Disasters in Australia and New Zealand

Disasters in Australia and New Zealand
Author: Scott McKinnon
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2020-07-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9811543828

Disasters in Australia and New Zealand brings together a collection of essays on the history of disasters in both countries. Leading experts provide a timely interrogation of long-held assumptions about the impacts of bushfires, floods, cyclones and earthquakes, exploring the blurred line between nature and culture, asking what are the anthropogenic causes of ‘natural’ disasters? How have disasters been remembered or forgotten? And how have societies over generations responded to or understood disaster? As climate change escalates disaster risk in Australia, New Zealand and around the world, these questions have assumed greater urgency. This unique collection poses a challenge to learn from past experiences and to implement behavioural and policy change. Rich in oral history and archival research, Disasters in Australia and New Zealand offers practical and illuminating insights that will appeal to historians and disaster scholars across multiple disciplines.

Extreme Weather and Natural Disasters

Extreme Weather and Natural Disasters
Author: Justin Healey
Publisher:
Total Pages: 60
Release: 2012-01-01
Genre: NATURE
ISBN: 9781921507649

Australia is a vast land in which weather varies significantly in different parts of the continent. Recent extreme weather events in Australia, such as the Queensland floods and Victorian bushfires, are brutal reminders of nature's devastating power. Is global warming increasing the rate of natural disasters? What part do La Nia and El Nio play in the extreme weather cycle? Cyclones, floods, severe storms, bushfires, landslides, earthquakes, tsunamis - what are the natural and man-made causes of these phenomena, how predictable are they, and how prepared are we for the impacts of natural disasters at a national and global level?This book examines the causes of severe and extreme weather in Australia, and explores the nation's history of natural disasters and their impact on humans and the environment.Also includes: Worksheets and activities; Fast facts; Glossary; Web links; Index.

Disaster Management in Australia

Disaster Management in Australia
Author: George Carayannopoulos
Publisher: Routledge Humanitarian Studies
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2018
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9781138482593

In recent times the frequency and severity of natural disasters has placed a clear emphasis on the ability of governments to plan, prepare and respond in an effective way. Disaster Management in Australia examines government coordination when faced with large scale crises, outlining the challenges in managing events such as the 2009 Victorian bushfires and 2011 Queensland floods. The public sector is equipped to deal with policy and service delivery in more routine environments, but crisis management often requires a wider government response where leadership, coordination, social capital, organisational culture and institutions are intertwined in the preparation, response and aftermath of large scale crises. As crises continue to increase in prevalence and severity, this book provides a tangible framework to conceptualise crisis management which can be utilised by researchers, emergency services and government officials alike. Disaster Management in Australia is an important contribution to the study of government coordination of crises and, as such, will be of considerable interest to students and scholars of disaster management, and to policy makers and practitioners looking to refine their approach.

Natural Hazards and Disaster Justice

Natural Hazards and Disaster Justice
Author: Anna Lukasiewicz
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2020-01-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9811504660

This book explores policy, legal, and practice implications regarding the emerging field of disaster justice, using case studies of floods, bushfires, heatwaves, and earthquakes in Australia and Southern and South-east Asia. It reveals geographic locational and social disadvantage and structural inequities that lead to increased risk and vulnerability to disaster, and which impact ability to recover post-disaster. Written by multidisciplinary disaster researchers, the book addresses all stages of the disaster management cycle, demonstrating or recommending just approaches to preparation, response and recovery. It notably reveals how procedural, distributional and interactional aspects of justice enhance resilience, and offers a cutting edge analysis of disaster justice for managers, policy makers, researchers in justice, climate change or emergency management.

National Strategy for Disaster Resilience

National Strategy for Disaster Resilience
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 25
Release: 2011
Genre: Emergency management
ISBN: 9781921725425

"Australia has recently experienced a number of large scale and devastating natural disasters, including catastrophic bushfires, far reaching floods, and damaging storms. Natural disasters are a feature of the Australian climate and landscape and this threat will continue, not least because climate change is making weather patterns less predictable and more extreme. Such events can have personal, social, economic and environmental impacts that take many years to dissipate"-Introduction.

Economics Of Natural Disasters

Economics Of Natural Disasters
Author: Suman Kumari Sharma
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2018-12-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 981472324X

Unlike existing books on the topic that cover more on non-economic aspects of natural disasters, this book covers economic aspects of natural disasters viz damage assessment, risk management and resilience. The book contains several case studies and covers some of the major natural disasters in different countries, most notably the recent Nepal earthquake, tsunami in Fukushima, the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, floods in Thailand, the typhoon Haiyan, and the eruptions of Mount Merapi. It also suggests avenues for better public policies to tackle economics of natural disasters.

Firestorm

Firestorm
Author: Greg Mullins
Publisher: Penguin Group Australia
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2021-09-28
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1760145424

Greg Mullins followed his father into fighting bushfires – it was in the blood. He fought major fires around Sydney and the Blue Mountains for decades, and studied bushfires in Europe, Canada and the US. He risked his life in the 1994 Sydney fires and, later, during our catastrophic Black Summer of 2019–20. As a career firefighter, he worked his way up the ranks to become Commissioner of one of the world’s largest fire services, Fire and Rescue NSW, for nearly fourteen years. When it came to natural disasters there was little, if anything, he hadn’t witnessed first-hand. Over five decades he watched as weather patterns and natural disaster risks changed, seeing bushfires becoming bigger, hotter and more destructive. He talked to scientists and weighed their evidence with his experience, coming to the realisation that man-made global warming was setting the stage for a deadly firestorm. In early 2019 he tried to warn the government that a Black Summer was imminent so that adequate preparations could be made. . . But when he and former fire chiefs from across the country tried to meet with politicians to sound an urgent warning, they were ignored. Combining thrilling stories of what it’s like to be on the front line of Australia’s first giga-fire with the hard truths of human-caused climate change, Firestorm is a compelling account of raging fire, political evasion, settled science, and one man’s courageous, urgent call to action for all Australians.

Flood Country

Flood Country
Author: Emily O'Gorman
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2012-08-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0643106669

Floods in the Murray-Darling Basin are crucial sources of water for people, animals and plants in this often dry region of inland eastern Australia. Even so, floods have often been experienced as natural disasters, which have led to major engineering schemes. Flood Country explores the contested and complex history of this region, examining the different ways in which floods have been understood and managed and some of the long-term consequences for people, rivers and ecologies. The book examines many tensions, ranging from early exchanges between Aboriginal people and settlers about the dangers of floods, through to long running disputes between graziers and irrigators over damming floodwater, and conflicts between residents and colonial governments over whose responsibility it was to protect townships from floods. Flood Country brings the Murray-Darling Basin's flood history into conversation with contemporary national debates about climate change and competing access to water for livelihoods, industries and ecosystems. It provides an important new historical perspective on this significant region of Australia, exploring how people, rivers and floods have re-made each other.

Climate Extremes and Their Implications for Impact and Risk Assessment

Climate Extremes and Their Implications for Impact and Risk Assessment
Author: Jana Sillmann
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2019-11-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0128148950

Climate extremes often imply significant impacts on human and natural systems, and these extreme events are anticipated to be among the potentially most harmful consequences of a changing climate. However, while extreme event impacts are increasingly recognized, methodologies to address such impacts and the degree of our understanding and prediction capabilities vary widely among different sectors and disciplines. Moreover, traditional climate extreme indices and large-scale multi-model intercomparisons that are used for future projections of extreme events and associated impacts often fall short in capturing the full complexity of impact systems. Climate Extremes and Their Implications for Impact and Risk Assessment describes challenges, opportunities and methodologies for the analysis of the impacts of climate extremes across various sectors to support their impact and risk assessment. It thereby also facilitates cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary discussions and exchange among climate and impact scientists. The sectors covered include agriculture, terrestrial ecosystems, human health, transport, conflict, and more broadly covering the human-environment nexus. The book concludes with an outlook on the need for more transdisciplinary work and international collaboration between scientists and practitioners to address emergent risks and extreme events towards risk reduction and strengthened societal resilience.

Economic Effects of Natural Disasters

Economic Effects of Natural Disasters
Author: Taha Chaiechi
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 665
Release: 2020-10-16
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0128174668

Economic Effects of Natural Disasters explores how natural disasters affect sources of economic growth and development. Using theoretical econometrics and real-world data, and drawing on advances in climate change economics, the book shows scholars and researchers how to use various research methods and techniques to investigate and respond to natural disasters. No other book presents empirical frameworks for the evaluation of the quality of macroeconomic research practice with a focus on climate change and natural disasters. Because many of these subjects are so large, different regions of the world use different approaches, hence this resource presents tailored economic applications and evidence. - Connects economic theories and empirical work in climate change to natural disaster research - Shows how advances in climate change and natural disaster research can be implemented in micro- and macroeconomic simulation models - Addresses structural changes in countries afflicted by climate change and natural disasters