Eighteen case studies of worldwide natural disasters are used to inform actual climate change adaptation practice for researchers and decision makers.

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 the need for better understanding of the consequences of disasters and reviews and analyzes three scientific debates on linkage between disaster risk management and adaptation to climate change. The first involves the existence and magnitude of long-term economic impact of natural disasters on development. The second is the disagreement over whether any development is the proper solution to high vulnerability to disaster risk. The third debate involves the difficulty of drawing connections between natural disasters and climate change and the challenge in managing them through an integrated strategy. The introduction describes economic views of disaster, including direct and indirect costs, output and welfare losses, and use of econometric tools to measure losses. The next section defines disaster risk, delineates between “good” and “bad” risk-taking, and discusses a pathway to balanced growth. A section entitled “Trends in Hazards and the Role of Climate Change” sets scenarios for climate change analysis, discusses statistical and physical models for downscaling global climate scenarios to extreme event scenarios, and considers how to consider extremes of hot and cold, storms, wind, drought and flood. Another section analyzes case studies on hurricanes and the US coastline; sea-level rises and storm surge in Copenhagen; and heavy precipitation in Mumbai. A section on Methodologies for disaster risk management includes a study on cost-benefit analysis of coastal protections in New Orleans, and one on early-warning systems in developing countries. The next section outlines decision-making in disaster risk management, including robust decision-making, No-regret and No-risk strategies; and strategies that reduce time horizons for decision-making. Among the conclusions is the assertion that risk management policies must recognize the benefits of risk-taking and avoid suppressing it entirely. The main message is that a combination of disaster-risk-reduction, resilience-building and adaptation policies can yield large potential gains and synergies.

This book identifies lessons learned from natural hazard experiences to help communities plan for and adapt to climate change. Written by leading experts, the case studies examine diverse experiences, from severe storms to sea-level related hazards, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, floods, earthquakes and tsunami, in North America, Europe, Australasia, Asia, Africa and Small Island Developing States. The lessons are grouped according to four imperatives: (i) Develop collaborative governance networks; (ii) build adaptive capabilities; (iii) invest in pre-event planning; and (iv) the moral imperative to undertake adaptive actions that advance resilience and sustainability. "A theoretically rich and empirically grounded analysis of the interface between disaster risk management and climate change adaptation, comprehensive yet accessible, and very timely." Mark Pelling, Department of Geography, King’s College London, UK. "This book represents a major contribution to the understanding of natural hazards planning as an urgent first step for reducing disaster risk and adapting to climate change to ensure sustainable and equitable development." Sálvano Briceño, Vice-Chair, Science Committee, Integrated Research on Disaster Risk IRDR, an ICSU/ISSC/ISDR programme. Former Director International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, UNISDR. “What a welcome addition to the young literature on climate adaptation and hazard mitigation! Bruc e Glavovic and Gavin Smith each bring to the editing task a rare blend of solid scholarly attainment and on-the-ground experience that shines through in this extensively-documented synthesis of theoretical ideas from the realms of climate and hazards and their validation in a rich set of diverse case studies pulled in from around the world. This book should remain a classic for many years.” William H. Hooke, American Meteorological Society.

Climate change is increasingly of great concern to the world community. The earth has witnessed the buildup of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere, changes in biodiversity, and more occurrences of natural disasters. Recently, scientists have begun to shift their emphasis away from curbing carbon dioxide emission to adapting to carbon dioxide emission. The increase in natural disasters around the world is unprecedented in earth's history and these disasters are often associated to climate changes. Many nations along the coastal lines are threatened by massive floods and tsunamis. Earthquakes are increasing in intensity and erosion and droughts are problems in many parts of the developing countries. This book is therefore to investigate ways to prepare and effectively manage these disasters and possibly reduce their impacts. The focus is on mitigation strategies and policies that will help to reduce the impacts of natural disasters. The book takes an in-depth look at climate change and its association to socio-economic development and cultures especially in vulnerable communities; and investigates how communities can develop resilience to disasters. A balanced and a multiple perspective approach to manage the risks associated with natural disasters is offered by engaging authors from the entire globe to proffer solutions.

This is the first academic publication to highlight the linkages between Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). Key issues and challenges related to CCA-DRR synergy and interactions are highlighted throughout, mostly drawing lessons and experiences from the field practices and greatly increasing current awareness.

The IPCC (2007) warned that the Ganges Brahmaputra Meghna (GBM) basin will be at greatest risk due to increased flooding, and that the region’s poverty would reduce its adaptation capacity. This book investigates autonomous adaptation using a multi-method technique comprising PRA and a questionnaire survey applied in the case study area ‘Islampur’ Upazila in Bangladesh. The study has four key approaches. First, it reviews the flood literature for Bangladesh from 1980 to 2014. Second, it examines farmers' crop adaptation processes in a case study area at Islampur, Bangladesh. Third, it assesses the vulnerability and adaptation (V & A) in response to three extreme flood events (EFEs). Fourth, the book assesses the economic consequences of failure effects of autonomous crop adaptation in response to EFEs. The results show that Bangladeshi farmers are highly resilient to EFEs, but the economic consequences of failure effects of autonomous crop adaptation (FEACA) on marginal farmers are large. The book contributes to current knowledge by filling three important research gaps as follows, 1) farmers’ autonomous crop adaptation processes in response to various types of extreme floods; 2) methodological contribution for assessing vulnerability and adaptation through PRA; and 3) the economic consequences of the failure effects of autonomous crop adaptations. “This book provides a good account of ‘autonomous adaptation’ and its impact on fl ood vulnerable communities in Bangladesh. Anyone wishing to fully understand the impact of climate change should read the book.” Professor Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Laureate, Yunus Centre, Bangladesh

"A report of the CSIS Asian Regionalism Initiative, July 2010."

This latest Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will again form the standard reference for all those concerned with climate change and its consequences, including students, researchers and policy makers in environmental science, meteorology, climatology, biology, ecology, atmospheric chemistry and environmental policy.