Compensating Catastrophe Victims

Compensating Catastrophe Victims
Author: Véronique Bruggeman
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
Total Pages: 650
Release: 2010-01-01
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9041132635

This book shows that amelioration of the current compensation solutions for disaster victims is indeed a possibility. In a heated yet often poorly informed debate, it offers clarity and insights regarding the financial compensation for victims of catastrophes which, in addition to raising academic interest, are certain to help build a framework for future policymakers and lawmakers faced with shaping compensation programmes for catastrophe victims.

Science of Societal Safety

Science of Societal Safety
Author: Seiji Abe
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2018-12-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9811327750

This open access book covers comprehensive but fundamental principles and concepts of disaster and accident prevention and mitigation, countermeasures, and recovery from disasters or accidents including treatment and care of the victims. Safety and security problems in our society involve not only engineering but also social, legal, economic, cultural, and psychological issues. The enhancement needed for societal safety includes comprehensive activities of all aspects from precaution to recovery, not only of people but also of governments. In this context, the authors, members of the Faculty of Societal Safety Science, Kansai University, conducted many discussions and concluded that the major strategy is consistent independently of the type and magnitude of disaster or accident, being also the principle of the foundation of our faculty. The topics treated in this book are rather widely distributed but are well organized sequentially to provide a clear understanding of the principles of societal safety. In the first part the fundamental concepts of safety are discussed. The second part deals with risks in the societal and natural environment. Then follows, in the third part, a description of the quantitative estimation of risk and its assessment and management. The fourth part is devoted to disaster prevention, mitigation, and recovery systems. The final, fifth part presents a future perspective of societal safety science. Thorough reading of this introductory volume of societal safety science provides a clear image of the issues. This is largely because the Japanese have suffered often from natural disasters and not only have gained much valuable information about disasters but also have accumulated a store of experience. We are still in the process of reconstruction from the Great East Japan earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. This book is especially valuable therefore in studying the safety and security of people and their societies.

The Impacts of Natural Disasters

The Impacts of Natural Disasters
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 80
Release: 1999-05-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309063949

We in the United States have almost come to accept natural disasters as part of our nation's social fabric. News of property damage, economic and social disruption, and injuries follow earthquakes, fires, floods and hurricanes. Surprisingly, however, the total losses that follow these natural disasters are not consistently calculated. We have no formal system in either the public or private sector for compiling this information. The National Academies recommends what types of data should be assembled and tracked.

Compensation for Losses from the 9/11 Attacks

Compensation for Losses from the 9/11 Attacks
Author: Lloyd S. Dixon
Publisher: Rand Corporation
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2004
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780833036919

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, caused tremendous loss of life, property, and income, and the resulting response from public and private organizations was unprecedented. This monograph examines the benefits received by those who were killed or seriously injured on 9/11 and the benefits provided to individuals and businesses in New York City that suffered losses from the attack on the World Trade Center. The authors examine the performance of the compensation system--insurance, tort, government programs, and charity--in responding to the losses stemming from 9/11.

Regulating Disasters, Climate Change and Environmental Harm

Regulating Disasters, Climate Change and Environmental Harm
Author: Michael Faure
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 523
Release: 2013-01-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1781002495

This collection brings together insightful analyses of how developing countries can manage serious hazards. Natural disasters have long been threats to developing countries, but now climate change is increasing many risks and posing new challenges.

Climate Change and Catastrophe Management in a Changing China

Climate Change and Catastrophe Management in a Changing China
Author: Qihao He
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 251
Release:
Genre: Climate change insurance
ISBN: 1788111869

China is the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world and also suffers from devastating climate catastrophes. Increasingly, policymakers in China have come to realize that government alone cannot adequately prevent or defray climate-related disaster risks. This book contends that a better way to manage catastrophe risk in China is through private insurance rather than directly through the Chinese government. In addition, private insurance could function as a substitute for, or complement to, government regulation of catastrophe risks by causing policyholders to take greater precautions to reduce climate change risks.

The "Katrina Effect"

The
Author: William M. Taylor
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2015-08-27
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 147259519X

On August 29th 2005, the headwaters of Hurricane Katrina's storm-surge arrived at New Orleans, the levees broke and the city was inundated. Perhaps no other disaster of the 21st century has so captured the global media's attention and featured in the 'imagination of disaster' like Katrina. The Katrina Effect charts the important ethical territory that underscores thinking about disaster and the built environment globally. Given the unfolding of recent events, disasters are acquiring original and complex meanings. This is partly because of the global expansion and technological interaction of urban societies in which the multiple and varied impacts of disasters are recognized. These meanings pose significant new problems for civil society: what becomes of public accountability, egalitarianism and other democratic ideals in the face of catastrophe? This collection of critical essays assesses the storm's global impact on overlapping urban, social and political imaginaries. Given the coincidence and 'perfect storm' of environmental, geo-political and economic challenges facing liberal democratic societies, communities will come under increasing strain to preserve and restore social fabric while affording all citizens equal opportunity in determining the forms that future cities and communities will take. Today, 21st century economic neo-liberalism, global warming or recent theories of 'urban vulnerability' and resilience provide key new contexts for understanding the meaning and legacy of Katrina.

Research Handbook on Climate Change Adaptation Law

Research Handbook on Climate Change Adaptation Law
Author: Jonathan Verschuuren
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 455
Release: 2013-01-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1781000085

ÔThe present book is a much needed publication on climate change adaptation law. It is a collaborative effort of distinguished experts from around the world and adopts a holistic approach to adaptation, taking a global view, with a focus on the international, the regional and domestic levels. This publication has a wealth of information, illustrating the issue of adaptation with many examples from all over the world. One of the most valuable aspects of this book, ensuring that it will have a lasting value, is that it discusses all fields of law, which are vulnerable to climate change (such as tort law; insurance law; disaster law; marine law; water law; planning law; construction law; environmental law; forestry; energy law; biodiversity). The book also includes general issues of adaptation, such as climate justice and the relationship between adaptation and development; human rights in the context of migration law and compensation. It is written in a very accessible language and will be an indispensible reading for both scholars and practitioners. The content and structure of the book make it a definitive book on climate adaptation.Õ Ð Malgosia Fitzmaurice, Queen Mary, University of London, UK ÔThis book indeed will become the definitive text on climate adaptation law for the coming years! From a global law perspective, Verschuuren and his team analyse in an outstanding way the legal challenges and barriers to climate change adaptation and how they can be overcome. Just like climate change, this book is here to stay!Õ Ð Kurt Deketelaere, KU Leuven/League of European Research Universities (LERU), Belgium This timely Research Handbook discusses the challenges brought about by the need to adapt to a changing climate. It considers how adaptation is necessary to address impacts resulting from the warming of the EarthÕs atmosphere which is already unavoidable due to past emissions. With adaptation policies around the world still in their infancy, the book examines the legal challenges and barriers to climate change adaptation and how can they be overcome. It brings together expert contributors to consider topics ranging across tort and insurance law, disaster law, water law, marine law, planning law, biodiversity law, green buildings, pollution control, displacement, agriculture and energy. With its transnational and multilevel approach, the Research Handbook on Climate Change Adaptation Law will be an essential resource for academics in the field of climate change policy and law, policymakers and other government officials working on climate change, and NGOs working in the field of climate change.

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster
Author: Rawle O. King
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Total Pages: 24
Release: 2010-11
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1437937101

The April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was the largest spill to have occurred in U.S. waters. The scale of clean-up costs and third-party damages has prompted congressional review of clean-up and damage compensation mechanisms, as well as of ways to facilitate future oil spill prevention, response, and recovery. A key element is the role of insurance in ensuring that costs of spills can be financed. Contents of this report: (1) Intro.; (2) The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Incident; (3) The Offshore Energy Exploration and Production Business: Risk Management and the Demand for Insurance; (4) Offshore Energy Insurance Market; (5) Compensating Oil Pollution Victims; (6) Policy Issues. Illus.

Human Security and Natural Disasters

Human Security and Natural Disasters
Author: Christopher Hobson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2014-03-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317814398

"Human security" is an approach that rejects the traditional prioritization of state security, and instead identifies the individual as the primary referent of security. It offers a way of broadening our perspective, and recognizing that the most pressing threats to individuals do not come from interstate war, but from the emergencies that affect people every day, such as famine, disease, displacement, civil conflict and environmental degradation. Human security is about people living their lives with dignity, being free from "fear" and "want". To date, there has been a strong tendency to focus on insecurity caused by civil conflict, with less attention on issues to do with environmental security. This volume addresses the threat posed by natural disasters, which represent an increasingly major human security threat to people everywhere. In looking at natural disasters, this book also refines the human security approach. It does so through developing its previously unexplored interdisciplinary potential. This volume explicitly seeks to bring the human security approach into conversation with contributions from a range of disciplines: development, disaster sociology, gender studies, international law, international relations, philosophy, and public health. Collectively these scholars unpack the "human" element of "natural" disasters. In doing so, an emphasis is placed on how pre-existing vulnerabilities can be gravely worsened, as well as the interconnected nature of human security threats. The book presents a variety of case studies that include the Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and the 2011 "triple disasters" in Japan.