Keith Smith - Environmental Hazards: Assessing Risk and Reducing Disaster

The much expanded sixth edition of Environmental Hazards provides a fully up-to-date overview of all the extreme events that threaten people and what they value in the twenty-first century. It integrates cutting-edge material from the physical and social sciences to illustrate how natural and human systems interact to place communities of all sizes, and at all stages of economic development, at risk. It also explains in detail the various measures available to reduce the ongoing losses to life and property. Part I of this established textbook defines basic concepts of hazard, risk, vulnerability and disaster. Attention is given to the evolution of theory, to the scales and patterns of disaster impact and to the optimum management strategies needed to minimize the future impact of damaging events. Part II employs a consistent chapter structure to demonstrate how individual hazards, such as earthquakes, severe storms, floods and droughts, plus biophysical and technological processes, create distinctive impacts and challenges throughout the world. The ways in which different societies can make positive responses to these threats are placed firmly in the context of sustainable development and global environmental change.

This extensively revised edition includes:

• A new concluding chapter that summarizes the globalization of hazard and critically examines the latest perspectives on climate-related disasters.
• Fresh views on the reliability of disaster data, disaster risk reduction, severe storms, droughts and technological hazards.
• More boxed sections with a focus on both generic issues and the lessons to be learned from a carefully selected range of recent extreme events.
• An annotated list of key resources, including further reading and relevant websites, for all chapters.
• 183 diagrams, now in full colour, and available to download on: www.routledge.com/9780415681063/.
• Over 30 colour photographs and more than 1,000 references to some of the most significant and recent published material.

Environmental Hazards is a clearly written, authoritative account of the causes and consequences of the extreme natural and technological processes that cause death and destruction across the globe. It draws on the latest research findings to guide the reader from common problems, theories and policies to explore practical, real-world situations and solutions. This carefully structured and balanced book captures the complexity and dynamism of environmental hazards and has become essential reading for students of every kind seeking to understand this most important contemporary issue.

Keith Smith is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Science and former Dean of Natural Sciences at the University of Stirling. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

The latest edition of Environmental Hazards provides a reliable guide to the ever changing field of natural hazards and disasters. The sixth edition covers a remarkable range of interdisciplinary topics in an accessible manner. The text is a unique resource for anyone wanting to understand how human society on planet Earth often finds itself in peril, and what we can do about it.

Roger Pielke, Professor of Environmental Studies,
University of Colorado at Boulder, USA.

Environmental Hazards has become the indispensable text for hazards students and scholars. The new edition brings together a wealth of updated and new case studies and examples. The common structure adopted for the chapters in Part II enables useful comparisons between hazard types and the varied risks and adaptation opportunities they present. This is a detailed and thorough treatment of the complex approaches to and challenges of hazard management.

Dr Maureen Fordham, Enterprise Fellow
Principal Lecturer in Disaster Management,
University of Northumbria, UK.

Keith Smith

First published 1991
Second edition 1996
Third edition 2001
Fourth edition 2004
Fifth edition 2009

Sixth edition 2013
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

1991, 1996, 2001, 2004, 2013 Keith Smith

2009 Keith Smith and David N. Petley

The right of Keith Smith to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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ISBN: 9780415681059 (hbk)

ISBN: 9780415681063 (pbk)

ISBN: 9780203805305 (ebk)

Typeset in Minion and Univers
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PART I
THE NATURE OF HAZARD

PART II
THE EXPERIENCE AND REDUCTION OF HAZARD

It is over 20 years since the first edition of Environ-mental Hazards was published. Since then, our understanding of the environment and its hazards has improved. The theoretical base is stronger and more sophisticated tools for hazard monitoring and risk mitigation have become available. The whole field of study has matured from a relatively small sub-discipline into a mainstream, policy-driven area of active and relevant research. Positive outcomes have not always followed. The financial resources and the political will required for effective disaster reduction are often lacking. Surprise remains a common reaction when the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004), hurricane Katrina (2005) and the Japan earth quake (2011) inflict death and destruction in these widely separated places. Environmental hazards pose important even growing threats which are rarely capable of simple solutions. Complex on-going processes globalization, climate change, population growth, resource depletion, increasing material wealth influence the death and destruction that disaster brings. This applies to all nations, although it is the poorest countries, and the most disadvantaged people, who suffer most.

Environmental Hazards strives to explain the drivers of hazard and outline the measures that can reduce the disaster losses. From the outset, an account limited to natural forces was insufficient and technological hazards, for example, have always been included. The scope of the book has widened further as fresh material has claimed its rightful place within a dynamic framework of emerging research and its applications. This new edition provides an up-to-date and balanced overview by drawing on multi-disciplinary sources. Although the structure of the book will be familiar to existing users, the content has been substantially re-written and expanded. There are more case studies, now supported by full-colour diagrams and photo graphs to illustrate real world situations, backed up by a comprehensive updated bibliography.