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.

This book draws upon case studies and practices of different types of DRR involvement by the private sector from all over the world. The book comprises two parts, Part I: Overview and Regional Cases; and Part II: Country Cases. The regional cases include those from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Central America, and the country cases include ones from India, Japan, the United States, Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Nepal. DRR at the international level is discussed from the perspective of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR). The perspective of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is presented in the discussion of DRR at the societal level. The private sector is becoming more active in disaster management and plays an important role in distributing relief items and sending search and rescue teams in the response phase. However, once the response stage is over, private sector involvement tends to fade. While a number of disaster risk reduction (DRR) initiatives by the private sector are documented, they remain limited. The private sector can contribute enormously to DRR by developing business continuity plans, innovating technology for early warning systems, and providing and sharing technical knowledge, skills, and resources in the field of disaster preparedness. To strengthen DRR capacity, it is crucial to involve the private sector as major actors in DRR. The primary target groups for this book are students and researchers in the fields of disaster management and DRR studies. Another target group comprises practitioners and policy makers, who will be able to apply the collective knowledge from this work to policy and decision making. The book provides an overview of the current research trends and furnishes basic knowledge on this important topic.

An essential text for today's emerging professionals and higher education community, the third edition of Hazard Mitigation and Preparedness provides accessible and actionable strategies to create safer, more resilient communities. Known and valued for its balanced approach, Hazard Mitigation and Preparedness assumes no prior knowledge of the subject, presenting the major principles involved in preparing for and mitigating the impacts of hazards in emergency management. Real-world examples of different tools and techniques allow for the application of knowledge and skills. This new edition includes: Updates to case studies and sidebars with recent disasters and mitigation efforts, including major hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Summary of the National Flood Insurance Program, including how insurance rates are determined, descriptions of flood maps, and strategies for communities to help reduce premiums for residents. Overview of the ways that climate change is affecting disasters and the tools that emergency managers can use to plan for an uncertain future. Best practices in communication with the public, including models for effective use of social media, behavioral science techniques to communicate information about risk and preparedness actions, and ways to facilitate behavior change to increase the public's level of preparedness. Actionable information to help emergency managers and planners develop and implement plans, policies, and programs to reduce risk in their communities. Updated in-text learning aids, including sidebars, case studies, goals and outcomes, key terms, summary questions and critical thinking exercises for students. An eResource featuring new supplemental materials to assist instructors with course designs. Supplements include PowerPoint slides, tests, instructor lecture notes and learning objectives, key terms and a course syllabus.

This collection focuses on the development of novel approaches to address one of the most pressing challenges of civil engineering, namely the mitigation of natural hazards. Numerous engineering books to date have focused on, and illustrate considerable progress toward, mitigation of individual hazards (earthquakes, wind, and so forth.). The current volume addresses concerns related to overall safety, sustainability and resilience of the built environment when subject to multiple hazards: natural disaster events that are concurrent and either correlated (e.g., wind and surge); uncorrelated (e.g., earthquake and flood); cascading (e.g., fire following earthquake); or uncorrelated and occurring at different times (e.g., wind and earthquake). The authors examine a range of specific topics including methodologies for vulnerability assessment of structures, new techniques to reduce the system demands through control systems; instrumentation, monitoring and condition assessment of structures and foundations; new techniques for repairing structures that have suffered damage during past events, or for structures that have been found in need of strengthening; development of new design provisions that consider multiple hazards, as well as questions from law and the humanities relevant to the management of natural and human-made hazards.

This book is on urban resilience - how to design and operate cities that can withstand major threats such as natural disasters and economic downturns and how to recover from them. It is a collection of latest research results from two separate but collaborating research groups, namely, researchers in urban design and those on general resilience theory. The book systematically deals with the core aspects of urban resilience: systems, management issues and populations. The taxonomy can be broken down into threats, systems, resilience cycles and recovery types in the context of urban resilience. It starts with a discussion of systems resilience models, focusing on the central idea that resilience is a moving average of costs (a set of trajectories in a two-player game paradigm). The second section explores management issues, including planning, operating and emergency response in cities with specific examples such as land-use planning and carbon-neutral scenarios for urban planning. The next section focuses on urban dwellers and specific people-related issues in the context of resilience. Agent-based simulation of behaviour and perception-based resilience, as well as brand crisis management are representative examples of the topics discussed. A further section examines systems like public utilities - including managing power supplies, cyber-security issues and models for pandemics. It concludes with a discussion of the future challenges and risks facing complex systems, for example in resilient power grids, making it essential reading for a wide range of researchers and policymakers.

This volume is the proceedings of a NATO-sponsored Advanced Study Institute (ASI) entitled "Coping with Flash Floods" held in Ravello, Italy on 8-17 November 1999. Thirty-five participants from nine countries attended the ASI, representing both developed (United States, England, Italy, and Mexico) and developing (Poland, Uganda, Greece, Ukraine, and Slovenia) countries. Participants from a variety of professions and disciplines were involved including a hydraulics engineering professor from Slovenia, four members from the Polish Institute of Meteorology and Water Management, and a U. S. Geological Survey research hydrologist from Puerto Rico. Although the ASI was officially composed of lecturers and students, these roles were blurred as each person shared information and ideas, and learned from the other participants during the 10 days. One of the highlights of the ASI was the collaborative effort of participants from different countries and disciplines. It was particularly extraordinary that the two engineers from Greece made the most passionate pleas for long term sustainable solutions to flash floods. A further example is that while there were only three participants with social science backgrounds, most of the recommendations focus on the policy and societal priorities, more than the engineering, hydrologic or meteorologic efforts.

This theoretical contribution argues that the domination of Western knowledge in disaster scholarship has allowed normative policies and practices of disaster risk reduction to be imposed all over the world. It takes a postcolonial approach to unpack why scholars claim that disasters are social constructs while offering little but theories, concepts and methods supposed to be universal in understanding the unique and diverse experiences of millions of people across very different cultures. It further challenges forms of governments inherited from the Enlightenment that have been rolled out as standard and ultimate solutions to reduce the risk of disaster. Ultimately, the book encourages the emergence of a more diverse set of world views/senses and ways of knowing for both studying disasters and informing policy and practice of disaster risk reduction. Such pluralism is essential to better reflect local realities of what disasters actually are around the world. This book is an essential read for scholars and postgraduate students interested in disaster studies as well as policy-makers and practitioners of disaster risk reduction.

Plate tectonic collision, climate oscillation, glacial fluctuation, severe wind and water erosion - all have wrought dramatic change on the landscape of the Western Himalaya, one of the most dynamic and spectacular landscapes on Earth. Study of the region - from the Western Himalaya foothills and lowlands to the Arabian Sea - is of particular value to geology and geomorphology because of the size and frequency of events. That much of South Asia is relatively inaccessible has enhanced the significance of research in Pakistan and adjacent areas. "Himalaya to the Sea" focuses on the general evolution of landforms in Pakistan but is also a guide for predictive, protective and remedial measures to mitigate the natural hazards which plague the region and constrain development. The authors describe regional erosion and sedimentation within the context of topographical evolution; more specifically, they deal with neotectonics, past and present glaciation, general mountain geomorphology and process mechanics, past and present fluvial processes and landforms, wind blown deposits, age dates, soils, marine terraces and archaeology.

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

Thousands of impoverished Northern European immigrants were promised that the prairie offered "land, freedom, and hope." The disastrous blizzard of 1888 revealed that their free homestead was not a paradise but a hard, unforgiving place governed by natural forces they neither understood nor controlled, and America's heartland would never be the same.This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

This book draws examples from food security issues in Bangladesh. The book is structured around those issues and underlying causes of food security, the implications from different sectors, policy analysis, and the role and actions of various stakeholders from different sectors to ensure food security. Bangladesh is situated in a climatically vulnerable position and is impacted frequently by such climatic hazards as floods, cyclones, droughts, and salinity intrusion. Due to global atmospheric changes, abrupt shifts in climatic conditions severely affect Bangladesh's agriculture. Although Bangladesh has made significant progress in increasing domestic production of food grain, if the production of major cereals is hampered due to climate change, food security will be in jeopardy. Most estimates show that a huge amount of additional food grain will be required to feed the growing population of the country. Ensuring food security for all is the overarching goal of Bangladesh's national food policy. Therefore, ensuring food security in the future requires a great deal of additional effort in yield improvement, with limited scope for expanding the area under cultivation. The primary target readers for this book are students and researchers in the fields of environment, disaster risk reduction, and climate change studies. The book will provide them with a good idea of the current trend of research in the field and will furnish basic knowledge on this important topic. Another target group comprises practitioners and policy makers, who will be able to apply collective knowledge to policy and decision making.

This open access book provides a comprehensive overview of volcanic crisis research, the goal being to establish ways of successfully applying volcanology in practice and to identify areas that need to be addressed for future progress. It shows how volcano crises are managed in practice, and helps to establish best practices. Consequently the book brings together authors from all over the globe who work with volcanoes, ranging from observatory volcanologists, disaster practitioners and government officials to NGO-based and government practitioners to address three key aspects of volcanic crises. First, the book explores the unique nature of volcanic hazards, which makes them a particularly challenging threat to forecast and manage, due in part to their varying spatial and temporal characteristics. Second, it presents lessons learned on how to best manage volcanic events based on a number of crises that have shaped our understanding of volcanic hazards and crises management. Third, it discusses the diverse and wide-ranging aspects of communication involved in crises, which merge old practices and new technologies to accommodate an increasingly challenging and globalised world. The information and insights presented here are essential to tapping established knowledge, moving towards more robust volcanic crises management, and understanding how the volcanic world is perceived from a range of standpoints and contexts around the globe.

Case Studies in Disaster Mitigation and Prevention: Disaster and Emergency Management: Case Studies in Adaptation and Innovation series presents cases illustrating efforts to reduce human and material losses associated with disasters. This volume demonstrates that mitigation is an ongoing phase in which communities continually pursue long-term hazard resistance and reduction. Cases illustrate the importance of risk assessment in the development of mitigation strategies through hazard mapping and multi-hazard mitigation planning. Cases also illustrate approaches to reduction risk through structural and non-structural means, giving consideration to benefits or limitations of these strategies in different contexts. The contributions of different mitigation activities to disaster risk reduction efforts are examined using the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

This book presents the select proceedings of the Virtual Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (VCDRR 2021). It emphasizes on the role of civil engineering for a disaster resilient society. Various topics covered in this book are risk assessment, prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response, early warning system, hazard mapping, engineering innovations for hazard mitigation, and safe design of structures. This book is a comprehensive volume on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and its management for a sustainable built environment. This book will be useful for the students, researchers, policy makers and professionals working in the area of civil engineering, especially disaster management.

This book provides a new framework for analysis of slope nonlinear stochastic seismic dynamic response based on the new theoretical tool of stochastic dynamics. The coupling effects of uncertainty of geological parameters, strong dynamic nonlinearity, and randomness of ground motion are considered in the process of the seismic dynamic stability assessment of slope. In this book, an intensity frequency non-stationary stochastic ground motion model based on time-domain stochastic process description is preliminarily established to characterize the randomness of earthquakes. The spatial distribution random field model of geotechnical parameters is established to describe the time-space variability of geotechnical parameters. Based on the basic theory of stochastic dynamics, the seismic stability performance evaluation method of slope is established. The slope seismic dynamic model test based on large complex shaking table is performed to verify and modify the proposed framework and method. This book sheds new light on the development of nonlinear seismic stochastic dynamics and seismic design of slope engineering.

Through application of the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method, this monograph mainly focuses on large deformations and flow failure simulations of geomaterials and movement behavior, which are always involved in geo-disasters. The work covers the theoretical background, numerical techniques, code implementation issues, and many novel and interesting applications. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional SPH models in the framework of both hydrodynamics and solid mechanics are established, with detailed descriptions. The monograph also contains many appealing and practical examples of geo-disaster modeling and analysis, including the fluidized movement of flow-like landslides, lateral spread of liquefied soils, and flow slides in landfills. In the documented SPH simulations, the propagation of geo-disasters is effectively reproduced. Dynamic behaviors of geomaterials during propagation are ascertained, including sliding path, flow velocity, maximum distance reached, and distribution of deposits. In this way, the monograph presents a means for mapping hazardous areas, estimating hazard intensity, and identifying and designing appropriate protective measures.

This volume explores the discourse of disaster and women in the existing social settings and state disaster-related affairs in coastal Bangladesh. It covers various issues ranging from disproportionate vulnerability, coping and adaptation mechanisms for women, limitations for promoting participation and involvement of women in the decision-making process both in family and community and changes in the role and responsibilities of women for reducing disaster risk and vulnerability. It contributes to the deconstruction of gender-based identity by addressing women's changing practices and roles in the coastal area in terms of the involvement of women with the development process, earning/income generation activities, decision-making process, access and entitlements to resources. This book presents the most current and inclusive circumstances of disaster and women of the coastal area in Bangladesh. The insights obtained through the eyes of a sociologist from a holistic perspective make this book different and unique. The book is of interest to researchers, academics, policymakers and professionals engaged in the social understanding of disaster studies, as well as to researchers and practitioners in interdisciplinary domains, including sociology, gender studies, social work, environmental studies, and development studies.

This book explores the reconstruction after the 2015 Gorkha Nepal earthquake, on the basis of the author's first-hand experience that has been validated with empirical evidence. Unlike other advocacy and academic literature, the book takes readers close to the ground where the activities took place. This book describes Nepal's efforts to rebuild private housing from the preparatory to the concluding stages, and the obstacles faced and overcome along the way. It assesses the consequences of the policy level decisions and also examines the relevance, utility and future use of damage assessment surveys that were carried out in the country. In addition, lessons from the housing grant payment through the banking system, impending reasons for housing non-compliance to building standards, experimentation with resilient resettlements and unresolved issue of urban regeneration have been also delved in. The ground realities revealed that the aid architecture requires further carving out. The last three chapters have attempted to capture the macro level picture of the reconstruction and recovery endeavors: contribution to national economy, structural resilience and comparative overview of Nepal's delivery in global context. As an intimately involved professional with the 2015 Nepal Earthquake, Dr Shrestha is the authority from whom a holistic understanding can be attained regarding the response of Nepal's state and society to the Earthquake. His study will have ramification at national and global scale in handling with inescapable natural calamities. Kanak M. Dixit, Journalist and Heritage Conservationist Dr. Shrestha's book provides rare insight and perspective on the issues and challenges of governance during the complex journey to reconstruction and future resilience, reflecting his long and intense engagement in the post disaster recovery and reconstruction. Vivek Rawal, Director, People-in-Centre, Ahmedabad, India This collection of balanced insightful essays methodically explores topics such as government decisions and aid during the earthquake recovery combining lived experience and a research approach to reveal lessons and future considerations. Loren Lockwood, Former National Coordinator, Housing Recovery and Reconstruction Platform Nepal

This book presents relevant and contemporary research on the remote sensing of landscapes, agriculture & forestry, geomorphology, coasts & oceans, natural hazards and wild habitats. It highlights the application of remote sensing in understanding natural processes and oceanic features, as well as in creating mapping inventories of water resources across different spatial and temporal scales. Recent advances in hyperspectral imaging and high spatial resolution offer promising techniques for exploring various aspects related to the fruitful and cost-effective monitoring of large-scale environments. In the field of forestry and agriculture, the book addresses topics such as terrain analysis, forest management, updating current forest inventories, and vegetation cover type discrimination. It also elaborates delineation of various geo-morphological features of the earth's surface and natural disasters, and includes a special section on the remote sensing of wild habitats. Readers working in interdisciplinary sectors engaged in remote-sensing-based research benefit from the techniques presented.