Action on disaster risk reduction can support sustainable development under climate change. 2.1 Increasing weather related losses According to data collected by Munich Re, global costs (inflation adjusted, 2006 dollars) of weather-related disasters have increased from an annual average US$8.9 billion (1977-1986) to US$45.1 billion (1997-2006). Munich Re’s data comes from their NatCatSERVICE dat...

There has been relatively little research on the economic impacts of natural disasters to date. This paper reports findings of a sUidy of the Philippines which is intended as a contribution in filling that gap. Findings include the following: • The Philippines experiences all major types of naUiral hazard and is widely acknowledged as one of the most hazard-prone countries in the world. Moreove...

The challenges facing poor and marginalised communities in today’s society are multiple and complex; from economic crises, to natural disasters, to environmental degradation and conflict, all of which are increasing poor people’s vulnerability and posing significant challenges to securing their livelihoods. Climate change threatens to exacerbate the problem further by creating an additional lay...

This paper gives an initial evaluation of approaches to chance discovery and management, a new research field invented by Yukio Ohsawa. Our aims in this preliminary report are very modest. First, we briefly describe research work done with the intent to detect chances (i.e., opportunities and risks) in various application areas such as the web, natural disasters, or histories of bankruptcy. Sec...

When disasters occur, key factors for minimizing damages and loss of lives are access to necessary information and effective communication between emergency services. In cross-border disaster management, further challenges arise: language barriers, uneven know-how, organisational and technical differences in particular concerning communication and data or information exchange. To address those ...

Natural disasters may be powerful and prominent mechanisms of direct and indirect hazardous material (hazmat) releases. Hazardous materials that are released as the result of a technologic malfunction precipitated by a natural event are referred to as natural-technologic or na-tech events. Na-tech events pose unique environmental and human hazards. Disaster-associated hazardous material release...

OBJECTIVE The present study explored the impact a natural disaster has on human performance. BACKGROUND Previous research indicates that traffic accidents increase after disasters. A plausible explanation for this finding is that disasters induce cognitive disruption and this disruption negatively affects performance (e.g., driving quality). METHOD A total of 16 participants (7 men and 9 wo...