/CRED. I sorted the data
by reported deaths in the United States. I then began a search for
information related to the top events. What I quickly found was that the
reported numbers varied greatly by sources especially for early 1900's
events. And that reporting of deaths and injuries, even now, are under
represented by the data, especially for certain hazards.
Part of what I am attempting to do with The Disaster Center site is to
assemble data related to the hazards that we confront in our daily lives.
It seems to me that the better we know the relative risks we and our
property are exposed to, then the better we can take actions to prepare for
and mitigate the risk.
As I see it now we do not know. And we don't have the data that can let us
know in anything more than the most general terms.
Before we come up with a name for the scientist doing the work we need to
establish a science.
Christopher Effgen
The Disaster Center
www.disastercenter.com
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