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Climate change is affecting and will continue to affect the frequency and severity of natural hazard events, a trend that is of increasing concern for emergency managers and hazard mitigation agencies across the United States. Proper response to these hazards will require preparation and planning. Unfortunately, states are not required to include analysis of climate change in their State Hazard Mitigation Plans, which leads to uneven treatment of the issue and missed opportunities for mitigation planning. This survey identifies those state plans that address climate change and climate-related issues in an accurate and helpful manner and those that do not. Several states will be releasing updated State Hazard Mitigation Plans in 2013 and 2014, and this survey forms a basis for improving those plans through shared lessons learned and targeted communication. The results of the survey indicate that coastal states are more likely to include a discussion of climate change, possibly due in part to recent emphasis on and awareness of the relationship between climate change and sea level rise, coastal storms, and related hazards. The relative lack of discussion of climate change in land-locked states may point to a need for greater communication of how risks such as drought, floods, heat events, and non-coastal storms are affected by climate change. State plans that currently include climate change analyses and adaptation plans may be used as examples for improving other plans. This survey provides a basis for further analysis comparing future plans and determining whether they include an improved discussion of climate change.

Liability and increased federal involvement in issues of public safety has resulted in the development of a bewildering array of agencies and entities at all levels of government* In spite of this increased involvement, losses from catastrophic natural hazardous events are continuing to increase at an alarming rate. Although there is an increased federal involvement, primary responsibility and authority for dealing with the problems associated with natural hazard exposure rests with the states and local governments. However, the capacity of state and local governments to deal with these problems is significantly constrained by geophysical, ecological, and sociopolitical factors. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the context in which natural hazard problems are defined and policies adopted in the United States. Further we will examine the barriers to the adoptation and implementation of natural hazard mitigation policies. Professionalization of the policy adoptation and implementation process is presented as a basis for increased success in reducing societal risks to natural hazasrds.

AbstractThe concentration of people and commerce in densely packed megacities has created interconnections between engineered and human‐service systems that are susceptible to a single potentially hazardous event triggering others. We identify the interdependencies between engineered and human‐service systems as well as the progression of hazardous cascading effects in the US context. The three purposes of this paper are (1) to determine how much attention is paid to cascading events in state and local hazard mitigation plans in the United States; (2) evaluate findings in the context of other environmental health programs in these places, noting that the paper is based on reviews of recent state and selected local hazard mitigation plans; and (3) offer suggestions for jump‐starting focus on cascading events in hazard mitigation plans. Cascading events have not been a focus of US hazard mitigation plans, but we find a trend toward more attention, especially in states and cities that have a history of innovative environmental health and protection programs. Given a new administration in Washington, DC, we urge legislators and risk managers to be more aggressive about the challenge of cascading events.

With a changing climate and more frequent extreme weather events, natural hazards can have significant consequences and impacts on a local community. If a local government hasn't properly prepared for a natural hazard's impact, then the damage and devastation to a community can be quite severe. A natural hazard or disaster can have serious social, economic and environmental effects on a region. With the advent of the community and disaster planning profession, many local governments have been researching and implementing hazard related land use planning techniques. However, more recently community planners and disaster planners have been working more collaboratively, and have begun to integrate their two professions. Local communities interested in keeping their residents and assets safe and secure in the face of natural hazard risks often face challenges in properly communicating appropriate and adequate information highlighted by their community and disaster planners to their constituents and local stakeholders. Local governments and decison-makers have become accustomed to disseminating information to the public and have begun to adapt this strategy to the area of natural hazard planning. Of course, important considerations include, what are the best ways to communicate natural hazard planning? And, how available and accessible is natural hazard planning information to a local community? To answer these questions, the District of Maple Ridge, a community in the Metro Vancouver region of B.C. has been selected for a natural hazard planning and communication analysis. By starting with a community's Official Community Plan (OCP), the research is hoping to highlight the areas and types of natural hazards which are not being properly communicated to residents. If residents are missing important aspects of hazard related information, the community will not be as resilient and secure in the face of a natural disaster. ; Applied Science, Faculty of ; Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of ; Unreviewed ; Graduate

This study tested a series of models predicting household expectations of participating in hurricane hazard mitigation incentive programs. Data from 599 households in Florida revealed that mitigation incentive adoption expectations were most strongly and consistently related to hazard intrusiveness and risk perception and, to a lesser extent, worry. Demographic and hazard exposure had indirect effects on mitigation incentive adoption expectations that were mediated by the psychological variables. The results also revealed differences in the factors affecting mitigation incentive adoption expectations for each of five specific incentive programs. Overall, the results suggest that hazard managers are more likely to increase participation in mitigation incentive programs if they provide messages that repeatedly (thus increasing hazard intrusiveness) remind people of the likelihood of severe negative consequences of hurricane impact (thus increasing risk perception).

Climate change is affecting and will continue to affect the frequency and severity of natural hazard events, a trend that is of increasing concern for emergency managers and hazard mitigation agencies across the United States. Proper response to these hazards will require preparation and planning. Unfortunately, states are not required to include analysis of climate change in their State Hazard Mitigation Plans, which leads to uneven treatment of the issue and missed opportunities for mitigation planning. This survey identifies those state plans that address climate change and climate-related issues in an accurate and helpful manner and those that do not. Several states will be releasing updated State Hazard Mitigation Plans in 2013 and 2014, and this survey forms a basis for improving those plans through shared lessons learned and targeted communication. The results of the survey indicate that coastal states are more likely to include a discussion of climate change, possibly due in part to recent emphasis on and awareness of the relationship between climate change and sea level rise, coastal storms, and related hazards. The relative lack of discussion of climate change in land-locked states may point to a need for greater communication of how risks such as drought, floods, heat events, and non-coastal storms are affected by climate change. State plans that currently include climate change analyses and adaptation plans may be used as examples for improving other plans. This survey provides a basis for further analysis comparing future plans and determining whether they include an improved discussion of climate change.

This timely book is about how to design alternatives to reduce coastal flood and wave damage, erosion, and loss of ecosystems facing an unknown future of sea level rise. The latest theories are interlaced with applied examples from the authors' 48 years of experience in teaching, research, and as a practicing, professional engineer in coastal engineering. The design process takes into consideration all the design constraints (scientific, engineering, economic, environmental, social/political/institutional, aesthetic, and media) to meet today's client needs, expectations, and budgets for an uncertain future. The book is organized as a textbook for graduate students. And, it is a self-contained reference for government and consulting engineers responsible for finding solutions to coastal hazards facing the world's coastal populations. New solutions are included in the book that help people of all socio-economic levels living at the coast. Both risk reduction metrics quantified in monetary terms, and increased resilience metrics quantified as vulnerability reduction must now be taken into consideration to make equitable design decisions on hazard mitigation alternatives. In the Anthropocene Era, under "deep uncertainty" in global mean sea level predictions for the future, today's designs must mitigate today's storm damages, and be adaptable for the unpredictable water levels and storms of the future. This book includes a design "philosophy" for water levels to year 2050 and for the long term from 2050 to 2100. Multiple spreadsheets are provided and organized to aid the design process ; https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/cee_books/1003/thumbnail.jpg

"The negative consequences of natural hazard events are staggering and growing. Governments are acting to increase community resilience, reduce losses, and facilitate recovery, but these actions do not always yield anticipated consequences. This book is a compelling interdisciplinary analysis of California's efforts to ensure that acute care hospitals survive earthquakes and continue to function in the aftermath. The book weaves together several threads essential to understanding the effectiveness of public policies intended to reduce the consequences of natural hazard events: public policy design and administration, the hazard mitigation investment decision made by targeted organizations, and contextual dynamics."--Publisher's description

Scientific knowledge is essential to our better understanding of risk. Natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes, landslides, fires and others, have always affected human societies. Man-made hazards, however, played a comparatively small role until the industrial revolution when the risk of catastrophic events started to increase due to the rapid growth of new technologies. The interaction of natural and anthropogenic risks adds to the complexity of the problem. Advances in computational methods and the ability to model systems more precisely now enable hazards to be quantified, their effects to be simulated and risk analysis to be pursued with greater accuracy, providing for more effective risk management. These developments not only are important for all areas of human endeavour but have particular relevance to environmental issues where the risks involved are substantial. Effective risk management and the mitigation of possible hazards have become a high priority of government and a public concern