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.

Integrating Mental Health and Disability into Public Health Disaster Preparedness and Response brings together the fields of mental/behavioral health, law, human rights, and medicine as they relate to disaster planning and response for people with disabilities, mental and behavioral health conditions and chronic illness. Children and adults with disabilities, mental/behavioral health conditions and chronic illness remain more vulnerable to the negative effects of emergencies and disasters than the general population. This book addresses the effects of emotional trauma, personal growth and resilience, the impact on physical health and systems of care, and legal compliance and advocacy. Following a philosophy of whole community emergency planning, inclusive of people with disabilities, the book advocates for considering and addressing these issues together in an effort to ultimately lead to greater resilience for individuals with disabilities and the whole community.

This special volume contains a selection of papers that were presented as part of the Seventh International Symposium on Natural and Man-Made Hazards (HAZARDS-98), held in Chania, Crete Island, Greece, during May 1998. The Symposium attracted broad international interest because many cases of natural disaster events, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, storm surges, forest fires, etc., that occurred in several parts of the world during the 1990s were presented not only for their physics but also from the point of view of their impact on society and their environmental consequences. Among these cases are the 1997 Red River Valley flood in Canada and the large earthquake of 18 November 1997, in Zakynthos, Greece. In addition, the volume contains contributions that apply advanced statistical methods and artificial intelligence techniques, such as GIS, and systems analysis to approach the description of physical processes, the discrimination of experimental data and the assessment and management of risk. Audience: This volume forms an excellent reference for scientists, students, engineers, the insurance industry, authorities specializing in public safety and natural hazards preparedness and mitigation plans.

Carbonate sediments are of increasing relevance for archives of past environmental conditions and for economical reasons in areas of geothermal energy and hydrocarbon reservoirs. Complex interaction of physical and chemical parameters with biological parameters determines the architecture and composition of carbonate sedimentary bodies. This book closes some of the still existing gaps in our understanding of the influence and interplay of physical, chemical, and biological parameters with carbonate sedimentation. An understanding of this interaction is not only required for reliable prediction of reservoir quality but also for a robust interpretation of environmental conditions in the past and the present. It is written by geologists for geologists in order to provide an easily accessible overview of the large amount of relevant information provided by the neighbouring sciences. The approach of the book is to document the modern depositional environments of three classical areas of carbonate deposition, each characteristic for a specific sedimentological setting (isolated platform, attached shelf, ramp) in order to assess both the range of physical, biological and chemical parameters and their sedimentary response. This book presents a comprehensive compilation based on data from published work and unpublished theses, and the integration of these data in order to extract previously undiscovered relationships between the discussed parameters and carbonate deposition.

As our economic and natural systems continue on their collision course, Bruce Jennings asks whether we have the political capacity to avoid large-scale environmental disaster. Can liberal democracy, he wonders, respond in time to ecological challenges that require dramatic changes in the way we approach the natural world? Must a more effective governance be less democratic and more autocratic? Or can a new form of grassroots ecological democracy save us from ourselves and the false promises of material consumption run amok? Ecological Governance is an ethicist's reckoning with how our political culture, broadly construed, must change in response to climate change. Jennings argues that during the Anthropocene era a social contract of consumption has been forged. Under it people have given political and economic control to elites in exchange for the promise of economic growth. In a new political economy of the future, the terms of the consumptive contract cannot be met without severe ecological damage. We will need a new guiding vision and collective aim, a new social contract of ecological trusteeship and responsibility.

The book addresses a weakness of current methodologies used in extreme value assessment, i.e. the assumption of stationarity, which is not given in reality. With respect to this issue a lot of new developed technologies are presented, i.e. influence of trends vs. internal correlations, quantitative uncertainty assessments, etc. The book not only focuses on artificial time series data, but has a close link to empirical measurements, in order to make the suggested methodologies applicable for practitioners in water management and meteorology.

by Peter J. Roussopoulos, Director, Southern Research Station The world and its ecosystems are repeatedly punctuated by natural disturbances, and human societies must learn to manage this reality Often severe and unp- dictable, dynamic natural forces disrupt human welfare and alter the structure and composition of natural systems Over the past century, land management ag- cies within the United States have relied on science to improve the sustainable management of natural resources Forest economics research can help advance this scientifc basis by integrating knowledge of forest disturbance processes with their economic causes and consequences As the twenty-frst century unfolds, people increasingly seek the goods and services provided by forest ecosystems, not only for wood supply, clean water, and leisure pursuits, but also to establish residential communities that are removed from the hustle and bustle of urban life As vividly demonstrated during the past few years, Santa Ana winds can blow wildfres down from the mountains of California, incinerating homes as readily as vegetation in the canyons below Hurricanes can fatten large swaths of forest land, while associated foods create havoc for urban and rural residents alike Less dramatic, but more insidious, trees and forest stands are succumbing to exotic insects and diseases, causing economic losses to private property values (including timber) as well as scenic and recreation values As human demands on public and private forests expand, science-based solutions need to be identifed so that social needs can be balanced with the vagaries of forest disturbance processes

This book examines old and new data on some of the 18th and 19th century earthquakes that either occurred or were clearly felt in southern regions of Poland. Particular emphasis is put on a detailed study and reinterpretation of the unusually severe Outer Western Carpathians earthquake on December 3, 1786 (7 I0, 5.3 Mw, 35 km depth), which was the last in a series of seismic events in the years 1785 and 1786. An assessment is also made of what we presently know about the seismicity of the Western Carpathians in Poland based on to instrumental data. The book also presents material relating to earthquakes of 6-9 I0 that affected south Poland and the surrounding regions: Zilina in Slovakia (1858), Gera in Thuringia (1872), the Sudetes on the Czech-Polish border (1883, 1901), and Lower Silesia, Poland (1895). These are analyzed and illustrated by 17 contemporary macroseismic intensity maps, some of which are considered to be remarkable for those times. A new seismic catalog for Poland is provided with amendments and updates up to the end of 2014. Noteworthy is the data on two unforeseen events: one about 60 km NE of the Polish border in 2004 and one in central Poland in 2012. It shows how important it is, not least for practical engineering purposes, to perform seismic monitoring even in seemingly aseismic regions.

This book includes selected papers presented at the international expert forum on "Mainstreaming Resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction in Education," held at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand on 1-2 December 2017. The journey towards disaster risk reduction and resilience requires the participation of a wide array of stakeholders ranging from academics to policymakers, to disaster managers. Given the multifaceted and interdependent nature of disasters, disaster risk reduction and resilience require a multidisciplinary problem-solving approach and evidence-based techniques from the natural, social, engineering, and other relevant sciences. Traditionally, hazard and disaster-related studies have been dominated by the engineering and social science fields. In this regard, the main purpose of this book is to capture the multidisciplinary and multisectoral nature of disaster risk reduction, and to gather existing data, research, conceptual work, and practical cases regarding risk reduction and its ties to sustainable development under a single "umbrella." Along with the sustainability aspect, the book also links disaster risk reduction with development, technology, governance, education, and climate change, and includes discussions on challenges, solutions, and best practices in the mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction.

In the present authors attempted to have a clear insight into the interworking of geotectonic, geomorphic, hydrologic and anthropogenic factors leading to landslide in the Shiv khola Watershed, the most worst affected region of Darjiling Himalaya. This book includes the parameters responsible for landslide events in mountainous areas. It provides knowledge and understanding to the local people, planners, and policy makers about the causes and consequences of landslides as well as provides a suitable method to mitigate the landslips. The book deals with the role of land, water and soil in landslide phenomena. These three attributes have been described in terms of critical rainfall, critical slope, critical height and changes and development of drainage network in landslides. Mitigations and site-specific management options are evaluated considering the roles of local govt., community and other organizations in both pre-slide and post-slide periods. Various scientific methods have been used to assess the landslides that will bring about tremendous help to researchers in the field. In particular, Researchers in Mountain Geomorphology and Geological and Geographical Society will get tremendous help from some topics such as 1-D slope stability model, SCS Curve Number Technique, Assessment of morphological parameters, application of RS & GIS, Application of Analytical Hierarchy Process. Semi-quantitative approach is followed for understanding spatial distribution of cohesion, friction angle slope, lithology and lineaments, drainage, upslope contributing area, land use and land cover types etc. This book also reveals some techniques and models for initiating slope instability.

In addressing humanitarian crises, the international community has long understood the need to extend beyond providing immediate relief, and to engage with long-term recovery activities and the prevention of similar crises in the future. However, this continuum from short-term relief to rehabilitation and development has often proved difficult to achieve. This book aims to shed light on the continuum of humanitarian crisis management, particularly from the viewpoint of major bilateral donors and agencies. Focusing on cases of armed conflicts and disasters, the authors describe the evolution of approaches and lessons learnt in practice when moving from emergency relief to recovery and prevention of future crises. Drawing on an extensive research project conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency Research Institute, this book compares how a range of international organizations, bilateral cooperation agencies, NGOs, and research institutes have approached the continuum in international humanitarian crisis management. The book draws on six humanitarian crises case studies, each resulting from armed conflict or natural disasters: Timor-Leste, South Sudan, the Syrian crisis, Hurricane Mitch in Honduras, the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia, and Typhoon Yolanda. The book concludes by proposing a common conceptual framework designed to appeal to different stakeholders involved in crisis management. Following on from the World Humanitarian Summit, where a new way of working on the humanitarian-development nexus was highlighted as one of five major priority trends, this book is a timely contribution to the debate which should interest researchers of humanitarian studies, conflict and peace studies, and disaster risk-management.

In 1998 Armenia was commemorating the tenth anniversary of the catastrophic Spitak earthquake. The Second International Conference on "Earthquake Hazard and Seismic Risk Reduction" sponsored by the Government of the Republic of Armenia and United Nation's International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (UN/IDNDR) was held in dedication to that event between 14-21 September (later referred to as Yerevan Conference). The Yerevan Conference has been organized by the National Survey for Seismic Protection (NSSP) of the Republic of Armenia. All level's decision-makers (from the ministers to the local authorities), politicians, scientists, leaders of the executive and legislative powers, psychologists, leading businessmen, representatives from the private sector and the media as well as from the International Organizations have been invited by the Armenian NSSP to take part in joint discussion of the Seismic Risk Reduction Problem for the first time in the history of such forums. Armenian NSSP's such initiative has been triggered by the experience of the Spitak earthquake and other disasters. They showed that it will be possible to reduce the risks, posed by the natural disaster, only through the common efforts of all the community in co-operation with the International institutions.

From killer fires to ecosystem rehabilitation, an exhaustive survey exploring the ecological, social, and economic consequences of managing fires in U.S. wildland areas. Fire management involves protecting natural resources from fire but also using controlled burning for land management purposes. Who are the stewards of land management and the researchers who devote their entire careers studying fire? How are ecosystems restored after major fires? What are the economic ramifications and what assessment tools are available? Forest Fires: A Reference Handbook explores the historical, ecological, economic, and social dimensions of wildland combustion and their impacts in North America. Explaining how legislation and public perception have been shaped by historic fires and fire seasons, particular emphasis is placed on the summer of 2000 as a way of understanding and managing future fires. Provides a detailed chronology of events, legislative acts, policy controversies, and precedents for fire management in the United States, illustrating how the fires discussed reflect a continuation of trends established in the 20th century and before Includes biographies of past and present forest fire management leaders, scientists, academicians, and policy makers

Landscape Development and Climate Change in Southwest Bulgaria aims to address some of the current limitations in our understanding of past Balkan climate and environment. High mountains and their ecosystems offer an outstanding opportunity for studies on the impact of climate change. The Balkan Mountains in Southeast Europe, situated at the transition between temperate and Mediterranean climate, are considered as very sensitive to historical and current global changes. The geoarchives lake sediment, peat and soil, long living trees and glaciers have been used to reconstruct the climatically-driven change of forest and treeline during the Holocene and the younger past. These processes are interrelated with complex ecological changes, as for example the seasonality of climate parameters. The landscape research approach with the analyses through multi-palaeo-geoecological proxies is new for the Balkans.

This book sheds new light on improved methods for the study of the initiation and run-out of earthquake-induced landslides. It includes an initiation study method that considers tension-shear failure mechanism; an improved, rigorous, dynamic sliding-block method based on dynamic critical acceleration; and a run-out analysis of earthquake-induced landslides that takes account of the trampoline effect, all of which add to the accuracy and accessibility of landslide study. The book includes abundant illustrations, figures and tables, making it a valuable resource for those looking for practical landslide research tools.

This book uses narrative responses to the 2010 Haiti earthquake as a starting point for an analysis of notions of disaster, vulnerability, reconstruction and recovery. The turn to a wide range of literary works enables a composite comparative analysis, which encompasses the social, political and individual dimensions of the earthquake. This book focuses on a vision of an open-ended future, otherwise than as a threat or fear. Mika turns to concepts of hinged chronologies, slow healing and remnant dwelling. Weaving theory with attentive close-readings, the book offers an open-ended framework for conceptualising post-disaster recovery and healing. These processes happen at different times and must entail the elimination of compound vulnerabilities that created the disaster in the first place. Challenging characterisations of the region as a continuous catastrophe this book works towards a bold vision of Haiti's and the Caribbean's futures. The study shows how narratives can extend some of the key concepts within discipline-bound approaches to disasters, while making an important contribution to the interface between disaster studies, postcolonial ecocriticism and Haitian Studies.

"The Great Hurricane of 1780," also known as Hurricane San Calixto II, is one of the most powerful and deadliest North Atlantic hurricanes on record. Often regarded as a cataclysmic hurricane, the storm's worst effects were experienced on October 10, 1780. In "The Great Hurricane of 1780," author Wayne Neely chronicles the chaos and destruction it brought to the Caribbean. This storm was likely generated in the mid Atlantic, not far from the equator; it was first felt in Barbados, where just about every tree and house on the island was blown down.

The storm passed through the Lesser Antilles and a small portion of the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean between October 10 and October 16 of 1780.Because the storm hit several of the most populous islands in the Caribbean, the death toll was very high. The official death toll was approximately 22,000 people but some historians have put the death toll as high as 27,500.

Specifics on the hurricane's track and strength are unclear since the official North Atlantic hurricane database only goes back as far as 1851. Even so, it is a fact that this hurricane had a tremendous impact on economies in the Caribbean and parts of North America, and perhaps also played a major role in the outcome of the American Revolution.

This thoroughly researched history considers the intense storm and its aftermath, offering an exploration of an important historical weather event that has been neglected in previous study.

The problems and issues of natural hazards and disasters, both globally and in Canada, are becoming increasingly important since the costs of extreme natural events have been escalating, and significant vulnerabilities exist in Canadian society. Without thoughtful and effective mitigation, these costs and human suffering are likely to continue to increase. An assessment of knowledge, research, and practice in risk, hazards and disasters fields is a fundamental step towards the goal of prevention and mitigation.

This book on natural hazards and disasters in Canada is the first comprehensive interdisciplinary publication on this subject, and is the result of a national assessment on this topic. A variety of papers from the physical and social sciences explores both the risks associated with these hazards, and adaptive strategies that can be used to reduce those risks.

Audience: This excellent collection of papers is intended for academics, professionals and practitioners involved in hazard reduction activities who wish to obtain a better understanding of Canadian natural hazards.

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.

This book presents key lessons from community-based risk-reduction practices in Japan, a country that is often hit by disasters and that also has shown strong resilience in coping with those disasters. Japan has a strong governance system for disaster risk reduction. However, the Kobe earthquake of 1995 showed the importance of community involvement in disaster response as well as recovery. With several examples from different parts of Japan, the book elaborates on the importance of community-based risk reduction and the innovations required for sustaining some of the community approaches. The book has 13 chapters and is divided into three parts: (1) Evolution of community-based risk reduction in Japan; (2) Community-based risk-reduction issues; and (3) Case studies.

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 policy and decision-making.

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Assessment of human casualties in earthquakes has become a topic of vital importance for national and urban authorities responsible for emergency provision, for the development of mitigation strategies and for the development of adequate insurance schemes. In the last few years important work has been carried out on a number of recent events (including earthquakes in Kocaeli, Turkey 1999, Niigata Japan, 2004, Sichuan, China 2008 and L'Aquila, Italy 2009). These events have created new and detailed casualty data, which has not until now been properly assembled and evaluated. This book draws the new evidence from recent events together with existing knowledge. It summarises current trends in the understanding of the factors influencing the numbers and types of casualties in earthquakes; it offers methods to incorporate this understanding into the estimation of losses in future events in different parts of the world; it discusses ways in which pre-event mitigation activity and post-event emergency management can reduce the toll of casualties in future events; and it identifies future research needs.

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union almost a decade ago, there has been rapid evolution of interactions between the Western nations and individual countries of the former Soviet Union. As part of that interaction, the autonomous independent Republic of Azerbaijan through its scientific arm, the Geological Institute of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences under the Directorship of Academician Akif Ali-Zadeh and Deputy Director Ibrahim Guliev, arranged for personnel to be seconded to the University of South Carolina. The idea here was to see to what extent a quantitative understanding could be achieved of the evolution of the Azerbaijan part of the South Caspian Basin from dynamical, thermal and hydrocarbon perspectives. The Azeris brought with them copious amounts of data collected over decades which, together with the quantitative numerical codes available at USC, enabled a concerted effort to be put forward, culminating in two large books (Evolution of the South Caspian Basin: Geological Risks and Probable Hazards, 675 pps; and The South Caspian Basin: Stratigraphy, Geochemistry, and Risk Analysis, of which were published by the Azerbaijan Academy of 472 pps. ) both Sciences, and also many scientific papers. Thus, over the last four to five years an integrated comprehensive start has been made to understand the hydrocarbon proneness of the South Caspian Basin. In the course of the endeavor to understand the basinal evolution, it became clear that a variety of natural hazards occur in the Basin.

In the field of risks and crises, both the access to relevant information and its circulation are seen as crucial factors. Based on a new integrated theoretical model focusing on the stakeholder, the book proposes analysis of information reformulation and circulation in risk environments and crisis situations.

Simply circulating the information does not mean that it will be picked up by those who could benefit from it. This has been amply demonstrated by the various crises and catastrophes that have shaken the planet in recent years. In order to be able to deal with risk situations and crises, it must be possible for information when it circulates to be understood and interpreted by a wide range of stakeholders, working in fields such as health and natural or environmental risks. By observing closely, in three very different situations, the way in which information is gathered, processed, distributed and used, this book examines the countless reformulations, redefinitions and even reorientations to which all information is subjected. This multiple reformatting, at least according to the hypothesis put forward in this book, is an important element in ensuring that the information produced circulates and reaches those for whom it is intended. The intention is then to analyze the way in which information circulates in situations of risk and crisis. In order to do it, the authors propose a new theoretical model based on different approaches. This model is anchored in the trend of research that has been oriented towards a wider understanding of risks and their territorial and social consequences. These ideas question the approach to risk which focuses primarily on technical aspects and probability. The model also draws from approaches to risk that focus on the stakeholders involved in the debates and the need for an integrated vision of risks. Risks are thus considered heterogeneous, plural and transcalar. The information flow about risks was studied first in the SHOC Room of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, a central place through which passes all information destined to managing world-wide epidemic risks. Then the research team monitored the constitution and the reception of a field library about risks management and reduction sent to Madagascar, an island systematically hit by cyclones. This following process has permitted the analysis of information dissemination during a crisis situation. The third field work was done in Cameroun to observe the use and transmission of information in two NGO specializing in sanitary risks prevention using traditional and biomedical conceptualization of health and illness. The book ends with a practical tool to assess and help the information circulation in risk and crisis situations."