Natural Disasters: Risk Assessment, Management Strategies & Challenges

Disasters are amongst the greatest challenges of the 21st century. Natural disasters have particularly witnessed an overwhelming escalation in the last three decades. The period between 1990 and 2005 holds the record for the highest frequency of natural disasters ever witnessed on earth. Between 2000 and 2005 for instance, natural disasters affected around 240 million people globally (UNISDR 2010). Almost 350 disasters were reported in 2015 alone, affecting 98.6 million people, causing over 22,000 deaths and resulting in an economic loss of around US$ 66.5 billion (UNFCC, 2016). The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction estimates that the economic losses from natural disasters for 2015 alone far exceed the mean annual estimate of US$ 275 million (UNISDR, 2015a). This book reviews the risk assessment for natural disasters, as well as management strategies and challenges the world currently faces. See more