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Emergency management and the final frontier: Preparing local communities for falling space debris

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-11-07, 06:48 authored by HM Louis-Charles, A Kalokoh, J Torres, Thomas JamiesonThomas Jamieson
Global dependence on satellite technologies, along with expanding space exploration, and commercial space travel have made rocket launches routine modern-day events. As a result, there is an increasing probability of civilian casualty from rocket launch anomalies, or from falling space debris already in orbit. This study provides an empirical analysis of local emergency management publicly available guidelines for the risks associated with human-made space hazards, natural space hazards, and unknown space hazards. A multicase approach is utilized with a document analysis of 391 emergency management documents provided by 512 local jurisdictions across the states of California, Florida, Texas, and Virginia. Descriptive statistics and a QGIS vector spatial analysis is conducted to identify high risk counties in close proximity to rocket launch sites. A logit regression model informs us on the relationship between a county containing a rocket launch site or being in close proximity to a launch site and their likelihood of including falling space hazards in their emergency management documents. A significant number of documents mention falling aircrafts, missiles from tornadoes and weapons of mass destruction. Rocket launch anomalies and falling space debris remain outside the scope or imaginability of local emergency management plans.

History

Preferred citation

Louis-Charles, H. M., Kalokoh, A., Torres, J. & Jamieson, T. (2023). Emergency management and the final frontier: Preparing local communities for falling space debris. Risk, Hazards and Crisis in Public Policy, 14(3), 247-266. https://doi.org/10.1002/rhc3.12266

Journal title

Risk, Hazards and Crisis in Public Policy

Volume

14

Issue

3

Publication date

2023-09-01

Pagination

247-266

Publisher

Wiley

Publication status

Published

Online publication date

2023-03-01

ISSN

1944-4079

eISSN

1944-4079

Language

en