Handbook For Institutional Responses To Coastal Hazards

Weather-related disasters continue to increase in frequency, many of which occur along the coast. These events claim the lives of many and have a detrimental effect on the quality of life of others. To address these risks, institutions are established with the aim of enhancing the resiliency of vulnerable coastal communities to natural disasters. Given the role of these institutions, the objective of this handbook is to understand how such institutions respond to natural disasters. This will be conducted through a cross-country comparative case study of institutional responses to vulnerability to natural coastal hazards. In particular the study asks: What is social and institutional vulnerability to natural hazards?; What institutions are available to address vulnerability to coastal hazards?; What are the reasons for the formation of the aforementioned institutions?; and What are the non-monetary costs associated with the institutional response to natural hazards? The study reveals that the incentive to establish an institutional response stems from a physical or institutional trigger and that the formation of institutional response mechanisms is gradual. Given the political cost of dismantling existing institutions, the organizational body most likely to be established is a local or central governmental body that coordinates the activities of existing institutions by establishing specialized inter-governmental committees. This implies that newly-established institutions (with both fiscal and regulatory independence) are to be expected, which is not always the case. Once it is decided to establish a new institution, its design leads to considerable conflict. These conflicts are most likely to erupt over budget allocation, cost estimation, and the eventual implementation speed (rapid vs. slow) of the response. The ultimate repercussion of such conflict is as expected, the complete termination of the response process.

Including contributions from sixty international authors, this book examines emergency responses to environmental dangers such as chemical fires, hazardous material and oil spills, nuclear reactor accidents, and earthquakes, and crises in the environment, global public service, and politics. It covers a wide range of international issues and topics, using various analyses, including critical, descriptive, empirical, quantitative, and normative methods. The book discusses approaches to natural disasters, resolutions to cultural, religious, and political tensions, terrorism and the potential use of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons, the role of crisis public relations, and more.

This topical Research Handbook examines the legal intersections of climate change, oceans and coasts across multiple scales and sectors, covering different geographies and regions. With expert contributions from Europe, Australasia, the Pacific, North America and Asia, it includes insightful chapters on issues ranging across the impacts of climate change on marine and coastal environments. It assesses institutional responses to climate change in ocean and marine governance regimes, adaptation to climate impacts on ocean and coastal systems and communities, and climate change mitigation in marine and coastal environments. Through a plurality of voices, disciplinary and geographical perspectives, this Research Handbook explores cross-cutting themes of institutional complexity, fragmentation, scale and design trade-offs.

Pushing the boundaries of flood risk management research, this comprehensive Research Handbook presents pragmatic insights into all areas relating to flood risk. Through its use of dynamic and people-centred paradigms, it explores urban flood management within localities, properties, neighbourhoods and cities.

​This handbook is a comprehensive source of information, analysis and directions in disaster studies. It goes beyond the oft-explored issues of management and science related to the topic and explores policies, governance, law and decision-making combined with the processes of implementation and enforcement, all the while integrating the latest science and technology updates related to the topic, such as artificial intelligence and early warning systems. It brings together studies which relate to sociology, politics and institutional economics, which work under the impact of resource availability, issues of leadership and international laws. Disasters are trans-boundary and disaster studies are trans-disciplinary. It is this aspect which would form the fulcrum of contributions and present a new, refreshing and innovative design for the handbook. The transformatory pedagogy which started with the Hyogo Framework for action 2005-2015 and The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 outlines seven clear targets and four priorities for action to prevent new and reduce existing disaster risks. The four priority areas around which the book would revolve are (i) Understanding disaster risk; (ii) Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk; (iii) Investing in disaster reduction for resilience and; (iv) Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response, and to "Build Back Better" in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The Routledge Handbook of Urban Disaster Resilience emphasizes the intersection of urban planning and hazard mitigation as critical for community resilience, considering the interaction of social, environmental, and physical systems with disasters. The Handbook introduces and discusses the phases of disaster – mitigation, preparedness/response, and recovery – as well as each of the federal, state, and local players that address these phases from a planning and policy perspective. Part I provides an overview of hazard vulnerability that begins with an explanation of what it means to be vulnerable to hazards, especially for socially vulnerable population segments. Part II discusses the politics of hazard mitigation; the failures of smart growth placed in hazardous areas; the wide range of land development policies and their associated risk; the connection between hazards and climate adaptation; and the role of structural and non-structural mitigation in planning for disasters. Part III covers emergency preparedness and response planning, the unmet needs people experience and community service planning; evacuation planning; and increasing community capacity and emergency response in developing countries. Part IV addresses recovery from and adaption to disasters, with topics such as the National Disaster Recovery Framework, long-term housing recovery; population displacement; business recovery; and designs in disasters. Finally, Part V demonstrates how disaster research is interpreted in practice – how to incorporate mitigation into the comprehensive planning process; how states respond to recovery; how cities undertake recovery planning; and how to effectively engage the whole community in disaster planning. The Routledge Handbook of Urban Disaster Resilience offers the most authoritative and comprehensive coverage of cutting-edge research at the intersection of urban planning and disasters from a U.S. perspective. This book serves as an invaluable guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students, future professionals, and practitioners interested in urban planning, sustainability, development response planning, emergency planning, recovery planning, hazard mitigation planning, land use planning, housing and community development as well as urban sociology, sociology of the community, public administration, homeland security, climate change, and related fields.

Computer science provides a powerful tool that was virtually unknown three generations ago. Some of the classical fields of knowledge are geodesy (surveying), cartography, and geography. Electronics have revolutionized geodetic methods. Cartography has faced the dominance of the computer that results in simplified cartographic products. All three fields make use of basic components such as the Internet and databases. The Springer Handbook of Geographic Information is organized in three parts, Basics, Geographic Information and Applications. Some parts of the basics belong to the larger field of computer science. However, the reader gets a comprehensive view on geographic information because the topics selected from computer science have a close relation to geographic information. The Springer Handbook of Geographic Information is written for scientists at universities and industry as well as advanced and PhD students.

This new handbook brings together various views and experiences of the impacts of flooding and its management in Africa, Asia and Latin America by drawing from traditional and modern approaches adopted by communities, homeowners, academics, project managers, institutions and policy makers. Key stakeholders provide insights and perspectives on flood hazards, flood impacts, flood control and adaptation strategies across these regions. The inclusion of policy makers, emergency responders, leaders of key organizations and managers of flood defence projects makes this volume a unique addition to the flood management literature. The chapters are organized to reveal various impacts and challenges associated with the management of flooding, including response and recovery. The chapter contributions bring together the different impacts of flooding and propose various mitigation approaches. They describe procedures for managing flooding and reducing the impacts from the perspectives of policy makers, environmental planners and restorers of flood-affected communities. Also, the book considers some of the related aspects including land use, waste management, drainage systems, security challenges, urban planning and development and their contributions to flooding. The book's primary target is experienced researchers and practitioners in flood risk management. It would also serve as a key text for postgraduate students studying related programmes. Inhabitants of flood prone communities in such developing countries will also find the text an important resource for guidance and understanding. This multi-disciplinary book represents a valuable contribution for a wide range of professionals (e.g. in engineering, built environment, health, retail, etc) who are interested in flood control and management and/or faced with flood-related challenges in the course of their work.