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.

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.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling Alan Gratz comes this must-read middle grade novel tackling the urgent topic of climate change. Fire. Flood. Ice. Three natural disasters. Three kids who must fight to survive and change things for the better. In California, Akira Kristiansen is driving through the mountains with her mom when a wildfire sparks - and grows scarily fast. In just moments, Akira and her family have to evacuate... but which way is safe with fire all around them? In Churchill, Manitoba, Owen Mackenzie is running a tour for travellers who've come to see the polar bears. Lately the bears show up more and more as the ice thins. When Owen and his friend see a bear much too close for comfort, they end up in a fight for their lives. In Miami, a hurricane bears down on Natalie Torres. That's not so uncommon ... but everyone's saying this could be it. The Big One. Natalie and her mother don't have anywhere to run to, so they hunker down to ride out the storm. Akira, Owen, and Natalie are all swept up in the global effects of climate change, each struggling to survive. But the three kids are more deeply connected than they could ever imagine - in ways that will change them can change the world. From the bestselling author of Refugee, Allies and Ground Zero Sheds a light on the increasingly urgent threat of climate change in an engaging way Gratz writing is exciting and takes readers on a nonstop adventure

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.

Disasters present a broad range of human, social, financial, economic and environmental impacts, with potentially long-lasting, multi-generational effects. The financial management of these impacts is a key challenge for individuals and governments in developed and developing countries. G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors and APEC Finance Ministers have recognised the importance and priority of disaster risk management strategies and, in particular, disaster risk assessment and risk financing. The OECD has supported the development of strategies for the financial management of natural and man-made disaster risks, under the guidance of the OECD High-Level Advisory Board on Financial Management of Large-scale Catastrophes and the OECD Insurance and Private Pensions Committee. This work has included the elaboration of an OECD Recommendation on Good Practices for Mitigating and Financing Catastrophic Risks and a draft Recommendation on Disaster Risk Financing Strategies; The Financial Management of Flood Risk extends this work by applying the lessons from the OECD's analysis of disaster risk financing practices and the development of its guidance to the specific case of floods.

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.

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.

Wasn't That a Mighty Day: African American Blues and Gospel Songs on Disaster takes a comprehensive look at sacred and secular disaster songs, shining a spotlight on their historical and cultural importance. Featuring newly transcribed lyrics, the book offers sustained attention to how both Black and white communities responded to many of the tragic events that occurred before the mid-1950s. Through detailed textual analysis, Luigi Monge explores songs on natural disasters (hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes); accidental disasters (sinkings, fires, train wrecks, explosions, and air disasters); and infestations, epidemics, and diseases (the boll weevil, the jake leg, and influenza). Analyzed songs cover some of the most well-known disasters of the time period from the sinking of the Titanic and the 1930 drought to the Hindenburg accident, and more. Thirty previously unreleased African American disaster songs appear in this volume for the first time, revealing their pertinence to the relevant disasters. By comparing the song lyrics to critical moments in history, Monge is able to explore how deeply and directly these catastrophes affected Black communities; how African Americans in general, and blues and gospel singers in particular, faced and reacted to disaster; whether these collective tragedies prompted different reactions among white people and, if so, why; and more broadly, how the role of memory in recounting and commenting on historical and cultural facts shaped African American society from 1879 to 1955.

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.

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.