Natural Hazards and Disaster Management : Vulnerability and Mitigation

Contents: Preface. I. Introduction and emerging technology: 1. Introduction to natural hazards and disasters: conceptual framework, vulnerability, spatial pattern, impacts and mitigation strategy: Indian experience/R.B. Singh. 2. Current situations and problems in application of remote sensing to disaster monitoring/Kaoru Takara. 3. Estimating changes in regional snow water equivalent using GIS/L.E. Mattson, D. Rowbotham and P. Callaghan. II. Tsunamis disaster: 4. Nature itself does not cause a disaster: the role of physical and socio-economic variables in the catastrophic loss due to the Indian ocean Tsunami of 26 December 2004/C. Emdad Haque, N. Nirupama and T.S. Murty. 5. Tsunami disaster in India: warning, responses, impacts and mitigation/R.B. Singh. III. Earthquake disaster: 6. Geological-geomorphic systems and geodynamic hazard/Yermoshin V.V. and Tashchi S.M. 7. Seismic vulnerability of Delhi/Y. Pandey and P.K.S. Chauhan. 8. Co-seismic ground deformation and source parameters of Mani M7.9 earthquake inferred from spaceborne D-InSAR observation data/Shan Xinjian, M.A Jin, Wang Changlin, Liu Jiahang, Song Xiaoyu and Zhang Guifang. IV. Glacier, snow and mountain disasters: 9. Spatial patterns of snout fluctuations in Himalayan region/Sarfaraz Ahmad and Syed I. Hasnain. 10. Water resources sustainability in the context of increasing disasters in the Himalaya-gangetic region/R.B. Singh. 11. Glaciology, needs, potential and programmes/C.P. Vohra. V. Flood disaster: 12. Monitoring, mapping and mitigation of flood disaster in India using remote sensing and GIS: a case study/R.B. Singh and Dilip Kumar. 13. Economic value of floods with particular reference to Barotse Flood Plains of Western Zambia/Imasiku A. Nyambe, Peter Chola and Clement F.G. Mukosa. 14. Interdisciplinary approach to the understanding, forecasting and management of floods. 15. Flood hazard mapping projects in Asian countries/Liu Jinping. 16. Study of flood disaster and prevention countermeasures of Heilongjiang province/Zhao Wei Min. VI. Climate change vulnerability: 17. Climate change and vulnerability in Indian agriculture: a major hurdle towards food security/Sudip Mitra, Suruchi Bhadwal, Ulka Kelkar and Latha Rangan. 18. Holocene Sea Level change and its impact upon the physical environment of Digha Sankarpur Coastal Tract, West Bengal/Sudip Dey. VII. Community participation in disaster mitigation: 19. A perspective post-mortem of natural disaster/Rajkumar Singh. 20. Community participation in disaster mitigation in India/Anju Singh and R.B. Singh. 21. Community-based disaster management: Indian experience/A.K. Srivastava. 22. Hurricanes in the Atlantic ocean: a case study of Hurricane Katrina/Shouraseni Sen Roy.

"Disaster management is a multidisciplinary area, covering a wide range of issues such as monitoring, forecasting, evacuation, search and rescue, relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation. It also requires multi sectoral governance as scientists, planners, volunteers and communities all have important roles to play. These roles and activities span the pre-during and post-disaster phases. Besides, shift of emphasis from disaster response to risk reduction has opened up areas of exploratory research in the subject.

Vulnerability refers to the susceptibility of a community to a hazard. Vulnerability analysis seeks to predict disasters by ensuring timely preparedness on the part of people and institutions and concerned government agencies. The emerging arena of disaster mitigation is also becoming an integral aspect of development planning, policy formulation and implementation.

This is where this book comes in. It contains 22 chapters in the form of conceptual and empirical case studies from India and other developed countries. The blend of theory, research and policy makes this book eminently worthwhile for anyone interested in disaster vulnerability and mitigation together with monitoring and forecasting and policy perspectives. It would be useful for students, researchers and teachers of geography, environmental studies, disaster management, civil engineering and policy science." (jacket)