Disasters both natural and human-induced are leading to spiralling costs in terms of human lives, lost livelihoods and damaged assets and businesses. Yet these consequences and the financial and human crises that follow catastrophes can often be traced to policies unsuited to the emerging scales of the problems they confront, and the lack of institutional capacity to implement planning and prevention or to manage disasters. This book seeks to overcome this mismatch and to guide development of a more strategic policy and institutional framework. This updated and revised second edition includes new coverage of climate change adaptation, which has rapidly become central to disaster and emergency planning and management. This is an essential handbook for practitioners across the world seeking to improve the quality, robustness and capacity of their disaster management mechanisms.

Disasters both natural and human-induced are leading to spiralling costs in terms of human lives, lost livelihoods and damaged assets and businesses. Yet these consequences and the financial and human crises that follow catastrophes can often be traced to policies unsuited to the emerging scales of the problems they confront, and the lack of institutional capacity to implement planning and prevention or to manage disasters. This book seeks to overcome this mismatch and to guide development of a policy and institutional framework. For the first time it brings together into a coherent framework the insights of public policy, institutional design and emergency and disaster management.

Disasters both natural and human-induced are leading to spiralling costs in terms of human lives, lost livelihoods and damaged assets and businesses. Yet these consequences and the financial and human crises that follow catastrophes can often be traced to policies unsuited to the emerging scales of the problems they confront, and the lack of institutional capacity to implement planning and prevention or to manage disasters. This book seeks to overcome this mismatch and to guide development of a more strategic policy and institutional framework. This updated and revised second edition includes new coverage of climate change adaptation, which has rapidly become central to disaster and emergency planning and management. This is an essential handbook for practitioners across the world seeking to improve the quality, robustness and capacity of their disaster management mechanisms.

This timely Handbook is based on the principle that disasters are social constructions and focuses on social science disaster research. It provides an interdisciplinary approach to disasters with theoretical, methodological, and practical applications. Attention is given to conceptual issues dealing with the concept "disaster" and to methodological issues relating to research on disasters. These include Geographic Information Systems as a useful research tool and its implications for future research. This seminal work is the first interdisciplinary collection of disaster research as it stands now while outlining how the field will continue to grow.

"This book brings together the latest scholarly research, theories, and case studies to investigate the scale and types of disasters that can impact a library"--

This century's major disasters from Hurricane Katrina and the Fukushima nuclear meltdown to devastating Nepalese earthquakes and the recent crippling volcanic eruptions and tsunamis in Tonga have repeatedly taught that government institutions are ill-prepared for major disaster events, leaving the most vulnerable among us unprotected. These tragedies represent just the beginning of a new era of disaster – an era of floods, heatwaves, droughts, and pandemics fueled by climate change. Laws and government institutions have struggled to adapt to the scope of the challenge; old models of risk no longer apply. This Handbook provides timely guidance, taking stock of the field of disaster law and policy as it has developed since Hurricane Katrina. Experts from a wide range of academic and practical backgrounds address the root causes of disaster vulnerability and offer solutions to build more resilient communities to ensure that no one is left behind.

Record breaking hurricane seasons, tornados, tsunamis, earthquakes, and intentional acts of mass-casualty violence, give lie to the delusion that disasters are the anomaly and not the norm. Disaster management is rooted in the fundamental belief that we can protect ourselves. Even if we cannot control all the causes, we can prepare and respond. We