RISK-DISASTER-AND-INSURANCE

Models, theory, and empirical studies in wildfire hazard

NHESS - Special Issues Year Special Issues 2011 "Progress in research on earthquake precursors" Eds. K. Eftaxias, T. Maggipinto, and C.-V. Meister 2010 "Extreme and rogue waves" Eds. E. Pelinovsky and C. Kharif "New developments in tsunami science: from hazard to risk" Eds. I. Didenkulova, S. Monserrat , and S. Tinti "Geo-hydrological risk and town and country planning" Eds. F. Luino and D. Castaldini "11th Plinius Conference on Mediterranean Storms" Eds. M.-C. Llasat, A. Mugnai, G. Boni, R. Deidda, and Jordi Salat "Understanding dynamics and current developments of climate extremes in the Mediterranean region" Eds. R. García-Herrera, P. Lionello, and U. Ulbrich "Approaches to hazard evaluation, mapping, and mitigation" Eds. G. R. Iovine, J. Huebl, M. Pastor, and M. Sheridan "Radon, health and natural hazards" Eds. G. Gillmore, R. Crockett, T. Przylibski, and F. Guzzetti 2009 "Applying ensemble climate change projections for assessing risks of impacts in Europe" Eds. T. Carter, G. Leckebusch, and J. E. Olesen "Ground and satellite based observations during the time of the Abruzzo earthquake" Eds. M. E. Contadakis, P. F. Biagi, and M. Hayakawa "The GITEWS Project (German-Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System)" Eds. A. Rudloff, J. Lauterjung, and U. Münch "Documentation and monitoring of landslides and debris flows" Eds. L. Franzi, M. Arattano, M. Arai, P. Allasia, and D. Giordan "Models, theory, and empirical studies in wildfire hazard" Eds. R. Lasaponara "Assessment of different dimensions of vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change" Eds. T. Glade and J. Birkmann "The RISKMED Project (Weather Risk Reduction in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean)" Eds. A. Mugnai and A. Bartzokas "Extreme events induced by weather and climate change: evaluation, forecasting and proactive planning" Eds. A. Loukas, M.-C. Llasat, and U. Ulbrich "Rockfall protection - from hazard identification to mitigation measures" Eds. A. Volkwein, V

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Climate change is projected to bring a range of changes in temperature, precipitation patterns, and sea level. As a result, widespread occurrence of floods, cyclones, droughts, cold and heat waves, etc. are projected with uneven distribution in time and spatial scales (Rosenzweig et al., 2007). These changes can manifest in the form of long-term slow changes in the mean state of the climate and sudden changes in the extremes of the climate (Carter et al., 2007). The sudden severe changes can have high impacts with widespread devastation, severely impacting years of developmental efforts in many vulnerable countries

GERMAN ANNUAL OF SPATIAL RESEARCH AND POLICY 2010 German Annual of Spatial Research and Policy, 2011, 89-100, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-12785-4_9 Resilience and Resistance of Buildings and Built Structures to Flood Impacts - Approaches to Analysis and Evaluation Thomas Naumann, Johannes Nikolowski, Sebastian Golz and Reinhard Schinke

you do not happen to be a disaster researcher or know the history of disaster research, you might not realize how unusual Catastrophe in the Making is. Disaster research has been a sociological specialty since the late-1940s, but the field has faced several challenges, particularly on a theoretical level. One challenge stems from the fact that the original funders of disaster research, which were primarily military and civil defense institutions at the federal level, were not particularly interested in theory. Rather, they were interested in solid empirical research about social and organizational responses during disasters that could provide practical insights into how people might behave should the United States become involved in an extreme nuclear confrontation or all-out nuclear war. This focus in turn led to another problematic outcome, which is that researchers conceptualized and studied disasters primarily as events-as occurrences that were, in the words of the pioneering researcher Charles Fritz, "concentrated in time and space." Put another way, early social science researchers thought about disasters in more or less the way the general public did: as events that have a beginning, middle, and end, with the "beginning" of the disaster being the time when the disaster "agent"-the flood, earthquake, hurricane, fire, or other threat-appears on the scene and begins to threaten human communities. Most research has focused on such topics as responses to pre-disaster warnings; patterns of social behavior during the period following disaster impact; organizational adaptation and improvisation during disasters; and the disaster response activities of specific types of organizations and institutions. There has also been an emphasis on developing empirical generalizations and insights on the basis of the study of specific disasters, which subsequently developed in an incremental fashion into a body of empirical findings. This is not to claim that th

Keywords: Goals, Institutions and Governance - the US Experience;Dealing with Floods - From Colonies to Katrina;National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP);Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM);Translating Policies into Action;Learning from the US Experience;Association of State Floodplain Managers Foundation (ASFPMF)

Maril Hazlett, "Voices from the Spring: SilentSpring and the Ecological Turn in American Health," in Seeing NatureThrough Gender (2003). I used it in a Freshman seminar on the historyof pollution and the students seemed to find it useful as it showedhow industrial interests tried to discredit her findings in all sortsof bizarre ways.

Robert R. M. Verchick.  Facing Catastrophe: Environmental Action fora Post-Katrina World.  Cambridge  Harvard University Press, 2010.  x+ 322 pp.  $45.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-674-04791-4. Reviewed by Thomas A. Birkland (North Carolina State University)Published on H-Environment (November, 2010)Commissioned by David T. Benac Environmental Policy, Ecosystem Function, and Disaster Mitigation:Lessons from Hurricane Katrina

Broadmoor Project: New OrleansThe Broadmoor Project: New Orleans Recovery is an effort initiated in 2006 to assist residents of New Orleans' hard-hit Broadmoor neighborhood in designing and implementing a strategy for post-Katrina neighborhood recovery. Launched and hosted by the Belfer Center, the project enables Kennedy School students to put their governance skills into action to help bring back one of America's great cities. The collaboration also creates the opportunity for local New Orleans leaders to build their leadership skills through intensive leadership courses at the Kennedy School. 

he United States and other nations are facing large-scale risks at an accelerating pace. In 2005, three major hurricanes-Katrina, Rita, and Wilma-made landfall along the U.S. Gulf Coast within an eight-week period. The damage caused by these storms led to insurance reimbursements and federal disaster relief of more than $180 billion-a record sum. Today we are more vulnerable to catastrophic losses because of the increasing concentration of population and activities in high-risk coastal regions of the country. The question is not whether but when future catastrophes will strike. Who should pay the costs associated with catastrophic losses suffered by homeowners in hazard-prone areas? In At War with the Weather, Howard Kunreuther and Erwann Michel-Kerjan and their colleagues deliver a groundbreaking analysis of how we currently mitigate, insure against, and finance recovery from natural disasters in the United States. They offer innovative, long-term solutions for reducing losses and providing financial support for disaster victims that define a coherent strategy to assure sustainable recovery from future large-scale disasters. The amount of data collected and analyzed and innovations proposed make this the most comprehensive book written on these critical issues in the past thirty years.

How should we deal with societal ills such as crime, poverty, pollution, terrorism, and corruption? The Character of Harms argues that control or mitigation of 'bad' things involves distinctive patterns of thought and action which turn out to be broadly applicable across a range of human endeavors, and which need to be better understood. Malcolm Sparrow demonstrates that an explicit focus on the bads, rather than on the countervailing goods (safety, prosperity, environmental stewardship, etc.) can provide rich opportunities for surgically efficient and effective interventions - an operational approach which he terms 'the sabotage of harms'. The book explores the institutional arrangements and decision-frameworks necessary to support this emerging operational model. Written for reflective practitioners charged with risk-control responsibilities across the public, private, and non-governmental sectors, The Character of Harms makes a powerful case for a new approach to tackling the complex problems facing society

Oxford University Press US, 2008 - 600 páginas Environmental harm is commonly associated with companies that extract, consume, and pollute our shared natural resources. Rarely are the 'unseen polluters,' the financiers that sponsor and profit from eco-damaging corporations, placed at the forefront of the environmental debate. By focusing on these unseen polluters, Benjamin Richardson provides a comprehensive examination of socially responsible investment (SRI), and offers a guide to possible reform. Richardson proposes that greater regulatory supervision of SRI will help ensure that the financial sector prioritizes ethically-based investments. In Socially Responsible Investment Law, he suggests that new governmental reforms should encourage companies to participate in socially responsible investments by providing a better mix of standards and incentives for SRI through measures that include redefining the fiduciary responsibilities of institutional investors to incorporate environmental concerns. By doing so, Richardson posits that corporate financiers, including banks, hedge funds, and pension plans, will become more accountable to the goals of ensuring sustainable development.

Methods for risk assessment of transgenic plants: III, Ecological risks and prospects of transgenic plants, where do we go from here? : a dialogue between bio-tech industry and science Klaus Ammann 1 Resenha Birkhäuser, 1999 - 260 páginas The Berne Symposium invited leading scientists of risk assessment research with transgenic crops on an international level in order to enhance the discussion regulators and members of the biotech industry. The goal was to determine the status quo and also to make progress in times of a first global spread of transgenes in agrosystems about risk assessment. The dialogue between scientists, regulators and industry representatives also revealed some lacunes of risk assessment research, which will have to be filled in the future: We still lack longterm experience, for which we will have to collect data with scientific precision. The symposium concluded asking for a risk-oriented longterm monitoring system based on critical science and hard data. This volume presents the discussion sessions as well as the scientific contributions and thus mirrors the risk assessment debate, based not on exaggerated negative scenarios but on critical science and hard data.

Genetically modified pest-protected plants: science and regulation National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Genetically Modified Pest-Protected Plants 1 Resenha National Academies Press, 2000 - 263 páginas Farmers praise them, European consumers fear them, and Americans are growing uneasy about them -- transgenic crops have emerged as a contentious issue at the crossroads of health, agriculture, environment, and international trade. This timely book explores the risks and benefits of crops that are genetically modified for pest resistance, the urgency of establishing an appropriate regulatory framework for these products, and the importance of public understanding of the issues. The committee critically reviews federal policies toward transgenic products, the 1986 coordinated framework among the key federal agencies in the field, and rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency for regulation of plant pesticides. Case studies explore the commercial production and oversight of transgenic crops, including "Bt" crops, the most widely used transgenic pest-protected plants. Clearing up misconceptions and offering clear guidance, this book will be immediately important to anyone concerned about the transgenic issue.

The ecological risks of engineered crops Jane Rissler, Margaret G. Mellon 3 Resenhas MIT Press, 1996 - 168 páginas What will it mean to have a steady stream of animal and microbial genes entering the gene pools of plants in wild ecosystems? Private companies and the federal government are pouring significant resources into biotechnology, and the major application of genetic engineering to agriculture is transgenic crops. This carefully reasoned science and policy assessment shows that the commercialization and release of transgenic crops on millions of acres of farmland can pose serious-and costly-environmental risks. The authors propose a practical, feasible method of conducting precommercialization evaluations that will balance the needs of ecological safety with those of agriculture and business, and that will assist governments seeking to identify and protect against two of the most significant risks. Rissler and Mellon first define transgenic plants and review research currently under way in the field of crop biotechnology. They then identify and categorize the environmental risks presented by commercial uses of transgenic crops. These include the potential of transgenic crops to become weeds or to produce weeds with transgene properties such as herbicide resistance that may require costly control programs. Plants engineered to contain virus particles may facilitate the creation of new viruses that can affect economically important crops. Looking at global seed trade, the authors discuss the relationship between commercial approval in the United States and environmental risks abroad. Of particular concern is the flow of novel genes into the centers of crop biodiversity, primarily in the developing world, that could threaten the genetic base of the world's future food supply. The authors conclude by reviewing the current status of U.S. regulations governing transgenic crops. They discuss the difficulties that this new terrain presents to regulators, a

"In today's globalized and competitive business environment, companies increasingly look to restructuring, mergers acquisitions and downsizing to survive, grow and maximize profits. However, when they are not managed in a socially responsible manner, restructurings may exert the negative impact on employees, shareholders, communities, and society as a whole." "The book empirically explores the phenomena of corporate social responsibility (CSR), restructuring, and relationships with firm's performance in China. It gives an insight into how Chinese firms respond to expectations of stakeholders by making social goals a part of their overall business operations. It also gives a fresh view of the new concept of socially responsible restructuring. For those seeking to promote socially responsible practices in restructuring, the book provides a unique and stimulating analysis and touchstone."--BOOK JACKET

Socializing Risk: The New Energy Economics May 27, 2010frankackermanLeave a commentGo to comments from Frank Ackerman Despite talk of a moratorium, the Interior Department's Minerals and Management Service is still granting waivers from environmental review for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, including wells in very deep water. Until last month, most of us never thought about the risk that one of those huge offshore rigs would explode in flames and then sink, causing oil to gush out uncontrollably and befoul the oceans. The odds seemed low, and still do: Aren't there lots of drilling rigs in use, year after year? Twenty years ago, your elected representatives thought that you'd be happy to have them adopt a very low cap on industry's liability for oil spill damages.  Nuclear power was never quite free of fears; it was too clearly a spin-off of nuclear weapons to ignore the risk of a very big bang. Yet as its advocates point out, we have had hundreds of reactor-years of experience, with only a few accidents. (And someday when Nevada's politicians aren't looking, maybe we can slip all of our nuclear waste into a cave in the desert.) Again, the risks are so low that you'd be happy to learn about a law limiting industry's liability for accidents, wouldn't you?  Environmentalists have long warned that the world could run out of energy and resources, from the "limits to growth" theories of the 1970s to the more recently popular notion of "peak oil." The response from economists has been that prices for energy and raw materials are still moderate, and declined over the course of the 20th century; if we are running out of something, why doesn't its price skyrocket? The problem is that what we're running out of is low-risk conventional energy supplies. Because our economy conceals and socializes energy risks, prices remain deceptively low for an increasingly risky energy supply. The market wasn't supposed to work this way. In the

Natural Disaster Risk Management and Financing Disaster Losses in Developing Countries Reinhard Mechler 0 Resenhas Verlag Versicherungswirtsch

O processo de desenvolvimento industrial que incorporou o conhecimento técnico-científico gerou, sem dúvidas, vários avanços à humanidade; no entanto também acabou por produzir toda uma série de riscos, dentre eles os ambientais, que hoje, afetam diretamente, o próprio homem. A contaminação do solo e das águas subterrâneas vem ampliar a gama destes riscos, em particular nos grandes centros urbanos, onde a indústria se fez presente. A desconcentração industrial expõe mais claramente esta problemática ambiental, na medida em que, frente à demanda existente, muitos terrenos ocupados anteriormente pela atividade fabril, passam a receber novos usos. O propósito deste trabalho será discutir a relação existente entre o desenvolvimento da sociedade industrial e a construção da sociedade contemporânea, também conhecida como sociedade do risco; e a partir daí demonstrar a existência de uma territorialidade do risco em São Paulo proveniente da contaminação do solo e das águas subterrâneas. Será discutido ainda, as políticas públicas ambientais, em particular àquelas voltadas para a gestão das áreas contaminadas em São Paulo