Description
Book SynopsisAround the world, extreme weather events are becoming increasingly "the new normal" and are expected to increase in the 21st century as a result of climate change. Extreme weather events have devastating impacts on human lives and national economies. This book examines ways to protect people from hazards using early warning systems, and includes contributions from experts from four different continents representing 14 different universities, 8 government agencies and two UN agencies. Chapters detail critical components of early warning systems, ways to identify vulnerable communities, predict hazards and deliver information. Unique satellite images illustrate the transnational impact of disasters, while case studies provide detailed examples of warning systems. With contributors from the fields of economics, ethics, meteorology, geography and biology, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in disaster risk reduction or climate change.
Table of ContentsIntroduction.- Chapter 1: The Impact of Climate Change on Natural Disasters.- Chapter 2: Challenges in Early Warning of the Persistent and Widespread Winter Fog over the Indo-Gangetic Plains: A Satellite Perspective.- Chapter 3: Assessing human vulnerability to climate change from an evolutionary perspective.- Chapter 4: Early Warning Systems Defined.- Chapter 5: The State of Early Warning Systems.- Chapter 6: Climate Change and Early Warning Systems for Wildland Fire.- Chapter 7: Climate Change Implications and Use of Early Warning Systems for Global Dust Storms.- Chapter 8: Applications of Medium Range Probabilistic Flood Forecast for Societal Benefits - Lessons Learned from Bangladesh.- Chapter 9: Flood forecasting and early warning: an example from the UK Environment Agency.- Chapter 10: The Evolution of Kenya’s Drought Management System.- Chapter 11: Understanding the warning process through the lens of practice: emancipation as a condition of action. Some lessons from France.- Chapter 12: The Effect of Early Flood Warnings on Mitigation and Recovery during the 2010 Pakistan Floods.- Chapter 13: Disasters are gendered: what’s new?.- Chapter 14: The Ethics of Early Warning Systems for Climate Change.- Chapter 15: Decadal Warning Systems.- Chapter 16: The role of scientific modelling and insurance in providing innovative solutions for managing the risk of natural disasters.- Chapter 17: “Follow the spiders”: Ecosystems as Early Warnings.- Chapter 18: Natural hazards and Climate Change in Kenya: Minimizing the impacts on vulnerable communities through Early Warning Systems.
