As one of the first interdisciplinary and multi-perspective investigations, Disaster risk reduction for natural hazards: putting research into practice provides a practical yet intellectually challenging investigation into the emerging field of disaster risk reduction. This book was published as a special issue of Environmental Hazards
The Handbook provides a comprehensive statement and reference point for hazard and disaster research, policy making, and practice in an international and multi-disciplinary context. It offers critical reviews and appraisals of current state of the art and future development of conceptual, theoretical and practical approaches as well as empirical knowledge and available tools. Organized into five inter-related sections, this Handbook contains sixty-five contributions from leading scholars. Section one situates hazards and disasters in their broad political, cultural, economic, and environmental context. Section two contains treatments of potentially damaging natural events/phenomena organized by major earth system. Section three critically reviews progress in responding to disasters including warning, relief and recovery. Section four addresses mitigation of potential loss and prevention of disasters under two sub-headings: governance, advocacy and self-help, and communication and participation. Section five ends with a concluding chapter by the editors. The engaging international contributions reflect upon the politics and policy of how we think about and practice applied hazard research and disaster risk reduction. This Handbook provides a wealth of interdisciplinary information and will appeal to students and practitioners interested in Geography, Environment Studies and Development Studies.
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.
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.
"Disaster management is a multidisciplinary area, covering a wide range of issues such as monitoring, forecasting, evacuation, search and rescue, relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation. It also requires multi-sectoral governance as scientists, planners, volunteers and communities all have important roles to play. These roles and activities span the pre-, during and post-disaster phases. Besides, shift of emphasis from disaster response to risk reduction has opened up areas of exploratory research in the subject. Vulnerability refers to the susceptibility of a community to a hazard. Vulnerability analysis seeks to predict disasters by ensuring timely preparedness on the part of people and institutions and concerned government agencies. The emerging arena of disaster mitigation is also becoming an integral aspect of development planning, policy formulation and implementation. This is where this book comes in. It contains 22 chapters in the form of conceptual and empirical case studies from India and other developed countries. The blend of theory, research and policy makes this book eminently worthwhile for anyone interested in disaster vulnerability and mitigation together with monitoring and forecasting and policy perspectives. It would be useful for students, researchers and teachers of geography, environmental studies, disaster management, civil engineering and policy science."
This book provides insight on how disaster risk management can increase the resilience of society to various natural hazards. The multi-dimensionality of resilience and the various different perspectives in regards to disaster risk reduction are taken explicitly into account by providing studies and approaches on different scales and ranging from natural science based methods to social science frameworks. For all chapters, special emphasis is placed on implementation aspects and specifically in regards to the targets and priorities for action laid out in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. The chapters provide also a starting point for interested readers on specific issues of resilience and therefore include extensive reference material and important future directions for research.
This textbook provides a thorough introduction to natural disaster risk management. Many aspects of disaster risk management, such as those involved in earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, avalanches and mudslides call for similar prevention and preparedness instruments, management concepts, and countermeasures. This textbook assumes the viewpoint of a regional disaster risk manager who is responsible for a certain area, and for making the lives of the people who live there safer, regardless of the type of natural disaster that may occur. The same holds true for boosting preparedness and awareness in the population at risk. The book includes numerous examples of hazard mitigation concepts and techniques, as well as ways of intensively involving the local population in prevention schemes at an early stage. Furthermore, it provides an in-depth examination of the function of risk communication, both as an instrument for disseminating official information and as a function of public media. In closing, a chapter on risk splitting offers insights into insurance-based models for risk financing. This comprehensive book is a must-read for all students, researchers and practitioners dealing with natural disaster risk management.
Emerging Voices in Natural Hazards Research provides a synthesis of the most pressing issues in natural hazards research by new professionals. The book begins with an overview of emerging research on natural hazards, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, wildfires, sea-level rise, global warming, climate change, and tornadoes, among others. Remaining sections include topics such as socially vulnerable populations and the cycles of emergency management. Emerging Voices in Natural Hazards Research is intended to serve as a consolidated resource for academics, students, and researchers to learn about the most pressing issues in natural hazard research today. - Provides a platform for readers to keep up-to-date with the interdisciplinary research that new professionals are producing - Covers the multidisciplinary perspectives of the hazards and disasters field - Includes international perspectives from new professionals around the world, including developing countries
Climate change is increasingly of great concern to the world community. The earth has witnessed the buildup of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere, changes in biodiversity, and more occurrences of natural disasters. Recently, scientists have begun to shift their emphasis away from curbing carbon dioxide emission to adapting to carbon dioxide emission. The increase in natural disasters around the world is unprecedented in earth's history and these disasters are often associated to climate changes. Many nations along the coastal lines are threatened by massive floods and tsunamis. Earthquakes are increasing in intensity and erosion and droughts are problems in many parts of the developing countries. This book is therefore to investigate ways to prepare and effectively manage these disasters and possibly reduce their impacts. The focus is on mitigation strategies and policies that will help to reduce the impacts of natural disasters. The book takes an in-depth look at climate change and its association to socio-economic development and cultures especially in vulnerable communities; and investigates how communities can develop resilience to disasters. A balanced and a multiple perspective approach to manage the risks associated with natural disasters is offered by engaging authors from the entire globe to proffer solutions.
This book announces the new, interdisciplinary field of critical disaster studies. Unlike most existing approaches to disaster, critical disaster studies begins with the idea that disasters are not objective facts, but rather are interpretive fictions—and they shape the way people see the world. By questioning the concept of disaster itself, critical disaster studies reveals the stakes of defining people or places as vulnerable, resilient, or at risk. As social constructs, disaster, vulnerability, resilience, and risk shape and are shaped by contests over power. Managers and technocrats often herald the goals of disaster response and recovery as objective, quantifiable, or self-evident. In reality, the goals are subjective, and usually contested. Critical disaster studies attends to the ways powerful people often use claims of technocratic expertise to maintain power. Moreover, rather than existing as isolated events, disasters take place over time. People commonly imagine disasters to be unexpected and sudden, making structural conditions appear contingent, widespread conditions appear local, and chronic conditions appear acute. By placing disasters in broader contexts, critical disaster studies peels away that veneer. With chapters by scholars of five continents and seven disciplines, Critical Disaster Studies asks how disasters come to be known as disasters, how disasters are used as tools of governance and politics, and how people imagine and anticipate disasters. The volume will be of interest to scholars of disaster in any discipline and especially to those teaching the growing number of courses on disaster studies.
