Initial priorities for U.S. participation in the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, declared by the United Nations, are contained in this volume. It focuses on seven issues: hazard and risk assessment; awareness and education; mitigation; preparedness for emergency response; recovery and reconstruction; prediction and warning; learning from disasters; and U.S. participation internationally. The committee presents its philosophy of calls for broad public and private participation to reduce the toll of disasters.
This synthesis summarizes the findings of the Global Natural Disaster Risk Hotspots project. The Hotspots project generated a global disaster risk assessment and a set of more localized or hazard-specific case studies. The synthesis draws primarily from the results of the global assessment. Full details on the data, methods and results of the global analysis can be found in volume one of Natural Disaster Hotspots: A Global Risk Analysis. The case studies are contained in volume two (forthcoming).
There is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster is the first comprehensive critical book on the catastrophic impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. The disaster will go down on record as one of the worst in American history, not least because of the government’s inept and cavalier response. But it is also a huge story for other reasons; the impact of the hurricane was uneven, and race and class were deeply implicated in the unevenness. Hartman and. Squires assemble two dozen critical scholars and activists who present a multifaceted portrait of the social implications of the disaster. The book covers the response to the disaster and the roles that race and class played, its impact on housing and redevelopment, the historical context of urban disasters in America and the future of economic development in the region. It offers strategic guidance for key actors - government agencies, financial institutions, neighbourhood organizations - in efforts to rebuild shattered communities.
This work combines research and empirical evidence on the economic costs of disasters with theoretical approaches. It provides new insights on how to assess and manage the costs and impacts of disaster prevention, mitigation, recovery and adaption, and much more.
The term 'natural disaster' is often used to refer to natural events such as earthquakes, hurricanes or floods. However, the phrase 'natural disaster' suggests an uncritical acceptance of a deeply engrained ideological and cultural myth. At Risk questions this myth and argues that extreme natural events are not disasters until a vulnerable group of people is exposed. The updated new edition confronts a further ten years of ever more expensive and deadly disasters and discusses disaster not as an aberration, but as a signal failure of mainstream 'development'. Two analytical models are provided as tools for understanding vulnerability. One links remote and distant 'root causes' to 'unsafe conditions' in a 'progression of vulnerability'. The other uses the concepts of 'access' and 'livelihood' to understand why some households are more vulnerable than others. Examining key natural events and incorporating strategies to create a safer world, this revised edition is an important resource for those involved in the fields of environment and development studies.
This book examines how to ensure that the preventive measures are worthwhile and effective, and how people can make decisions individually and collectively at different levels of government.
This book conducts a systematic inquiry into the tragic deaths caused by natural disasters at different geographic scales. It employs key disaster concepts and classification of disasters to understand the high mortality rates and the various factors associated with these deaths. Deaths are the direct and immediate impact of disaster events, which have remained a major concern for disaster managers and policy-makers all over the world. Using primary research and secondary data, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of various facets of disaster deaths such as trends, circumstances and causes, and determinants at global, regional, national, and subnational scales. It offers a holistic perspective on disaster mortality, which has been lacking for some time. The book not only fills this research gap but also suggests important policy implications for disaster managers and policy makers working in multilateral, bilateral, local, and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). These policies include effective strategies to significantly reduce the risk of deaths caused by natural disasters, which are explored through chapters written in a clear and accessible style. Drawing together the case studies on past major disasters as well as recent ones, the book provides new and critical insights into deaths precipitated by natural disasters. Suitable for both technical and nontechnical readers, the book has a broader appeal and will thus be useful for practitioners, researchers, students, as well as activists in the area of hazards and disasters who are interested in studying mortality due to extreme natural events.
