Natural Hazards And Human Exacerbated Disasters In Latin America

The main objective of the book is to offer a vision of the dynamics of the main disasters in South America, describing their mechanisms and consequences on South American societies. The chapters are written by selected specialists of each country. Human-induced disasters are also included, such as desertification in Patagonia and soil erosion in Brazil. The receding of South-American glaciers as a response to recent climatic trends and sea-level scenarios are discussed. The approach is broad in analyzing causes and consequences and includes social and economic costs, discussing environmental and planning problems, but always describing the geomorphologic/geologic involved processes with a good scientific substantiation. This is important to differentiate the book from others of a more 'social' impact that discuss risks and disasters with emphases mainly on economy and simple impacts. Actual theme, interesting for a variety of professionals Fills in the scarcity of specialized literature in geosciences from South America The first book in the market exclusively devoted to geomorphology of disasters in South America

The term 'natural disaster' is often used to refer to natural events such as earthquakes, hurricanes or floods. However, the phrase 'natural disaster' suggests an uncritical acceptance of a deeply engrained ideological and cultural myth. At Risk questions this myth and argues that extreme natural events are not disasters until a vulnerable group of people is exposed. The updated new edition confronts a further ten years of ever more expensive and deadly disasters and discusses disaster not as an aberration, but as a signal failure of mainstream 'development'. Two analytical models are provided as tools for understanding vulnerability. One links remote and distant 'root causes' to 'unsafe conditions' in a 'progression of vulnerability'. The other uses the concepts of 'access' and 'livelihood' to understand why some households are more vulnerable than others. Examining key natural events and incorporating strategies to create a safer world, this revised edition is an important resource for those involved in the fields of environment and development studies.

This book offers anthropological insights into disasters in Latin America. It fills a gap in the literature by bringing together national and regional perspectives in the study of disasters. The book essentially explores the emergence and development of anthropological studies of disasters. It adopts a methodological approach based on ethnography, participant observation, and field research to assess the social and historical constructions of disasters and how these are perceived by people of a certain region. This regional perspective helps assess long-term dynamics, regional capacities, and regional-global interactions on disaster sites. With chapters written by prominent Latin American anthropologists, this book also considers the role of the state and other nongovernmental organizations in managing disasters and the specific conditions of each country, relative to a greater or lesser incidence of disastrous events. Globalizing the existing literature on disasters with a focus on Latin America, this book offers multidisciplinary insights that will be of interest to academics and students of geography, anthropology, sociology, and political science.

Soil erosion affects a large part of the Earth surface, and accelerated soil erosion is recognized as one of the main soil threats, compromising soil productive and protective functions. The land management in areas affected by soil erosion is a relevant issue for landscape and ecosystems preservation. In this book we collected a series of papers on erosion, not focusing on agronomic implications, but on a variety of other relevant aspects of the erosion phenomena. The book is divided into three sections: i) various implications of land management in arid and semiarid ecosystems, ii) erosion modeling and experimental studies; iii) other applications (e.g. geoscience, engineering). The book covers a wide range of erosion-related themes from a variety of points of view (assessment, modeling, mitigation, best practices etc.).

This book introduces an innovative approach to sustainable and regenerative mountain development. Transdisciplinary to biophysical and biocultural scales, it provides answers to the "what, when, how, why, and where" that researchers question on mountains, including the most challenging: So What! Forwarding thinking in its treatment of core subjects, this decolonial, non-hegemonic volume inaugurates the Series with contributions of seasoned montologists, and invites the reader to an engaging excursion to ascend the rugged topography of paradigms, with the scaffolding hike of ambitious curiosity typical of mountain explorers. Chapter 8 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

In the Shadow of Tungurahua relates the stories of the people of Penipe, Ecuador living in and between several villages around the volcano Tungurahua and two resettlement communities built for people displaced by government operations following volcanic eruptions in 1999 and 2006. The stories take shape in ways that influence prevailing ideas about how disasters are produced and reproduced, in this case by shifting assemblages of the state first formed during Spanish colonialism attempting to settle (make “legible”) and govern Indigenous and campesino populations and places. The disasters unfolding around Tungurahua at the turn of the 21st century also provide lessons in the humanitarian politics of disaster—questions of deservingness, reproducing inequality, and the reproduction of bare life. But this is also a story of how people responded to confront hardships and craft new futures, about forms of cooperation to cope with and adapt to disaster, and the potential for locally derived disaster recovery projects and politics.

This book showcases experiences from research, field projects and best practice in climate change adaptation in countries in the Latin American region, focusing on managing vulnerability and fostering resilience. It includes a selection of papers presented at a specialist symposium on climate change adaptation held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in November 2016.Consistent with the need for more cross-sectoral interaction among the various stakeholders working in the field of climate change adaptation in Latin America, the book documents and disseminates the wealth of experiences in the region. It is divided into two main parts: Part 1 addresses the current and future impacts of climate change on fauna, flora and landscapes, while Part 2 is concerned with the socio-economic aspects of climate change adaptation, analyzing some of the main problems prevailing in this vulnerable region and examining ways to address them.

This book presents the most relevant articles selected from the annals of the symposium. In the last few years, Brazilian Geomorphology has experienced a series of epistemological and methodological innovations expressed by the incorporation of the complexity paradigm, by the progressive break with the climate paradigm, by the emergency role of new theories, and by the advances in methodological fields favored by the adherence to geochronological techniques and in function of the increasingly widespread use of geotechnologies. Furthermore, the Anthropocene/Technogene emerge claims to be more than only a temporal cuts, but as conceptions of a science engaged with social and environmental issues. The National Symposium of Geomorphology, in the maturity of its 13th edition, constitutes a portrait and an important sample of Brazilian geomorphological production, aggregating works carried out in the most diverse types of landscapes of Brazil. The book provides an overview of the current scientific production of Brazilian Geomorphology, highlighting the diversity of landscapes and geoheritage in Brazil, the complexity of the morphogenetic and morphodynamic processes responsible for shaping its surface, and the various abundant methodologies used in geomorphological studies in tropical areas.