We live in a world which continues to experience dramatic suffering and loss of life due to natural hazard. The disaster paradigm has accelerated efforts towards resilience building, particularly since the adoption of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), a ten year plan to build the resilience of nations and communities to disasters Urban areas present complexity and interconnectivity of various elements, and this needs to be considered when building the resilience of such areas to disasters. To address urban risks, local level disaster risk reduction (DRR) is of fundamental importance, not only because it is closer to the citizens, but because it is the repository of regulatory governance functions and local knowledge The need to scale up the capacity of DRR at the local government level to build urban resilience is a key incentive for this study. With particular reference to the example of Makati City in the Philippines, this book analyses a local DRR approach with reference to the HFA, applies a micro-level resilience assessment and discusses an effective model for enhancing local DRR capacity in the future.

Collection of anime shorts. 'The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya', based on the light novels by Nagura Tanigawa, follows the adventures of a group of high school students. Ordinary boy Kyon (voice of Tomokazu Sugita) realises that life at school is going to be anything but dull when the girl beside him, Haruhi (Aya Hirano), stands up and announces that she's not interested in normal people, only 'time-travellers, aliens, and ESP-ers'. 'Nyoron! Churuya-san' also features Kyon and Haruhi, as well as Churuya-san (Yuki Matsuoka)'s perpetual search for her favourite food, smoked cheese.