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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Environmental impact of natural disasters & phenomena
This study develops a methodology for rapidly obtaining approximate
estimates of the economic consequences from numerous natural,
man-made and technological threats. This software tool is intended
for use by various decision makers and analysts to obtain estimates
rapidly. It is programmed in Excel and Visual Basic for
Applications (VBA) to facilitate its use. This tool is called E-CAT
(Economic Consequence Analysis Tool) and accounts for the
cumulative direct and indirect impacts (including resilience and
behavioral factors that significantly affect base estimates) on the
U.S. economy. E-CAT is intended to be a major step toward advancing
the current state of economic consequence analysis (ECA) and also
contributing to and developing interest in further research into
complex but rapid turnaround approaches. The essence of the
methodology involves running numerous simulations in a computable
general equilibrium (CGE) model for each threat, yielding synthetic
data for the estimation of a single regression equation based on
the identification of key explanatory variables (threat
characteristics and background conditions). This transforms the
results of a complex model, which is beyond the reach of most
users, into a "reduced form" model that is readily comprehensible.
Functionality has been built into E-CAT so that its users can
switch various consequence categories on and off in order to create
customized profiles of economic consequences of numerous risk
events. E-CAT incorporates uncertainty on both the input and output
side in the course of the analysis.
Beyond Control reveals the Mississippi as a waterway of change,
unnaturally confined by ever-larger levees and control structures.
During the greatflood of 1973, the current scoured a hole beneath
the main structure near Baton Rouge and enlarged a pre-existing
football-field-size crater. That night the Mississippi River nearly
changed its course for a shorter and steeper path to the sea. Such
a map-changing reconfiguration of the country's largest river would
bear national significance aswell as disastrous consequences for
New Orleans and towns like Morgan City, at the mouth of the
Atchafalaya River. Since 1973, the US Army Corps of Engineers
Control Complex at Old River has kept the Mississippi from jumping
out of its historic channel and plunging through the Atchafalaya
Basin to the Gulf of Mexico. Beyond Control traces the history of
this phenomenon, beginning with a major channel shift around 3,000
years ago. By the time European colonists began to explore the
Lower Mississippi Valley, a unique confluence of waterways had
formed where the Red River joined the Mississippi, and the
Atchafalaya River flowed out into the Atchafalaya Basin. A series
of human alterations to this potentially volatile web of rivers,
starting with a bend cutoff in 1831 by Captain Henry Miller Shreve,
set the forces in motion for the Mississippi's move into the
Atchafalaya Basin. Told against the backdrop of the Lower
Mississippi River's impending diversion, the book's chapters
chronicle historic floods, rising flood crests, a changing strategy
for flood protection, and competing interests in the management of
the Old River outlet. Beyond Control is both a history and a close
look at an inexorable, living process happening now in the
twenty-first century.
This book seeks to provide a comprehensive reconstruction of the
1667 Dalmatia earthquake phenomenon on the basis of eyewitness
testimony. At the same time, one of the distinctive features of
this book is that the earthquake observations are treated and
arranged in time and space so as to provide earthquake data on the
macroseismic intensity, which might be used in seismic hazard and
risk studies. On April 6, 1667 a devastating earthquake struck the
southernmost region of Dalmatia (Croatia). Most of the affected
area at that time belonged to the independent Republic of Ragusa,
the capital of which was the town of Ragusa, today Dubrovnik. The
1667 earthquake left behind a lasting scar on the history and life
of the Republic, as it was the catalyst of a serious financial
crisis. Both the economic and more general consequences of this
earthquake have been discussed in historiographical and
seismological essays in late 20th-century works. This book seeks to
provide a comprehensive reconstruction of the 1667 Dalmatia
earthquake phenomenon on the basis of eyewitness testimony. At the
same time, one of the distinctive features of this book is that the
earthquake observations are treated and arranged in time and space
so as to provide earthquake data on the macroseismic intensity,
which might be used in seismic hazard and risk studies. The book is
also intended as an extensive case history, which allows the author
to include some guidelines on how to approach the study of a past
earthquake and proceed to its full seismological interpretation. In
this respect, a unique feature of the book is the comprehensive and
detailed analysis of the original documentary sources in their
proper context, effectively combining the interpretative approaches
of history and seismology.
This book analyzes how climate change adaptation can be implemented
at the community, regional and national level. Featuring a variety
of case studies, it illustrates strategies, initiatives and
projects currently being implemented across the world. In addition
to the challenges faced by communities, cities and regions seeking
to cope with climate change phenomena like floods, droughts and
other extreme events, the respective chapters cover topics such as
the adaptive capacities of water management organizations,
biodiversity conservation, and indigenous and climate change
adaptation strategies. The book will appeal to a broad readership,
from scholars to policymakers, interested in developing strategies
for effectively addressing the impacts of climate change.
This book explores the nexus among food, energy and water in
peri-urban areas, demonstrating how relevant this nexus is for
environmental sustainability. In particular it examines the
effective management of the nexus in the face of the risks and
trade-offs of mitigation policies, and as a mean to create
resilience to climate change. The book delineates strategies and
actions necessary to develop and protect our natural resources and
improve the functionality of the nexus, such as: integrated
management of the major resources that characterize the metabolism
of a city, stronger coordination among stakeholders who often
weight differently the services that are relevant to their
individual concerns, integration of efforts towards environmental
protection, adaptation to and prevention of climate change and
disaster risks mitigation.
This book discusses that disasters, whether natural or man-made,
are essentially a human phenomenon. When a city becomes gridlocked
and its resources depleted, the collective resilience of those who
remain on the ground becomes critical to its immediate survival and
recovery. The author argues that in order to build resilient
futures for our urban environment, we need more than the skills of
architects, engineers, and planners. Support of local communities
and policymakers is also needed. The book revisits the recent
catastrophic events: the earthquakes in Port-au-Prince and
Christchurch, and the hurricane in New Orleans, and places emphasis
on the social, cultural, and political processes of rebuilding
houses, facilities, and infrastructure that often go unnoticed.
Understanding the wider context for how a built project comes to
be, the author argues, is a solid indicator of its longevity than
by the measure of its material characteristics alone, and gives us
reasons to question the validity of our intentions as designers of
the future. This book provides strategies for thinking about,
assessing, and developing ways for place-makers from all
disciplines to become responsible citizen designers of our cities.
These proceedings include most of the available information on this
major seismic event and its consequences. With an estimated moment
magnitude of 7.7 and a heavy toll in terms of human and economic
losses, it ranks as the largest intermediate-depth earthquake in
Europe in the twentieth century. Nevertheless, because of the
difficult conditions in the 1940s, the lessons learnt after the
Vrancea earthquake were not extensively shared with the
international scientific community and thus, this book fills a gap
in the literature discussing the knowledge acquired after major
disasters. Past experience together with current understanding of
the 1940 Vrancea earthquake are presented along with the latest
information on Romanian seismicity, seismic hazard and risk
assessment, and seismic evaluation and rehabilitation of buildings
and structures. Moreover, it includes excerpts from Romanian
post-disaster reports and textbooks concerning the earthquake.
This is the first English language book that systematically
introduces the spatial and temporal patterns of major natural
disasters in China from 1949 to 2014. It also reveals natural
disaster formation mechanisms and processes, quantifies
vulnerability to these disasters, evaluates disaster risks,
summarizes the key strategies of integrated disaster risk
governance, and analyzes large-scale disaster response cases in
recent years in China. The book can be a good reference for
researchers, students, and practitioners in the field of natural
disaster risk management and risk governance for improving the
understanding of natural disasters in China.
The expected time of impact, also known as the mean first passage
time (MFPT) to reach failure, is a critical metric in the
management of natural disasters. The complexity of the dynamics
governing natural disasters lead to stochastic behaviour. This book
shows that state transitions of many such systems translate into
random walks on their respective state spaces, biased and shaped by
environmental inhomogeneity. Thus the probabilistic treatment of
those random walks gives valuable insights of expected behaviour. A
comprehensive case study of predicting cyclone induced flood is
followed by a discussion of generic methods that predict MFPT
addressing directional bias. This is followed by discussing MFPT
prediction methods in systems showing network inhomogeneity. All
presented methods are illustrated using real datasets of natural
disasters. The book ends with a short discussion of possible future
research areas introducing the problem of predicting MFPT for
bush-fire propagation.
As urbanisation progresses, urban environments have been confronted
with many challenges, such as air pollution and stormwater
disaster. The latter has been especially damaging in recent years,
as vulnerable places suffer from inundating onslaughts of surface
run-off following hurricanes and heavy rainfall. This book analyses
the implementation of stormwater management practices. It presents
the systematic theory behind these methods, and provides multiple
case studies showing how drainage development can create a
sustainable urban environment.
This book provides international perspective for those studying or
working in the security domain, from enforcement to policy. It
focuses on non-traditional threats in a landscape that has been
described as transnational in nature and incorporates natural
disasters, gang violence, extremism and terrorism, amongst other
issues. Chapters provide innovative thinking on themes including
cyber security, maritime security, transnational crime, human
security, globalization and economic security. Relevant theoretical
frameworks are presented and readers are expertly guided through
complex threats, from matters pertaining to health security which
pose threats not only to humans but also have significant national
security implications, to issues regarding critical infrastructure
vulnerability and the complexity of understanding terrorist
operations. Authors reveal how emerging uncertainties regarding
global critical infrastructure and supply chain security, food
security, and health security are linked to the notion of human
security. Security professionals, policy makers and academics will
all gain from the insights, strategies and perspectives in this
book. It builds understanding of the deepening and broadening
domain of security studies and provides a valuable reference text
for courses on security studies and international relations.
This book offers an insight into the global occurrence,
geomorphology, evolution, weathering and erosion of coastal cliffs
and bluffs. Stabilization and preservation of cliffs are treated in
detail. Mitigation of cliff hazards and preservation of scenic
features and sites of scientific importance requires effective
coastal cliff management that can only be based on thorough
knowledge of the physical processes at work. Cliffs have been cut
in various geological formations, and have taken shape as a sequel
to a world-wide sea level rise. Most cliffs have receded as the
result of weathering and erosion, but some are now stable. Where
they are actively receding, consuming useful agricultural or
forested land or threatening coastal structures such as roads,
buildings and seaside towns, it may be necessary to halt their
retreat, or at least to modify it, by coastal cliff management.
This work focuses on the potential impact of climate change on soil
erosion in a monsoon-dominated sub-tropical region. Water-induced
soil erosion due to extreme rainfall during the monsoon period is a
major problem worldwide, from different environmental and
socio-economic perspectives. This study region covered (South
Bengal) is one of the fertile agricultural belts that produces a
good amount of produce and contributes to the country's GDP.
However, the rate of agricultural output has decreased rapidly in
recent times due to a decline in soil fertility. The
monsoon-dominated sub-tropical region has unique characteristics in
terms of seasonal temperature fluctuations and the availability of
rainfall events. The sub-tropical region is densely populated, with
the majority of the population relying on rain-fed agricultural
production systems. The declining rate of agricultural production
has also established that soil fertility is declining and soil
erosion is increasing. Numerous studies show that soil erosion is
the major cause of the region's rapidly increasing trend of land
degradation. A homeostatic mechanism cannot replace soil erosion,
and a gap arises between soil erosion and regolith formation.
Extreme changes in land use and land cover, population growth and
the lacking support for traditional agricultural practices and
management practices can accelerate the rate of soil erosion and
its associated reservoir sedimentation in most countries of the
tropical and sub-tropical environment. Quantitative information
with maximum possible accuracy through validation regarding soil
loss can be an essential part of the appropriate and sustainable
soil and water conservation planning. The precise aspects of modern
day management strategies are soil erosion susceptibility mapping
using empirical and semi-empirical models in a GIS platform or the
use of probability statistics. The main objective of this work is
to propose the most suitable development strategies considering the
amount of soil erosion for the present and future periods.
Extensive field research has been done to identify the support
practice factor that the local stakeholders adopt in this region.
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