Reducing Disaster: Early Warning Systems For Climate Change

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Zinta Zommers, Ashbindu Singh

   Pages 1-19

3. The Impact of Climate Change on Natural Disasters

   • Sandra Banholzer, James Kossin, Simon Donner

   Pages 21-49

4. Challenges in Early Warning of the Persistent and Widespread Winter Fog over the Indo-Gangetic Plains: A Satellite Perspective

   • Ritesh Gautam

   Pages 51-61

5. Assessing Human Vulnerability to Climate Change from an Evolutionary Perspective

   • J. Ryan Hogarth, Donovan Campbell, Johanna Wandel

   Pages 63-87

6. Early Warning Systems Defined

   • Ilan Kelman, Michael H. Glantz

   Pages 89-108

7. The State of Early Warning Systems

   • Veronica Francesca Grasso

   Pages 109-125

8. Climate Change and Early Warning Systems for Wildland Fire

   • William J. de Groot, Michael D. Flannigan

   Pages 127-151

9. Climate Change Implications and Use of Early Warning Systems for Global Dust Storms

   • Lindsey M. Harriman

   Pages 153-165

10. Applications of Medium Range Probabilistic Flood Forecast for Societal Benefits: Lessons Learnt from Bangladesh

    • S. H. M. Fakhruddin

    Pages 167-183

11. Flood Forecasting and Early Warning: An Example from the UK Environment Agency

    • Janak Pathak, Richard Eastaff

    Pages 185-207

12. The Evolution of Kenya’s Drought Management System

    • James Oduor, Jeremy Swift, Izzy Birch

    Pages 209-222

13. Understanding the Warning Process Through the Lens of Practice: Emancipation as a Condition of Action–Some Lessons from France

    • Laurence Créton-Cazanave

    Pages 223-248

14. The Effect of Early Flood Warnings on Mitigation and Recovery During the 2010 Pakistan Floods

    • Ginger Turner, Farah Said, Uzma Afzal, Karen Campbell

    Pages 249-264

15. Disasters Are Gendered: What’s New?

    • Joni Seager

    Pages 265-281

16. The Ethics of Early Warning Systems for Climate Change

    • Kerry Bowman, Jeffrey Rice, Alan Warner

    Pages 283-304

17. Decadal Warning Systems

    • Doug Smith

    Pages 305-324

18. The Role of Scientific Modelling and Insurance in Providing Innovative Solutions for Managing the Risk of Natural Disasters

    • Patrick McSharry

    Pages 325-338

19. “Follow the Spiders”: Ecosystems as Early Warnings

    • Zinta Zommers

    Pages 339-353

20. Natural Hazards and Climate Change in Kenya: Minimizing the Impacts on Vulnerable Communities Through Early Warning Systems

    • Nilmi Senaratna, Marie-Ange Baudoin, Alice A. Oluoko-Odingo, Linda Ajuang, Daniel W. Wepukhulu, Ayub S. Mwadali

    Pages 355-375

Around the world, extreme weather events are becoming increasingly "the new normal" and are expected to increase in the 21st century as a result of climate change. Extreme weather events have devastating impacts on human lives and national economies. This book examines ways to protect people from hazards using early warning systems, and includes contributions from experts from four different continents representing 14 different universities, 8 government agencies and two UN agencies. Chapters detail critical components of early warning systems, ways to identify vulnerable communities, predict hazards and deliver information. Unique satellite images illustrate the transnational impact of disasters, while case studies provide detailed examples of warning systems. With contributors from the fields of economics, ethics, meteorology, geography and biology, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in disaster risk reduction or climate change.

• climate change
• disasters
• early warning systems

• Division of Early Warning and Assessment, United Nations Environment Programme, Washington, DC, USA

  Ashbindu Singh

• Division of Early Warning and Assessment, United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya

  Zinta Zommers

Ashbindu Singh has 30 years of work experience: 13 years working with the Indian Forest Service in various capacities at local, provincial and national levels and over 17 years with UNEP in different parts of the world. He has over 100 publications including 35 UNEP reports, in peer reviewed scientific journals and conferences, on various environmental issues. Findings of his research work are extensive referred by the scientific community and those involved in the environmental policy formulations. The team under his direction has produced highly influential reports on various environmental issues including global forests, threats to freshwater, coastal vulnerability, linkage between environment and health, environmental conflicts , transboundary air pollutants, biodiversity and UNEP’s best selling publication “One Planet many people: Atlas of our changing environment” His current interest focuses on how to bridge the gap between science and policy and applications and communication of earth observations technologies for environmental assessment and monitoring. As a Commonwealth and Rhodes scholar, Zinta is currently pursuing a DPhil in Zoology with the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford. She has been working with the United Nations Environment Programme as a coordinating lead author of the Global Environment Outlook Report, UNEP's flagship state of the environment report. In her research, Zinta has also explored the interaction between human and natural worlds and the impact of this complex relationship on wildlife. Much of her work has focused on great apes.

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