This book is about flooding, the risk it imposes on human well-being and related activities, and the main approaches used to deal with the impacts. The aim is to derive lessons for flood risk management. The book covers experiences from case studies in the five countries of Argentina, Australia, Botswana, Brazil and Taiwan. It indicates that in most areas around the world, floods disrupt human activities and also pose threats to human well-being whereas in other areas, particularly wetlands around the world, they are viewed as useful for the sustainability of ecosystems and human livelihoods. Due to climate variability and change, floods are expected to increase in frequency and intensity throughout the world. There is need to evaluate the current structural and non-structural approaches for dealing with flood risk and the impacts on human systems. Decision-making on the adoption of either structural or non-structural approaches to flood risk largely depends on information available and the means to achieve the intended objectives. Understanding the risk posed by flooding requires multidisciplinary assessments on the biophysical, socio-economic and cultural factors underlying the vulnerability of human systems. The book starts by identifying some methods which may be useful for flood assessments. Furthermore, it identifies the impacts of flooding and assesses the pros and cons of the related structural and non-structural responses. The challenges observed from the two main approaches are identified and suggestions are made for promoting flood risk management. Suggestions are made for strengthening support for non-structural approaches which are still inadequate in most developing countries, and require improvement in developed countries, given the increasingly complex nature of flood risk posed by extremes in climate variability.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management in Mediterranean Countries, ISCRAM-med 2015, held in Tunis, Tunisia, in October 2015. The objectives of the ISCRAM-med conference are to provide an outstanding opportunity and an international forum for local and international researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to address and discuss new trends and challenges with respect to information systems for crisis response and disaster management. The 14 full papers and 4 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 41 submissions. They are organized in topical sections on social computing, modeling and simulation, information and knowledge management, engineering of emergency management systems, and decision support systems and collaboration.

The rain began to fall on Easter Sunday, March 23, 1913. In Troy, 15 people lost their lives during the flood due to drowning, and in the weeks and months that followed an unknown number died from flood-related diseases. The story of what happened in Troy has often been overlooked, but in 1976 the Troy Historical Society Oral History Committee interviewed Troy flood survivors as a project for the bicentennial of the United States. These interviews, preserved on audiotapes, provide researchers firsthand accounts of what happened in the town. The late Mrs. Lois Shilling Davies, a past president of the Troy Historical Society who lived in Troy during the flood, deserves much of the credit for this invaluable resource, for it is she who conducted many of the interviews. Images of America: Troy and the Great Flood of 1913 relates how residents endured without having
any instruction or experience in emergency preparedness. This is a celebration of human bravery, kindness, and ingenuity--of people who triumphed over tragedy.

This book focuses on exploring the linkages between natural disasters and sustainable development at the global, regional, and national levels. Disasters and development are closely related, yet the disciplinary silos prevail and there is little communication and cooperation between the disaster management, environment, and development communities. One catastrophic event, such as an earthquake, tsunami, or cyclone, can destroy infrastructure, people's lives and livelihoods, and set back development. Similarly, slow onset disasters-often associated with global climate change-pose threats to development, livelihoods, food security, and long-term sustainable development. This book is uniquely aimed at bridging the gaps between the environmental, development, and disaster management communities. It traces the evolution of concepts and practice and highlights the linkages between natural disasters and sustainable development in key sectors, including food security, health, and water. The book includes case studies from the field highlighting the complex issues that challenge sustainable development and disaster risk management in practice. It draws policy conclusions for the global community based on state-of-the art knowledge from research and practice. The primary target groups for the book are researchers, including graduate students, in the fields of environment and sustainable development, geography, disaster risk reduction, and climate change studies. The second target group comprises practitioners and policymakers working in national and international organizations, the private sector, and civil society.

This book is devoted to current advances in the field of nonlinear mathematical physics and modeling of critical phenomena that can lead to catastrophic events. Pursuing a multidisciplinary approach, it gathers the work of scientists who are developing mathematical and computational methods for the study and analysis of nonlinear phenomena and who are working actively to apply these tools and create conditions to mitigate and reduce the negative consequences of natural and socio-economic disaster risk. This book summarizes the contributions of the International School and Workshop on Nonlinear Mathematical Physics and Natural Hazards, organized within the framework of the South East Europe Network in Mathematical and Theoretical Physics (SEENET MTP) and supported by UNESCO. It was held at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences from November 28 to December 2, 2013. The contributions are divided into two major parts in keeping with the scientific program of the meeting. Among the topics covered in Part I (Nonlinear Mathematical Physics towards Critical Phenomena) are predictions and correlations in self organized criticality, space-time structure of extreme current and activity events in exclusion processes, quantum spin chains and integrability of many-body systems, applications of discriminantly separable polynomials, MKdV-type equations, and chaotic behavior in Yang-Mills theories. Part II (Seismic Hazard and Risk) is devoted to probabilistic seismic hazard assessment, seismic risk mapping, seismic monitoring, networking and data processing in Europe, mainly in South-East Europe. The book aims to promote collaboration at the regional and European level to better understand and model phenomena that can cause natural and socio-economic disasters, and to contribute to the joint efforts to mitigate the negative consequence of natural disasters. This collection of papers reflects contemporary efforts on capacity building through developing skills, exchanging knowledge and practicing mathematical methods for modeling nonlinear phenomena, disaster risk preparedness and natural hazards mitigation. The target audience includes students and researchers in mathematical and theoretical physics, earth physics, applied physics, geophysics, seismology and earthquake danger and risk mitigation.

The main object of this book is placed on water pollution, water management from both quality and quantity, and water structures as well. It presents contributions of experts from the Czech Republic on water quality and quantity issues from the engineering point of view. It is devoted to a wide variety of water resources management issues, from stormwater management in urban areas, water quantity, hydraulics structures, hydrodynamic modeling to flood protection. TThe book brings state-of-the-art knowledge that can be effectively used for solving a variety of problems in integrated water resources management as well as the latest developments in the research area. This book is edited and authored by pioneers in the field who have been foreground of the development of water management in the Czech Republic. Consequently, this book is of interest to environmental professionals including scientists and policymakers in the water-related issues in the Czech Republic and elsewhere interested in analogies.

The book encompasses a set of papers on meteorological tsunamis covering various aspects on this rare but potentially destructive multiresonant phenomenon. Altogether an editorial and 15 contributions are part of this book; eight of the contributions deal with different aspects of meteotsunamis along the U.S. East Coast and in the region of the Great Lakes, including one paper introducing a new methodology in meteotsunami research. Seven more papers are documenting meteotsunamis in various coastal areas of the world oceans. All continents, except Antarctica, have been covered, with the authors representing 11 countries. Previously Published in Natural Hazards, Volume 74, No. 1, 2014

During the past 10 years following the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, invaluable lessons have been learned and great changes have been observed. Immediately after the disaster, the second World Conference on Disaster Reduction was held in Kobe, Japan, and formulated the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA: 2005-2015). HFA provided a platform and framework for changes and innovations, many of which were part of the recovery programs in the different countries affected by the 2004 disaster. This book is a modest attempt to review the lessons learned through the recovery process in the affected region. The book has 31 chapters, drawing lessons from four countries: India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. There are five sections: Overview (10 chapters), Indonesia (8 chapters), India (6 chapters), Sri Lanka (5 chapters), and Thailand (2 chapters). The primary target groups for this book are students and researchers in the fields of disaster risk reduction, environment, and development. The book provides them with a good idea of the current research trends and lessons over the past decade of recovery initiatives. Another target group comprises practitioners and policy makers, who will be able to apply the knowledge collected here to establishing policy and making decisions.

European settlement of Coos County began with a shipwreck. The Captain Lincoln wrecked on the north spit of the Coos Bay in January 1852. The crewmen built a temporary camp out of the ship's sails and named it "Camp Cast-Away." This was the first white settlement in the area. The men eventually traveled overland to Port Orford, where they told other settlers about the Coos Bay and its many natural resources. By December 1853, Coos County was established by the territorial legislature, and several towns were founded; the history of the area had been completely altered by a single shipwreck.

The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in U.S. history, drowning crops and displacing more than half a million people across seven states. It was also the first environmental disaster to be experienced virtually on a mass scale. The Flood Year 1927 draws from newspapers, radio broadcasts, political cartoons, vaudeville, blues songs, poetry, and fiction to show how this event provoked an intense and lasting cultural response. Americans at first seemed united in what Herbert Hoover called a "great relief machine," but deep rifts soon arose. Southerners, pointing to faulty federal levee design, decried the attack of Yankee water. The condition of African American evacuees prompted comparisons to slavery from pundits like W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells. And environmentalists like Gifford Pinchot called the flood "the most colossal blunder in civilized history." Susan Scott Parrish examines how these and other key figures--from entertainers Will Rogers, Miller & Lyles, and Bessie Smith to authors Sterling Brown, William Faulkner, and Richard Wright--shaped public awareness and collective memory of the event. The crises of this period that usually dominate historical accounts are war and financial collapse, but The Flood Year 1927 allows us to assess how mediated environmental disasters became central to modern consciousness.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Disaster Risk Reduction Education (DRRE) have overlapping areas of concern focusing on strengthening the link to local communities. In reality, there is significant synergy in ESD and disaster risk reduction (DRR). Both concepts urge looking at the communities, both focus on behavior changes and both call for linking knowledge to action. The Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) ends in 2014 and the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) ends in 2015. Therefore, at this junction, it is important to review the progress made over the past 10 years and to suggest future synergy options. This book is the first attempt to review these two emerging fields and to provide input to the future direction of education.

The book has 11 chapters, drawing lessons mainly from Japan and discussing their implications for the world. The first four chapters provide an overview of the ESD DRR linkage, ESD and its evolution, DRRE and Climate Change Education. These are followed by case studies from ESD practices in Japan, in schools, universities and communities.

The primary target groups for this book are students and researchers in the fields of environment, disaster risk reduction and climate change studies. The book provides them with a good idea of the current research trends in the field and furnishes basic knowledge about these vital topics. Another target group comprises practitioners and policy makers, who will be able to apply the knowledge collected here to establishing policy and making decisions."

Civil society organizations (CSOs) have played important roles over the years in the disaster field. Starting from the traditional approach of response and relief, the emphasis has gradually shifted to disaster risk reduction. From international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to national and local NGOs, all stakeholders have recognized the significance of and need for community-based risk reduction. In their different capacities they have endeavored to establish links to the policy options at the local and national levels. There still are many issues that remain untouched by CSOs, however, and local CSOs face special challenges in resources in terms of human, financial, and technical issues. Drawing examples from Asia, this book is structured on the roles of CSOs according to the Hyogo Framework for Action priority areas: policy making, risk assessment, education and training, underlying risk factors, and response-recovery. The primary target groups for this book are students and researchers in the fields of environment, disaster risk reduction, and climate change studies. The book provides a clear view of the current trends of research in the field and furnishes basic knowledge on these important topics. Another target group comprises practitioners and policy makers, who will be able to apply the knowledge collected here to policy and decision making.

This book identifies lessons learned from natural hazard experiences to help communities plan for and adapt to climate change. Written by leading experts, the case studies examine diverse experiences, from severe storms to sea-level related hazards, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, floods, earthquakes and tsunami, in North America, Europe, Australasia, Asia, Africa and Small Island Developing States. The lessons are grouped according to four imperatives: (i) Develop collaborative governance networks; (ii) build adaptive capabilities; (iii) invest in pre-event planning; and (iv) the moral imperative to undertake adaptive actions that advance resilience and sustainability.

""A theoretically rich and empirically grounded analysis of the interface between disaster risk management and climate change adaptation, comprehensive yet accessible, and very timely."" Mark Pelling, Department of Geography, King s College London, UK.

""This book represents a major contribution to the understanding of natural hazards planning as an urgent first step for reducing disaster risk and adapting to climate change to ensure sustainable and equitable development."" Salvano Briceno, Vice-Chair, Science Committee, Integrated Research on Disaster Risk IRDR, an ICSU/ISSC/ISDR programme. Former Director International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, UNISDR.

" What a welcome addition to the young literature on climate adaptation and hazard mitigation Bruce Glavovic and Gavin Smith each bring to the editing task a rare blend of solid scholarly attainment and on-the-ground experience that shines through in this extensively-documented synthesis of theoretical ideas from the realms of climate and hazards and their validation in a rich set of diverse case studies pulled in from around the world. This book should remain a classic for many years. " William H. Hooke, American Meteorological Society."

The title of this book, "Traditional Wisdom and Modern Knowledge for the Earth s Future," is from the theme of the 2013 Kyoto Regional Conference of the International Geographical Union. Over the past few decades, globalization has strengthened connections among countries and regions of the world and has greatly changed existing geographies. However, this trend has also fostered various problems on a regional or global scale, such as economic imbalance, social fragmentation, political conflicts, and environmental crises. While acknowledging the world s diversity, geography as a discipline must endeavor to resolve these problems by devising plans for cooperation and symbiotic existence of the different peoples of the world. An old Japanese proverb, "On-ko chi-shin," taken from a Chinese one, "Wengu Zhixin," says that only by exploring the old can one understand the new. People should first understand how traditional ideas, linked to interaction between society/culture and the environment, were formed in different countries and regions. Traditional wisdom, in harmony with the environment, remains prevalent. This book examines how we can mold the earth s future through such traditional wisdom and modern knowledge from the nine keynote speeches of the Kyoto Regional Conference focusing on three topics: traditional wisdom, the environment, and the Great East Japan Earthquake."

This book is a unique, transdisciplinary summary of the state of the art of disaster risk reduction (DRR) in Indonesia. It provides a comprehensive overview of disaster risk governance across all levels and multiple actors including diverse perspectives from practitioners and researchers on the challenges and progress of DRR in Indonesia. The book includes novel and emerging topics such as the role of culture, religion, psychology and the media in DRR. It is essential reading for students, researchers, and policy makers seeking to understand the nature and variety of environmental hazards and risk patterns affecting Indonesia. Following the introduction, the book has four main parts of key discussions. Part I presents disaster risk governance from national to local level and its integration into development sectors, Part II focuses on the roles of different actors for DRR, Part III discusses emerging issues in DRR research and practice, and Part IV puts forward variety of methods and studies to measure hazards, risks and community resilience.

The OpenBook Series highlights Ooligan Press's commitment to transparency on our road toward sustainable publishing. We believe that disclosing the impacts of the choices we make will not only help us avoid unintentional greenwashing, but also serve to educate those who are unfamiliar with the choices available to printers and publishers. Efforts to produce this series as sustainably as possible focus on paper and ink sources, design strategies, efficient and safe manufacturing methods, innovative printing technologies, supporting local and regional companies, and corporate responsibility of our contractors. All titles in the OpenBook series will have the OpenBook logo on the front cover and a corresponding OpenBook Environmental Audit inside, which includes a calculated paper impact from the Environmental Defense Fund.

For two months in the spring of 2016, the world watched as wildfire ravaged the Canadian town of Fort McMurray. Firefighters named the fire "the Beast." It acted like a mythical animal, alive with destructive energy, and they hoped never to see anything like it again. Yet it's not a stretch to imagine we will all soon live in a world in which fires like the Beast are commonplace. A glance at international headlines shows a remarkable increase in higher temperatures, stronger winds, and drier lands- a trifecta for igniting wildfires like we've never seen before. This change is particularly noticeable in the northern forests of the United States and Canada. These forests require fire to maintain healthy ecosystems, but as the human population grows, and as changes in climate, animal and insect species, and disease cause further destabilization, wildfires have turned into a potentially uncontrollable threat to human lives and livelihoods. Our understanding of the role fire plays in healthy forests has come a long way in the past century. Despite this, we are not prepared to deal with an escalation of fire during periods of intense drought and shorter winters, earlier springs, potentially more lightning strikes and hotter summers. There is too much fuel on the ground, too many people and assets to protect, and no plan in place to deal with these challenges. In Firestorm, journalist Edward Struzik visits scorched earth from Alaska to Maine, and introduces the scientists, firefighters, and resource managers making the case for a radically different approach to managing wildfire in the 21st century. Wildfires can no longer be treated as unavoidable events because the risk and dangers are becoming too great and costly. Struzik weaves a heart-pumping narrative of science, economics, politics, and human determination and points to the ways that we, and the wilder inhabitants of the forests around our cities and towns, might yet flourish in an age of growing megafires.

What can we learn from the spatial patterns of disasters? What human and structural factors need to be addressed to explain hazard vulnerability? As populations grow and the climate warms, how can natural hazards be mitigated? Thoroughly revised and updated, and now with a more global perspective, the second edition of this accessible text provides an integrated framework for understanding and managing natural hazards. Numerous case studies from around the world illustrate the complexities of extreme geophysical events and highlight their physical, social, political, and economic dimensions. The text identifies essential principles for tackling the fundamental causes of differential vulnerabilities that perpetuate human distress, and for promoting recovery and resilience. New to This Edition *New frameworks for understanding human resilience and adaptive capacity in recovery, dynamics of risk and uncertainty, and more. *Chapter on spatial and temporal aspects of hazards. *Discussions of cutting-edge topics, such as chronic disasters, controversies in international aid, and how hazards affect regions differentially. *Many new case studies, including Hurricanes Katrina and Charley, Superstorm Sandy, the 2011 Japan tsunami, Ecuador's chronic volcanic hazard, and others. *Reflects 20 years of research advances across the physical and social sciences, development trends, new technologies, and ongoing global climate change.

This book discusses techniques for predicting, preventing and controlling the hydrogeological instability of slopes consisting of cohesive soils. The proposed methodology is practical and innovative, and assumes a dynamic valence in defining the deformation process of underground failure as well as its activation through the assumption of a four-dimensional space-time continuum. This latter aspect is crucial for predicting a landslide in time to control it. At present, predicting, preventing and controlling hydrogeological instability in cohesive soils relies on mathematical modelling using specific software, the predictive reliability of which is rather deficient. Such modelling is based upon deterministic processes, which are entirely unsuitable for dealing with the complexity of vital processes occurring during the genesis of a landslide. In this work, the three-dimensional vision of a landslide as a set of distinct and independent phenomena is abandoned and the prediction and prevention of hydrogeological instability is pursued through the alternative of an indivisible totality of natural phenomena that includes the time factor. The book is of interest to graduates and researchers of applied geology, geotechnical, environmental and civil engineering, as well as professionals in the fields of hydrogeology and natural hazards.

This book discusses resilience in terms of structures' and infrastructures' responses to extreme loading conditions. These include static and dynamic loads such as those generated by blasts, terrorist attacks, seismic events, impact loadings, progressive collapse, floods and wind. In the last decade, the concept of resilience and resilient-based structures has increasingly gained in interest among engineers and scientists. Resilience describes a given structure's ability to withstand sudden shocks. In other words, it can be measured by the magnitude of shock that a system can tolerate. This book offers a valuable resource for the development of new engineering practices, codes and regulations, public policy, and investigation reports on resilience, and provides broad and integrated coverage of the effects of dynamic loadings, and of the modeling techniques used to compute the structural response to these loadings.

First published in 1990, this book describes the nature of the hurricane, one of the world's most dangerous weather hazards. It examines the formation, development, movement, and impact of these tropical cyclones, and assess the ability of science to describe, forecast, and control them.

Hurricane Sandy struck the United States in October 2012, causing an estimated $65 billion in damages. FEMA provides assistance to survivors through IHP and other programs. Part of its mission is to provide assistance quickly, but the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) previously identified weaknesses in FEMA's ability to do so while protecting government resources. Moreover, GAO's 2006 reports on Hurricane Katrina and Rita showed that FEMA did not consistently validate the identity of applicants or inspect damaged properties. This book discusses the extent to which FEMA implemented controls to help prevent IHP payments that are at risk of being improper or potentially fraudulent; and challenges FEMA and states faced obtaining information to help prevent IHP payments from duplicating or overlapping with other sources in its response to Hurricane Sandy. This book also discusses the timeliness of SBA's disaster assistance to small businesses; the loan approval rates for small businesses and reasons for decline for Hurricane Sandy and previous disasters; the extent to which SBA has implemented programs mandated by the Small Business Disaster Response and Loan Improvements Act of 2008; the progress DOT has made allocating, obligating, and disbursing DRAA surface transportation funds; how FTA's new Public Transportation Emergency Relief program compares to FEMA's and FHWA's emergency relief programs; and the extent to which FTA and FEMA have implemented their memorandum of agreement to coordinate their roles and responsibilities when providing assistance to transit agencies.

This book provides a wide range of studies on methods of assessing natural disaster risks and reducing those risks in the context of land use. A major benefit of the book is that it presents extensive research and practices from interdisciplinary perspectives through case studies of land use management against various natural disasters. The natural hazards include earthquakes, tsunami, floods, and other disasters, with case studies ranging from urban areas to areas with natural environments such as mountains, coasts, and river systems. By quantitative and qualitative analysis, this work illustrates how interactions between natural and human environments create natural disasters, and how disaster risks can be managed or reduced through methods related to land use. This book also covers a variety of challenges in land use management with sample cases from Asia as well as the United States and Europe. The main purpose is to provide greater insight into studies of natural disaster risks from the perspective of land use and the possibility of non-engineering methods to reduce those risks. This goal can be achieved through management of land use against various natural hazards in diverse environments.