Natural Disasters and Adaptation to Climate Change

This volume presents eighteen case studies of natural disasters from Australia, Europe, North America and developing countries. By comparing the impacts, it seeks to identify what moves people to adapt, which adaptive activities succeed and which fail, and the underlying reasons, and the factors that determine when adaptation is required and when simply bearing the impact may be the more appropriate response. Much has been written about the theory of adaptation and high-level, especially international, policy responses to climate change. This book aims to inform actual adaptation practice - what works, what does not, and why. It explores some of the lessons we can learn from past disasters and the adaptation that takes place after the event in preparation for the next. This volume will be especially useful for researchers and decision makers in policy and government concerned with climate change adaptation, emergency management, disaster risk reduction, environmental policy and planning.

Part I. Case Studies from North America: 1. Introduction Jean Palutikof, David John Karoly, Sarah Boulter and Daniela Guitart; 2. Climate change and disaster risk management: challenges and opportunities Madeleine C. Thomson; 3. Hurricane Katrina and the city of New Orleans Andrew W. Garcia; 4. A brief history of flooding and flood control measures along the Mississippi river basin, USA Timothy M. Kusky; 5. The 2003 and 2007 wildfires in southern California Jon E. Keeley, Alexandra D. Syphard and C. J. Fotheringham; 6. Adapting to extreme heat events: thirty years of lessons learned from the Kansas City, Missouri, extreme heat program David M. Mills and William D. Snook; Part II. Case Studies from Australia: 7. Drought and water in the Murray-Darling Basin: from disaster policy to adaptation Linda C. Botterill and Stephen Dovers; 8. After 'Black Saturday': adapting to bushfires in a changing climate Joshua Whittaker, John Handmer and David John Karoly; 9. Cyclone Tracy and the road to improving wind resistant design Matthew Mason, Katharine Haynes and George Walker; 10. Adaptation and resilience in two flood prone Queensland communities David King, Armando Apan, Diane Keogh and Melanie Thomas; Part III. Case Studies from Europe: 11. The most costly natural hazard in Europe: windstorms Uwe Ulbrich, Gregor C. Leckebusch and Markus G. Donat; 12. The 2003 heat wave: impacts, public health adaptation, and response in France Mathilde Pascal, Alain Le Tertre and Karine Laaidi; 13. Lessons from river floods in central Europe, 1997–2010 Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz; 14. Lessons learned from the North Sea flooding disaster in the Netherlands, 1953 Pier Vellinga and Jeroen Aerts; Part IV. Case Studies from the Developing World: 15. Adapting to drought in the West African Sahel Simon P. J. Batterbury and Michael J. Mortimore; 16. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami: Sri Lankan experience Sam S. L. Hettiarachchi and W. Priyan S. Dias; 17. Recovery efforts: the case of the 2007 cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh Bimal K. Paul and Munshi K. Rahman; 18. Coffee, disasters, and social-ecological resilience in Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico Hallie Eakin, Helda Morales, Edwin Castellanos, Gustavo Cruz-Bello and Juan F. Barrera; 19. Responding to floods in the Nile Basin: a case study of the 1997/98 floods in the Upper White Nile Marisa C. Goulden and Declan Conway; 20. Floods in the Yangtze river basin, China Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz, Jiang Tong and Su Buda; Part V. Synthesis Chapters: 21. Disasters and development Jessica Ayers, Saleemul Huq and Sarah Boulter; 22. What next? Climate change as a game-changer for policy and practice Karen O'Brien and Thomas E. Downing; 23. Barriers and limits to adaptation: cautionary notes Jon Barnett, Colette Mortreux and W. Neil Adger; 24. Lessons learned for adaptation to climate change S. Boulter, J. Palutikof and D. Karoly; 25. Afterword: floods, storms, fire, and pestilence - disaster risk in Australia during 2010/11 D. Karoly and S. Boulter.

Sarah Boulter is a Research Fellow with the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF), Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia where she works on synthesis and communication of adaptation research. She has been involved in the development of programmes of policy guidance development for adaptation, research programmes on historical case studies, the assessment of forest vulnerability in Australia, and as the convenor of Australia's Climate Adaptation conferences. She is a contributing author to the Australia chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report. Her research background includes studies of biodiversity and reproductive ecology of forested systems and the impacts of climate change.
Jean Palutikof is the Director of the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF), Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia. At NCCARF, she has built a national programme of adaptation research, communication and partnerships. Her work at NCCARF has convinced her of the need for case studies of good practice in adaptation action, to build adaptive capacity and knowledge amongst decision makers. Such good practice examples are hard to come by - hence this book, which seeks to extrapolate from responses to natural hazards to understand the perils and pitfalls around adapting to climate change. Prior to joining NCCARF, Professor Palutikof managed the production of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report for Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability), while based at the UK Met Office. Prior to joining the Met Office, she was a Professor at the School of Environmental Sciences and Director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. Her research interests focus on climate change impacts and adaptation, and the application of climatic data to economic and planning issues.
David John Karoly is Professor of Climate Science in th