Natural Hazards and Public Management: Governing Climate Adaptation

This open access book examines how policymakers respond to natural  hazards in the wake of global climate change. Through a series of five case studies it assesses how changing patterns of natural hazards collide with established patterns of spatial planning, and how alternative strategies could be operationalised in local policy practice. Due to global warming, wildfires and floods are occurring in regions where they had previously been virtually unknown. Yet local public policy for immediate protection against natural hazards has remained at the margins of both public and scholarly attention. The book argues that when it comes to the containment and mitigation of natural hazards as the consequence of climate change, effective prevention requires accurate anticipation of impacts, appropriate policy settings, and the mobilization of administrative skill.

Wolfgang Seibel is Emeritus Professor of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Konstanz, Germany, and a Senior Fellow of the Hertie School in Berlin.

Andrew Butt is Professor in Sustainability and Urban Planning at the Centre for Urban Research (CUR), the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University), Australia.

Michael Buxton is Emeritus Professor of Environment and Planning at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University), Australia.

Jana Blahak is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Oslo, Norway.