Creating A More Resilient Nation

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Disaster Resilience

Author : National Academies
Publisher : National Academies Press
ISBN 13 : 0309261503
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis Disaster Resilience by : National Academies

Download or read book Disaster Resilience written by National Academies and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2012-12-29 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No person or place is immune from disasters or disaster-related losses. Infectious disease outbreaks, acts of terrorism, social unrest, or financial disasters in addition to natural hazards can all lead to large-scale consequences for the nation and its communities. Communities and the nation thus face difficult fiscal, social, cultural, and environmental choices about the best ways to ensure basic security and quality of life against hazards, deliberate attacks, and disasters. Beyond the unquantifiable costs of injury and loss of life from disasters, statistics for 2011 alone indicate economic damages from natural disasters in the United States exceeded $55 billion, with 14 events costing more than a billion dollars in damages each. One way to reduce the impacts of disasters on the nation and its communities is to invest in enhancing resilience-the ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from and more successfully adapt to adverse events. Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative addresses the broad issue of increasing the nation's resilience to disasters. This book defines "national resilience", describes the state of knowledge about resilience to hazards and disasters, and frames the main issues related to increasing resilience in the United States. It also provide goals, baseline conditions, or performance metrics for national resilience and outlines additional information, data, gaps, and/or obstacles that need to be addressed to increase the nation's resilience to disasters. Additionally, the book's authoring committee makes recommendations about the necessary approaches to elevate national resilience to disasters in the United States. Enhanced resilience allows better anticipation of disasters and better planning to reduce disaster losses-rather than waiting for an event to occur and paying for it afterward. Disaster Resilience confronts the topic of how to increase the nation's resilience to disasters through a vision of the characteristics of a resilient nation in the year 2030. Increasing disaster resilience is an imperative that requires the collective will of the nation and its communities. Although disasters will continue to occur, actions that move the nation from reactive approaches to disasters to a proactive stance where communities actively engage in enhancing resilience will reduce many of the broad societal and economic burdens that disasters can cause.

Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters

Author : Institute of Medicine
Publisher : National Academies Press
ISBN 13 : 0309316227
Total Pages : 532 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters by : Institute of Medicine

Download or read book Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2015-09-10 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the devastation that follows a major disaster, there is a need for multiple sectors to unite and devote new resources to support the rebuilding of infrastructure, the provision of health and social services, the restoration of care delivery systems, and other critical recovery needs. In some cases, billions of dollars from public, private and charitable sources are invested to help communities recover. National rhetoric often characterizes these efforts as a "return to normal." But for many American communities, pre-disaster conditions are far from optimal. Large segments of the U.S. population suffer from preventable health problems, experience inequitable access to services, and rely on overburdened health systems. A return to pre-event conditions in such cases may be short-sighted given the high costs - both economic and social - of poor health. Instead, it is important to understand that the disaster recovery process offers a series of unique and valuable opportunities to improve on the status quo. Capitalizing on these opportunities can advance the long-term health, resilience, and sustainability of communities - thereby better preparing them for future challenges. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters identifies and recommends recovery practices and novel programs most likely to impact overall community public health and contribute to resiliency for future incidents. This book makes the case that disaster recovery should be guided by a healthy community vision, where health considerations are integrated into all aspects of recovery planning before and after a disaster, and funding streams are leveraged in a coordinated manner and applied to health improvement priorities in order to meet human recovery needs and create healthy built and natural environments. The conceptual framework presented in Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters lays the groundwork to achieve this goal and provides operational guidance for multiple sectors involved in community planning and disaster recovery. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters calls for actions at multiple levels to facilitate recovery strategies that optimize community health. With a shared healthy community vision, strategic planning that prioritizes health, and coordinated implementation, disaster recovery can result in a communities that are healthier, more livable places for current and future generations to grow and thrive - communities that are better prepared for future adversities.

Building Community Disaster Resilience Through Private-Public Collaboration

Author : National Research Council
Publisher : National Academies Press
ISBN 13 : 0309162637
Total Pages : 142 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Building Community Disaster Resilience Through Private-Public Collaboration by : National Research Council

Download or read book Building Community Disaster Resilience Through Private-Public Collaboration written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2011-03-17 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Natural disasters-including hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and floods-caused more than 220,000 deaths worldwide in the first half of 2010 and wreaked havoc on homes, buildings, and the environment. To withstand and recover from natural and human-caused disasters, it is essential that citizens and communities work together to anticipate threats, limit their effects, and rapidly restore functionality after a crisis. Increasing evidence indicates that collaboration between the private and public sectors could improve the ability of a community to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. Several previous National Research Council reports have identified specific examples of the private and public sectors working cooperatively to reduce the effects of a disaster by implementing building codes, retrofitting buildings, improving community education, or issuing extreme-weather warnings. State and federal governments have acknowledged the importance of collaboration between private and public organizations to develop planning for disaster preparedness and response. Despite growing ad hoc experience across the country, there is currently no comprehensive framework to guide private-public collaboration focused on disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. Building Community Disaster Resilience through Private-Public Collaboration assesses the current state of private-public sector collaboration dedicated to strengthening community resilience, identifies gaps in knowledge and practice, and recommends research that could be targeted for investment. Specifically, the book finds that local-level private-public collaboration is essential to the development of community resilience. Sustainable and effective resilience-focused private-public collaboration is dependent on several basic principles that increase communication among all sectors of the community, incorporate flexibility into collaborative networks, and encourage regular reassessment of collaborative missions, goals, and practices.

National Earthquake Resilience

Author : National Research Council
Publisher : National Academies Press
ISBN 13 : 0309186773
Total Pages : 197 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis National Earthquake Resilience by : National Research Council

Download or read book National Earthquake Resilience written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2011-09-09 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States will certainly be subject to damaging earthquakes in the future. Some of these earthquakes will occur in highly populated and vulnerable areas. Coping with moderate earthquakes is not a reliable indicator of preparedness for a major earthquake in a populated area. The recent, disastrous, magnitude-9 earthquake that struck northern Japan demonstrates the threat that earthquakes pose. Moreover, the cascading nature of impacts-the earthquake causing a tsunami, cutting electrical power supplies, and stopping the pumps needed to cool nuclear reactors-demonstrates the potential complexity of an earthquake disaster. Such compound disasters can strike any earthquake-prone populated area. National Earthquake Resilience presents a roadmap for increasing our national resilience to earthquakes. The National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) is the multi-agency program mandated by Congress to undertake activities to reduce the effects of future earthquakes in the United States. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)-the lead NEHRP agency-commissioned the National Research Council (NRC) to develop a roadmap for earthquake hazard and risk reduction in the United States that would be based on the goals and objectives for achieving national earthquake resilience described in the 2008 NEHRP Strategic Plan. National Earthquake Resilience does this by assessing the activities and costs that would be required for the nation to achieve earthquake resilience in 20 years. National Earthquake Resilience interprets resilience broadly to incorporate engineering/science (physical), social/economic (behavioral), and institutional (governing) dimensions. Resilience encompasses both pre-disaster preparedness activities and post-disaster response. In combination, these will enhance the robustness of communities in all earthquake-vulnerable regions of our nation so that they can function adequately following damaging earthquakes. While National Earthquake Resilience is written primarily for the NEHRP, it also speaks to a broader audience of policy makers, earth scientists, and emergency managers.

Advancing Public Alert and Warning Systems to Build a More Resilient Nation

Author : United States. Congress. House. Committee on Homeland Security. Subcommittee on Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 56 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Advancing Public Alert and Warning Systems to Build a More Resilient Nation by : United States. Congress. House. Committee on Homeland Security. Subcommittee on Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response

Download or read book Advancing Public Alert and Warning Systems to Build a More Resilient Nation written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Homeland Security. Subcommittee on Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Building and Measuring Community Resilience

Author : National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher : National Academies Press
ISBN 13 : 0309489725
Total Pages : 153 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (94 download)

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Book Synopsis Building and Measuring Community Resilience by : National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Download or read book Building and Measuring Community Resilience written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2019-05-26 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The frequency and severity of disasters over the last few decades have presented unprecedented challenges for communities across the United States. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina exposed the complexity and breadth of a deadly combination of existing community stressors, aging infrastructure, and a powerful natural hazard. In many ways, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina was a turning point for understanding and managing disasters, as well as related plan making and policy formulation. It brought the phrase "community resilience" into the lexicon of disaster management. Building and Measuring Community Resilience: Actions for Communities and the Gulf Research Program summarizes the existing portfolio of relevant or related resilience measurement efforts and notes gaps and challenges associated with them. It describes how some communities build and measure resilience and offers four key actions that communities could take to build and measure their resilience in order to address gaps identified in current community resilience measurement efforts. This report also provides recommendations to the Gulf Research Program to build and measure resilience in the Gulf of Mexico region.

Resilience for All

Author : Barbara Brown Wilson
Publisher : Island Press
ISBN 13 : 1610918924
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis Resilience for All by : Barbara Brown Wilson

Download or read book Resilience for All written by Barbara Brown Wilson and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2018-05-24 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the United States, people of color are disproportionally more likely to live in environments with poor air quality, in close proximity to toxic waste, and in locations more vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events. In many vulnerable neighborhoods, structural racism and classism prevent residents from having a seat at the table when decisions are made about their community. In an effort to overcome power imbalances and ensure local knowledge informs decision-making, a new approach to community engagement is essential. In Resilience for All, Barbara Brown Wilson looks at less conventional, but often more effective methods to make communities more resilient. She takes an in-depth look at what equitable, positive change through community-driven design looks like in four communities—East Biloxi, Mississippi; the Lower East Side of Manhattan; the Denby neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan; and the Cully neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. These vulnerable communities have prevailed in spite of serious urban stressors such as climate change, gentrification, and disinvestment. Wilson looks at how the lessons in the case studies and other examples might more broadly inform future practice. She shows how community-driven design projects in underserved neighborhoods can not only change the built world, but also provide opportunities for residents to build their own capacities.

Unbreakable

Author : Stephane Hallegatte
Publisher : World Bank Publications
ISBN 13 : 1464810044
Total Pages : 380 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (648 download)

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Book Synopsis Unbreakable by : Stephane Hallegatte

Download or read book Unbreakable written by Stephane Hallegatte and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2016-11-24 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Economic losses from natural disasters totaled $92 billion in 2015.' Such statements, all too commonplace, assess the severity of disasters by no other measure than the damage inflicted on buildings, infrastructure, and agricultural production. But $1 in losses does not mean the same thing to a rich person that it does to a poor person; the gravity of a $92 billion loss depends on who experiences it. By focusing on aggregate losses—the traditional approach to disaster risk—we restrict our consideration to how disasters affect those wealthy enough to have assets to lose in the first place, and largely ignore the plight of poor people. This report moves beyond asset and production losses and shifts its attention to how natural disasters affect people’s well-being. Disasters are far greater threats to well-being than traditional estimates suggest. This approach provides a more nuanced view of natural disasters than usual reporting, and a perspective that takes fuller account of poor people’s vulnerabilities. Poor people suffer only a fraction of economic losses caused by disasters, but they bear the brunt of their consequences. Understanding the disproportionate vulnerability of poor people also makes the case for setting new intervention priorities to lessen the impact of natural disasters on the world’s poor, such as expanding financial inclusion, disaster risk and health insurance, social protection and adaptive safety nets, contingent finance and reserve funds, and universal access to early warning systems. Efforts to reduce disaster risk and poverty go hand in hand. Because disasters impoverish so many, disaster risk management is inseparable from poverty reduction policy, and vice versa. As climate change magnifies natural hazards, and because protection infrastructure alone cannot eliminate risk, a more resilient population has never been more critical to breaking the cycle of disaster-induced poverty.

Building a Resilient Tomorrow

Author : Alice C. Hill
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 019090934X
Total Pages : 265 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (99 download)

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Book Synopsis Building a Resilient Tomorrow by : Alice C. Hill

Download or read book Building a Resilient Tomorrow written by Alice C. Hill and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even under the most optimistic scenarios, significant global climate change is now inevitable. While squarely confronting the scale of the risks we face, Building a Resilient Tomorrow presents replicable sustainability successes and clear-cut policy recommendations that can improve the climate resilience of communities in the US and beyond.

Building Resilience

Author : Daniel P. Aldrich
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226012891
Total Pages : 246 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (26 download)

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Book Synopsis Building Resilience by : Daniel P. Aldrich

Download or read book Building Resilience written by Daniel P. Aldrich and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-08-15 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The factor that makes some communities rebound quickly from disasters while others fall apart: “A fascinating book on an important topic.”—E.L. Hirsch, in Choice Each year, natural disasters threaten the strength and stability of communities worldwide. Yet responses to the challenges of recovery vary greatly and in ways that aren’t explained by the magnitude of the catastrophe or the amount of aid provided by national governments or the international community. The difference between resilience and disrepair, as Daniel P. Aldrich shows, lies in the depth of communities’ social capital. Building Resilience highlights the critical role of social capital in the ability of a community to withstand disaster and rebuild both the infrastructure and the ties that are at the foundation of any community. Aldrich examines the post-disaster responses of four distinct communities—Tokyo following the 1923 earthquake, Kobe after the 1995 earthquake, Tamil Nadu after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, and New Orleans post-Katrina—and finds that those with robust social networks were better able to coordinate recovery. In addition to quickly disseminating information and financial and physical assistance, communities with an abundance of social capital were able to minimize the migration of people and valuable resources out of the area. With governments increasingly overstretched and natural disasters likely to increase in frequency and intensity, a thorough understanding of what contributes to efficient reconstruction is more important than ever. Building Resilience underscores a critical component of an effective response.

Building Resilience in Developing Countries Vulnerable to Large Natural Disasters

Author : International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department
Publisher : International Monetary Fund
ISBN 13 : 1498321437
Total Pages : 55 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (983 download)

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Book Synopsis Building Resilience in Developing Countries Vulnerable to Large Natural Disasters by : International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department

Download or read book Building Resilience in Developing Countries Vulnerable to Large Natural Disasters written by International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2019-06-19 with total page 55 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper discusses how countries vulnerable to natural disasters can reduce the associated human and economic cost. Building on earlier work by IMF staff, the paper views disaster risk management through the lens of a three-pillar strategy for building structural, financial, and post-disaster (including social) resilience. A coherent disaster resilience strategy, based on a diagnostic of risks and cost-effective responses, can provide a road map for how to tackle disaster related vulnerabilities. It can also help mobilize much-needed support from the international community.

Lifelines

Author : Stephane Hallegatte
Publisher : World Bank Publications
ISBN 13 : 1464814317
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (648 download)

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Book Synopsis Lifelines by : Stephane Hallegatte

Download or read book Lifelines written by Stephane Hallegatte and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2019-07-16 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Infrastructure—electricity, telecommunications, roads, water, and sanitation—are central to people’s lives. Without it, they cannot make a living, stay healthy, and maintain a good quality of life. Access to basic infrastructure is also a key driver of economic development. This report lays out a framework for understanding infrastructure resilience - the ability of infrastructure systems to function and meet users’ needs during and after a natural hazard. It focuses on four infrastructure systems that are essential to economic activity and people’s well-being: power systems, including the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity; water and sanitation—especially water utilities; transport systems—multiple modes such as road, rail, waterway, and airports, and multiple scales, including urban transit and rural access; and telecommunications, including telephone and Internet connections.

Designing Resilience

Author : Louise K. Comfort
Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN 13 : 0822973707
Total Pages : 362 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (229 download)

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Book Synopsis Designing Resilience by : Louise K. Comfort

Download or read book Designing Resilience written by Louise K. Comfort and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2010-09-19 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the wake of severe climatic events and terrorist acts and the emergence of dangerous technologies, communities, nations, and global organizations have diligently sought to create strategies to prepare for such events. Designing Resilience presents case studies of extreme events and analyzes the ability of affected individuals, institutions, governments, and technological systems to cope with disaster. This volume defines resilience as it relates to disaster management at specific stages: mitigation, prevention, preparation, and response and recovery. The book illustrates models by which to evaluate resilience at levels ranging from individuals to NGOs to governmental jurisdictions and examines how resilience can be developed and sustained. A group's or nation's ability to withstand events and emerge from them with their central institutions intact is at the core of resilience. Quality of response, capacity to improvise, coordination, flexibility, and endurance are also determinants. Individual case studies, including Hurricane Katrina in the United States, the London bombings, and French preparedness for the Avian flu, demonstrate effective and ineffective strategies.The contributors reveal how the complexity and global interconnectivity of modern systems-whether they are governments, mobile populations, power grids, financial systems, or the Internet-have transcended borders and created a new level of exposure that has made them especially vulnerable to extreme events. Yet these far-reaching global systems also possess the ability to alert and respond at greater speeds than ever before. The authors also analyze specific characteristics of resilient systems-the qualities they possess and how they become resilient-to determine if there are ways to build a system of resilience from the ground up. As such, Designing Resilience will inform a broad range of students and scholars in areas of public administration, public policy, and the social sciences.

Resilient by Design

Author : Joseph Fiksel
Publisher : Island Press
ISBN 13 : 1610915879
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis Resilient by Design by : Joseph Fiksel

Download or read book Resilient by Design written by Joseph Fiksel and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2015-10-22 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Resilient by design provides managers with a more complete approach to creating lasting success in a changing world. Rich with examples and case studies, it explains how to connect the external systems, stakeholders, communities, infrastructure, supply chains, and natural resources, to create innovative organisations that survive and prosper." --Publisher description.

Investing in Resilience

Author : Asian Development Bank
Publisher : Asian Development Bank
ISBN 13 : 9290929502
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (99 download)

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Book Synopsis Investing in Resilience by : Asian Development Bank

Download or read book Investing in Resilience written by Asian Development Bank and published by Asian Development Bank. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Investing in Resilience: Ensuring a Disaster-Resistant Future focuses on the steps required to ensure that investment in disaster resilience happens and that it occurs as an integral, systematic part of development. At-risk communities in Asia and the Pacific can apply a wide range of policy, capacity, and investment instruments and mechanisms to ensure that disaster risk is properly assessed, disaster risk is reduced, and residual risk is well managed. Yet, real progress in strengthening resilience has been slow to date and natural hazards continue to cause significant loss of life, damage, and disruption in the region, undermining inclusive, sustainable development. Investing in Resilience offers an approach and ideas for reflection on how to achieve disaster resilience. It does not prescribe specific courses of action but rather establishes a vision of a resilient future. It stresses the interconnectedness and complementarity of possible actions to achieve disaster resilience across a wide range of development policies, plans, legislation, sectors, and themes. The vision shows how resilience can be accomplished through the coordinated action of governments and their development partners in the private sector, civil society, and the international community. The vision encourages “investors” to identify and prioritize bundles of actions that collectively can realize that vision of resilience, breaking away from the current tendency to pursue disparate and fragmented disaster risk management measures that frequently trip and fall at unforeseen hurdles. Investing in Resilience aims to move the disaster risk reduction debate beyond rhetoric and to help channel commitments into investment, incentives, funding, and practical action

Building Urban Resilience

Author : Abhas K. Jha
Publisher : World Bank Publications
ISBN 13 : 0821398261
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (213 download)

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Book Synopsis Building Urban Resilience by : Abhas K. Jha

Download or read book Building Urban Resilience written by Abhas K. Jha and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook is a resource for enhancing disaster resilience in urban areas. It summarizes the guiding principles, tools, and practices in key economic sectors that can facilitate incorporation of resilience concepts into decisions about infrastructure investments and urban management that are integral to reducing disaster and climate risks.

National Strategy for Disaster Resilience

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781921725425
Total Pages : 25 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (254 download)

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Book Synopsis National Strategy for Disaster Resilience by :

Download or read book National Strategy for Disaster Resilience written by and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Australia has recently experienced a number of large scale and devastating natural disasters, including catastrophic bushfires, far reaching floods, and damaging storms. Natural disasters are a feature of the Australian climate and landscape and this threat will continue, not least because climate change is making weather patterns less predictable and more extreme. Such events can have personal, social, economic and environmental impacts that take many years to dissipate"-Introduction.