The handbook of disaster and emergency policies and institutions

From the Asian tsunami to hurricanes Katrina and Rita to the earthquake in Pakistan, disasters both natural and human-induced are leading to spiralling costs in terms of human lives, the destruction of homes, businesses, public buildings, and infrastructure, and the resulting financial and human crises that inevitably follow in the wake of such catastrophes. Yet the failures in planning for - and responding to - such disasters can often be traced to poor disaster policies that are unsuited to the emerging scales of the problems they confront and the lack of institutional capacity to manage disasters when they happen. This handbook, written by two top authorities on disaster policy and management, overcomes this mismatch and guides the examination and development of a policy and institutional framework and associated strategies. In particular, for the first time it brings together into a coherent framework the insights of public policy, institutional design, and emergency and disaster management, stressing the cognate nature of policy and institutional challenges between disasters and sustainability. This is indispensable reading for all disaster planners, policymakers, and managers across the world.