Since the end of the cold war, civil wars and state violence have escalated, resulting in thousands of deaths. This book provides a toolbox for donors, international agencies, and developing countries to prevent humanitarian emergencies. The emphasis is on long-term development policies rather than mediation or reconstruction after the conflict ensues. Policies include democratization, reforming institutions, strengthening civil society, improving the state's administrative capability, agrarian reform, accelerating economic growth through stabilization and adjustment, reducing inequalities, and redesigning aid to be more stable.

Surgical care is increasingly recognized as a critical component of global health, and strong surgical skills, teamwork, and poise under pressure become even more imperative during conflict or disaster. When faced with hospital bombings or devastating earthquakes, healthcare personnel must develop special techniques and abilities to ably care for patients despite limited resources and a disrupted health system. In Operation Crisis, Dr. Adam L. Kushner brings together 22 medical experts from around the world to recount their experiences in the field when disaster struck. These candid firsthand accounts from both local and international aid surgeons provide clinicians and public health practitioners with insightful lessons for effectively treating surgical patients under the most grueling of circumstances. Moving from conflict settings that include war zones in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, and South Sudan, Operation Crisis also touches on post-earthquake Haiti and Nepal and post-tsunami Indonesia. Individual themed chapters cover mass casualty training, burn care, obstetric care, sexual violence, and landmine injuries. Combining personal stories with lessons learned and possible interventions, these vivid and affecting essays detail the immediate aftermath of conflict and disaster while pointing the way to improving care for future victims of crisis. Intended to spark further discussion and function as an advocacy tool while highlighting situations where surgical care can save lives and reduce disability, this book is a valuable resource for medical professionals, students, policy makers, international aid organizations, and philanthropic donors. Contributors: Kapendra Shekhar Amatya, Samer Attar, Jeffrey A. Bailey, Lucas C. Carlson, James C. Cobey, Dattesh R. Dave, Dan L. Deckelbaum, Richard A. Gosselin, Shailvi Gupta, Edna Adan Ismail, Thaim B. Kamara, T. Peter Kingham, Adam L. Kushner, Judy M. Lee, Maria "Tane" Pilar Luna, Brijesh Mishra, Kyle N. Remick, Lauri J. Romanzi, Michael Sinclair, Barclay T. Stewart, Marten van Wijhe, Evan G. Wong

In emergencies, distributing cash in a targeted manner can often meet people's immediate needs more quickly and appropriately than the direct distribution of commodities such as food aid. Cash gives people choices and thereby preserves their dignity. Commodity distribution may pose logistical problems, takes time, and in the case of food aid, may disrupt local markets if food is actually available within the affected country or region. But among humanitarian agencies there are fears that cash transfers will pose security risks, create inflation, and fail to be used to meet basic needs.In this guide, the first of its kind, Oxfam staff members present the rationale behind cash-transfer programs, considering the arguments for and against cash as an alternative to commodity distribution. They also give guidance on when cash is the most appropriate intervention and how to assess this. Different types of cash intervention are compared--cash grants, vouchers, and cash-for-work--and the guide uses checklists to explain the practical steps involved in implementing them. They draw on the experience of Oxfam and other agencies of operating such programs, including responses to the devastation caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004.The guidelines are primarily intended for NGO personnel: humanitarian program managers, food-security specialists, public-health engineers, finance staff, and logisticians. Policymakers in donor organizations and international agencies will also find them relevant.The sixteen cards contain key elements from the book to explain how to assess whether cash is the most appropriate response to any particular emergency. The cards and the paperback are alsoavailable as a set.

A riveting investigation into the dark underbelly of the global trash trade - a dirty, multi-billion-dollar industry that almost no one knows exists.

The total mass of the world's manmade materials has recently come to equal the entire biomass of the earth. This means we are living in a world where man's ability to create garbage, or eventual garbage, has surpassed the earth's ability to create life. Dumps and landfills around the world are overflowing, and disputes about what to do with the tons of garbage generated every day have given rise to waste wars waged in just about every country on earth. Some are border skirmishes, fought to move trash out of one place and dump it into another. Others are waged across thousands of miles.

But no matter the scale, one thing is true about almost all of them: few people have any idea they're happening. For every story about how a commodity gets hustled through world supply chains for consumption, there exists another untold story about how it gets discarded for renewal - or for eternity. Some trash gets tossed onto roadsides. Some gets burned for fuel. Some gets buried underground. But most of it lives a hot potato second life, getting bartered, sold, re-sold, smuggled, salvaged, re-purposed from one country or mafia or corporation to another, with devastating consequences for millions of people.

Waste Wars tells the stories of five trash conflicts being waged in different corners of the world right now. They are representative but rich strands in the story of our planet's runaway garbage pandemic. In each theater, a different commodity is being smuggled or imported or bartered. Sometimes there is a winner; sometimes there is a loser. And in each theater a different political dilemma - from global inequality to the pitfalls of green politics - is presenting itself through the seemingly pedestrian medium of trash. A globe-trotting work of relentless investigative reporting, Waste Wars exposes the multi-billion-dollar global garbage trade in which almost everyone in the world unknowingly engages and asks: If the handling of its trash reveals deeper truths about a particular society, what does the global business of trash say about our world today?

Climate Change: Observed Impacts on Planet Earth, Third Edition, brings together top global researchers across many disciplines to provide a comprehensive review on the complex issue of climate change and weather patterns. The third edition continues its tradition of focusing on the science and evidence on this highly politicized topic. Every chapter is updated, with this new edition featuring new chapters on topics such as glacier melt, the impacts of rising temperatures, extreme weather, modeling techniques, biodiversity, and more. This book is essential for researchers, environmental managers, engineers, and those whose work is impacted by, or tied to, climate change and global warming.

Floods are natural events, but when they impact on human environments, they turn into disasters which disrupt society. The last decades have seen an alarming increase in the number of major floods and associated damage on every continent. The impact is more severe due to population growth and settlement in flood prone areas, climate change and disrupted hydrological cycles. There is now an urgency regarding the exchange of information on developments and experiences in research, policy and management. The 3rd International Symposium on Flood Defence presented new developments in Sciences (hydrology, ecology, flood modelling and forecasting, information management and GIS-based decision support systems); Frameworks (institutional and organisational, basin-wide flood management); Policy-making and implementation (government strategies and approaches, public awareness and participation, new concepts such as risk management in relation to climate change); and Measures and solutions (structural and non-structural measures, spatial planning). Case studies illustrate specific experiences and practices in flood control situations, for example, flooding in urban areas. These Symposium Proceedings include about 165 selected papers, presentations, keynotes and theme reports as presented during the ISFD3. As a whole this publication reflects a worldwide change in strategy: from flood defence towards flood management. Floods, from Defence to Management is of special interest to researchers, scientists, consultants, managers, donor agencies and government bodies involved in policy making and flood management.

In the 1980s, record numbers of Americans have qualified for food stamps and food aid in other forms, despite increasingly rigid standards of eligibility. After more than two decades of such assistance, hunger and malnutrition remain widespread among low-income groups in the United States. This new study examines the policy processes that have shaped food assistance programs since the Kennedy administration and looks at prospects for resolving the political stalemate over food aid that has overtaken national policy. Following an analysis of the dynamics of the policy process, Professor Maney explores the various changes that have affected assistance policy since its first phase beginning in 1933. She describes the shifting course of aid policy, which first aimed at supporting farm income and disposing of agricultural surpluses and more recently has attempted to deal primarily with hunger and severe malnutrition. Focusing on conflicts over policy objectives and budget, the author traces the ups and downs of the struggle between the executive branch and Congress to control both policy and appropriations. Other topics considered are the role of Department of Agriculture planners and administrators, the influence of powerful agricultural interests, the efforts of antipoverty and civil rights activists to secure more equitable food distribution in the rural South, and the effects of joblessness on food assistance policy. A clear and balanced analysis of one of the gravest policy dilemmas facing the nation, this book is an important resource for professionals, politicians, academics, and students concerned with public policy, social issues, government, and contemporary political economy.

How do cities plan for the unplanned? Do cities plan for recovery from every possible sudden shock? How does one prepare a plan for the recovery after a tragedy, like the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York? The book discovers the systematic features that contribute to the success of planning institutions. In cities filled with uncertainty and complexity, planning institutions effectively tackle unexpected and sudden change by relying on the old and the familiar, rather than the new and the innovative.
The author argues that planning programs institutions were successful because they were bureaucratic, and relied on standardized routines, rigorous sets of established regimes, familiar programs, and institutionalized hierarchies. Also contrary to popular perception, neither the leaders at the top of the institutions nor those workers at the grassroots level were the most important in the implementation of such routines. The key actors were middle managers, because they knew the institutionalstructures inside out, what the routines were and how to use them, and were successful go-betweens between national governments and grassroots community groups.
Case studies from Mexico City, Los Angeles and New York provide a deeper understanding of urban planning processes. The case studies reveal that systematic institutional analysis helps us understand what works in planning, and why. They also demonstrate the manner in which institutional routines serve as powerful and effective tools for addressing novel situations.

Here is a comprehensive overview of the geophysical, technological, and social aspects of natural disasters. This book systematically reviews the agents of natural catastrophes - earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, drought, hurricanes, erosion, fires, etc. - in terms of their geophysical processes and effects. The human impact and response is examined from various perspectives, including damage and the urban environment, the logistics of planning and emergency action, medical emergencies and the epidemiology of disasters, the Third World, and socio-economic consequences. The author's unique interdisciplinary perspective helps the reader to achieve a clear perspective on natural disasters and possible strategies against them.

"The sociology of hazardous waste, risk, and disasters is a relatively new discipline with an increasing volume of empirical research by scholars. Francis O. Adeola focuses this book on hazardous and toxic wastes releases, industrial toxic disasters, contamination of communities and the environment, and the subsequent adverse health effects among exposed populations. He explains the emerging sociological study of risk, natural, and technological disasters, and he reviews the accumulated body of knowledge in the field up-to-date. This groundbreaking work integrates sociological perspectives with perspectives from other disciplines in the discussion of the problems posed by technological hazards both in advanced industrialized societies and in underdeveloped world"--

In this penetrating account of the impacts of risk on everyday life, Gabe Mythen provides a theoretically informed overview of the regulation of crime and security in a globalized world. By explicating the relationships between risk and crime, security and justice, the text applies risk to specific incidents and events, scrutinizing social processes and cultural practices, and illumining some of the central social and political issues of the modern age. Extending across a range of domains - including law, the environment, media and politics - Mythen embarks on a conceptual and critical exploration of risk theory. In doing so, his incisive text presents both a critical evaluation of the efficacy of competing perspectives on risk, and an authoritative appraisal of the place of risk within the social sciences.

A groundbreaking history of China's Great Famine: winner of the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize 2011 'A gripping and masterful portrait of the brutal court of Mao, based on new research but also written with great narrative verve' Simon Sebag Montefiore 'Harrowing and brilliant' Ben Macintyre 'A critical contribution to Chinese history' Wall Street Journal Between 1958 and 1962, 45 million Chinese people were worked, starved or beaten to death. Mao Zedong threw his country into a frenzy with the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to catch up with and overtake the West in less than fifteen years. It led to one of the greatest catastrophes the world has ever known. Dikotter's extraordinary research within Chinese archives brings together for the first time what happened in the corridors of power with the everyday experiences of ordinary people, giving voice to the dead and disenfranchised. This groundbreaking account definitively recasts the history of the People's Republic of China.

This book is dedicated to furthering scientific understanding of drought assessment and management and the policy issues associated with drought preparedness worldwide. The authors invited to contribute to the volume are uniquely qualified to address their respective topics. The book is divided into two parts. Part One emphasizes theoretical aspects of drought assessment, management, and preparedness; it also includes a discussion of the concept of drought. These chapters are aimed at improving the reader's understanding and awareness of drought; appropriate technologies to monitor drought's onset, development and termination; emerging methodologies to estimate impacts; adjustment strategies to alleviate drought effects; and a methodology for countries to follow in the development of a national drought policy and plan. Part One concludes with an insightful examination of how changes in climate may alter climatic variability and the frequency and intensity of extreme events, particularly drought. The successes and failures of previous assessment and response efforts are highlighted in Part Two through case studies in Israel, India, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, the United States, and China. Several of these case studies provide insight into the difficulties inherent in the provision of timely and effective drought assistance by government in both a developed and developing country setting. The lessons learned in these instances provide both an extraordinary opportunity and challenge to other drought-prone nations to learn from these experiences and avoid some of the mistakes of the past. Some of the case studies in Part Two illustrate remarkable progress in drought preparedness andare examples for other nations to follow.

The "precautionary principle" is widely seen as fundamental to successful policies for sustainability. It has been cited in international courts and trade disputes between the USA and the EU, and invoked in a growing range of political debates. Understanding what it can and cannot achieve is therefore crucial.;This volume looks back over the last century to examine the role the "principle" played or could have played, in a range of major and avoidable public disasters. From detailed investigation of how each disaster unfolded, what the impacts were and what measures were adopted, the authors draw lessons and establish criteria that could help to minimise the health and environmental risks of future technological, economic and policy innovations.;This is an informative resource for all those from lawyers and policy-makers, to researchers and students needing to understand or apply the "principle".

Floods occur in most parts of the world and range from being welcomed annual occurrences, to natural disasters which have countless physical and societal impacts.
Floods presents the most comprehensive collection to date of new research, providing a rich body of theory and experience and drawing together contributions from over fifty leading international researchers in the field. An extensive range of case-studies covering major floods and regions prone to flooding worldwide are included.

This book employs epistemological, methodological and discursive approaches to explore the practices of tourism stakeholders in Covid-19 affected destinations and to understand and explain their everyday real-time doings and sayings. It discusses the changing practices of tourists and stakeholders at both micro and meso levels and provides a range of contexts and destination case studies offering insights into supply and demand. The issues examined in the volume will have continued implications for further study of the relationships between tourism, crises, pandemics and global travel. It will be a useful resource for researchers and students in tourism studies, geography, politics and policy, as well as sociology, history, crisis management and development studies.

Contents:
1. The Earth and Nuclear Power 2. Sources and Resources 3. How Reactors Work 4. Cooling Reactors 5. Loss of Cooling 6. Loss of Cooling Accident: Some Examples 7. Postulated Severe Accidents 8. Cooling During Fuel Removal and Processing

In recent years, the number of presidential declarations of "major disasters" has skyrocketed. Such declarations make stricken areas eligible for federal emergency relief funds that greatly reduce their costs. But is federalizing the costs of disasters helping to lighten the overall burden of disasters or is it making matters worse? Does it remove incentives for individuals and local communities to take measures to protect themselves? Are people more likely to invest in property in hazardous locations in the belief that, if worse comes to worst, the federal government will bail them out?."Disasters and Democracy" addresses the political response to natural disasters, focusing specifically on the changing role of the federal government from distant observer to immediate responder and principal financier of disaster costs.

The field of disaster law has witnessed a huge surge in interest over the past few years. Building widespread recognition of the shortcomings of legal systems faced with disasters, academics have increasingly turned their attention to exploring how these failings can be addressed. This volume is a carefully selected collection of essays which focus on the legal and economic aspects of disaster law and pays particular attention to the legalities of catastrophes. The editors have brought together seminal papers analysing how disasters, both natural and man-made, could be prevented and investigating the ways in which compensation for such events could be provided.This set of indispensable papers examines such issues through a variety of analytical lenses and provides a solid foundation for future developments in this dynamic and highly topical subject.

This text argues that "Natural" disasters have more to do with the social, political, and economic aspects than they do with the environmental hazards that trigger them. Disasters occur at the interface of vulnerable people and hazardous environments. The author concentrates on the social aspects of disaster, focusing on the most expensive disaster to date in US history, the Northridge earthquake of 1994, to examine the facets of vulnerability and post-disaster recovery strategies. Surveying the historical and contemporary aspects of life in Southern California the author explains how vulnerability to disaster has been shaped by more than a century of immigration, urbanization, environmental transformations and economic development. Examining other recent disasters alongside Northridge, this book provides a global view of the social effects of disaster in developed and developing countries. An insight into the field, the text presents aspects of sustainable development and state policy and concludes with considerations of ways that vulnerability can be reduced in the future.

Hurricane Katrina was a pivotal event in the history of disaster mismanagement. Its impact will be felt well into the future and its lessons will be applied around the world. This influential volume explores key policy implications arising from the storm and its aftermath. Leading scholars from fields as diverse as decision analysis, risk management, economics engineering, transportation, urban planning and sociology investigate the policy issues associated with insurance, flood control and the rebuilding of levees, housing, tourism, utility lifelines recovery and resilience, evacuation, relocation and racial implications.By assessing the disruption of life in New Orleans, as well as the inter-regional economic impacts of the disaster, the authors suggest steps that can be taken to minimize future risks, not only in New Orleans but also in all locations threatened by natural disasters. It then goes beyond Katrina to explore experiences and responses to similar events in other parts of the world. Another important feature is a discussion of the overlap between terrorist-initiated disasters and natural disasters. The issues raised by Katrina are very complex and teasing out successful policy implications is far from easy. This book is a major advance towards that goal. Academics interested in the economics, policy, and planning aspects of natural and man-made disasters, specialists in emergency management and policymakers will find the insights and prescriptions offered here invaluable.

This book explores how social, economic and political factors set the stage for Hurricane Andrew by influencing who was prepared, who was hit the hardest, and who was most likely to recover. Employing unique research data the authors analyze the consequences of conflict and competition on disaster preparation, response and recovery, especially where associated with race, ethnicity and gender.

Over the past decade, several major natural disasters have had devastating impacts throughout the United States and the world. Since larger populations now live and work on land vulnerable to various hazards, natural disasters can be expected to affect more people each year. As a result, the social work profession soon will be stretched to its limits as it attempts to respond to growing human needs in the wake of hurricanes, tornadoes, storms, floods, earthquakes, and human-made technological disasters. Research on Social Work and Disasters provides the essential strategies social work researchers, other social scientists in the area of disaster research, and emergency management personnel need to prepare for and recover from all forms of disaster.Focusing on hazard, risk, and disaster research, this book presents conceptual approaches and empirical findings in this emerging and important area of social work. It includes research on natural and technological disasters as they impact both rural and urban environments. Research on Social Work and Disasters offers conceptual and methodological guidelines for social work researchers and provides insight into the range of opportunities and issues relevant for disaster research. Specific topics you will learn about include: research design, methodology, and measurement community awareness and activism traumatic stress and stress debriefing funding and ethical issues vulnerable populations hazard education action researchResearch on Social Work and Disasters not only addresses effective strategies for responding in the aftermath of particular disasters, but also suggests significant ways in which the social work profession can become involved in prevention, mitigation, and preparedness activities. The book features examples of recent research on disasters chosen to illustrate a variety of types of disasters, theoretical approaches, methodologies, and levels of analysis. The implications drawn from this book are consistent in suggesting the responsibility of society to care for vulnerable populations and to share the burdens caused by catastrophic events.

Over the past decade, several major natural disasters have had devastating impacts throughout the United States and the world. Since larger populations now live and work on land vulnerable to various hazards, natural disasters can be expected to affect more people each year. As a result, the social work profession soon will be stretched to its limits as it attempts to respond to growing human needs in the wake of hurricanes, tornadoes, storms, floods, earthquakes, and human-made technological disasters. Research on Social Work and Disasters provides the essential strategies social work researchers, other social scientists in the area of disaster research, and emergency management personnel need to prepare for and recover from all forms of disaster.Focusing on hazard, risk, and disaster research, this book presents conceptual approaches and empirical findings in this emerging and important area of social work. It includes research on natural and technological disasters as they impact both rural and urban environments. Research on Social Work and Disasters offers conceptual and methodological guidelines for social work researchers and provides insight into the range of opportunities and issues relevant for disaster research. Specific topics you will learn about include: research design, methodology, and measurement community awareness and activism traumatic stress and stress debriefing funding and ethical issues vulnerable populations hazard education action researchResearch on Social Work and Disasters not only addresses effective strategies for responding in the aftermath of particular disasters, but also suggests significant ways in which the social work profession can become involved in prevention, mitigation, and preparedness activities. The book features examples of recent research on disasters chosen to illustrate a variety of types of disasters, theoretical approaches, methodologies, and levels of analysis. The implications drawn from this book are consistent in suggesting the responsibility of society to care for vulnerable populations and to share the burdens caused by catastrophic events.