Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309316227
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 532
Get Book Here
Book Description
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.
Author: Gonzalo Lizarralde
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134028458
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 340
Get Book Here
Book Description
Disasters are not natural. Natural events such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, etc. become disasters because of the fragile relations that exist between the natural, human and built environments. Sadly, major disasters will always occur in towns and cities in the developing world where resources are limited, people are vulnerable and needs are particularly great. The prevailing state of emergency challenges thoughtful and sustainable planning and construction. Yet it is possible, in theory and in practice, to construct them in a way that provides a sustainable environment and improved conditions for current and future generations. Rebuilding After Disasters emphasizes the role of the built environment in the re-establishment of lives and sustainable livelihoods after disasters. Expert contributors explain the principal challenges facing professionals and practitioners in the building industry. This book will be of great value to decision makers, students and researchers in the fields of architecture, social sciences, engineering, planning, geography, and disaster recovery.
Author: Adenrele Awotona
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317080149
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 493
Get Book Here
Book Description
We are witnessing an ever-increasing level and intensity of disasters from Ecuador to Ethiopia and beyond, devastating millions of ordinary lives and causing long-term misery for vulnerable populations. Bringing together 26 case studies from six continents, this volume provides a unique resource that discusses, in considerable depth, the multifaceted matrix of natural and human-made disasters. It examines their bearing on the loss of human and productive capital; the conduct of national policies and the setting of national development priorities; and on the nature of international aid and bilateral assistance strategies and programs of donor countries. In order to ensure the efficacy and appropriateness of their support for disaster survivors, international agencies, humanitarian and disaster relief organizations, scholars, non-governmental organizations, and members of the global emergency management community need to have insight into best practices and lessons learned from various disasters across national and cultural boundaries. The evidence obtained from the numerous case studies in this volume serves to build a worldwide community that is better informed about the cultural and traditional contexts of such disasters and better enabled to prepare for, respond to, and finally rebuild sustainable communities after disasters in different environments. The main themes of the case studies include: • the need for community planning and emergency management to unite in order to achieve the mutual aim of creating a sustainable disaster-resilient community, coupled with the necessity to enact and implement appropriate laws, policies, and development regulations for disaster risk reduction; • the need to develop a clear set of urban planning and urban design principles for improving the built environment’s capacities for disaster risk management through the integration of disaster risk reduction education into the curricula of colleges and universities; • the need to engage the whole community to build inclusive governance structures as prerequisites for addressing climate change vulnerability and fostering resilience and sustainability. Furthermore, the case studies explore the need to link the existence and value of scientific knowledge accumulated in various countries with decision-making in disaster risk management; and the relevance and transferability from one cultural context to another of the lessons learned in building institutional frameworks for whole community partnerships.
Author: Ingrid Johnston
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443894125
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 254
Get Book Here
Book Description
What would you do if a category five monster cyclone was headed your way? Drive as far as you could, as quickly as you could in the opposite direction? What if there were no cars? What if there were no roads? What if you were on a tiny island? What if there was nowhere to run to? How would you feel, knowing that when it was over it could be weeks before anyone came to help? Thousands of people live with this possibility every day, and their resilience and coping skills are incredible. However, climate change threatens to make these events worse, and all the while the sea levels are rising, and these islands are sinking. Bringing together the perspectives of the people on small, remote islands in the South Pacific, the aid organisations who help after a disaster, and the governments, this book investigates how we should respond. These are the stories of people for whom climate change is not a theoretical future, but a daily reality.
Author: Adenrele Awotona
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443818208
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 485
Get Book Here
Book Description
Disasters impose enormous misery on children, the most vulnerable members of the community. Records show that two million children have died as a direct consequence of armed conflict over the past decade. Globally, millions more have suffered death, disease, and dislocation as a result of such natural disasters as earthquakes, droughts, and floods. And even when emergency relief is available, permanent human damage remains; all too often, families fall apart, women are assaulted and degraded, and children are left to take care of themselves. In November 2008, the Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters at the University of Massachusetts Boston, USA, hosted an international conference to examine how to reconstruct sustainable communities that would be safe and secure for children and their families after disasters. This volume collects some of the papers that were presented at the conference. It is remarkable for the sheer assortment of topics covered. These include the role of gender equality in alleviating poverty and assisting children, their families and their communities after disasters; war and child soldiers; lessons from Hurricane Katrina and the Tsunami; the nature of psychosocial resilience and its significance for managing mass emergencies, disasters and terrorism; and, the promotion of human dignity in the creation of sustainable environments that empower families in the aftermath of disasters.
Author: Adenrele Awotona
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443861170
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 460
Get Book Here
Book Description
This volume examines lessons learned in reducing the impact of disasters on communities in China, Japan and other countries world-wide. Asia is the most disaster-prone continent. The 2012 data on natural disasters in 28 Asian countries, released by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Belgian-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters on December 11th, 2012 showed that, from 1950 to 2011, nine out of ten people affected by disasters globally were in Asia; that of the top five disasters that created the most damage in 2012, three were in China; that China led the list of most disasters in 2012; and, that China was the only “multi-hazard”-prone country. Similarly, the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake was the greatest known earthquake ever to have hit Japan and one of the five strongest ever recorded earthquakes in the world since 1900. Subsequently, the Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters at the University of Massachusetts Boston organized a conference in November 2012 to survey the best practices in post-disaster rebuilding efforts in China and Japan. This edited book consists of selected papers from the proceedings of that event and previously invited contributions from leading scholars in post-disaster rebuilding in China, Japan and Namibia.
Author: Julie Drolet
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190942193
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 281
Get Book Here
Book Description
Social workers are increasingly engaged in supporting individuals and communities in long-term disaster recovery. Rebuilding Lives Post-Disaster brings together an international team of social work researchers who have investigated the experiences, perspectives, challenges, and complexities in disaster recovery. It features country case studies drawing from field research undertaken in disaster-affected communities in Canada, the United States, Australia, India, Pakistan, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, and China. In so doing, the volume provides a comprehensive perspective on the realities of disaster recovery and explores key concepts such as resilience, community-based disaster risk reduction, and social and gendered construction of vulnerability and capabilities. Undergraduate and graduate students and professionals in the fields of social work, community development, international social work, emergency management, and related fields will find the text to be a helpful resource.
Author: Daniel P. Aldrich
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226012891
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Get Book Here
Book Description
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.
Author: Laurie A. Johnson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781558443310
Category : Crisis management
Languages : en
Pages : 380
Get Book Here
Book Description
Great natural disasters are rare, but their aftermath can change the fortunes of a city or region forever. This book and its companion Policy Focus Report identify lessons from different parts of the world to help communities and government leaders better organize for recovery after future disasters. The authors consider the processes and outcomes of community recovery and reconstruction following major disasters in six countries: China, New Zealand, India, Indonesia, Japan, and the United States. Post-disaster reconstruction offers opportunities to improve construction and design standards, renew infrastructure, create new land use arrangements, reinvent economies, and improve governance. If done well, reconstruction can help break the cycle of disaster-related impacts and losses, and improve the resilience of a city or region.
Author: Min Hee Go
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479804894
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Get Book Here
Book Description
Explores the unintended consequences of civic activism in a disaster-prone city After Hurricane Katrina, thousands of people swiftly mobilized to rebuild their neighborhoods, often assisted by government organizations, nonprofits, and other major institutions. In Rethinking Community Resilience, Min Hee Go shows that these recovery efforts are not always the panacea they seem to be, and can actually escalate the city’s susceptibility to future environmental hazards. Drawing upon interviews, public records, and more, Go explores the hidden costs of community resilience. She shows that—despite good intentions—recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina exacerbated existing race and class inequalities, putting disadvantaged communities at risk. Ultimately, Go shows that when governments, nonprofits, and communities invest in rebuilding rather than relocating, they inadvertently lay the groundwork for a cycle of vulnerabilities. As cities come to terms with climate change adaptation—rather than prevention—Rethinking Community Resilienceprovides insight into the challenges communities increasingly face in the twenty-first century.
