Disaster Resilience in South Asia: Tackling the Odds in the Sub-continental Fringes

This book considers the challenges of building disaster resilience in South Asia – a region that frequently experiences some of the most severe and devastating impacts of disasters.

Despite significant work to assist affected communities, many smaller South Asian countries remain particularly vulnerable in terms of fostering disaster resilience. Drawing on examples from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the book offers rich insights and narratives on disaster resilience policy and practice. It considers the possibilities for advancing community resilience and capacity building through an exploration of different aspects of governance and policy. Given the diversity of these countries and recent disasters, a variety of perspectives are considered: institutional and policy frameworks, risk management governance, recovery operations, building codes, and policy and media discourse. The book offers a collective understanding of practice, which can offer global lessons to a world increasingly beset by disasters and with uncertain environmental futures.

This book will be a valuable resource for scholars, practitioners and students in the fields of disaster risk reduction and management, climate change adaptation, public policy and sustainable development.

Iftekhar Ahmed is an Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle, Australia. His research focuses on disaster resilience, post-disaster housing and climate change adaptation. He has co-authored the book Sustainable Housing Reconstruction (Routledge, 2015) and co-edited the book Community Engagement in Post-Disaster Recovery (Routledge, 2017).

Kim Maund is Discipline Head and Senior Lecturer in Construction Management at the University of Newcastle, Australia. With more than 15 years’ industry experience across government and private sectors, her research focuses on policy within the built environment, particularly in relation to urban planning and building and codes in the context of disaster resilience.

Thayaparan Gajendran is an Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle, Australia. His research focuses on cultural and governance approaches for building resilience. He has co-authored many research publications in the areas of disaster risk communication and disaster governance.