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The impact of climate disasters (e.g., floods, storms, or landslides), which are generally of low intensity and high frequency, should not be overlooked in developing countries. Global experiences related to the damage due to these disasters indicate that such events can be devastating in communities that are vulnerable to hazardous impacts. Cumulative effects of climate disasters are a sign of a potential catastrophe. Moreover, the recent increase in these events poses additional issues that increase the cost of local public administration, including emergency operation and infrastructure recovery. This chapter explains key problems related to climate disasters that are increasing, particularly in the local area of developing countries, and clarifies the need to incorporate climate disaster risk reduction into public development planning and practice. The chapter also provides descriptions of the research location, approaches of the study, and the structure of this book.

In recent years, Costa Rica has experienced increasing economic loss from numerous climate disasters. To meet the challenge of reducing local vulnerabilities, it is necessary to incorporate the potential impacts of current and future climate disaster events into DRM policy, planning, and practice, both at the national and local levels. This chapter evaluates the current status of policy initiative on incorporating the climate disaster risk aspect in DRM planning at the national level in Costa Rica and discusses whether this initiative provides any answers to reduce climate disaster risk. The study applies a “checklist” as a means of evaluation.

South Asia, home to one-fifth of humanity, perennially has been a disaster-prone region. In 2007, for instance, the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) reported that out of the top five countries in the world hit hardest by natural disasters, the first two were Bangladesh and India, while Pakistan occupied the fourth position (CRED Crunch, 2008). This was not an exceptional year but generally has been the trend, which highlights the comparative vulnerability of the region to disasters. Two-thirds of the disasters the region experiences are climate related and there have been phenomenal increases in their frequency, severity, and unpredictability in recent times. The severest impacts have been in terms of sea-level rise leading to submergence of low-lying coastal areas and depletion of Himalayan glaciers, threatening the perennial rivers that sustain the food, water, energy, and environmental security of the region. Climate change is surely creating grounds for newer and more severe risks of disasters in the region in the coming years.

This paper aims to assess to what extent South American countries have integrated recommendations of the international agenda to address human mobility in the context of disasters and climate change in their national laws and policies.

This research sought to find the level of discussions around human mobility in disaster laws, NDCs and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) by looking for a range of search terms connected to human mobility in the context of disasters and climate change, followed by the content analysis of these terms.

Some advances with regards to human mobility are already confirmed in the domestic level of South American countries through humanitarian visas to disaster displaced persons and the inclusion of the topic in the DRR, climate change laws, NAPs and INDCs/NDCs. But they have not developed specific strategies with regards to it. Hence, their advances still require that national norms and policies are harmonized with the international guidelines. This will enable to fill the protection gap of people in context of disasters and climate change.

The results assess the level of harmonization above-mentioned between international instruments with national policies on human mobility in the context of disasters and climate change in South America.

This paper analyses how disaster risk management paradigms have gradually developed since the 1960s, shaped by practical experience of-and the debate about-the rising number of disasters, growing urbanization, and changing climatic conditions. In this context, climate change is shown as driving an urban pro-poor adaptation agenda, which could allow current shortcomings in urban risk reduction to be overcome. However, as past lessons in disaster risk management are rarely considered, any potential for improvement remains untapped. Possible ways of rectifying this situation are discussed, and a comprehensive framework for the reduction of both disaster and climate risks is presented.

The purpose of this paper is to advance the dialogue between the disaster risk reduction (DRR) and adaptation community by investigating their differences, similarities and potential synergies. The paper examines how DRR and adaptation can inform development to tackle the underlying drivers of disaster risk.

Based on a risk-based approach to the management of climate variability and change, the paper draws from a critical review of the literature on DRR and adaptation. The study finds that known and emerging risk from disasters continues to increase dramatically in many parts of the world, and that climate change is a key driver behind it. The authors also find that underlying causes of social vulnerability are still not adequately addressed in policy or practice. Linking DRR and adaptation is also complicated by different purposes and perspectives, fragmented knowledge, institutions and policy and poor stakeholder coordination.

The author’s analysis suggests that future work in DRR and adaptation should put a much greater emphasis on reducing vulnerability to environmental hazards, if there is truly a desire to tackle the underlying drivers of disaster and climate risks.

This will require coherent political action on DRR and adaptation aimed at addressing faulty development processes that are the main causes of growing vulnerability. The study concludes with a first look on the new Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and how it aims to connect with adaptation and development.

Community perception of climate change is a factor in increasing local awareness of climate disaster risk. This encourages more disaster risk reduction actions by the communities themselves, and thus, provides a driver for sustainable community disaster risk management (DRM) initiatives. Using these hypotheses, this chapter assesses whether the communities’ climate change perceptions, awareness of climate hazardous risk, and subsequent actions on DRR enable local DRM capacity to reduce the increasing climate disaster risk. The study conducts household surveys with an original questionnaire in four communities in Cartago City, Costa Rica.

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).

Multi-risk environments pose challenges for rural and coastal communities in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly with regard to disaster risk management and climate change adaptation strategies. While much research has been published on disaster response and recovery for specific climate-related hazards in the region, such as cyclones, floods and droughts, there is a growing need for insight into how communities respond, recover and adapt to the multiple, intersecting risks posed by environmental, societal and economic change. This chapter frames the body of new research presented in this book from the perspective of multi-risk environments, paying particular attention to concepts central to the disaster response and recovery cycle, and rejecting the notion of a distinct boundary between climate and society. Further, this introductory chapter foregrounds the importance of cultural values, power relations, Indigenous knowledge systems, local networks and community-based adaptive capacities when considering resilience, recovery and adaptation to climate-induced disasters at the community and household level. Overviews of the research presented in this book demonstrate a diverse range of responses and adaptive strategies at the local level in case studies from Solomon Islands, Fiji, Cambodia and Samoa, as well as implications for policy, planning and management.

Since independence, Malaysia has generally registered continuous economic growth and this development has brought about numerous benefits including improved social amenities and a trend toward greater urbanization of the population. Economic development in Malaysia has contributed to environmental degradation and uncontrolled physical development, especially in the urban areas. Protection of the environment has become a necessity rather than a luxury in order to maintain public health and well-being as well as to sustain the economic growth. As in most developing countries, there are many challenges facing the country, especially so in urban areas, where the human, physicochemical and biological environments are interlinked (Pereira & Komoo, 2004). One major challenge is the increasing occurrence of geological and flood-related disasters, causing property damage and high cost of maintenance as well as loss of lives, in extreme cases. In part, this is a manifestation of poor planning, and many of the problems related to hazards in urban areas are often exacerbated by human activities.