Introduction to International Disaster Management, Second Edition

Introduction to International Disaster Management, Second Edition continues to serve as the sole comprehensive overview of global emergency management. This second edition contains updated information on disaster trends as well as on management structures and advancements around the world.

Coppola includes changes that reflect the dual theme of the book: universal principles of global emergency management practice and advances in the field worldwide, and lessons from disasters and other watershed events that have occurred since the first edition was published. This text includes new case studies and updated disaster, risk, and vulnerability data, as well as insightful discussions of recent national and international initiatives, and of progress towards improving non-governmental organization (NGO) and private sector cooperation and professionalism. This text approaches the practice of emergency management from a global perspective, making it the only introductory book without bias towards the emergency management system or history of a single country or region.

* Data, discussions, and outcomes for recent major and catastrophic disasters including Cyclone Nargis, earthquakes in Yogyakarta, China, Pakistan, and Chile, the H1N1 pandemic, and the tsunami in American Samoa * Added material on hazards, catastrophic risk management, mitigation, and disaster myths * Expanded sections on public disaster preparedness and disaster recovery best practices * Commentary on the latest research in disaster management and policy studies

The concept of vulnerability was first presented in Chapter 1 and defined as a measure of the propensity of an object, area, individual, group, community, country, or other entity to incur the consequences of a hazard. As this section illustrates, measurement of vulnerability results from a combination of physical, social, economic, and environmental factors or processes. These factors are the primary determinant features that dictate how the likelihood and/or consequences components of risk are increased or decreased.

It is important to first clarify the difference between the concepts of vulnerability and exposure, which are often confused. The two words are used interchangeably to describe how a country, region, or community is likely to experience a certain hazard. However, this is incorrect, as the discussion on vulnerability factors shows. The United Nation’s risk reduction document Living with Risk embodies this concept, saying, “While most natural hazards may be inevitable, disasters are not” (ISDR, 2004).

Figure 3-9

Figure 3-10

While vulnerability defines the propensity to incur consequences, exposure merely suggests that the individual, structure, community, nation, or other subject will be exposed to the hazard. For instance, one might say, “The Spanish are vulnerable to drought,” meaning that Spain regularly experiences the drought hazard. But this statement implies more than the speaker intended. The use of the word “vulnerable” implies that the population is likely to incur negative consequences as a result of factors that make it less likely to protect its citizens and built and natural environments from harm, not simply that drought happens there. The reality, as Figures 3–9 and 3–10 illustrate, is that while Spain is regularly exposed to drought, the nation is not vulnerable to its consequences.

Read the rest of this featured excerpt on Vulnerability. [PDF]

Read a featured excerpt on "Recognizing That Recovery Is an Opportunity in Disguise." [PDF]