Chapter 2 Embedding climate change adaptation within disaster risk reduction
Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction: Issues and Challenges
ISBN: 978-0-85724-487-1, eISBN: 978-0-85724-488-8
Publication date: 31 December 2010
Abstract
Ever since human society developed, environmental and social changes have led to major challenges that must be dealt with. Some of these major challenges are seen as “disasters,” for which a definition that is frequently used is similar to “A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society causing widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources” (UNISDR, 2004; see, e.g., Quarantelli, 1998, and Furedi, 2007, for discussions on the meaning(s) of “disaster”). From witnessing disasters and being forced to work through the aftermath, humanity has been shifting toward trying to reduce disasters’ impacts or to avert them entirely. This field has the modern-day interpretation of “disaster risk reduction,” defined as “The conceptual framework of elements considered with the possibilities to minimize vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout a society, to avoid (prevention) or to limit (mitigation and preparedness) the adverse impacts of hazards, within the broad context of sustainable development” (UNISDR, 2004).
Citation
Kelman, I. and Gaillard, J.C. (2010), "Chapter 2 Embedding climate change adaptation within disaster risk reduction", Shaw, R., Pulhin, J.M. and Jacqueline Pereira, J. (Ed.) Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction: Issues and Challenges (Community, Environment and Disaster Risk Management, Vol. 4), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 23-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2040-7262(2010)0000004008
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited