|
Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Environmental impact of natural disasters & phenomena
This book discusses in detail the science and morphology of
powerful hurricane detection systems. It broadly addresses new
approaches to monitoring hazards using freely available images from
the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Sentinel-1 SAR satellite and
benchmarks a new interdisciplinary field at the interface between
oceanography, meteorology and remote sensing. Following the launch
of the first European Space Agency (ESA) operational synthetic
aperture radar satellite, Sentinel-1, in 2014, synthetic aperture
radar (SAR) data has been freely available on the Internet hub in
real-time. This advance allows weather forecasters to view
hurricanes in fine detail for the first time. As a result, the
number of synthetic aperture radar research scientists working in
this field is set to grow exponentially in the next decade; the
book is a valuable resource for this large and budding audience.
The present book is an attempt to bring all theories of geography
in one book for easy reading of teachers and students. Many
divisions in geography has many theories. Readers should take
effort to collect the theories from all books. All divisions has
certain theories. There are so many theories in physical geography
as well as human geography. A simple idea makes it convenient to
read the theories in one book. First, we selected the certain
theories as follows: Theory of continental drift, The theory of
Isostasy, Von Thunens location theory, Crop combination method, The
central place theory, Internal structure of city, The rank size
rule, The social area analysis method, Losch's theory of economics
of location, Walter Isard's theory, Alfred Weber's theory of least
cost location, Demographic transition theory, Malthusian Theory of
population- Criticism and applicability and Growth pole theory.
Like this, there are 14 theories collected and compiled in this
book as first volume. The theories collected from both physical
geography and human geography. These theories are very important
for those who are preparing for UPSC, should go through the
theories.
This volume applies the science of complexity to study coupled
human-environment systems (CHES) and integrates ideas from the
social sciences of climate change into a study of rural development
amid flooding and urbanization in the Poyang Lake Region (PLR) of
China. Author Qing Tian operationalizes the concept of
sustainability and provides useful scientific analyses for
sustainable development in less developed rural areas that are
vulnerable to climatic hazards. The book uses a new sustainability
framework that is centered on the concept of well-being to study
rural development in PLR. The PLR study includes three major
analyses: (1) a regional assessment of human well-being; (2) an
empirical analysis of rural livelihoods; and (3) an agent-based
computer model used to explore future rural development. These
analyses provide a meaningful view of human development in the
Poyang Lake Region and illustrate some of the complex local- and
macro-level processes that shape the livelihoods of rural
households in the dynamic process of urbanization. They generate
useful insights about how government policy might effectively
improve the well-being of rural households and promote sustainable
development amid social, economic, and environmental changes. This
case study has broader implications. Rural populations in the
developing world are disproportionally affected by extreme climate
events and climate change. Furthermore, the livelihoods of rural
households in the developing world are increasingly under the
influences of macro-level forces amid urbanization and
globalization. This case study demonstrates that rural development
policies must consider broader development dynamics at the national
(and even global) level, as well as specific local social and
environmental contexts. By treating climate as one of many factors
that affect development in such places, we can provide policy
recommendations that synergistically promote development and reduce
climatic impacts and therefore facilitate mainstreaming climate
adaptation into development.
This book presents a multiregional input-output model for the
metropolitan area of Southern California, which helps to estimate
the economic impact of simulated terrorist attacks on seaports,
malls etc. as well as of natural disasters such as earthquakes and
tsunamis. The authors also analyze the economic and social effects
of metropolitan policies such as growth controls, neighborhood
gentrification or road-congestion charges. The model presented in
the book has evolved over a period of 25 years and requires a very
substantial computer capacity.
In late October 2012, Hurricane Sandy caused widespread
flood-related property damage in coastal areas of states throughout
the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic region. The storm exposed
vulnerabilities in the region's public transportation and
infrastructure and underscored the nation's growing exposure to
extreme weather events, sea-level rise, and coastal flooding.
Although the full economic cost of Sandy will not be known for
years, the storm has resulted in substantial federal disaster
recovery assistance, including tens of billions for flood and
hurricane protection and coastal restoration, and the rebuilding of
mass transit systems and housing. Government payouts under the
National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) are estimated to be between
$12 billion and $15 billion in flood insurance claims. In the
immediate aftermath of Sandy, this amount quickly exceeded the $4
billion in cash and remaining borrowing authority from the Treasury
Department. By January 2013, the NFIP had processed more than
140,000 claims for Sandy-related damages totalling about $1.7
billion. To protect the financial integrity of the NFIP and ensure
that the NFIP has the financial resources to cover its existing
commitments following the devastation caused by Sandy, the Obama
Administration requested that Congress pass legislation to increase
the NFIP's borrowing authority. On January 4, 2013, Congress
passed, and the President two days later signed into law, H.R. 41
to provide a $9.7 billion increase in the NFIP's borrowing
authority, from $20.725 billion to $30.425 billion, to pay flood
claims related to Hurricane Sandy. This book provides an analysis
of flood risk management, summarises major challenges facing the
NFIP, and outlines key reforms enacted in the Flood Insurance
Reform Act of 2012. The report identifies and presents some key
remaining flood management issues for congressional consideration,
and concludes with a discussion of policy options for the future
financial management of flood hazards in the United States.
This book explores the common language of politics, ecology and
risk, and crosses their conceptual divides. It seeks to shed light
on the underlying structural factors, processes, players and
interactions in the risk scenario, all of which influence
decision-making that both increases and reduces disaster risk. The
first section explores risk governance under conditions of
increasing complexity, diversity and change. The discussion
includes chapters on The problem of governance in the risk society;
Making sense of decentralization; Understanding and conceptualizing
risk in large-scale social-ecological systems; The disaster
epidemic and Structure, process, and agency in the evaluation of
risk governance. Part II, focused on governance in regions and
domains of risk, includes nine chapters with discussion of Climate
governance and climate change and society; Climate change and the
politics of uncertainty; Risk complexity and governance in mountain
environments; On the edge: Coastal governance and risk and
Governance of megacity disaster risks, among other important
topics. Part III discusses directions for further advancement in
risk governance, with ten chapters on such topics as the transition
From risk society to security society; Governing risk tolerability;
Risk and adaptive planning for coastal cities; Profiling risk
governance in natural hazards contexts; Confronting the risk of
large disasters in nature and Transitions into and out of a crisis
mode of socio-ecological systems. The book presents a comprehensive
examination of the complexity of both risk and environmental
policy-making and of their multiple-and not always
visible-interactions in the context of social-ecological systems.
Just as important, it also addresses unseen and neglected
complementarities between regulatory policy-making and ordinary
individual decision-making through the actions of nongovernmental
actors. A range of distinguished scholars from a diverse set of
disciplines have contributed to the book with their expertise in
many areas, including disaster studies, emergency planning and
management, ecology, sustainability, environmental planning and
management, climate change, geography, spatial planning,
development studies, economy, political sciences, public
administration, communication, as well as physics and geology.
This volume discusses the general physics of debris flows and
various approaches to modeling - including the SEGMENT-Landslide
approach - as well as the pros and cons of these approaches and how
other approaches are sub-sets of the SEGMENT-Landslide approach. In
addition, this volume will systematically unify the concepts of
vadose zone hydrology and geotechnical engineering, with special
emphasis on quantifying ecosystem consequences of storm-triggered
landslides in a warmer climate setting. The reader will find a
comprehensive coverage of concepts ranging from hillslope
hydrology, porous granular material rheology and the fundamentals
of soil properties, to state-of-the-art concepts of enhanced
hydrological cycle with climate warming and a discussion of new
approaches for future research.
A comprehensive exploration of the effects of fires—in forests and other environments—on soils, watersheds, vegetation, air and cultural resources.
Department of Homeland Securitys (DHS) Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) is responsible for coordinating with state, local,
and tribal governments to prepare for disasters. Specifically, FEMA
provides preparedness grants to states and localities, and works to
implement the National Incident Management System nationwide, among
other things. This book addresses the extent to which FEMA and
regional offices have addressed preparedness grant management
coordination challenges; established a system to assess National
Incident Management System (NIMS) implementation; and collaborated
with Regional Advisory Councils (RAC) stakeholders.
This book highlights research in flood related areas and
sustainable management conducted by researchers around the world,
compiling their innovative work in order to share best practices
for managing floods and recommended flood solutions. The individual
papers cover the fundamentals and latest advances in the areas of
flood research and management, providing in-depth coverage
complemented by illustrations, diagrams and tables. The book offers
a valuable source of information on methods and state-of-the art
technology for effective flood management.
Given its size, strength, location and the enormity of its impact,
Hurricane Sandy was a storm of historic proportions and importance.
The damage inflicted by this huge storm rivalled the damages of the
Gulf Coast storms during the summer of 2005, particularly due to
the population density and overall development of the areas that
received the brunt of the storm's impact. As with other major
natural disaster events, members of Congress responded to Hurricane
Sandy by holding a series of hearings, visiting the affected
region, and introducing and acting on legislation. This book
examines the potential effects of the Sandy Recovery Improvement
Act of 2013 on disaster assistance procedures and programs. Part of
the legislative intent of the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act is to
streamline administrative procedures and improve the effectiveness
of several disaster assistance programs authorised by the Stafford
Act.
Why aren't we investing more in disaster resilience, despite the
rising costs of disaster events? This book argues that
decision-makers in governments, businesses, households, and
development agencies tend to focus on avoiding losses from
disasters, and perceive the return on investment as uncertain -
only realised if a somewhat unlikely disaster event actually
happens. This book develops a new business case for investment
based on the multiple dividends of resilience. This looks beyond
only avoided losses (the first dividend) to the wider benefits
gained independently of whether or not the disaster event occurs.
These include unleashing entrepreneurial activities and productive
investments by lowering the looming threat of losses from disasters
and enabling businesses, farmers and homeowners to take positive
risks (the second dividend); and co-benefits of resilience measures
beyond just disaster risk (the third dividend), such as flood
embankments in Bangladesh that double as roads, or wetlands in
Colombo that reduce urban heat extremes.
|
You may like...
Our Planet
Alastair Fothergill, Keith Scholey, …
Hardcover
(1)
R595
R467
Discovery Miles 4 670
|