Few subjects have caught the attention of the entire world as much as those dealing with natural hazards. The first decade of this new millennium provides a litany of tragic examples of various hazards that turned into disasters affecting millions of individuals around the globe. The human losses (some 225,000 people) associated with the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, the economic costs (approximately 200 billion USD) of the 2011 Tohoku Japan earthquake, tsunami and reactor event, and the collective social impacts of human tragedies experienced during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 all provide repetitive reminders that we humans are temporary guests occupying a very active and angry planet. Any examples may have been cited here to stress the point that natural events on Earth may, and often do, lead to disasters and catastrophes when humans place themselves into situations of high risk.
Few subjects share the true interdisciplinary dependency that characterizes the field of natural hazards. From geology and geophysics to engineering and emergency response to social psychology and economics, the study of natural hazards draws input from an impressive suite of unique and previously independent specializations. Natural hazards provide a common platform to reduce disciplinary boundaries and facilitate a beneficial synergy in the provision of timely and useful information and action on this critical subject matter.
As social norms change regarding the concept of acceptable risk and human migration leads to an explosion in the number of megacities, coastal over-crowding and unmanaged habitation in precarious environments such as mountainous slopes, the vulnerability of people and their susceptibility to natural hazards increases dramatically. Coupled with the concerns of changing climates, escalating recovery costs, a growing divergence between more developed and less developed countries, the subject of natural hazards remains on the forefront of issues that affect all people, nations, and environments all the time.
This treatise provides a compendium of critical, timely and very detailed information and essential facts regarding the basic attributes of natural hazards and concomitant disasters. The Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards effectively captures and integrates contributions from an international portfolio of almost 300 specialists whose range of expertise addresses over 330 topics pertinent to the field of natural hazards. Disciplinary barriers are overcome in this comprehensive treatment of the subject matter. Clear illustrations and numerous color images enhance the primary aim to communicate and educate. The inclusion of a series of unique classic case study events interspersed throughout the volume provides tangible examples linking concepts, issues, outcomes and solutions. These case studies illustrate different but notable recent, historic and prehistoric events that have shaped the world as we now know it. They provide excellent focal points linking the remaining terms in the volume to the primary field of study. This Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards will remain a standard reference of choice for many years.
Arvustused
From the reviews:
This book is that is full of practical information, and that it goes wider than just the description and explanation of various earth science events. The books style, content and price mean that its market will be mainly in academic and governmental organizations. is of interest to the engineer and the agronomist, but there is much for the historian and the social geographer. There is plenty in this for policymakers and social and civil defence people. (John Goodier, Reference Reviews, Vol. 28 (2), 2014)
AA-LAVA.- Accelerometer.- Acid Rain.- Adaptation.- Airphoto and
Satellite Imagery.- Albedo.- Antecedent Conditions.- Arsenic in Groundwater.-
Asteroid.- Asteroid Impact.- Asteroid Impact Mitigation.- Asteroid Impact
Predictions.- Automated Local Evaluation in Real Time (ALERT).- Avalanches.-
Aviation (Hazards to).- Avulsion.- Base Surge.- Beach Nourishment
(Replenishment).- Beaufort Wind Scale.- Biblical Events.- Body Wave.-
Breakwaters.- Building Code.- Building Failure.-
Buildings, Structures, and Public Safety.- Calderas.- Casualties Following
Natural Hazards.- Challenges to Agriculture.- Civil Protection and Crisis
Management.- Classification of Natural Disasters.- Climate Change.- Cloud
Seeding.- Coal Fire (Underground).- Coastal Erosion.- Coastal Zone Risk
Management.- Cognitive Dissonance.- Collapsing Soil Hazards.- Comet.-
Communicating Emergency Information.- Community Management of Natural
Hazards.- Complexity Theory.- Concrete Structures.- Convergence.- Coping
Capacity.- Cost-Benefit Analysis of Natural Hazard Mitigation.- Costs
(Economic) of Natural Hazards and Disasters.- Creep.- Critical Incident
Stress Syndrome.- Critical Infrastructure.- Cryological Engineering.-
Cultural Heritage and Natural Hazards.- Damage and the Built Environment.-
Debris Avalanche.- Debris Flow.- Deep-seated Gravitational Slope
Deformation.- Desertification.- Disaster Diplomacy.- Disaster Relief.-
Disaster Research and Policy, History.- Disaster Risk Management.- Disaster
Risk Reduction.- Disasters.- Dispersive Soil Hazards.- Doppler Weather
Radar.- Dose Rate.- Drought.- Dust Bowl.- Dust Devil.- Dust Storm.- Dvorak
Classification of Hurricanes.- Early Warning Systems.- Earthquake.-
Earthquake Damage.- Earthquake Prediction and Forecasting.- Earthquake
Resistant Design.- Economic Valuation of Life.- Economics of Disasters.-
Education and Training for Emergency Preparedness.- Elastic Rebound Theory.-
Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR).- El Niño/Southern Oscillation.- Emergency
Management.- Emergency Mapping.- Emergency Planning.- Emergency Shelter.-
Epicenter.- Epidemiology of Disease in Natural Disasters.- Erosion.-
Erosivity.- Eruption Types (Volcanic Eruptions).- Evacuation.- Expansive
Soils and Clays.- Expert (Knowledge-Based) Systems for Disaster Management.-
Exposure to Natural Hazards.- Extensometers.- Extinction.- Extreme Value
Theory.- Eyjafjallajökull Eruptions 2010.- Fault.- Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA).- Fetch.- Fire and Firestorms.- Flash Flood.- Flood
Deposits.- Flood Hazard and Disaster.- Flood Protection.- Flood Stage.-
Floodplain.- Floodway.- Fog Hazard Mitigation.- Fog Hazards.- Föhn.- Forest
and Range Fires.- Frequency and Magnitude of Events.- Frost Hazard.- Fujita
Tornado Scale.- Fumarole.- Galeras Volcano, Colombia.- Gas-Hydrates.-
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Natural Hazards.- Geographic
Information Technology.- Geohazards.- Geological/Geophysical Disasters.-
Glacier Hazards.- Global Change and its Implications for Natural Disasters.-
Global Dust.- Global Network of Civil Society Organizations for Disaster
Reduction.- Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Natural Hazards.- Global
Seismograph Network (GSN).- Haiti Earthquake 2010: Psychosocial Impacts.-
Harmonic Tremor.- Hazard.- Hazard and Risk Mapping.- Hazardousness of a
Place.- Heat Waves.- High-Rise Buildings in Natural Disaster.- Historical
Events.- Hospitals in Disaster.- Human Impacts of Hazards.- Humanity as an
Agent of Natural Disasters.- Hurricane (Typhoon, Cyclone).- Hurricane
Katrina.- Hydrocompaction Subsidence.- Hydrograph, Flood.-
Hydrometeorological Hazards.- Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015.-
Hypocenter.- Ice and Icebergs.- Ice Storms.- Impact Airblast.- Impact
Ejecta.- Impact Fireball.- Impact Firestorms.- Impact Tsunamis.- Impact
Winter.- Inclinometers.- Indian Ocean Tsunami, 2004.- Induced Seismicity.-
Information and Communication Technology.- Insect Hazards.- Insurance.-
Integrated Emergency Management System.- Intensity Scales.- International
Strategies for Disaster Reduction (IDNDR and ISDR).- Internet, World Wide Web
and Natural Hazards.- Isoseismal.- Jökulhlaups.- Karst Hazards.- Krakatoa
(Krakatau).- Lahar.- Land Degradation.- Land Subsidence.- Land Use,
Urbanization, and Natural Hazards.- Landsat Satellite.- Landslide.- Landslide
Dam.- Landslide Impacts.- Landslide Inventory.- Landslide Triggered Tsunami,
Displacement Wave.- Landslide Types.- Land-Use Planing.- Lateral Spreading.-
Lava.- Levee.- Lightning.- Liquefaction.- Livelihoods and Disasters.- Loess.-
Macroseismic Survey.- Magma.- Magnitude Measures.- Marginality.- Marine
Hazards.- Mass Media and Natural Disasters.- Mass Movement.- Megacities and
Natural Hazards.- Mega-Fires in Greece (2007).- Mercalli, Giuseppe
(1850-1914).- Meteorite.- Methane Release from Hydrate.- Mining Subsidence
Induced Fault Reactivation.- Misconceptions About Natural Disaster.-
Mitigation.- Modified Mercalli (MM) Scale.- Monitoring Natural Hazards.-
Monsoons.- Montserrat Eruptions.- Mortality and Injury in Natural Disasters.-
Mt Pinatubo.- Mud Volcanoes.- Mudflow.- Myths and Misconceptions in
Disasters.- Natural Hazard.- Natural Hazards in Developing Countries.-
Natural Radioactivity.- Neotectonics.- Nevado del Ruiz Volcano, Colombia
1985.- North Anatolian Fault.- Nuée Ardente.- Overgrazing.- Ozone.- Ozone
Loss.- Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (PTWS).- Pahoehoe Lava.-
Paleoflood Hydrology.- Paleoseismology.- Paraglacial.- Perception of Natural
Hazards and Disasters.- Permafrost.- Piezometer.- Piping Hazard.- Planning
Measures and Political Aspects.- Plate Tectonics.- Pore-Water Pressure.- Post
Disaster Mass Care Needs.- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).- Primary
Wave (P-Wave).- Probable Maximum Flood (PMF).- Probable Maximum Precipitation
(PMP).- Psychological Impacts of Natural Disasters.- Pyroclastic Flow.-
Queensland Floods (2010-2011) and Tweeting.- Quick Clay.- Quick Sand.-
Radiation Hazards.- Radon Hazards.- Recovery and Reconstruction After
Disaster.- Recurrence Interval.- Red Cross and Red Crescent.- Red Tides.-
Reflections on Modeling Disaster.- Release Rates.- Religion and Hazards.-
Remote Sensing of Natural Hazards and Disasters.- Reservoir, Dams, and
Seismicity.- Resilience.- Richter, Charles Francis (1900-1985).- Rights and
Obligations in International Humanitarian Assistance.- Rip Current.- Risk.-
Risk Assessment.- Risk Governance.- Risk Perception and Communication.- Rock
Avalanche (Sturzstrom).- Rockfall.- Rogue Wave.- Rotational Seismology.-
Sackung.- Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Intensity Scale.- San Andreas Fault.-
Santorini, Eruption.- Sea Level Change.- Secondary Wave (S-Wave).-
Sedimentation of Reservoirs.- Seiche.- Seismic Gap.-
Seismograph/Seismometer.- Seismology.- Shear.- Shield Volcano.- Sinkhole.-
Slide and Slump.- Slope Stability.- Snowstorm and Blizzard.-
Social-Ecological Systems.- Sociology of Disaster.- Solar Flares.-
Solifluction.- Space Weather.- Storm Surges.- Storms.- Stratovolcanoes.-
Structural Damage Caused by Earthquakes.- Structural Mitigation.-
Subduction.- Subsidence Induced by Underground Extraction.- Sunspots.-
Supernova.- Surge.- Susceptibility.- Tangshan, China (1976 Earthquake).-
Tectonic and Tectono-Seismic Hazards.- Tectonic Tremor.- Thunderstorms.-
Tidal Bores.- Tiltmeters.- Time and Space in Disaster.- Tohoku, Japan (2011
Earthquake and Tsunami).- Torino Scale.- Tornadoes.- Triggered Earthquakes.-
Tsunami.- Tsunami Loads on Infrastructure.- Uncertainty.- United Nations
Organizations and Natural Disasters.- Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE).-
Unreinforced Masonry Buildings.- Urban Environments and Natural Hazards.-
Usoi Landslide and Lake Sarez.- Vaiont Landslide, Italy.- Vesuvius.- Volcanic
Ash.- Volcanic Gas.- Volcanoes and Volcanic Eruptions.- Vulnerability.-
Warning Systems.- Waterspout.- Wenchuan, China (2008 Earthquake).- Wildfire.-
World Economy, Impact of Disasters.- Worldwide Trends in Natural Disasters.-
Zoning
Peter Bobrowsky is an Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Natural Hazard Research, Department of Earth Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada (ptbobrow@sfu.ca). With over 30 years of professional experience as an environmental and engineering geologist he has worked in Africa, China, India, North America, Middle East and South America. He has published extensively on a variety of subjects and has served/serves on a number of bodies and organizations: Secretary General of IUGS, President of the Geological Association of Canada, President of the Canadian Quaternary Association, Vice President of the International Consortium on Landslides, editorial board for Landslides and Quaternary International and several others. The project to compile and publish this volume was completed during his tenure as SG of IUGS.
