Environmental Hazards : Assessing Risk and Reducing Disaster

by Smith; Keith

• ISBN13: 9780415224642
• ISBN10: 0415224640
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2000-11-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The third edition of Environmental Hazards continues to be an objective, up-to-date and thoughtful summary of key findings from the natural and social sciences. It covers all the major rapid-onset events, whether natural, human or technological in origin, which directly threaten humans -- and what they value -- on a community scale. A broad overview is followed by a systematic analysis of specific hazards which explores a wide range of global case studies and policy responses.The revised third edition includes new material on disaster databases, El Nino events, sea-level rise and coastal flooding, disaster management, global change and sustainability in mega-cities and elsewhere. This complex subject is explained with outstanding clarity and illustrated with a large number of diagrams, tables and photographs. A new colour plate section reflects the disasters which have occurred since the last edition. References have also been fully updated and the author looks ahead to future problems in the twenty-first century.

Table of Contents

List of plates	ix
List of figures	x
List of tables	xv
Preface to the third edition	xvii
Preface to the first edition	xviii
Acknowledgements	xx
PART I The nature of hazard	1	(122)
Hazard in the environment	3	(25)
Hazard in context	3	(3)
Hazard and risk	6	(5)
What are environmental hazards?	11	(7)
A typology of hazard and disaster	18	(4)
From hazard to disaster	22	(6)
Dimensions of disaster	28	(27)
Auditing disaster	28	(4)
Patterns of disaster	32	(7)
Disaster trends	39	(9)
Paradigms of hazard	48	(5)
Towards a balanced view of disaster	53	(2)
Risk assessment and disaster management	55	(26)
The nature of risk	55	(4)
Risk assessment	59	(3)
Extreme event analysis	62	(5)
Risk perception and communication	67	(5)
Disaster management	72	(5)
Information technology	77	(4)
Adjustment to hazard: accepting and sharing the loss	81	(19)
Range of adjustments	81	(1)
Choice of adjustments	81	(2)
Accepting the loss	83	(1)
Sharing the loss	84	(16)
Adjustment to hazard: reducing the loss	100	(23)
The options for reducing the loss	100	(1)
Event modification	101	(6)
Vulnerability modification	107	(16)
PART II The experience and reduction of hazard	123	(230)
Tectonic hazards: earthquakes	125	(31)
Earthquake hazards	125	(2)
The nature of earthquakes	127	(3)
Primary earthquake hazards	130	(3)
Secondary earthquake hazards	133	(5)
Loss-sharing adjustments	138	(3)
Event modification adjustments	141	(6)
Vulnerability modification adjustments	147	(9)
Tectonic hazards: volcanoes	156	(24)
Volcanic hazards	156	(3)
Primary volcanic hazards	159	(5)
Secondary volcanic hazards	164	(2)
Loss-sharing adjustments	166	(1)
Event modification adjustments	167	(4)
Vulnerability modification adjustments	171	(9)
Mass movement hazards	180	(29)
Landslide and avalanche hazards	180	(3)
Landslides	183	(8)
Snow avalanches	191	(5)
Loss-sharing adjustments	196	(1)
Event modification adjustments	196	(6)
Vulnerability modification adjustments	202	(7)
Severe storm hazards	209	(30)
Atmospheric hazards	209	(4)
Tropical cyclone hazards	213	(3)
Nature of tropical cyclones	216	(6)
Severe summer storms	222	(3)
Severe winter storms	225	(3)
Loss-sharing adjustments	228	(2)
Event modification adjustments	230	(3)
Vulnerability modification adjustments	233	(6)
Biophysical hazards: temperature extremes, epidemics and wildfires	239	(20)
Biophysical hazards	239	(1)
Physiological hazards	240	(2)
Frost hazards in agriculture	242	(2)
Epidemics	244	(4)
Wildfire hazards	248	(11)
Hydrological hazards: floods	259	(30)
Flood hazards	259	(8)
Causes of floods	267	(7)
Loss-sharing adjustments	274	(4)
Event modification adjustments	278	(5)
Vulnerability modification adjustments	283	(6)
Hydrological hazards: droughts	289	(27)
Drought hazards	289	(2)
Types of drought	291	(6)
Causes of drought	297	(7)
Loss-sharing adjustments	304	(3)
Event modification adjustments	307	(3)
Vulnerability modification adjustments	310	(6)
Technological hazards	316	(24)
Nature of technological hazards	316	(2)
Technological hazards in the twentieth century	318	(5)
The significance of technological hazards	323	(5)
The disasters at Bhopal and Chernobyl	328	(3)
Loss-sharing adjustments	331	(2)
Event modification adjustments	333	(1)
Vulnerability modification adjustments	334	(6)
Conclusion	340	(13)
The challenges and opportunities of hazard	340	(1)
The challenges of hazard	341	(7)
The opportunities of hazard	348	(5)
Appendix: Abridged Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale	353	(2)
References	355	(26)
Subject index	381	(7)
Geographical index	388