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Loss assessments are undertaken to support decisions about disaster mitigation. There is considerable pressure to use economic principles and to make such assessments a condition of funding for all mitigation. A fundamental underlying assumption is that loss assessments are accurate and comparable—and that this accuracy makes comparisons more valid. Unfortunately, it appears that this is not the case. A key question concerns whether loss assessments can be made accurate and comparable through improved knowledge and training— as implied by many critics of the approach—or whether the problems are inherent in the idea of loss assessment. Drawing primarily on Australian flood loss assessment work, these issues are examined. Results suggest that the uncertainties may be larger than generally acknowledged, that at least some are irreducible, and that comparisons may not be assisted by improved accuracy. The implication is that loss assessment methods should aim to make comparisons valid and reliable rather than chase unachievable precision.

Policies or guidelines for the management of floodprone land are often developed by national or state governments. However, implementation of such policies generally rests with local governments, as it is these entities which possess the necessary planning and land‐use control powers. Unfortunately, there is much more involved in gaining compliance with national or state policies than simply specifying a set of standards or legally binding regulations. The local authority must be committed to the policy objectives – often not straightforward given the numerous issues competing for their attention. They must also have the capacity to implement the required measures.This paper examines two general approaches to policy design which differ in the way they deal with the local attributes of commitment and capacity. One approach is based on cooperation between the two levels of governments. In the other approach, the senior level of government employs coercion to induce local government to implement its policies. Trends across Europe towards decentralization and greater local accountability – although variable by country – suggest a steadily increasing role for cooperative approaches in inter‐governmental relations. Outstanding issues concern the motivation of uncommitted local authorities and the more general question of the tension between hazard management and economic development.

This book assesses critically the British approach to hazard management and emergency planning. It identifies the principal legal, organizational and cultural impediments to more effective hazard management and emergency planning, postulates explanations for the shortcomings in the British approach and examines a number of promising avenues for improving current practice.It comprises 18 chapters written by experts with a wide range of practical experience in the many different aspects of the field. Many of the authors introduce international perspectives and comparisons. From it all, the edito

Disasters both natural and human-induced are leading to spiralling costs in terms of human lives, lost livelihoods and damaged assets and businesses. Yet these consequences and the financial and human crises that follow catastrophes can often be traced to policies unsuited to the emerging scales of the problems they confront, and the lack of institutional capacity to implement planning and prevention or to manage disasters. This book seeks to overcome this mismatch and to guide development of a more strategic policy and institutional framework. This updated and revised second edition includes

Disasters both natural and human-induced are leading to spiralling costs in terms of human lives, lost livelihoods and damaged assets and businesses. Yet these consequences and the financial and human crises that follow catastrophes can often be traced to policies unsuited to the emerging scales of the problems they confront, and the lack of institutional capacity to implement planning and prevention or to manage disasters. This book seeks to overcome this mismatch and to guide development of a policy and institutional framework. For the first time it brings together into a coherent framework

The contemporary Western preoccupation with risk assessment is profound. However, this does not mean that the concept of risk is a useful theoretical tool for understanding contemporary society in general. The talk of a risk society is part of a tendency to take risk as an all-embracing category with little attention paid either to the distinction between abstract risk & risk assessment, or to different formations of risk in time & place. We argue that a fundamental shift in the communication of risk has also emerged, particularly in the context of the war on terror. Most of the classical risk communication literature is concerned with persuading people that the authorities or companies have the expertise to take care of some problem: "there is a risk," it says, "we can never manage it completely, but be reassured that we are taking care of it on your behalf." With the emergence of the war on terror, a number of changes have occurred. Governments in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia & elsewhere stress the novelty & radical emergence of terrorism-as-risk, in part by ignoring history & concentrating on the symptoms to maintain a continuing sense of danger. Second, the prior emphasis on experts & expert systems for generating risk assessment is being actively undermined by ideologues. These changes represent a disturbing shift from the dominance of the Enlightenment idea of trusting in science & knowledge to accepting a post-Enlightenment idea that authority & ideology are all that can ever underpin the assessment of abstract risk, particularly in the case of terrorism. Tables. Adapted from the source document.

Reducing the impact of climate-related disasters can be conceptualized as being about reducing or managing 'vulnerability'. 'Vulnerability' is a multi-faceted concept incorporating issues of livelihood, housing, security and gender among many others. For example, groups of people may be more or less vulnerable to climate-related disasters due to the security of their livelihoods or the quality of their housing. International and national law may regulate some of these constituents of vulnerability. In some jurisdictions, such as countries in the European Union and the Council of Europe, and countries with new constitutions, there is a range of specific rights that may be mobilized to reduce vulnerability. Much of the work on the link between vulnerability reduction and human rights focuses on international law. However, national law is generally more accessible and enforceable than international law. We draw on three recent South African cases to illustrate the potential for citizens to mobilize public law to reduce their own vulnerability, and raise the question of whether a legal rights based approach might be useful elsewhere in the world.