Urban flooding is a significant challenge which today increasingly confronts the residents of the expanding cities and towns of developing countries, as well as policymakers and national, regional and local government officials. The Global Handbook presents the state-of-the art in urban flood risk management in a thorough and user-friendly way. It serves as a primer in integrated urban flood risk management for technical specialists, decision-makers and other concerned stakeholders in the pri...

Disaster management is a vibrant and growing field, driven by government spending in the wake of terrorist attacks and environmental debacles, as well as private-sector hiring of risk managers and emergency planners. An ever-increasing number of practicing professionals needs a reference that can provide a solid foundation in ALL major phases of supervision – mitigation, preparedness, response, communications, and recovery. As climate change leads to further costly catastrophes and as coun...

This book makes the case that many climate related scientists have provided data that confirm that burning fossil fuels has increased greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, which has had a major impact on climate change. Each of the six chapters provides many references and questions for review.The first chapter emphasizes worldwide awareness of the relationship between climate change and disasters in the Asia Pacific region. The following chapters cover such topics as climate change...

Introduction to International Disaster Management, Third Edition, continues to serve as the leading comprehensive overview of global emergency management. This edition provides practitioners and students alike with a comprehensive understanding of the disaster management profession by utilizing a global perspective and including the different sources of risk and vulnerability, the systems that exist to manage hazard risk, and the many different stakeholders involved. This update examines t...

Many areas of the world are at risk from landslides and their consequences; rainfall-triggered landslides particularly affect developing countries in the tropics. Rapid urbanization and the associated growth of unauthorized and densely populated communities in hazardous locations, such as steep slopes, are powerful drivers in a cycle of disaster risk accumulation. Frequently, it is the most socioeconomically vulnerable who inhabit landslide-prone slopes—thus increasing their exposure to la...

This book presents a framework, the Urban Risk Assessment, for assessing disaster and climate risk in cities which is intended to assist in decision-making, urban planning, and designing risk management programs. The approach seeks to strengthen coherence and consensus within and across cities in understanding and planning for risk from natural disasters and climate change. The target audience for this book includes policy makers, urban practitioners and technical staff, and international org...

This timely book provides a wealth of information to help city managers, policy analysts, and government administrators identify relevant urban environmental problems and an array of potential solutions, analyze policy solutions and outcomes, and communicate with the public regarding urban environmental problems and policies.

Poor people living in slums are at particularly high risk from the impacts of climate change and natural hazards. They live on the most vulnerable lands within cities, typically areas that are deemed undesirable by others and are thus affordable. Residents are exposed to the impacts of landslides, sea-level rise, flooding, and other hazards. Exposure to risk is exacerbated by overcrowded living conditions, lack of adequate infrastructure and services, unsafe housing, inadequate nutrition, and...

Better water management will be crucial if we are to meet many of the key challenges of this century - feeding the worlds growing population and reducing poverty, meeting water and sanitation needs, protecting vital ecosystems, all while adapting to climate change. The approach known as Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is widely recognized as the best way forward, but is poorly understood, even within the water sector. Since a core IWRM principle is that good water management m...

Worldwide, disasters and climate change pose a serious risk to sustainable urban development, resulting in escalating human and economic costs. Consequently, city authorities and other urban actors face the challenge of integrating risk reduction and adaptation strategies into their work. However, related knowledge and expertise are still scarce and fragmented.Cities, Disaster Risk and Adaptation explores ways in which resilient cities can be ‘built’ and sustainable urban ...

Current dominant thinking and practice in the private and public sectors asserts that peoples' development needs are in conflict with, or mutually exclusive to, the need to conserve the biosphere on which we depend. Consequently, we are asked to either diminish development in the name of conservation or diminish conservation in the name of development. Efforts to identify complementary objectives, or mutually acceptable trade-offs and compromises indicate, however, that this does not alway...