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From Hurricane Katrina and the south Asian tsunami to human-induced atrocities, terrorist attacks and the looming effects of climate change, the world is assailed by both natural and unnatural hazards and disasters. These expose not only human vulnerability - particularly that of the poorest, who are least able to respond and adapt - but also the profound worldwide environmental injustices that result from the geographical distribution of risks, hazards and disasters. This collection of essays, from one of the most renowned and experienced experts, provides a timely assessment of these critical themes. Presenting the top selections from Susan L. Cutter's thirty years of scholarship on hazard...
U.S. Emergency Management in the 21st Century: From Disaster to Catastrophe explores a critical issue in American public policy: Are the current public sector emergency management systems sufficient to handle future disasters given the environmental and social changes underway? In this timely book, Claire B. Rubin and Susan L. Cutter focus on disaster recovery efforts, community resilience, and public policy issues of related to recent disasters and what they portend for the future. Beginning with the external societal forces influencing shifts in policy and practice, the next six chapters provide in-depth accounts of recent disasters— the Joplin, Tuscaloosa-Birmingham, and Moore tornadoes...
Undertaken as part of the National Science Foundation's call for research associated with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, this volume contains research that addresses the immediate role and utility of geographical information and technologies in emergency management. It also initiates an on-going process to help develop a focused national research agenda on the geographical dimensions of terrorism. Areas covered include: geospatial data and technologies infrastructure research, root causes of terrorism, and vulnerability science and hazard research.
Through the use of case studies, the book examines in detail the nature of a variety of technological hazards, including chemical hazards, hazardous waste, and nuclear waste. Cutter argues that technological risks and hazards are products of failures in the political, social and economic systems that govern the use of technology just as much as they are failures in the technological systems themselves.
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 m...
This volume celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Association of American Geographers. It recognizes the importance of technologies in the production of geographical knowledge. The original chapters presented here examine technologies that have affected geography as a discipline. Among the technologies discussed are cartography, the camera, aerial photography, computers, and other computer-related tools. The contributors address the impact of such technologies on geography and society, disciplinary inquiries into the social/technological interfaces, high-tech as well low-tech societies, and applications of technologies to the public and private sectors. Geography and Technology can be used as a textbook in geography courses and seminars investigating specific technologies and the impacts of technologies on society and policy. It will also be useful for those in the humanities, social, policy and engineering sciences, planning and development fields where technology questions are becoming of increased importance. Geography clearly has much to learn from other disciplines and fields about geography/technology linkages; others can likewise learn much from us.
A comprehensive overview of the concepts of vulnerability and resilience for natural hazards research for both physical and social scientists.
From Hurricane Katrina and the south Asian tsunami to human-induced atrocities, terrorist attacks and the looming effects of climate change, the world is assailed by both natural and unnatural hazards and disasters. These expose not only human vulnerability - particularly that of the poorest, who are least able to respond and adapt - but also the profound worldwide environmental injustices that result from the geographical distribution of risks, hazards and disasters. This collection of essays, from one of the most renowned and experienced experts, provides a timely assessment of these critical themes. Presenting the top selections from Susan L. Cutter's thirty years of scholarship on hazard...
Using a geographic approach to the study of the environment and environmental policy, the authors have successfully integrated physical, economic, social and political considerations of the major natural resource issues facing the world today. Features many maps, photos and other visual materials to reinforce learning. New to this edition is material on toxic substances and land resources as well as a focus on current issues in the topic.
The spate of disaster events ranging from major to catastrophic that have occurred in recent years raises a lot of questions about where and why they happened. Understanding the history of emergency management policies and practice is important to an understanding of current and future policies and practice. Continuing in the footsteps of its popular predecessors, the new edition of Emergency Management: The American Experience provides the background to understand the key political and policy underpinnings of emergency management, exploring how major "focusing events" have shaped the field of emergency management. This edition builds on the original theoretical framework and chronological a...