Development in Disaster-Prone Places: Studies of Vulnerability

by James Lewis

Overview

This book addresses the long-overdue imbalance in disaster management: an over-emphasis on post-disaster assistance and a lack of attention to vulnerability reduction. It answers the fundamental question in this debate: how can we mould pre-disaster development initiatives to become the most appropriate means for vulnerability reduction The book reasserts and reapplies some of the basic concepts and issues which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, with the message that development is a prime medium both of vulnerability and its reduction. The author examines requirements for long-term change so that conditions which have become the context for catastrophe can be modified. By focusing on longer-term policies and activities now, emergency relief efforts have a positive context within which to contribute to development and the likelihood of recurrence will be reduced. The book contains case-studies from Sri Lanka, the Caribbean and the South Pacific and focuses on hazards of all kinds, setting out to redress the balance between large-scale disasters of global significance and small-scale disasters that are a matter of everyday existence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781853394720
Publisher:	Practical Action Publishing
Publication date:	09/28/1999
Series:	Studies in Vulnerability
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.49(d)

About the Author

James Lewis is a visiting fellow in Development Studies at the University of Bath and a consultant in environmental hazards and human settlements.

Table of Contents

Part One: Vulnerability; Part Two: Studies of Vulnerability; Part Three: A Pattern for Development; and
References.