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Understanding bottom-up approaches including local coping mechanisms, recognizing them and strengthening community capacities is important in the process of disaster risk reduction. The purpose of this paper is to address the questions: to what extent existing disaster policies in Nepal support and enable community-based disaster resilience? and what challenges and prospects do the communities have in responding to disaster risk for making communities resilient?

This paper is based on policy and academic literature reviews complimented by field research in two communities, one in Shankhu, Kathmandu district and another in Satthighare, Kavrepalanchowk district in Nepal. The author conducted in-depth interviews and mapped out key disaster-related policies of Nepal to investigate the role of communities in disaster risk management and post-disaster activities and their recognition in disaster-related policies.

The author found that existing literature clearly identifies the importance of the community led initiatives in risks reduction and management. It is evolutionary phenomenon, which has already been piloted in history including in the aftermath of Nepal earthquake 2015 yet existing policies of Nepal do not clearly identify it as an important component by providing details of how communities can be better engaged in the immediate aftermath of disaster occurrence.

The author conducted this research based on data from two earthquake affected areas only. The author believes that this research can still play an important role as representative study.

The practical implication of this research is that communities need to understand about risks society for disaster preparedness, mitigation and timely response in the aftermath of disasters. As they are the first responders against the disasters, they also need trainings such as disaster drills such as earthquakes, floods and fire and mock practice of various early warning systems can be conducted by local governments to prepare these communities better to reduce disaster risk and casualties.

The mantra of community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) is community engagement, which means the involvement of local people to understand and prepare against their local hazards and risks associated with disaster and haphazard development. CBDRM approaches motivate people to work together because they feel a sense of belongingness to their communities and recognize the benefits of their involvement in disaster mitigation and preparedness. Clearly, community engagement for disaster risk reduction and management brings great benefits in terms of ownership and direct savings in losses from disasters because the dynamic process allows community to contribute and interchange ideas and activities for inclusive decision making and problem solving.

This research is based on both primary and secondary data and original in case of its findings and conclusion.

Managing disasters using modern science and traditional knowledge systems in silos has several prospects and limitations. Despite the catalyst role of the traditional knowledge in reducing the risks of disasters and adapting to climate change, this knowledge has not featured prominently in any of the existing disaster policies and disaster science. The authors demonstrate how traditional knowledge and modern science can be integrated for holistic approach of disaster risk reduction and management.

Using qualitative research method complemented by thorough literature review, this article captures traditional knowledge and practices of communities in the Narayani Basin for flood disaster risks reduction and management and shows ways to integrate traditional knowledge and modern science for holistic approach of disaster risk reduction and management.

The authors found that traditional knowledge system and practices have worked as an alternative to modern technoengineering approaches of disaster risk reduction and management and hold immense potential to contribute against disasters; therefore, this knowledge system of the communities not only needs to be recognized, conserved and documented but also is to be incorporated into efforts to formulate effective disaster management strategies and be amalgamated with the technoengineering practices for a holistic approach so that it can ensure disaster safety and security of the communities.

The authors conducted this study collecting primary data from Narayani basin only; however, the authors believe that these practices and findings of the research may still be representative.

The practical implication of this research is that traditional knowledge system needs to be integrated with technobureaucratic knowledge of disaster management, enabling to develop a more robust and holistic approach of disaster risk reduction and management.

This research documents being extinct traditional knowledge system and empowers communities by supporting them to integrate and use both traditional knowledge and modern technobureaucratic knowledge for building communities flood resilient.

This research is based on both primary and secondary data and original in case of its findings and conclusion, and no similar research contextualizing the role of traditional knowledge system in flood disaster management has been conducted in Narayani Basin of Nepal in the past.

Nepal is confronted by an increasing number of natural- and human-induced disasters, making it the most disaster-prone country in the world. Landslides, floods, droughts, fires, thunderbolts, blockades, and earthquakes, among others, occur frequently. All these disasters take a high toll on people and cause heavy damage to physical properties worth billions of dollars every year. One of the recent examples in the history of disasters was the devastating earthquakes that struck Nepal in 2015 taking away human lives, destroying physical infrastructures, altering cultures, challenging institutions, and devastating the hope and ambitions of people. Thirty-three of the Nepal’s 75 districts were affected, at different degrees, and 14 out of 33 were badly damaged by the two major earthquakes on the 26th of April and the 12th of May 2015. This chapter provides a reflective dialogue on the current state of the disaster-recovery process with a focus on the delivery of recovery services aiming to (1) understand how key actors are responding to disaster-recovery works in Nepal and (2) identify knowledge gaps in the disaster response policy and research arenas in managing future disasters in Nepal.

This paper aims to show why very little progress was made in arresting climate change. Managing climate change is one of the greatest challenges humanity has encountered in the 21st century. Responding to this greatest challenge, the United Nations has organized numerous climate change conferences. Four agreements (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC], Kyoto, Copenhagen and Doha) have emerged in the process of developing a potential international climate change policy but failed to produce any ambitious agreement to arrest climate change.

The pledges made by Conferences of the Parties (COPs) to reduce the greenhouse gases (GHGs) are contextualized with the ever increasing emissions of GHGs by exploring the databases of UNFCCC, International Energy Agency (IEA), Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the Netherlands Energy Assessment Agency (NEAA) for this study.

However, GHGs have continued to rise and no globally binding agreement is seen to be forthcoming. Quantified targets to address the problem have yet to be agreed while major emitters remain free riders. This paper argues that the state-centric negotiating framework and the principles of the climate change negotiations were the main reasons for the inadequate outcomes leading to the continuing rise in emissions.

This is an original research. It has presented the overview of climate change agreements, finds the problems and presents a way forward. The research is useful for governments of the world, climate negotiators, students of climate change, researchers, NGO communities and every single human being who understands that managing climate change is not only complex but also extensive.

This chapter provides the foundation for the book. The objective of this chapter is to outline the theme of the book and to provide the context for the chapters that follow. Disaster recovery is a challenge for governments and for affected communities, families, and individuals. It is a challenge, because recovery from catastrophic disasters can be much more complicated and elusive than what can be addressed by national and international aid organizations given the time and other resources. The short literature review provides the research context, and the overview of the book describes each of the chapters briefly.

This study's main objective is to investigate the influence of brand credibility on the intention to purchase organic food. In addition, this research studies the moderating role of customer ethnocentricity as well as the mediating role of customer value.

To explore correlations between brand credibility and purchase intentions, cross-sectional data were collected from 433 Indian consumers. The data were analysed by structural equation modelling.

The findings indicate that brand credibility is positively related to purchasing intention. The association between brand credibility and purchasing intentions is partially mediated by customer value. Customer ethnocentrism was also shown to have a negative moderation effect. Healthiness, high quality and sensory properties (i.e. natural taste) were found to be some of the most significant organic food characteristics, according to Indian consumers.

The research is confined to India's geographical area, specifically the National Capital Regions.

To increase the purchase frequency of local or global branded organic food, businesses can include rational features in their marketing method such as the health benefits compared to the conventional product, a better emphasis on environmental safety and the social advantages of organic food.

This study develops an integrative model, including brand credibility (PBG & PBL), to predict organic food purchase intentions. This is an important contribution as, according to the results of the literature review, no previous studies have analysed these relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate hygro-thermo-mechanically induced normalized stress intensity factor (NSIF) of an edge crack symmetric angle-ply piezo laminated composite plate (PLCP) using displacement correlation method.

In the present work, the governing equations are solved through conventional finite element method combined with higher order shear deformation plate theory utilizing the micromechanical approach.

The effects of crack length, the thickness of the plate and piezoelectric layer, stacking sequences, fiber volume fraction, position of piezoelectric layer, change in moisture and temperature, and voltage on the NSIF are examined. The numerical results are presented in the form of a table for the better understanding and accuracy. The present outlined approach is validated with results available in the literature. These results can become a benchmark for future studies.

The mathematical models theoretically have been developed by considering different parameters. The results are generated using MATLAB 2015 software developed by the authors’ side.

The fracture analysis of a single edge crack PLCP with the effect of a piezoelectric layer at the different location of cracked structures, plate thickness, and actuator voltage and hygro-thermo loading is the novelty of research for health monitoring and high-performance analysis.