In the wake of severe climatic events and terrorist acts, and the emergence of dangerous technologies, communities, nations, and global organizations have diligently sought to create strategies to prepare for such events. Designing Resilience presents case studies of extreme events and analyzes the ability of affected individuals, institutions, governments, and technological systems to cope with disaster.

This volume defines resilience as it relates to disaster management at specific stages: mitigation, prevention, preparation, and response and recovery. The book illustrates models by which to evaluate resilience at levels ranging from individuals to NGOs to governmental jurisdictions and examines how resilience can be developed and sustained. A group or nation’s ability to withstand events and emerge from them with their central institutions intact is at the core of resilience. Quality of response, capacity to improvise, coordination, flexibility, and endurance are also determinants. Individual case studies, including Hurricane Katrina in the United States, the London bombings, and French preparedness for the Avian flu, demonstrate effective and ineffective strategies.

The contributors reveal how the complexity and global interconnectivity of modern systems—whether they are governments, mobile populations, power grids, financial systems, or the Internet—have transcended borders and created a new level of exposure that has made them especially vulnerable to extreme events. Yet these far-reaching global systems also possess the ability to alert and respond at greater speeds than ever before.

The authors analyze specific characteristics of resilient systems—the qualities they possess and how they become resilient—to determine if there are ways to build a system of resilience from the ground up. As such, Designing Resilience will inform a broad range of students and scholars in areas of public administration, public policy, and the social sciences.

Tsunamis are infrequent but terrifying hazards for coastal communities. Difficult to predict, they materialize with little warning, claiming thousands of lives and causing billions of dollars in damage. Recent mega-tsunamis in Japan and Indonesia claimed close to 250,000 lives, triggering wide-scale economic and social disruption.  Developing countries cannot afford costly underwater cable systems, and governments and relief organizations have been forced to rely on flawed warning systems such as deep-sea buoys. Now, a groundbreaking new approach to tsunami detection and warning, which relies on low-cost underwater sensors and networks of smartphone communication, has changed the equation. Developed by an international, interdisciplinary team of researchers, this approach allows at-risk coastal communities to have an economically viable, scientifically sound means to protect themselves.

Coeditors Louise K. Comfort and Harkunti P. Rahayu, accomplished experts in disaster preparedness, contend that it will give communities precious additional minutes to communicate warnings about imminent tsunamis to residents, potentially saving many lives. Chapters authored by a close group of collaborators present the science behind this new approach, describing conceptual design, computational models, and real-time testing of a prototype system in the warm equatorial waters of Indonesia’s Mentawai Sea. Introductory chapters explain the sociotechnical approach—how undersea sensors can transmit data to a network of electronic devices on land to alert residents to impending tsunami threats in near-real time. Subsequent chapters explore what this might look like: assessing communities at risk; designing interactive information systems for communication during an emergency; designing wireless networks for smartphone communication that can guide residents to safety; and designing community-based shelters. The book concludes with a thoughtful analysis of how these sociotechnical advances might be used for all coastal cities at risk of tsunamis, sea-level rise, storm surges, and other hazards.

Hazardous Seas is an invaluable guide for policy makers and international NGOs looking to save lives from tsunamis and mitigate crippling damage to communities, and provides a comprehensive overview of tsunami detection and warning for students of engineering, computer science, planning, policy, and economic and environmental analysis. 
 

This book reflects an important shift in society's definition of disaster. For centuries catastrophic events have been considered "acts of God" and therefore uncontrollable by definition. Managing Disaster is international in scope, covering such natural and man-made calamities as tornadoes in western Pennsylvania, earthquakes in Peru, flooding in the Netherlands, and toxic waste disasters.

Centers for hazard studies have only recently examined the interrelated aspects of disastrous events and recognized the interaction between natural hazards and human systems. As society attempts to acquire the information and develop the skills to reduce the risks and damage from disaster, an increasingly professional public service is reconsidering its strategies and policy direction. Managing Disaster addresses this problem and the need for a new approach to teaching this subject at the university level. Twenty-three professionals and scholars in public policy and administration—rom universities, government, and the private sector—examine the basic issues confronting managers and public agencies in the face of disaster.