Handbook of Disaster Policies and Institutions : Improving Emergency Management and Climate Change Adaptation

Disasters both natural and human-induced are leading to spiralling costs in terms of human lives, lost livelihoods and damaged assets and businesses. Yet these consequences and the financial and human crises that follow catastrophes can often be traced to policies unsuited to the emerging scales of the problems they confront, and the lack of institutional capacity to implement planning and prevention or to manage disasters. This book seeks to overcome this mismatch and to guide development of a more strategic policy and institutional framework.

This updated and revised second edition includes new coverage of climate change adaptation, which has rapidly become central to disaster and emergency planning and management. This is an essential handbook for practitioners across the world seeking to improve the quality, robustness and capacity of their disaster management mechanisms.

John Handmer is Innovation Professor at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, Adjunct Professor at The Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, and Visiting Professor, Flood Hazard Research Centre, Middlesex University, UK.

Stephen Dovers is Professor and Director at The Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University and Adjunct Professorial Research Fellow, Research Institute for Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Australia.

Both authors are affiliated with the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre in Australia.