Elsevier Understanding Disaster Risk: A Multidimensional Approach

Understanding Disaster Risk: A Multidimensional Approach presents the first principle from the UNISDR Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, 2015-2030. The framework includes a discussion of risk and resilience from both a theoretical and governance perspective in light of ideas that are shaping our common future. In addition, it presents innovative tools and best practices in reducing risk and building resilience. Combining the applications of social, financial, technological, design, engineering and nature-based approaches, the volume addresses rising global priorities and focuses on strengthening the global understanding of vulnerability, displaced communities, cultural heritages and cultural identity. Readers will gain a multifaceted understanding of disaster, addressing both historic and contemporary issues. Focusing on the various dimensions of disaster risk, the book details natural and social components of risk and the challenges posed to risk assessment models under the climate change paradigm. Review Presents the first principle of the UNISDR Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, which specifically addresses perspectives of disaster risk and response About the Author Pedro Pinto Santos is a geographer with a PhD in Territory, Risk and Public Policies from the Universities of Aveiro, Coimbra and Lisbon (Portugal). He holds a Master in Geosciences from the University of Coimbra and a degree in Physical Geography from the University of Lisbon. He is currently a researcher at the Centre for Geographical Studies of the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning, University of Lisbon, and invited researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra. Pedro participates and has participated in several projects in the fields of disaster risk reduction, particularly in the assessment of risk and its components – hazard, exposure and vulnerability, namely social vulnerability – and preparing emergency and risk management planning instruments. His current research focuses on the flood risk of coastal and riverine areas aiming to simulate, propose and achieve consensus regarding the flood risk management strategies to be adopted, considering current and future scenarios of territorial dynamics and climate change.Ksenia Chmutina is a Lecturer in Sustainable and Resilient Urbanism at Loughborough University’s School of Architecture, Building, and Civil Engineering. Her main research interest is in synergies and tensions of resilience and sustainability in the built environment, including holistic approach to enhancing resilience to natural and human-induced threats, and a better understanding of the systemic implications of sustainability and resilience under the pressures of urbanisation and climate change. Her other research interests include transdisciplinary integration of pre-emptive hazard mitigation strategies into decision making process of construction stakeholders, and disaster risk management of cultural heritage. Ksenia uses her work to draw attention to the fact that disasters are not natural. Her research mainly comprises location-based case studies and systemic policy analysis; it brings together quantitative and qualitative research to generate transdiciplinary understanding in the areas of sustainability, resilience, and policy in the context of built environment, and employs various data analysis techniques. She has conducted her research in the UK, India, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal, the Caribbean, and across Europe.Jason von Meding is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Newcastle’s School of Architecture and Built Environment. His recent research focuses on the social, political, economic and environmental injustice that causes people, across global societies but particularly in the developing world, to be marginalised and forced into greater risk of being impacted by disasters. Having accumulated a decade of research experience in the fie