Customer Reviews

Disasters by Design: A Reassessment of Natural Hazards in the United States (Natural Hazards and Disasters: Reducing Loss and Building Sustainability in a Hazardous World: A Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this book provides a very good overview of natural hazards mitigation. It gives practitioners research information they can use when tasked to build mitigation programs for their communities. Bridging this communication gap between practitioners and researcher has long been a mission of mine. This book is the designated textbook for a mitigation class I teach. The section on Preparedness, Response and Recovery provided a very good assessment of how organizations approach disaster management. I recommend this book for any disaster practictioner's library.

This is the follow up assessment for Gilbert White's 1975 Natural Hazards assessment. It discusses where the US is currently in regards to hazards and how to address them in a number of specific areas including mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery, vulnerability and many other topics. I would strongly encourage reading it whether you areonly interested in disasters or a full time researcher.

I used this book for several graduate level emergency management courses and it is a very well written, and exceptionally well researched text book. The hazard mitigation as well as the preparation sections are great and the book offers wonderful case studies. I must mention that the book is highly progressive for its time as it is written with sustainability in mind and as part of the main message. This message did not become popular until the mid 2000s. While this is the case it should be noted that in 2011, most of its sustainability recommendations have already been implimented and many of the concerns are borderline dated.

It should be noted that there are a few concerns with using this book in the post 9/11 world. Since the book is written prior to 9/11 it is not written with terrorism, urban mass casualty events or CBRN related incidents in mind. Also, since the data is also pre-Katrina alot of the hurricane and storm related information is quite dated.

This book is great for research and is great for any emergency management class. While this is the case it should be complimented by a post 9/11 book especially if being used with any terrorism or CBRN related material in mind, as those topics are non existent.

I gave the book 5 stars because of how great of a source it is. I can not legitimately deduct anything for not having post 9/11 material since it was written pre 9/11 and such threats were not widely acknowleded in the emergency managment field at the time.