Risky Cities

Risky Cities
Author: Albert S. Fu
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2022-03-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1978820321

Over half the world’s population lives in urban regions, and increasingly disasters are of great concern to city dwellers, policymakers, and builders. However, disaster risk is also of great interest to corporations, financiers, and investors. Risky Cities is a critical examination of global urban development, capitalism, and its relationship with environmental hazards. It is about how cities live and profit from the threat of sinkholes, garbage, and fire. Risky Cities is not simply about post-catastrophe profiteering. This book focuses on the way in which disaster capitalism has figured out ways to commodify environmental bads and manage risks. Notably, capitalist city-building results in the physical transformation of nature. This necessitates risk management strategies –such as insurance, environmental assessments, and technocratic mitigation plans. As such capitalists redistribute risk relying on short-term fixes to disaster risk rather than address long-term vulnerabilities.

Risky Cities

Risky Cities
Author: Albert S. Fu
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2022-03-18
Genre: HISTORY
ISBN: 1978820305

Over half the world's population lives in urban regions, and increasingly disasters are of great concern to city dwellers, policymakers, and builders. Risky Cities is a critical examination of global urban development, capitalism, and its relationship with environmental hazards.

Cities, Disaster Risk and Adaptation

Cities, Disaster Risk and Adaptation
Author: Christine Wamsler
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2014-01-23
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1134615027

Worldwide, disasters and climate change pose a serious risk to sustainable urban development, resulting in escalating human and economic costs. Consequently, city authorities and other urban actors face the challenge of integrating risk reduction and adaptation strategies into their work. However, related knowledge and expertise are still scarce and fragmented. Cities, Disaster Risk and Adaptation explores ways in which resilient cities can be ‘built’ and sustainable urban transformations achieved. The book provides a comprehensive understanding of urban risk reduction and adaptation planning, exploring key theoretical concepts and analysing the complex interrelations between cities, disasters and climate change. Furthermore, it provides an overview of current risk reduction and adaptation approaches taken by both city authorities and city dwellers from diverse contexts in low, middle and high income nations. Finally, the book offers a planning framework for reducing and adapting to risk in urban areas by expanding on pre-existing positive actions and addressing current shortfalls in theory and practice. The importance of a distributed urban governance system, in which institutions’ and citizens’ adaptive capacities can support and complement each other, is highlighted. This book takes a holistic approach; it integrates perspectives and practice from risk reduction and climate change adaptation based on a specific urban viewpoint. The text is richly supplemented with boxed case studies written by renowned academics and practitioners in the field and ‘test yourself’ scenarios that integrate theory into practice. Each chapter contains learning objectives, end of chapter questions, suggested further reading and web resources, as well as a wealth of tables and figures. This book is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of geography, urban studies and planning, architecture, environmental studies, international development, sociology and sustainability studies.

Urban Risk Management in China

Urban Risk Management in China
Author: Jianping Sun
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2024-01-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 044318643X

This book is the culmination of the author's research on Urban Risk Management, based on research on practical applications on risk prevention and control practice in the industry. The main goal of this book is to make clear the concept of urban risk, analyse the objects to urban risk management, form a cognitive framework, arrange the practice on Chinese urban risk management, and finally to form a workable urban risk management system. - Systematically discusses urban risk prevention and control in terms of its main forces, mechanisms, systems, and capabilities and presents a multidimensional pyramidal management framework between society, market, and government - Improves the typology of academic courses related to urban risk management and clarifies different branches of theoretical concepts and practical applications - Provides a solid foundation for an understanding of how urban risks evolve from accidents or incidents and identifies characteristics and patterns in risk sources - Proposes three mechanisms: co-governance, refined prevention and control, and multilayered guarantees as part of the full-lifecycle perspective in risk prevention, control, and management

Dangerous Neighbors: Volcanoes and Cities

Dangerous Neighbors: Volcanoes and Cities
Author: Grant Heiken
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2013-10-10
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1107435153

What are the real risks posed by a volcanic eruption near a city – what is fact and what is myth? How have volcanic eruptions affected cities in the past, and how can we learn from these events? Why do communities continue to develop in such locations, despite the obvious threat? In this fascinating book, Grant Heiken explores global examples of cities at risk from volcanoes, from Italy, the US, Mexico, Ecuador, The Philippines, Japan and New Zealand, providing historical and contemporary eruption case studies to illustrate volcanic hazards, and cities' efforts to respond to them, both good and poor. He shows that truly successful volcanic hazard mitigation cannot be accomplished without collaboration between experts in geology and natural hazards, public health, medicine, city and infrastructure planning, and civil protection. This is a topical and engaging read for anyone interested in the history and future activity of these dangerous neighbors.

Cities at Risk

Cities at Risk
Author: Professor Gary Sands
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2015-11-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1472441680

How do cities prepare for and recover from natural disasters? In this book the authors provide a broad overview of the issues related to the impacts of disasters on cities around the world, from assessing risks to accounting for damages. The comparative approach across different types of disasters in a range of urban locations is useful in identifying opportunities for policy transfer. While there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution to hazard mitigation, valuable lessons can be learned from the experiences of others. The chapters emphasize different modes for assessing hazard risk, as well as strategies for increasing the resiliency of vulnerable populations.

The Citizens at Risk

The Citizens at Risk
Author: Pedro Jacobi
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2010-09-23
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1136534520

Local environments such as cities and neighbourhoods are becoming a focal point for those concerned with environmental justice and sustainability. The Citizens at Risk takes up this emerging agenda and analyses the key issues in a refreshingly simple yet sophisticated style. Taking a comparative look at cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the book examines: the changing nature of urban environmental risks, the rules governing the distribution of such risks and their differential impact, how the risks arise and who is responsible The authors clearly describe the most pressing urban environmental challenges, such as improving health conditions in deprived urban settlements, ensuring sustainable urban development in a globalizing world, and achieving environmental justice along with the greening of development. They argue that current debates on sustainable development fail to come to terms with these challenges, and call for a more politically and ethically explicit approach. For policy makers, students, academics, activists or concerned general readers, this book applies a wealth of empirical analysis and theoretical insight to the interaction of citizens, their cities and their environment.

Building Safer Cities

Building Safer Cities
Author: Alcira Kreimer
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2003
Genre: Architecture
ISBN:

In developing countries, disasters can cause major setbacks to economic and social development, inflict massive casualties, and cause the diversion of funds from development to emergency relief and recovery.

The Role of International Environmental Law in Disaster Risk Reduction

The Role of International Environmental Law in Disaster Risk Reduction
Author: Jacqueline Peel
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 502
Release: 2016-09-23
Genre: Law
ISBN: 900431881X

In The Role of International Environmental Law in Disaster Risk Reduction, edited by Jacqueline Peel and David Fisher, expert authors from four continents offer perspectives on the growing intersection between environmental law and disaster risk management. Chapters discuss the potential for retasking environmental law tools and principles for purposes of mitigating the harms of potential disasters, including those exacerbated by climate change, and approaches for linking institutions and approaches across the environmental, climate adaptation and disaster risk management fields internationally. This book illustrates the blurring distinction between natural and manmade disasters and the consequences for legal norms and practice in the formerly distinct areas of international environmental law and international disaster law.

Climate Adaptation and Flood Risk in Coastal Cities

Climate Adaptation and Flood Risk in Coastal Cities
Author: Jeroen Aerts
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2013-12-04
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 113652892X

This book presents climate adaptation and flood risk problems and solutions in coastal cities including an independent investigation of adaptation paths and problems in Rotterdam, New York and Jakarta. The comparison draws out lessons that each city can learn from the others. While the main focus is on coastal flooding, cities are also affected by climate change in other ways, including impacts that occur away from the coast. The New York City Water Supply System, for example, stretches as far as 120 miles upstate, and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection has undertaken extensive climate assessment not only for its coastal facilities, but also for its upstate facilities, which will be affected by rising temperatures, droughts, inland flooding and water quality changes. The authors examine key questions, such as: Are current city plans climate proof or do we need to finetune our ongoing investments? Can we develop a flood proof subway system? Can we develop new infrastructure in such a way that it serves flood protection, housing and natural values?