Research Guides: Natural Disasters: Home

Lessons of Disaster

Even before the wreckage of a disaster is cleared, one question is foremost in the minds of the public: "What can be done to prevent this from happening again?" Today, news media and policymakers often invoke the "lessons of September 11" and the "lessons of Hurricane Katrina." Certainly, these unexpected events heightened awareness about problems that might have contributed to or worsened the disasters, particularly about gaps in preparation. Inquiries and investigations are made that claim that "lessons" were "learned" from a disaster, leading us to assume that we will be more ready the next time a similar threat looms, and that our government will put in place measures to protect us. In Lessons of Disaster, Thomas Birkland takes a critical look at this assumption. We know that disasters play a role in setting policy agendas--in getting policymakers to think about problems--but does our government always take the next step and enact new legislation or regulations? To determine when and how a catastrophic event serves as a catalyst for true policy change, the author examines four categories of disasters: aviation security, homeland security, earthquakes, and hurricanes. He explores lessons learned from each, focusing on three types of policy change: change in the larger social construction of the issues surrounding the disaster; instrumental change, in which laws and regulations are made; and political change, in which alliances are created and shifted. Birkland argues that the type of disaster affects the types of lessons learned from it, and that certain conditions are necessary to translate awareness into new policy, including media attention, salience for a large portion of the public, the existence of advocacy groups for the issue, and the preexistence of policy ideas that can be drawn upon. This timely study concludes with a discussion of the interplay of multiple disasters, focusing on the initial government response to Hurricane Katrina and the negative effect the September 11 catastrophe seems to have had on reaction to that tragedy.

The Dynamics of Disaster

Humans persist in building centres of civilisation in places of past disasters as we believe that our technology will protect us next time. Yet we rarely win these battles with the earth because we don't understand natural disasters deeply enough. Susan Kieffer's book explains how the dynamics--the workings--of disasters are connected by a small number of natural laws. She goes on to show how the most obvious process in a disaster is not always the one that causes the devastation. For instance, the transformation of apparently solid ground into a substance like quicksand during the 2010 Haiti earthquake is what caused the destruction of Port au Prince. Kieffer argues that only by understanding the dynamics of natural disasters can we begin to institute engineering and policy practices to minimise their impact on our lives.

Planning for Disaster

Disasters, throughout the ages, have shaped the built environment. The way city planners, architects, engineers and politicians plan and design cities, buildings, highways, tunnels and bridges have all been fashioned to some degree by the mischievous hands of disasters.Planning for Disasterwill trace the impact of natural and manmade disasters on urban planning, building design and the design of large-scale engineering projects such as bridges, tunnels and levees. The book will reference recent disasters such as the Loma Prieta Earthquake (1989), the Oklahoma City Bombing (1995), the 9/11 Terrorist Attack (2001), Hurricane Katrina (2005), as well as catastrophic events from history such as the burning of Rome in AD 64, the London fire of 1666, the New York fire of 1835, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire.Planning for Disasterwill include approximately 25 illustrations (photographs and figures) in support of the text.

When the Planet Rages

In New England, 1816 was called the Year Without a Summer. Crops failed throughout America and, in Western Europe, it was even worse, with food riots and armed groups raiding bakeries and grain markets. All this turmoil followed a catastrophic volcanic eruption - a year earlier on the otherside of the world - the eruption of Tambora, a blast heard almost a thousand miles away.In When the Planet Rages, Charles Officer and Jake Page describe some of the great events of environmental history, from calamities such as the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 (the greatest in recorded history) and the ice ages, to recent man-made disasters such as Chernobyl, acid rain, and the depletionof the ozone layer. Officer and Page provide fascinating discussions of meteorites and comets; of the demise of mammoths, mastodons, and dinosaurs; and of great floods that have swept the earth. But they also show that human activity can make trouble for nature, discussing the depletion of naturalresources (we burn coal and oil at millions of times their natural rate of production), air pollution in Los Angeles and London (where the Killer Smog of 1952 caused the death of some four thousand people), and the pollution of major waterways, like the Chesapeake Bay and Lake Erie. For thepaperback edition, the authors have included a new preface, have added material on the recent Sichuan, China earthquake, the Indian Ocean Tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina, and discuss such topics as of the (un)predictability of symptoms of global warming.Ranging from the monumental eruption at Krakatoa to industrial disasters such as the mercury poisoning in Japan's Minamata Bay, When the Planet Rages will engage anyone concerned with the environment and the natural world.

Lessons of Disaster

Even before the wreckage of a disaster is cleared, one question is foremost in the minds of the public: "What can be done to prevent this from happening again?" Today, news media and policymakers often invoke the "lessons of September 11" and the "lessons of Hurricane Katrina." Certainly, these unexpected events heightened awareness about problems that might have contributed to or worsened the disasters, particularly about gaps in preparation. Inquiries and investigations are made that claim that "lessons" were "learned" from a disaster, leading us to assume that we will be more ready the next time a similar threat looms, and that our government will put in place measures to protect us. In Lessons of Disaster, Thomas Birkland takes a critical look at this assumption. We know that disasters play a role in setting policy agendas--in getting policymakers to think about problems--but does our government always take the next step and enact new legislation or regulations? To determine when and how a catastrophic event serves as a catalyst for true policy change, the author examines four categories of disasters: aviation security, homeland security, earthquakes, and hurricanes. He explores lessons learned from each, focusing on three types of policy change: change in the larger social construction of the issues surrounding the disaster; instrumental change, in which laws and regulations are made; and political change, in which alliances are created and shifted. Birkland argues that the type of disaster affects the types of lessons learned from it, and that certain conditions are necessary to translate awareness into new policy, including media attention, salience for a large portion of the public, the existence of advocacy groups for the issue, and the preexistence of policy ideas that can be drawn upon. This timely study concludes with a discussion of the interplay of multiple disasters, focusing on the initial government response to Hurricane Katrina and the negative effect the September 11 catastrophe seems to have had on reaction to that tragedy.

The Dynamics of Disaster

Humans persist in building centres of civilisation in places of past disasters as we believe that our technology will protect us next time. Yet we rarely win these battles with the earth because we don't understand natural disasters deeply enough. Susan Kieffer's book explains how the dynamics--the workings--of disasters are connected by a small number of natural laws. She goes on to show how the most obvious process in a disaster is not always the one that causes the devastation. For instance, the transformation of apparently solid ground into a substance like quicksand during the 2010 Haiti earthquake is what caused the destruction of Port au Prince. Kieffer argues that only by understanding the dynamics of natural disasters can we begin to institute engineering and policy practices to minimise their impact on our lives.

Planning for Disaster

Disasters, throughout the ages, have shaped the built environment. The way city planners, architects, engineers and politicians plan and design cities, buildings, highways, tunnels and bridges have all been fashioned to some degree by the mischievous hands of disasters.Planning for Disasterwill trace the impact of natural and manmade disasters on urban planning, building design and the design of large-scale engineering projects such as bridges, tunnels and levees. The book will reference recent disasters such as the Loma Prieta Earthquake (1989), the Oklahoma City Bombing (1995), the 9/11 Terrorist Attack (2001), Hurricane Katrina (2005), as well as catastrophic events from history such as the burning of Rome in AD 64, the London fire of 1666, the New York fire of 1835, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire.Planning for Disasterwill include approximately 25 illustrations (photographs and figures) in support of the text.

When the Planet Rages

In New England, 1816 was called the Year Without a Summer. Crops failed throughout America and, in Western Europe, it was even worse, with food riots and armed groups raiding bakeries and grain markets. All this turmoil followed a catastrophic volcanic eruption - a year earlier on the otherside of the world - the eruption of Tambora, a blast heard almost a thousand miles away.In When the Planet Rages, Charles Officer and Jake Page describe some of the great events of environmental history, from calamities such as the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 (the greatest in recorded history) and the ice ages, to recent man-made disasters such as Chernobyl, acid rain, and the depletionof the ozone layer. Officer and Page provide fascinating discussions of meteorites and comets; of the demise of mammoths, mastodons, and dinosaurs; and of great floods that have swept the earth. But they also show that human activity can make trouble for nature, discussing the depletion of naturalresources (we burn coal and oil at millions of times their natural rate of production), air pollution in Los Angeles and London (where the Killer Smog of 1952 caused the death of some four thousand people), and the pollution of major waterways, like the Chesapeake Bay and Lake Erie. For thepaperback edition, the authors have included a new preface, have added material on the recent Sichuan, China earthquake, the Indian Ocean Tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina, and discuss such topics as of the (un)predictability of symptoms of global warming.Ranging from the monumental eruption at Krakatoa to industrial disasters such as the mercury poisoning in Japan's Minamata Bay, When the Planet Rages will engage anyone concerned with the environment and the natural world.

Lessons of Disaster

Even before the wreckage of a disaster is cleared, one question is foremost in the minds of the public: "What can be done to prevent this from happening again?" Today, news media and policymakers often invoke the "lessons of September 11" and the "lessons of Hurricane Katrina." Certainly, these unexpected events heightened awareness about problems that might have contributed to or worsened the disasters, particularly about gaps in preparation. Inquiries and investigations are made that claim that "lessons" were "learned" from a disaster, leading us to assume that we will be more ready the next time a similar threat looms, and that our government will put in place measures to protect us. In Lessons of Disaster, Thomas Birkland takes a critical look at this assumption. We know that disasters play a role in setting policy agendas--in getting policymakers to think about problems--but does our government always take the next step and enact new legislation or regulations? To determine when and how a catastrophic event serves as a catalyst for true policy change, the author examines four categories of disasters: aviation security, homeland security, earthquakes, and hurricanes. He explores lessons learned from each, focusing on three types of policy change: change in the larger social construction of the issues surrounding the disaster; instrumental change, in which laws and regulations are made; and political change, in which alliances are created and shifted. Birkland argues that the type of disaster affects the types of lessons learned from it, and that certain conditions are necessary to translate awareness into new policy, including media attention, salience for a large portion of the public, the existence of advocacy groups for the issue, and the preexistence of policy ideas that can be drawn upon. This timely study concludes with a discussion of the interplay of multiple disasters, focusing on the initial government response to Hurricane Katrina and the negative effect the September 11 catastrophe seems to have had on reaction to that tragedy.

Natural Disasters: Home

Research & Reference

Databases

The Places Most Prone to Disaster

Perspectives

Lessons of Disaster

The Dynamics of Disaster

Planning for Disaster

When the Planet Rages

Lessons of Disaster

The Dynamics of Disaster

Planning for Disaster

When the Planet Rages

Lessons of Disaster

The Science of Extreme Weather