Natural disasters Books

Civil society organizations (CSOs) have played important roles over the years in the disaster field.  Starting from the traditional approach of response and relief, the emphasis has gradually shifted to disaster risk reduction...

This book presents landslide studies using the geographic information system (GIS), which includes not only the science of GIS and remote sensing, but also technical innovations, such as detailed light detection and ranging profiles, among others. To...

This book explains key lessons learned from diverse disaster situations and analyzes them within the framework of governance, education, and technology, providing a framework for disaster recovery as a development opportunity...

This book presents key lessons from community-based risk-reduction practices in Japan, a country that is often hit by disasters and that also has shown strong resilience in coping with those disasters. Japan has a strong...

Attention to the problems posed by natural hazards in West and Central Africa was brought into sharp focus by the deaths of an estimated 1700 people in the valleys to the north of Lake Nyos in 1986. Prior to that the only, well...

Through application of the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method, this monograph mainly focuses on large deformations and flow failure simulations of geomaterials and movement behavior, which are always involved in...

This thesis constitutes an extraordinary innovative research approach in transferring the concepts and methods of complex systems to risk research. It ambitiously bridges the barriers between theoretical, empirical and methodical research work and...

The past years have seen new technologies that could be utilized for early warning and real-time loss estimation. They include self-organizing sensor networks, new satellite imagery with high resolution, multi-sensor observational capacities, and crowd...

Anja Schmidt's thesis is a unique and comprehensive evaluation of the impacts of tropospheric volcanic aerosol on the atmosphere, climate, air quality and human health. Using a state-of-the-art global microphysics model, the thesis describes and...

In the recent past a marked increase of the damages caused by natural hazard processes has been documented, for example by the Munich Re-Insurance. On a regional scale, a similar development can be observed in mountain regions such as the Alps, where it...

"Integrated Risk Governance: Science Plan and Case Studies of Large-scale Disasters" is the first book in the IHDP-Integrated Risk Governance Project Series. It consists of two parts: Part I: Integrated Risk Governance Project...

A brief history of the observation of Piton de la Fournaise central area.- Geodynamic setting of La Réunion Island.- The construction of La Réunion Island.- Geology and morphostructure of Piton de la Fournaise.- Erosion and volcaniclastic sedimentation...

Natural disasters are increasingly affecting the world, taking lives unexpectedly and leaving many others injured and homeless. Moreover, disasters disrupt local, national and even global economies, instantly changing the direction of development. In the...

This book includes the recent 10-year achievement of geo-disaster mitigation by leading Asian scientists from Japan, China, Indonesia, Korea, Iran and Far East of Russia. Case studies on recent occurred geo-disasters in Asian region have been presented...

Recent landslide events demonstrate the need to improve landslide forecasting and early warning capabilities in order to reduce related risks and protect human lives. In this thesis, local and regional investigations were carried out to analyse landslide...

Contents 1 Introduction 1.1 Scope 1.2 Basic Concepts 1.2.1 General 1.2.2 Energy Flow and Budget 1.2.3 Drought 1.2.4 Cold Stress: Relation to Latitude and Elevation 1.2.5 Frost Hazard Occurrence in Africa (explanatory notes) 1.3 Classification Criteria 1...

This book explains the tragic tale of the Satluj floodplain since its inception. As a landscape this floodplain entity evolves and sets a niche to distinctive natural and cultural aspects. The historical reconstruction of the landscape transformation...

This volume provides in-depth coverage of the latest in remote sensing of hydrological extremes:  both floods and droughts. The book is divided into two distinct sections - floods and droughts - and offers a variety of techniques for monitoring each...

These proceedings contain a selection of peer-reviewed papers presented at the International Symposium on Geodesy for Earthquake and Natural Hazards (GENAH), Matsushima, Japan, 22-26 July, 2014. The scientific sessions focused...

The goal of this book is to explore disaster risk reduction (DRR), migration, climate change adaptation  (CCA) and sustainable development linkages from a number of different geographical, social and natural science angles. Well-known scientists and...

This pioneering book addresses the entirety of river flooding issues in the Upper Vistula Basin, where considerable flood generation potential exists. It analyses the factors influencing flood risk, investigates variations in observation records and...

This doctoral thesis applies measurements of ground deformation from satellite radar using their potential to play a key role in understanding volcanic and magmatic processes throughout the eruption cycle. However, making these measurements is often...

In the field of risks and crises, both the access to relevant information and its circulation are seen as crucial factors. Based on a new integrated theoretical model focusing on the stakeholder, the book proposes analysis of information reformulation...

Presented here is the story of the mining and sale of uranium and radium ore through biographical vignettes, chemistry, physics, geology, geography, occupational health, medical utilization, environmental safety and industrial history. Included are the...

This book explores economic concepts related to disaster losses, describes mechanisms that determine the economic consequences of a disaster, and reviews methodologies for making decisions regarding risk management and adaptation. The author addresses...

This edited volume emphasizes risk and crisis communication principles and practices within the up-to the minute context of new technologies, a new focus on resiliency, and global environmental change. It includes contributions from experts from around...

This collection focuses on the development of novel approaches to address one of the most pressing challenges of civil engineering, namely the mitigation of natural hazards. Numerous engineering books to date have focused on, and illustrate considerable...

This pioneering work deals with the parameterization of rockfalls in the context of 3D run-out modelling at a study site in the Bavarian Alps. The main objective was to cover not only low-magnitude, high-frequency rockfalls (3) but also Mid-Magnitude...

This second edition reflects significant progress in tsunami research, monitoring and mitigation within the last decade. Primarily meant to summarize the state-of-the-art knowledge on physics of tsunamis, it describes up-to-date models of tsunamis...

This volume investigates the interdisciplinary and cross-cutting challenges in the risk analysis of natural hazards. It brings together leading minds in engineering, science, philosophy, law, and the social sciences. Parts I and II of this volume explore...

This book provides an integrated approach to the assessment of seismic hazards. The reduction of losses expected by future earthquakes is probably the most important contribution of seismology to society. Large earthquakes occurred in densely populated...

This doctoral thesis presents a novel approach to landslide risk assessment that explores the various dimensions of landslide risk in an integrated perspective. The research approach introduced here is tailored for use with landslide databases and...

This book introduces a methodology for solving the seismic inverse problem using purely numerical solutions built on 3D wave equations and which is free of the approximations or simplifications that are common in classical seismic inversion methodologies...

This book offers new perspectives of transdisciplinary research, in methodological as well as theoretical respects. It provides insights in the two-fold bio-physical and the socio-cultural global embeddedness of local living conditions on the basis of...

Geophysical mass flows, such as landslides, avalanches or debris flows, are frequent mass movement processes in mountain areas and often cause disastrous damage. This book lays a foundation for formulating the depth-averaged equations describing the...

This book provides a comprehensive description of the volcanological, petrological and geochemical features of the Poás Volcano (Costa Rica), one of the most active volcanic systems in Central America and part of the Central America Volcanic Arc (CAVA)...

Perhaps just as perplexing as the biggest issues at the core of Earth science is the nature of communicating about nature itself. New Trends in Earth-Science Outreach and Engagement: The Nature of Communication examines the...

Landslides in cold regions have different mechanisms from those in other areas, and comparatively few research efforts have been made in this field. Recently, because of climate change, some new trends concerning landslide occurrence and motion have...

Deformation and Gravity Change: Indicators of Isostasy, Tectonics, Volcanism and Climate Change, Volume II. Introduction.- Semi-analytical Solution for Viscoelastic Relaxation in Eccentrically-nested Spheres Induced by Surface Toroidal Traction.-...

Disaster losses in the context of natural hazards continue to rise, despite a growing understanding of disaster risks and measures to reduce them. One obstacle to enhancing private and public disaster risk reduction is the influence of the distorted risk...