At Risk: Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerability, and Disasters

Rating:
Summary: A short review of "At risk : natural hazards"
Review: The four authors of "At Risk, natural hazards, people's vulnerability, and disasters" (three from the UK, one from USA, active in the field of social and development studies) claim that natural disasters are not only caused by the natural environment, but also (or maybe even more) by the social, political and economic environment. It is shown throughout the book when they concentrate on the various hazard types: floods, coastal storms, earthquakes, landslides, vulcanoes, biological hazards and famine. They consistently use a flow diagram describing the framework of the root causes, dynamic pressures, unsafe conditions (on the one side), the hazard (on the other side), and the disaster (in the middle).

The book describes 12 principles towards a safer environment. It cannot be made by technical measures alone. It should address the root causes by challeging any ideology, political or economic system which causes or increases vulnerability. It should reduce pressures by developing by macro forces such as urbanisation, re-afforestation, a.o. It should achieve safe conditions by protected environment, resilient local economy and public actions, such as disaster preparedness. Together with technical measures to reduce certain hazards (such as flood defences, shelter breaks, etc), it should all lead to a substantial reduction in disaster risk.

The book illustrates natural hazards from a social studies point of view, with striking observations, such as the bureaucratic blindness and biased relief assistance in South Carolina following hurricane Hugo in 1989 to the needs of many African Americans who lacked insurance and other support systems. The huge North Vietnam floods in 1971 only resulted in a few hundred deaths, largely because of a highly efficient wartime village-level organisation that allowed rapid evacuation and provision of first aid, whereas the similar 1970 Bangladesh floods killed a record 300,000 people.