Biological and Environmental Hazards, Risks, and Disasters, Second Edition provides an integrated look at major impacts to the Earth’s biosphere caused by diseases, algal blooms, insects, animals, species extinction, deforestation, land degradation, and comet and asteroid strikes, with important implications for humans. This second edition from Elsevier’s Hazards and Disasters Series incorporates perspectives from the natural and social sciences to offer in-depth coverage of threats from microscopic organisms to celestial objects and their potential impacts. Contributions from expert biological, health, ecological, environmental, wildlife, physical, and health scientists, readers will gain valuable insights on damages, causality, economic impacts, preparedness, and mitigation.

In March 2011 the Fukushima nuclear power plant (NPP) in Japan was hit by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami which resulted in the release of significant amounts of radioactive material. The incident led to the suspension of nuclear programmes by a number of countries. This book provides a definitive account of the accident.

Since the turn of the millennium, more than one million people have been killed and 2.3 billion others have been directly affected by natural disasters around the world. In cases like the 2010 Haiti earthquake or the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, these disasters have time and time again wrecked large populations and national infrastructures. While recognizing that improved rescue, evacuation, and disease control are crucial to reducing the effects of natural disasters, in the final analysis, poverty remains the main risk factor determining the long-term impact of natural hazards. Furthermore, natural disasters have themselves a tremendous impact on the poorest of the poor, who are often ill-prepared to deal with natural hazards and for whom a hurricane, an earthquake, or a drought can mean a permanent submersion in poverty. The Economic Impacts of Natural Disasters focuses on these concerns for poverty and vulnerability. Written by a collection of esteemed scholars in disaster management and sustainable development, the report provides an overview of the general trends in natural disasters and their effects by focusing on a critical analysis of different methodologies used to assess the economic impact of natural disasters. Economic Impacts presents six national case studies (Bangladesh, Vietnam, India, Nicaragua, Japan and the Netherlands) and shows how household surveys and country-level macroeconomic data can analyze and quantify the economic impact of disasters. The researchers within Economic Impacts have created path-breaking work and have opened new avenues for thinking and debate to push forward the frontiers of knowledge on economics of natural disasters. "A great report and an important addition to the literature about the economics of disasters and the cost-effectiveness of prevention, mitigation and adaption, including a good number of interesting and relevant applications from developed and devloping countries."-Javier E. Baez, Independent Evaluation Group, The World Bank

The world's population is expected to increase to over 8 billion by 2020. About 60% of the total population of the world lives in coastal areas and 65% of the cities with a population of over 2.5 million are located in coastal areas. Written by an international panel of experts in the fields of engineering and risk management, The Handbook of Coastal Disasters Mitigation presents a coherent overview of 10 years of coastal disaster risk management and engineering, during which some of the most relevant events of recent time have taken place, including the Indian Ocean tsunami, hurricanes Katrina and Sandy in the United States or the 2011 Japanese tsunami.

Evaluating the myriad dimensions of how disasters can affect economic activity and decision-making, this cutting-edge Handbook presents a timely analysis of the conditions that reduce or exacerbate disaster impacts. Addressing developments in research on disaster economics, internationally recognized scholars explore the role of both the private and public sectors in managing and mitigating disasters. Chapters discuss important theoretical considerations in the evaluation of the impacts of disasters on economic activity, including the behavioral consequences, biases and heuristics, and risk preferences. Delving deeper into disaster economics, the Handbook then presents empirical methods and applications used in modelling disaster impact evaluation, with research focusing on impacts on economic growth, government fiscal and social conditions, well-being, and migration. Informed by the latest research on the economics of pandemics, the Handbook concludes by presenting novel approaches to evaluating and improving risk management, resilience, recovery and adaptability in the face of disasters. A valuable resource for conducting research, this Handbook will prove vital to students and scholars of developmental and environmental economics. Providing a broad range of guidance from disaster response experts, it will also prove useful to practitioners and policymakers concerned with the economics of disasters.

China is the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world and also suffers from devastating climate catastrophes. Increasingly, policymakers in China have come to realize that government alone cannot adequately prevent or defray climate-related disaster risks. This book contends that a better way to manage catastrophe risk in China is through private insurance rather than directly through the Chinese government. In addition, private insurance could function as a substitute for, or complement to, government regulation of catastrophe risks by causing policyholders to take greater precautions to reduce climate change risks. This book's unique contribution lies in explaining how private sector insurance could be harnessed to better protect China from climate change risks, addressing the shortcomings in China's private sector when it comes to the incentive and capacity to provide catastrophe insurance. Following the dual principles of insurers acting as private risk regulators and the government acting as a last resort, this book proposes a multi-layered public-private catastrophe insurance partnership in China. It uses a thorough combination of law and economics methodology to analyze these issues. Researchers, academics, and journalists writing on climate change in China will have a strong interest in this book, as will practitioners and policy-making bodies, Chinese government officials and agencies in insurance, finance and environmental regulation, private lawyers, private insurers, and global reinsurers.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. With disasters increasing in both frequency and intensity, this timely Advanced Introduction provides a fresh perspective on how the concepts established in the Sendai Framework can be put into practice to reduce disaster risk, improve preparedness in cost-effective ways, and develop whole-of-society approaches to increasing resilience. Key Features: Provides evidence-informed coverage of the core areas of disaster risk reduction Identifies the implementation issues and challenges to anticipation, preparedness, evaluation and governance and the strategies that can be used to facilitate it Discusses individual and collective ways to manage recovery and to learn from disaster experiences and programmes such as Build Back Better to prepare people to deal with disasters more effectively in the future Incorporating research on preparedness modelling, evaluation strategies, adaptive governance, and transformative learning, this Advanced Introduction will be invaluable to students and scholars of environmental management, governance and regulation interested in disaster risk reduction. It will also be a vital resource to policymakers looking to strengthen their disaster preparedness and recovery measures.

This comprehensive Handbook assesses the escalation of global natural disasters as a result of climate change. Examining the complex interplay of human and natural activities, it highlights the growing vulnerability of people and communities in developing countries to floods, landslides, cyclones, heat waves and wildfires. The Handbook opens with a global framework analysis, outlining the implications of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement and the Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction. International contributors address the roles of stakeholders in mitigating climate hazards, as well as offer detailed analysis of cross-cutting issues, including poverty, health, education and gender. Concluding chapters address the future of climate change mitigation and disaster protection, exploring the growing role of emerging technologies in disaster resilience and sustainable development. Bringing together cutting-edge research from renowned global scholars and professionals, this Handbook offers key insights for researchers and students of environmental studies and development studies, particularly those focusing on natural disasters and climate technologies. The empirical data and case analysis will also benefit practitioners, professionals and policymakers working in climate risk relief.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. With disasters increasing in both frequency and intensity, this timely Advanced Introduction provides a fresh perspective on how the concepts established in the Sendai Framework can be put into practice to reduce disaster risk, improve preparedness in cost-effective ways, and develop whole-of-society approaches to increasing resilience. Key Features: Provides evidence-informed coverage of the core areas of disaster risk reduction Identifies the implementation issues and challenges to anticipation, preparedness, evaluation and governance and the strategies that can be used to facilitate it Discusses individual and collective ways to manage recovery and to learn from disaster experiences and programmes such as Build Back Better to prepare people to deal with disasters more effectively in the future Incorporating research on preparedness modelling, evaluation strategies, adaptive governance, and transformative learning, this Advanced Introduction will be invaluable to students and scholars of environmental management, governance and regulation interested in disaster risk reduction. It will also be a vital resource to policymakers looking to strengthen their disaster preparedness and recovery measures.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share at Elgaronline. Centralizing the role of land and landowners, Spatial Flood Risk Management brings together knowledge from socio-economy, public policy, hydrology, geomorphology, and engineering to establish an interdisciplinary knowledge base on spatial approaches to managing flood risks. Discussing key barriers and sharing evidence-based best practices to flood risk management, international contributors involved in the LAND4FLOOD EU COST Action initiative (CA16209) seek transferrable solutions to the implementation challenges of nature-based solutions. Introducing the concept of spatial flood risk management, the multi-national teams of authors consider the notion of land through three analytical lenses: as a biophysical system, a socio-economic resource, and a solution to flood-risk management. Advocating for a more comprehensive approach, the book explores options of where and how to store water within catchments, including decentralized water retention in the hinterland, flood storage along rivers, and planned flooding in resilient cities. Bringing together the existing knowledge on the relation between flood risk management and land with an international and interdisciplinary scope, this book will prove invaluable to academics, policy makers and public authorities involved in flood risk management, urban planners, and governing environmental bodies.

Landslide Hazards, Risks and Disasters Second Edition makes a broad but detailed examination of major aspects of mass movements and their consequences, and provides knowledge to form the basis for more complete and accurate monitoring, prediction, preparedness and reduction of the impacts of landslides on society. The frequency and intensity of landslide hazards and disasters has consistently increased over the past century, and this trend will continue as society increasingly utilises steep landscapes. Landslides and related phenomena can be triggered by other hazard and disaster processes - such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and wildfires - and they can also cause other hazards and disasters, making them a complex multi-disciplinary challenge. This new edition of Landslide Hazards, Risks and Disasters is updated and includes new chapters, covering additional topics including rockfalls, landslide interactions and impacts and geomorphic perspectives. Knowledge, understanding and the ability to model landslide processes are becoming increasingly important challenges for society extends its occupation of increasingly hilly and mountainous terrain, making this book a key resource for educators, researchers and disaster managers in geophysics, geology and environmental science.

Earth Observation for Flood Applications: Progress and Perspectives describes the latest scientific advances in Earth Observation. With recent floods around the world becoming ever more devastating, there is a need for better science enabling more effective solutions at a fast pace. This book aims at stretching from the current flood mapping to diverse real data so as to estimate the flood risk and damage. Earth Observation for Flood Applications: Progress and Perspectives includes three parts containing each a separate but complementary topic area under floods. Each chapter unfolds various applications, case studies, and illustrative graphics. In terms of flood mapping and monitoring, the usage of multi-sensor satellite data, web-services information, microwave remote sensing methods are discussed in depth. So, this book is a valuable resource for scientists, researchers, and students in the area of earth observation.

In 1994, a wildfire on Colorado's Storm King Mountain was wrongly identified at the outset as occurring in South Canyon.

This unintentional, seemingly minor human error was the first in a string of mistakes that would be compounded into one of the greatest tragedies in the annals of firefighting. Before it was done, fourteen courageous firefighters--men and women, hotshots, smoke jumpers, and helicopter crew--would lose their lives battling the deadly so-called South Canyon blaze.

John N. Maclean's award-winning national bestseller Fire on the Mountain is a stunning reconstruction of the killer conflagration and its aftermath--a page-turning true adventure of nature at its most unforgiving, and a powerful, indelible portrait of a unique breed of heroes who regularly and without question place their lives on the line.