Disaster Resilience and Sustainability: Adaptation for Sustainable Development

Disasters undermine societal well-being, causing loss of lives and damage to social and economic infrastructures. Disaster resilience is central to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, especially in regions where extreme inequality combines with the increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters.

Disaster risk reduction and resilience requires participation of wide array of stakeholders ranging from academicians to policy makers to disaster managers. Disaster Resilient Cities: Adaptation for Sustainable Development offers evidence-based, problem-solving techniques from social, natural, engineering and other disciplinary perspectives. It connects data, research, conceptual work with practical cases on disaster risk management, capturing the multi-sectoral aspects of disaster resilience, adaptation strategy and sustainability. The book links disaster risk management with sustainable development under a common umbrella, showing that effective disaster resilience strategies and practices lead to achieving broader sustainable development goals.

• Provides foundational knowledge on integrated disaster risk reduction and management to show how resilience and its associated concept such as adaptive and transformative strategies can foster sustainable development
• Brings together disaster risk reduction and resilience scientists, policy-makers and practitioners from different disciplines
• Case studies on disaster risk management from natural science, social science, engineering and other relevant disciplinary perspectives

Sangam Shrestha is Associate Professor and Program Chair of Water Engineering and Management at the Asian Institute of Technology. He researches water resources management, climate change impact assessment, and groundwater assessment and management. Shrestha has published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals and presented more than 60 conference papers. He is the co-author of “Groundwater Environment in Asian Cities: Concepts, Methods and Case Studies” (Elsevier)

Riyanti Djalante is Academic Programme Officer at United Nations University. She coordinates the research and policy Development stream on Global Change and Resilience, focusing on sustainable development, governance, disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation.

Dr. Rajib Shaw is a professor at Keio University's Graduate School of Media and Governance. He is also the Chairperson of SEEDS Asia and CWS Japan, two Japanese NGOs, and a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) Japan. He was previously the Executive Director of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) and a Kyoto University Professor. Disaster governance, community-based disaster risk management, climate change adaptation, urban risk management, and disaster and environmental education are all areas of interest for him. Professor Shaw is the Chair of the UN Science Technology Advisory Group for Disaster Risk Reduction (STAG) and the Co-Chair of the Asia Science Technology Academic Advisory Group (ASTAAG). He's also the CLA (Coordinating Lead Author) for the IPCC's 6th Assessment Report's Asia chapter. He is the editor-in-chief of the journal "Progress in Disaster Science" published by Elsevier, as well as the series editor of a Springer book series on disaster risk reduction. Prof. Shaw has over 45 books to his credit, as well as over 300 scholarly papers and book chapters.

Dr. Indrajit Pal, an associate professor in the Disaster Preparedness, Mitigation, and Management program at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, brings over 21 years of expertise in disaster risk governance, hazard assessment, CBDRM, public health risk, and disaster resilience. With a distinguished background, he previously contributed to the Centre for Disaster Management at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, India. Dr. Pal holds a pivotal role as a Board member of the Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (GADRI), Japan, and serves as a Visiting Professor at Keio University. His advisory contributions extend to Disaster Risk Reduction for the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System for Africa and Asia (RIMES). Dr. Pal is a prolific author and editor, with a portfolio of 15 books and over 180 peer-reviewed papers and chapters. Leading impactful projects in the Asia-Pacific region, his research focuses on risk characterization in Asian Delta communities and climate resilience in Lao PDR.