The monograph covers the fundamentals and the consequences of extreme geophysical phenomena like asteroid impacts, climatic change, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, flooding, and space weather. This monograph also addresses their associated, local and worldwide socio-economic impacts. The understanding and modeling of these phenomena is critical to the development of timely worldwide strategies for the prediction of natural and anthropogenic extreme events, in order to mitigate their adverse consequences. This monograph is unique in as much as it is dedicated to recent theoretical, numerical and empirical developments that aim to improve: (i) the understanding, modeling and prediction of extreme events in the geosciences, and, (ii) the quantitative evaluation of their economic consequences. The emphasis is on coupled, integrative assessment of the physical phenomena and their socio-economic impacts. With its overarching theme, Extreme Events: Observations, Modeling and Economics will be relevant to and become an important tool for researchers and practitioners in the fields of hazard and risk analysis in general, as well as to those with a special interest in climate change, atmospheric and oceanic sciences, seismo-tectonics, hydrology, and space weather.

The Tohoku earthquake on March 11, 2011, officially designated the "Off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku, Japan Earthquake" by the Japan Meteorological Agency caused an unprecedentedly severe disaster in the northeastern part (Tohoku) of the Japanese island of Honshu. This first volume of the series Natural Disaster Science and Mitigation Engineering: DPRI Reports covers various aspects of investigations of scientific findings as well as issues related to the disaster and the subsequent evacuation necessitated by the earthquake. The series presents recent advances in natural disaster sciences and mitigation technologies developed in Japan, which will be valuable for the mitigation of disasters of a similar kind resulting from future events around the world.

For most of us, the impression of the word "tsunami" is a combination of multiple elements of action movie, thriller, drama and science fiction, which can only be experienced through movies such as "The Poseidon Adventure", "The Impossible", "Bait 3D", and "Haewundae, 2012". However, we have now indeed witnessed a tsunami in 2011. People are now very concerned and some are afraid of the realisation of movie scenes in our real life. More research fields have started to give attention and thought to the tsunami itself and its impact on economics, disaster management and future challenges. This book discloses the close relationship between the tsunami and all aspects of our real life: communities, markets, economic systems, industrial operations, the natural environment, medical care, emergency response, and whole societies. This book is timely and in some ways timeless; the issues discussed within its pages are matters that are of interest to all people across the world and really across time. The chapters presented focus on the theoretical positions and cognition about engineering, and different segments of research fields: the innovative integration of geographic information system with point-of-care testing for emergency response and disaster management after tsunami (Chapter 1), the adaptive capacity building through public participation (Chapter 2), the modelling and simulation of mixing and sediment processes induced by tsunamis propagating upriver (Chapter 3), the perspective of risk quantification for commercial nuclear power plants (Chapter 4), and the future role of mathematical modelling for local energy shortage recovery after tsunamis (Chapter 5). These chapters demonstrate the complexities involved in attempting to understand the impact of tsunamis in different aspects. Furthermore, it will also help to improve disaster management systems for better preparedness and future challenges.

This book presents a unique, interdisciplinary approach to disaster risk research, combining cutting-edge natural science and social science methodologies. Bringing together leading scientists, policy makers and practitioners from around the world, it presents the risks of global hazards such as volcanoes, seismic events, landslides, hurricanes, precipitation floods and space weather, and provides real-world hazard case studies from Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific region. Avoiding complex mathematics, the authors provide insight into topics such as the vulnerability of society, disaster risk reduction policy, relations between disaster policy and climate change, adaptation to hazards, and (re)insurance approaches to extreme events. This is a key resource for academic researchers and graduate students in a wide range of disciplines linked to hazard and risk studies, including geophysics, volcanology, hydrology, atmospheric science, geomorphology, oceanography and remote sensing, and for professionals and policy makers working in disaster prevention and mitigation.

Storms, landslides, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunami -- all New Zealanders will encounter at least one of these hazards in their lives. Informative, generously illustrated, and written by some of New Zealand's leading scientists, this massively revised and updated edition of Te Papa Press's bestselling title is now more relevant than ever. With all-new information on climate change and the social and emotional impact of disasters, this book is a fascinating encounter and valuable resource on one of the most raw, volatile landscapes in the world.

This book provides a step-by-step process that focuses on how to develop, practice, and maintain emergency plans that reflect what must be done before, during, and after a disaster, in order to protect people and property. The communities who preplan and mitigate prior to any incident will be better prepared for emergency scenarios. This book will assist those with the tools to address all phases of emergency management. It covers everything from the social and environmental processes that generate hazards, to vulnerability analysis, hazard mitigation, emergency response, and disaster recovery.

This special issue emerged following the 2013 8th International Statistical Seismology (StatSei8) workshop in Beijing. The articles within have been collected to report on exciting new research in statistical seismology methods and applications; it contains a collection of the newest methods, techniques and results related to statistical analysis of earthquake occurrence and earthquake probability forecasting. The articles within ultimately help to define future research directions in the field. Especially, the rapid development of observation technologies has brought geophysical research into the big-data era. This includes not only non-seismicity geophysical data, such as GPS observation on surface displacement, InSAR observation of the co-seismic deformation, ionospheric observations, etc., but also extended seismological data including slow earthquakes, tremor, and VLF earthquakes. The subject of statistical seismology bridges the gap between physical and statistical models. Many significant achievements have been accomplished during the last several decades, including formulation of conditional intensity models for quantifying seismicity rates, earthquake probability forecasts, and theories related to rigorous testing of forecast models.

This book is a resource for understanding why Lightning continues to be a major health hazard, especially in the developing world, and equips researchers, governments, and public health advocates with the knowledge and techniques needed to reduce lightning casualties worldwide.

On Shishmaref Island in Alaska, homes are being washed into the sea. In the South Pacific, small island nations face annihilation by encroaching waters. In coastal Louisiana, an area the size of a football field disappears every day. For these communities, sea level rise isn't a distant, abstract fear: it's happening now and it's threatening their way of life.
In "The Rising Sea," Orrin H. Pilkey and Rob Young warn that many other coastal areas may be close behind. Prominent scientists predict that the oceans may rise by as much as seven feet in the next hundred years. That means coastal cities will be forced to construct dikes and seawalls or to move buildings, roads, pipelines, and railroads to avert inundation and destruction.
The question is no longer whether climate change is causing the oceans to swell, but by how much and how quickly. Pilkey and Young deftly guide readers through the science, explaining the facts and debunking the claims of industry-sponsored "skeptics." They also explore the consequences for fish, wildlife--and people.
While rising seas are now inevitable, we are far from helpless. By making hard choices--including uprooting citizens, changing where and how we build, and developing a coordinated national response--we can save property, and ultimately lives. With unassailable research and practical insights, "The Rising Sea" is a critical first step in understanding the threat and keeping our heads above water.

Typhoons pose a threat for coastal populations, offshore and onshore industries, shipping, agriculture, or forestry. Thus it is of great interest to assess future changes in cyclone activity. Thereby tropical cyclones may change both in frequency and intensity or they may have different track locations, shapes, dimensions or lifetimes. This book discusses risk prediction, crisis management and economic and environmental impacts of typhoons and landslides.

The Elkhorn River originates in north-central Nebraska and empties into the Platte River just west of Omaha. One of the first written records of the Elkhorn describes a flood. A flood hindered travel up the river by the valley's first non-Indian settlers. Decade after decade, floods have swept away mill dams, destroyed crops, drowned stock, soaked inventories, filled basements, undercut roads, washed out railroads and bridges, turned unfortunate riverside homesaEURO"even a dance hallaEURO"into unwieldy watercraft, and killed people. Everyone in the Elkhorn Valley agreed the Flood of 1944 was the worst in history. Until the deadly Flood of 2010 took the title. From a perspective unusual on the Great PlainsaEURO"the problem of too much wateraEURO" Flood on the Tracks offers an intimate portrait of life in the Elkhorn River Basin of northeast Nebraska. In a region often defined by aridity, rivers and their basins have provided sustenance, shelter, fertile soil, and overland highways. In many ways Plains rivers organize human lives. When they overflow, which they can be counted on to do, they disorganize them. Using Plains Indian winter counts, postcards, photographs, newspaper accounts, government records, and more, Flood on the Tracks chronicles the river's natural and human history from the Plains Indians into the twenty-first century. The Elkhorn's floods show us how the nature of disaster has changed and how Plainsfolk liveaEURO"and dieaEURO"with a river.

The Asia-Pacific area is notable as one of the fastest growing tourism regions and not surprisingly, tourism in this region has become the major driver of global tourism in general. Nonetheless, tourism industries in Asia Pacific have been challenged in recent years by a number of major crises and disasters including terrorism, outbreaks (e.g. SARS and Bird Flu), natural disasters (e.g. tsunamis, bushfires, flooding), and political crisis (e.g. protests and political instability).The aim of this book is to contribute to the understanding of crisis and disaster management generally, but with a specific focus on the Asia Pacific. With chapters contributed by international scholars and practitioners, this book discusses both the theoretical and practical approaches toward successful crisis and disaster management.

Disasters are events which disrupt the lives of people and cause large-scale social or economic damage, such as floods, oil spills or major fires. Disaster management refers to the process of managing disasters, including the development of systems to mitigate against and prevent disasters; responding to disasters when they occur; providing relief to communities affected by disasters; and, assisting in the rehabilitation of communities affected by disasters. Disaster management initiatives cover mainly the body of policy and administrative decisions and operational activities, which pertain to the various stages of a disaster at all levels.The objective of this book is to provide readers/students with an integrated understanding of various kinds of initiatives and programmes required to tackle major disasters, hazards and crisis and their control, mitigation/prevention and reduction with special reference to possible management solutions. This book will be devoted mainly to the practical management aspects of disaster mitigation, risk assessment, hazard minimisation and vulnerability analysis.

Emerging Voices in Natural Hazards Research provides a synthesis of the most pressing issues in natural hazards research. The book begins with an overview of emerging research on natural hazards, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, wildfires, sea-level rise, global warming, climate change and tornadoes, among other topics. Remaining sections cover socially vulnerable populations and the cycles of emergency management. This book will serve as a consolidated resource for academics, students and researchers who are eager to learn about the most pressing issues in today's natural hazard research.

Volcanic eruptions are common, with more than 50 volcanic eruptions in the United States alone in the past 31 years. These eruptions can have devastating economic and social consequences, even at great distances from the volcano. Fortunately many eruptions are preceded by unrest that can be detected using ground, airborne, and spaceborne instruments. Data from these instruments, combined with basic understanding of how volcanoes work, form the basis for forecasting eruptionsa "where, when, how big, how long, and the consequences. Accurate forecasts of the likelihood and magnitude of an eruption in a specified timeframe are rooted in a scientific understanding of the processes that govern the storage, ascent, and eruption of magma. Yet our understanding of volcanic systems is incomplete and biased by the limited number of volcanoes and eruption styles observed with advanced instrumentation. Volcanic Eruptions and Their Repose, Unrest, Precursors, and Timing identifies key science questions, research and observation priorities, and approaches for building a volcano science community capable of tackling them. This report presents goals for making major advances in volcano science.

Defending society against natural hazards is a high-stakes game of chance against nature, involving tough decisions. How should a developing nation allocate its budget between building schools for towns without ones or making existing schools earthquake-resistant? Does it make more sense to build levees to protect against floods, or to prevent development in the areas at risk? Would more lives be saved by making hospitals earthquake-resistant, or using the funds for patient care? What should scientists tell the public when as occurred in L Aquila, Italy and Mammoth Lakes, California there is a real but small risk of an upcoming earthquake or volcanic eruption? Recent hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis show that society often handles such choices poorly. Sometimes nature surprises us, when an earthquake, hurricane, or flood is bigger or has greater effects than expected from detailed hazard assessments. In other cases, nature outsmarts us, doing great damage despite expensive mitigation measures or causing us to divert limited resources to mitigate hazards that are overestimated. Much of the problem comes from the fact that formulating effective natural hazard policy involves combining science, economics, and risk analysis to analyze a problem and explore the costs and benefits of different options, in situations where the future is very uncertain. Because mitigation policies are typically chosen without such analysis, the results are often disappointing. This book uses general principles and case studies to explore how we can do better by taking an integrated view of natural hazards issues, rather than treating the relevant geoscience, engineering, economics, and policy formulation separately. Thought-provoking questions at the end of each chapter invite readers to confront the complex issues involved. Readership: Instructors, researchers, practitioners, and students interested in geoscience, engineering, economics, or policy issues relevant to natural hazards. Suitable for upper-level undergraduate or graduate courses. Additional resources can be found at: http://www.wiley.com/go/Stein/Playingagainstnature

This book presents a range of academic research and personal reflections on the Gorkha earthquake that struck Nepal in 2015. For the first time, perspectives from geography, disaster risk reduction, cultural heritage protection, archaeology, anthropology, social work, health and emergency response are discussed in a single volume. Contributions are included from practitioners and researchers from Nepal and Durham University in the UK, many of whom were in Nepal at the time of the earthquake. Evolving Narratives of Hazard and Risk explores the event of the earthquake, its consequences and its impacts, to provide a holistic and multi-perspective understanding of this special hazard and its significant ramifications for social, political, economic and cultural aspects of life in Nepal. The book highlights how these multiple perspectives are needed to inform each other in order to develop and shape new ways of thinking and interacting with environmental hazards. This collection of works will be of interest to students and academics of Environment Studies, Human Geography and Environmental Policy, and will be of particular relevance to those involved in risk research and managing risk and hazard events.

Climate change has thrust us into a "no-analog" future in which climate disasters threaten to cause extraordinary damage, with little precedent to guide policymakers and private actors. Addressing such risks requires a firm grounding in disaster risk reduction, climate change policy, and environmental law. This Research Handbook provides readers with that integrated foundation, investigating topics in international law as well as domestic programs from countries around the world. Because climate disasters affect both government and non-government actors, the Research Handbook covers issues of both public and private law. We know from the scientific literature and recent experience that the laws addressing natural disasters are insufficient to confront disasters amplified by climate change. The Research Handbook acknowledges that the majority of disasters are susceptible in some way to changes in the earth's climate and explores the barriers to, and opportunities for, finding legal solutions to the risks posed by such disasters. It shows that climate change must be considered in order to fully understand disaster risk and the respective legal and policy responses. The Research Handbook also emphasizes the moral responsibility we have to move as quickly as possible to create a carbon-free economy. This work will be of great appeal to legal scholars, practitioners, and policymakers who are interested in environmental law or climate change as it relates to international and domestic law and policy.

This book discusses how to collect data and analyze databases in order to map risk zones, and contributes to developing a conceptual framework for coastal risk assessment. Further, the book primarily focuses on a specific case study: the Bay of Bengal along the southeastern coast of India. The dramatic rise in losses and casualties due to natural disasters like wind, storm-surge-induced flooding, seismic hazards and tsunami incidence along this coast over the past few decades has prompted a major national scientific initiative investigating the probable causes and possible mitigation strategies. As such, geoscientists are called upon to analyze the coastal hazards by anticipating the changes in and impacts of extreme weather hazards on the Bay of Bengal coasts as a result of global climate change and local sea-level change.

China is in flux but - as argued by the contributors to this volume - change is neither new to China nor is it unique to that country; similar patterns are found in other times and in other places. Indeed, on the basis of concrete case studies (ranging from Confucius to the Vagina Monologues, from Protestant missionaries to the Chinese avant-garde) and drawing on theoretical insights from different disciplines, the contributors assert that change may be planned but the outcome can never be predicted with any confidence. Rather, there exist creative spaces within which people, ideas and systems interact with uncertain outcomes. As such, by identifying a more sophisticated approach to the complex issues of change, cultural encounters and so-called globalization, this volume not only offers new insights to scholars of other geo-cultural regions; it also throws light on the workings of our 'global' and 'transnational' lives today, in the past and in the future.

This book presents natural hazards and risk--one of the fastest-growing and most relevant fields of pure and applied research within geosciences and environmental engineering-from a multi-disciplinary perspective. It examines principles, concepts, and paradigms derived from diverse research studies, and explains operational terms, materials, tools, techniques, and methods used in practice. Collecting the expertise of more than 60 scientists and expert practitioners from across Russia, this authoritative volume is ideal for the diverse range of researchers and professionals concerned with the interaction of natural hazards and the built environment. Maximizes reader understanding of natural hazards research and risk analysis in Russia; Explains relevance and application of primary tools and practices in risk study; Clarifies similarities and differences in fundamental concepts and principles across the discipline; Directs geologists, engineers, architects, planners, teachers, students, and others to authoritative sources.

On Christmas Eve 1955, a series of fierce storms pounded northern California resulting in flooding that officials called "the greatest disaster in California since the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. This is the story of one Coast Guard helicopter and a number of courageous Guardsmen who braved the swiftly rising waters to perform some of the most harrowing rescues ever recorded.

This book presents the global landslide risk preparedness implemented through the International Programme on Landslides (IPL). IPL was initiated by the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL) in 2002, and developed to a joint international programme by the IPL Global Promotion Committee (UNESCO, WMO, FAO, UNISDR, UNU, ICSU and WFEO as well as ICL) through the 2006 Tokyo Action Plan. The materials consists of four parts: Outline of the International Programme on Landslides & IPL Global Promotion Committee; Achievements of major IPL projects in research and capacity building; World Centres of Excellence on Landslide Risk Reduction (WCoEs) and Landslide School Network; Key documents of IPL and ICL including Tokyo Action Plan, Application of ICL, IPL Projects, WCoEs and Landslide School Network