This book provides an introduction to the critical role of ecosystem-based disaster risk resilience (Eco-DRR) for building community resilience to multiple environmental risks such as rising heat, water stress, and pollution. Blue-green infrastructure (BGI) is an Eco-DRR tool that is an under-explored paradigm and can respond as one common strategy to targets set by the Sustainable Development Goals (UNDP), Climate Agreements (UNEP), the Sendai Framework (UNISDR), and the New Urban Agenda (UNCHS).
Highlighted here in a systematic way is the importance of blue-green infrastructures in resilience building. The purpose is to introduce readers to the challenging context of development and opportunity creation for Eco-DRR. The roles of policy, scientific research, and implementation are presented cohesively. An attractive proposition of the book is a collection of case studies from different parts of the world where integration of BGI is experimented with atvarious levels of success. It envisages that shared tacit experiences from the realm of practice will further strengthen explicit knowledge.
The focus in this book is on need and context building, policy and science (investigation, analysis, and design), case studies, and a road map for the future in four successive parts. Each part is self-sufficient yet linked to its predecessor, successor, or both, as the case may be.
Mahua Mukherjee is a professor in the Department of Architecture and Planning at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee), India. She was Head, Centre of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation and Management in IIT Roorkee. She has worked in the field of sustainable development, urbanising habitat, urban climate, and risk resilience with an inclusive approach. Her research expertise involves investigation of urban environmental risks including heat islands and water stress, and solution-centric scenario generation using the blue-green infrastructure. She is involved with India’s seismic resilience mission for habitat; she has contributed to the SAARC Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre and has organised training sessions, conferences, and edited volumes. She is a Fulbright Fellow and was Visiting Faculty at Pennsylvania State University, USA, and the Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan. Prof. Mukherjee is engaged with young scholars andhas organised resilience- and sustainability-related competitions. Currently, she is UNDRR-APSTAG Board Member and Secretary-General to the South Asia Alliance for Disaster Research Institutes (SAADRI).
Rajib Shaw is a professor in the Graduate School of Media and Governance in Keio University, Japan. He is also Senior Fellow of the Institute of Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) Japan and Chairperson of the Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS) Asia and the Church World Service (CWS) Japan, two Japanese NGOs. Earlier, he was the executive director of Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) and was a professor at Kyoto University. His expertise includes disaster governance, community-based disaster risk management, climate change adaptation, urban risk management, and disaster and environmental education. Professor Shaw is the chair of the United Nations Science Technology Advisory Group (STAG) for disaster riskreduction and the co-chair of the Asia Science Technology Academic Advisory Group (ASTAAG). He is also the coordinating lead author for the Asia chapter of IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report. He is the editor-in-chief of the Elsevier journal Progress in Disaster Science and the series editor of the Springer book series on disaster risk reduction. Prof. Shaw has published 51 books and over 300 academic papers and book chapters.
