This book presents water insecurity issues in urban areas while developing a water security index and explores the innovative approaches to water development and management with examples from Asian cities. The urban water crisis is a global phenomenon, but it is more obvious in the megacities of the developing world. Urban drought, although not a familiar term, will pose a significant threat to humankind in the near future, especially in the context of increasing population in cities. Many cities are already unable to provide safe, clean water for their citizens. Some of the world's largest cities depend heavily on groundwater for their water supply. It is unlikely that dependence on aquifers, which take many years to recharge, will be sustainable. As urban populations grow, water use will need to shift from agriculture to municipal and industrial uses, making decisions about allocating between different sectors difficult. Inefficient water-use practices by households and industries, fragmented management of water between sectors and institutions, climate-induced water shortages, environmental degradation of water sources, and inadequate use of alternate sources are also issues of major concern. Despite recent advances in the literature, there exists a considerable gap in attempting an integrated water-resource management approach. Covering all aspects of urban drought and water insecurity, this book is a valuable resource for students, researchers, academics, policy makers, and development practitioners.

Ten years ago, on December 26, 2004, one of the world's most destructive natural disasters occurred. A magnitude Mw 9.1 earthquake (third strongest ever instrumentally recorded) generated a global tsunami that killed about 230,000 people along the coasts of 14 countries in the Indian Ocean and propagated as far as the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans. Since then, various countries from around the globe contributed major funding to tsunami research and mitigation, enabling the installation of hundreds of new high-precision instruments, the development of new technology and the establishment of more modern communication systems. As a result, incredible progress has been achieved in tsunami research and operation during the ten years after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.The papers presented in this second of two special volumes of Pure and Applied Geophysics reflect the state of tsunami science during this time, including two papers devoted to global observations. Five papers provide new findings specifically in the Indian Ocean. Eight papers cover Pacific Ocean studies, focusing mainly on the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Remaining papers in the volume describe studies in the Atlantic and Mediterranean and general tsunami source studies.The volume is of interest to scientists and practitioners involved in all aspects of tsunamis from earthquake source processes to transoceanic wave propagation and coastal impacts. Postgraduate students in geophysics, oceanography and coastal engineering - as well as students in the broader geosciences, civil and environmental engineering - will also find the book to be a valuable resource, as it combines recent case studies with advances in tsunami science and natural hazards mitigation.

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.

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.

The Earth is a beautiful and wondrous planet, but also frustratingly complex and, at times, violent: much of what has made it livable can also cause catastrophe. Volcanic eruptions create land and produce fertile, nutrient-rich soil, but they can also bury forests, fields, and entire towns under ash, mud, lava, and debris. The very forces that create and recycle Earth's crust also spawn destructive earthquakes and tsunamis. Water and wind bring and spread life, but in hurricanes they can leave devastation in their wake. And while it is the planet's warmth that enables life to thrive, rapidly increasing temperatures are causing sea levels to rise and weather events to become more extreme. Today, we know more than ever before about the powerful forces that can cause catastrophe, but significant questions remain. Why can't we better predict some natural disasters? What do scientists know about them already? What do they wish they knew? In Dangerous Earth, marine scientist and science communicator Ellen Prager explores the science of investigating volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, landslides, rip currents, and--maybe the most perilous hazard of all--climate change. Each chapter considers a specific hazard, begins with a game-changing historical event (like the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens or the landfall and impacts of Hurricane Harvey), and highlights what remains unknown about these dynamic phenomena. Along the way, we hear from scientists trying to read Earth's warning signs, pass its messages along to the rest of us, and prevent catastrophic loss. A sweeping tour of some of the most awesome forces on our planet--many tragic, yet nonetheless awe-inspiring--Dangerous Earth is an illuminating journey through the undiscovered, unresolved, and in some cases unimagined mysteries that continue to frustrate and fascinate the world's leading scientists: the "wish-we-knews" that ignite both our curiosity and global change.

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."

Science now reveals the true cause of the dam breach flood that destroyed Johnstown in 1889. The tragic loss of more than 2200 lives was preventable; the initial investigation of the flood was hijacked, delayed, and distorted by powerful members of the industrial elite. This book bridges the gap between history and science, reexamining eyewitness accounts of the flood and historic documents about the investigation, and applying new LiDAR, GPS, and hydraulic studies to solve the mystery - what caused the Great Flood of 1889? The book includes a notable chapter on the "sister" of the South Fork Dam, "The Forgotten Dam" at Hollidaysburg, PA.

Wildland fire has and continues to impact humans and our environment both positively and negatively. Being able to co-exist with fire on the landscape is becoming increasingly more important as man expands his use of the world's ecosystems. This book is the latest contribution dedicated towards the scholarship surrounding the subject of wildland fires. The present volume consists of a collection of essays covering fire science and technology topics that support the management of wildfires and prescribed fires written by specialists in their respective fields. The nine chapters cover the following: (i) the need of fire and the consequences of policies of attempted fire exclusion to try and manage the wildfire problem; (ii) a review of the current state-of-knowledge of the role of remote sensing technologies in managing wildfires; (iii) a description of how the Canadian system of forest fire danger rating has been introduced into Argentina; (iv) the rationale for adding an "QA" for anchor point(s) to the LCES (Lookout(s)-- Communication(s) -- Escape routes -- Safety zone(s)) safety system for wildland firefighters, thus denoting LACES; (v) a case study involving the use of cloud-based geographic information system on the 2013 Silver Fire in southern California; (vi) the deaths that have occurred amongst rural firefighters and members of the public in Greece since 1997; (vii and viii) two separate overviews of the history, ecology and management of two large Argentinian regions of South America; and (ix) an assessment undertaken of wildland firefighter fatalities in South Africa over the past twenty years or so.

A thorough explanation of the mathematical theories, philosophies, and economics of catastrophes with a view to how humanity should be prepared for events with catastrophic consequences This book presents a holistic view of natural and man-made catastrophes, from mathematical theories and philosophy through to economics and policy. It is both academic and applied in its approach, offering both empirical evidence and academic reflections to give a new perspective on an ever-developing topic, and providing many examples of public policy and catastrophe responses from around the world. Natural and Man-made Catastrophes: Theories, Economics, and Policy Designs begins by introducing readers to numerous natural and man-made catastrophes and how catastrophe theories have played a pivotal role in designing policies and responses to them. It discusses hurricanes, earthquakes, nuclear disaster, asteroid collision, Large Hadron Collider, artificial intelligence, uncontrollable robots, global warming, infectious diseases without antibodies, and bioterrorism. It clarifies key mathematical and scientific theories--such as catastrophe theory, chaos, singularity, fractal, tipping point, unbounded variance, fat-tail, and Feigenbaum constant--on catastrophes. The book goes on to examine ancient and contemporary philosophies that have played critical roles in humanity's understanding of catastrophic outcomes. The book critically builds the economics of catastrophic events 1) by consolidating the catastrophe literature in natural sciences, scientific theories, and philosophy; 2) by constructing global empirical catastrophe data and analytical models using historical data on hurricanes and earthquakes; 3) and by critically reviewing policy experiences on the aforementioned catastrophic events. Lays the foundation for the economic analyses and policy-making on potential humanity/universe threatening catastrophes Includes many examples of public policy and behavioral responses to catastrophes from around the world Provides a wide-ranging commentary on crucial implications of the studies, models, and concepts of catastrophes Synthesizes the catastrophe literature in mathematical theories, philosophical traditions, economic analyses, policy studies, and contemporary concerns. Natural and Man-made Catastrophes: Theories, Economics, and Policy Designs is an important book for students, teachers, professionals, and policy makers who are involved in environmental research and disaster response.

The risks posed by climate change and its effect on climate extremes are an increasingly pressing societal problem. This book provides an accessible overview of the statistical analysis methods which can be used to investigate climate extremes and analyse potential risk. The statistical analysis methods are illustrated with case studies on extremes in the three major climate variables: temperature, precipitation, and wind speed. The book also provides datasets and access to appropriate analysis software, allowing the reader to replicate the case study calculations. Providing the necessary tools to analyse climate risk, this book is invaluable for students and researchers working in the climate sciences, as well as risk analysts interested in climate extremes.

This book aims to uncover the root causes of natural and man-made disasters by going beyond the typical reports and case studies conducted post-disaster. It opens the black box of disasters by presenting 'forensic analysis approaches' to disasters, thereby revealing the complex causality that characterizes them and explaining how and why hazards do, or do not, become disasters. This yields 'systemic' strategies for managing disasters. Recently the global threat landscape has seen the emergence of high impact, low probability events. Events like Hurricane Katrina, the Great Japan Earthquake and tsunami, Hurricane Sandy, Super Typhoon Haiyan, global terrorist activities have become the new norm. Extreme events challenge our understanding regarding the interdependencies and complexity of the disaster aetiology and are often referred to as Black Swans. Between 2002 and 2011, there were 4130 disasters recorded that resulted from natural hazards around the world. In these, 1,117,527 people perished and a minimum of US$1,195 billion in losses were reported. In the year 2011 alone, 302 disasters claimed 29,782 lives; affected 206 million people and inflicted damages worth a minimum of estimated US$366 billion.

This volume contains peer-reviewed papers from the Fourth World Landslide Forum organized by the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL), the Global Promotion Committee of the International Programme on Landslides (IPL), University of Ljubljana (UL) and Geological Survey of Slovenia in Ljubljana, Slovenia from May 29 to June 2,. The complete collection of papers from the Forum is published in five full-color volumes. This second volume contains the following: * Two keynote lectures * Landslide Field Recognition and Identification: Remote Sensing Techniques, Field Techniques * Landslide Investigation: Field Investigations, Laboratory Testing * Landslide Modeling: Landslide Mechanics, Simulation Models * Landslide Hazard Risk Assessment and Prediction: Landslide Inventories and Susceptibility, Hazard Mapping Methods, Damage Potential Prof. Matjaz Mikos is the Forum Chair of the Fourth World Landslide Forum. He is the Vice President of International Consortium on Landslides and President of the Slovenian National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. Prof. Binod Tiwari is the Coordinator of the Volume 2 of the Fourth World Landslide Forum. He is a Board member of the International Consortium on Landslides and an Executive Editor of the International Journal "Landslides". He is the Chair-Elect of the Engineering Division of the US Council of Undergraduate Research, Award Committee Chair of the American Society of Civil Engineering, Geo-Institute's Committee on Embankments, Slopes, and Dams Committee. Prof. Yueping Yin is the President of the International Consortium on Landslides and the Chairman of the Committee of Geo-Hazards Prevention of China, and the Chief Geologist of Geo-Hazard Emergency Technology, Ministry of Land and Resources, P.R. China. Prof. Kyoji Sassa is the Founding President of the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL). He is Executive Director of ICL and the Editor-in-Chief of International Journal"Landslides" since its foundation in 2004. IPL (International Programme on Landslides) is a programme of the ICL. The programme is managed by the IPL Global Promotion Committee including ICL and ICL supporting organizations, UNESCO, WMO, FAO, UNISDR, UNU, ICSU, WFEO, IUGS and IUGG. The IPL contributes to the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and the ISDR-ICL Sendai Partnerships 2015-2025.

In 2011, there were fourteen natural calamities that each destroyed over a billion dollars worth of property in the United States alone. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy ravaged the East Coast and major earthquakes struck in Italy, the Philippines, Iran, and Afghanistan. In the first half of 2013, the awful drumbeat continued a monster supertornado struck Moore, Oklahoma; a powerful earthquake shook Sichuan, China; a cyclone ravaged Queensland, Australia; massive floods inundated Jakarta, Indonesia; and the largest wildfire ever engulfed a large part of Colorado.

Despite these events, we still behave as if natural disasters are outliers. Why else would we continue to build new communities near active volcanoes, on tectonically active faults, on flood plains, and in areas routinely lashed by vicious storms?

A famous historian once observed that civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice. In the pages of this unique book, leading geologist Susan W. Kieffer provides a primer on most types of natural disasters: earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, landslides, hurricanes, cyclones, and tornadoes. By taking us behind the scenes of the underlying geology that causes them, she shows why natural disasters are more common than we realize, and that their impact on us will increase as our growing population crowds us into ever more vulnerable areas.

Kieffer describes how natural disasters result from changes in state in a geologic system, much as when water turns to steam. By understanding what causes these changes of state, we can begin to understand the dynamics of natural disasters.

In the book s concluding chapter, Kieffer outlines how we might better prepare for, and in some cases prevent, future disasters. She also calls for the creation of an organization, something akin to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but focused on pending natural disasters."

This book summarizes the results of 3 years of agricultural and forestry reconstructive efforts and applied research conducted directly in the affected areas of Fukushima following the Great East Japan Earthquake. It describes fast and effective revival methods and technologies from tsunami and radiation damages, demonstrated through the collaborative efforts of researchers, students, local farmers, forest owners, and municipalities gathered under the Tokyo University of Agriculture East Japan Assistance Project. Consisting of four parts, the first part of the book provides an overview of the damage and measures taken to overcome them by the local municipalities and the Tokyo University of Agriculture. The second part presents data and results of agricultural recovery from the tsunami-for example, monitoring systems, reconstruction models, and convenient, low-cost methods developed for the restoration of tsunami-damaged paddy fields. The third part focuses on recovery from radiation-contaminated farmlands and forests and consequent reputational damages. Included are various primary data obtained from field experiments and surveys, studies on the mechanism of contamination, and the results of radical monitoring, decontamination, and restoration techniques performed at this site. The final part is a collection of reflections of local farmers, forest owners, and students who participated in the project. The academic trials and errors recorded in this book are an invaluable contribution to disaster management and recovery processes. It is written for a wide audience, not limited to researchers and students, but also for government and state officials, municipalities, agricultural cooperative staff members, and farmers.

This book is a product of the joint efforts of interdisciplinary academic fields under the integrative framework of human geoscience. Human geoscience is a new genre of geoscience concerned with the natural phenomena that occur on the surface of the Earth and their relations with human activities. It therefore has connections with many fields of geoscience, namely, physical geography, geomorphology, geology, soil science, sedimentology, seismology, volcanology, meteorology, climatology, oceanography, and hydrology. It also has strong links to the humanities, social sciences, agricultural sciences, and engineering related to disaster prevention or mitigation. All these disciplines are important fields for understanding disasters and global environmental problems and for evaluating the associated risks comprehensively, then proposing mitigation strategies.The volume is designed for those who may not necessarily have a geoscience background but have broad scientific interest in understanding the causes, mechanisms, and consequences of geo-disasters and global environmental problems and wish to make the world more sustainable on that basis. The book consists of six parts: I. Introduction, II. Earth Surface Realms, III. Natural Resources and Society, IV. Natural Hazards and Society, V. Global Environmental Problems, and VI. Global Sustainability Programmes and Human Geoscience, which discusses the contribution of this field of science to a new comprehensive framework for global sustainability.

This book presents methods and results that cover and extend beyond the state-of-the-art in structural dynamics and earthquake engineering. Most of the chapters are based on the keynote lectures at the International Conference in Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics (ICESD), held in Reykjavik, Iceland, on June 12-14, 2017. The conference is being organised in memory of late Professor Ragnar Sigbjoernsson, who was an influential teacher and one of the leading researchers in the fields of structural mechanics, random fields, engineering seismology and earthquake engineering. Professor Sigbjoernsson had a close research collaboration with the Norwegian Institute of Science and Technology (NTNU), where his research was mainly focused in dynamics of marine and offshore structures. His research in Iceland was mainly focused on engineering seismology and earthquake engineering. The keynote-lecture based chapters are contributed by leading experts in these fields of research and showcase not only the historical perspective but also the most recent developments as well as a glimpse into the future. These chapters showcase a synergy of the fields of structural dynamics, engineering seismology, and earthquake engineering. In addition, some chapters in the book are based on works carried out under the leadership and initiative of Professor Sigbjoernsson and showcase his contribution to the understanding of seismic hazard and risk in Iceland. As such, the book is useful for both researchers and practicing engineers who are interested in recent research advances in structural dynamics and earthquake engineering, and in particular to those interested in seismic hazard and risk in Iceland.

The storm came on the night of 31 October. It was a full moon, and the tides were at their peak; the great rivers of eastern Bengal were flowing high and fast to the sea. In the early hours the inhabitants of the coast and islands were overtaken by an immense wave from the Bay of Bengal -- a wall of water that reached a height of 40 feet in some places. The wave swept away everything in its path, drowning around 215,000 people. At least another 100,000 died in the cholera epidemic and famine that followed. It was the worst calamity of its kind in recorded history. Such events are often described as 'natural disasters'. Kingsbury turns that interpretation on its head, showing that the cyclone of 1876 was not simply a 'natural' event, but one shaped by all-too-human patterns of exploitation and inequality -- by divisions within Bengali society, and the enormous disparities of political and economic power that characterised British rule on the subcontinent. With Bangladesh facing rising sea levels and stronger, more frequent storms, there is every reason to revisit this terrible calamity. An Imperial Disaster is troubling but essential reading: history for an age of climate change.

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.

An earthquake shatters Haiti and a hurricane slices through Texas. We hear that nature runs rampant, seeking to destroy us through these 'natural disasters'. Science recounts a different story, however: disasters are not the consequence of natural causes; they are the consequence of human choices and decisions. we put ourselves in harm's way; we fail to take measures which we know would prevent disasters, no matter what the environment does. This can be both hard to accept, and hard to unravel. A complex of factors shape disasters. They arise from the political processes dictating where and what we build, and from social circumstances which create and perpetuate poverty and discrimination. They develop from the social preference to blame nature for the damage wrought, when in fact events such as earthquakes and storms are entirely commonplace environmental processes We feel the need to fight natural forces, to reclaim what we assume is ours, and to protect ourselves from what we perceive to be wrath from outside our communities. This attitude distracts us from the real causes of disasters: humanity's decisions, as societies and as individuals. It stops us accepting the real solutions to disasters: making better decisions. This book explores stories of some of our worst disasters to show how we can and should act to stop people dying when nature unleashes its energies. The disaster is not the tornado, the volcanic eruption, or climate change, but the deaths and injuries, the loss of irreplaceable property, and the lack and even denial of support to affected people, so that a short-term interruption becomes a long-term recovery nightmare. But we can combat this, as Kelman shows, describing inspiring examples of effective human action that limits damage, such as managing flooding in Toronto and villages in Bangladesh, or wildfire in Colorado. Throughout, his message is clear: there is no such thing as a natural disaster. The disaster lies in our inability to deal with the environment and with ourselves.

The book emphasizes a contemporary view on the role of higher level fusion in designing crisis management systems, and provide the formal foundations, architecture and implementation strategies required for building dynamic current and future situational pictures, challenges of, and the state of the art computational approaches to designing such processes. This book integrates recent advances in decision theory with those in fusion methodology to define an end-to-end framework for decision support in crisis management. The text discusses modern fusion and decision support methods for dealing with heterogeneous and often unreliable, low fidelity, contradictory, and redundant data and information, as well as rare, unknown, unconventional or even unimaginable critical situations. Also the book examines the role of context in situation management, cognitive aspects of decision making and situation management, approaches to domain representation, visualization, as well as the role and exploitation of the social media. The editors include examples and case studies from the field of disaster management.

This book is for a broad audience of practitioners, policymakers, scholars, and anyone interested in scenarios, simulations, and disaster planning. Readers are led through several different planning scenarios that have been developed over several years under the auspices of the US Department of Energy, the US Air Force, and continued work at GlobalInt LLC. These scenarios present different security challenges and their potential cascading impacts on global systems - from the melting of glaciers in the Andes, to hurricanes in New York and Hawaii, and on to hybrid disasters, cyberoperations and geoengineering. The book provides a concise and up-to-date overview of the 'lessons learned', with a focus on innovative solutions to the world's pressing energy and environmental security challenges.

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.

In this history of extinction and existential risk, a Newsweek and Bloomberg popular science and investigative journalist examines our most dangerous mistakes -- and explores how we can protect and future-proof our civilization. End Times is a compelling work of skilled reportage that peels back the layers of complexity around the unthinkable -- and inevitable -- end of humankind. From asteroids and artificial intelligence to volcanic supereruption to nuclear war, veteran science reporter and TIME editor Bryan Walsh provides a stunning panoramic view of the most catastrophic threats to the human race. In End Times, Walsh examines threats that emerge from nature and those of our own making: asteroids, supervolcanoes, nuclear war, climate change, disease pandemics, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and extraterrestrial intelligence. Walsh details the true probability of these world-ending catastrophes, the impact on our lives were they to happen, and the best strategies for saving ourselves, all pulled from his rigorous and deeply thoughtful reporting and research. Walsh goes into the room with the men and women whose job it is to imagine the unimaginable. He includes interviews with those on the front lines of prevention, actively working to head off existential threats in biotechnology labs and government hubs. Guided by Walsh's evocative, page-turning prose, we follow scientific stars like the asteroid hunters at NASA and the disease detectives on the trail of the next killer virus. Walsh explores the danger of apocalypse in all forms. In the end, it will be the depth of our knowledge, the height of our imagination, and our sheer will to survive that will decide the future.