Environmental hazards: assessing risk and reducing disaster / by Keith Smith

Pt. I THE NATURE OF HAZARD --
1.Hazard in the environment --
A.Introduction --
B.What are environmental hazards? --
C.Hazard, risk and disaster --
D.Earlier perspectives --
E.Current views: the complexity paradigm --
F.The organizational context --
2.Dimensions of disaster --
A.Introduction --
B.Defining disaster --
C.Measuring disaster: archives --
D.Explaining disaster: time trends --
E.Explaining disaster: spatial patterns --
F.Managing disaster --
3.Complexity, sustainability and vulnerability --
A.Introduction --
B.Complexity science --
C.Complexity and disasters --
D.An example: the Bam earthquake --
E.Sustainability and disasters --
F.Vulnerability and resilience --
G.Drivers of vulnerability and disaster --
4.Risk assessment and management --
A.The nature of risk --
B.Risk assessment --
C.Risk perception and communication --
D.Risk perception in practice --
E.Risk management --
F.The role of information technology 5.Reducing the impacts of disaster --
A.Scoping the task --
B.Protection: hazard resistance --
C.Mitigation: disaster aid --
D.Mitigation: insurance --
E.Adaptation: preparedness --
F.Adaptation: predictions, forecasts and warnings --
G.Adaptation: land use planning --
pt. II THE EXPERIENCE AND REDUCTION OF HAZARD --
6.Tectonic hazards: earthquakes and tsunamis --
A.Earthquake hazards --
B.Earthquake behaviour --
C.Primary earthquake hazards --
D.Secondary earthquake hazards --
E.Protection --
F.Mitigation --
G.Adaptation --
7.Tectonic hazards: volcanoes --
A.Volcanic hazards --
B.The nature of volcanoes --
C.Primary volcanic hazards --
D.Secondary volcanic hazards --
E.Protection --
F.Mitigation --
G.Adaptation --
8.Mass movement hazards --
A.Landslide and avalanche hazards --
B.Landslides --
C.Landslides: cause and triggers --
D.Snow avalanches --
E.Protection --
F.Mitigation --
G.Adaptation --
9.Severe storm hazards --
A.Atmospheric hazards B.The nature of tropical cyclones --
C.How tropical cyclones develop --
D.Tropical cyclone hazards --
E.Severe summer storms --
F.Severe winter storms --
G.Protection --
H.Mitigation --
I.Adaptation --
10.Weather extremes, disease epidemics and wildfires --
A.Introduction --
B.Extreme temperature hazards --
c.The nature of disease epidemics --
D.Infectious diseases and climate --
E.Disease hazard reduction --
F.Wildfire hazards --
G.The nature of wildfires --
H.Wildfire hazard reduction --
11.Hydrological hazards: floods --
A.Flood hazards --
B.Flood-prone environments --
c.The nature of floods --
D.Protection --
E.Mitigation --
F.Adaptation --
12.Hydrological hazards: droughts --
A.Drought hazards --
B.Types of drought --
c.Causes of drought hazards --
D.Protection --
E.Mitigation --
F.Adaptation --
13.Technological hazards --
A.Introduction --
B.The scale and nature of the hazard --
c.An outline of theory --
D.Technological hazards in practice E.Perception: the transport and nuclear industries --
F.Protection --
G.Mitigation --
H.Adaptation --
14.Environmental hazards in a changing world --
A.Introduction --
B.The globalization of hazard --
C.Environmental change --
D.Air pollution and climate change --
E.Geophysical paths to disaster --
F.Climate change and environmental hazards.

The sixth edition of Environmental Hazards provides a fully up-to-date overview of all the extreme events that threaten people and what they value in the 21st century.
It integrates cutting-edge material from the physical and social sciences to illustrate how natural and human systems interact to place communities of all sizes, and at all stages of economic development, at risk.

It also explains in detail the various measures available to reduce the ongoing losses to life and property.

Part One of this established textbook defines basic concepts of hazard, risk, vulnerability and disaster.

Attention is given to the evolution of theory, to the scales and patterns of disaster impact and to the optimum management strategies needed to minimize the future impact of damaging events.

Part Two employs a consistent chapter structure to demonstrate how individual hazards, such as earthquakes, severe storms, floods and droughts, plus biophysical and technological processes, create distinctive impacts and challenges throughout the world.
The ways in which different societies can make positive responses to these threats are placed firmly in the context of sustainable development and global environmental change.