Various natural and man-made hazards are nowadays increasingly considered as disasters, particularly by individual and communities are lacking in awareness and where a system as a whole has no adequate management mechanism. Consequently, the world is facing serious negative outcome in form of loss of life, injury, disability, loss of property, infrastructure, and economic disruption followed by psycho-social disorders. Other than this, disasters adversely affect wildlife and environment in long terms. Developing countries are worst sufferers as these regions are poorly prepared for potential hazards at one hand and are exposed to disasters due to the complexity of (socio-cultural, economic and physical) vulnerability. Government, World communities, NGOs are recognizing the problems and are trying to build resilient communities to reduce disaster impact at various levels.
Year 1990-99 was observed as the decade for natural disaster reduction by United Nations (UN) and United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) was established to support and coordinate this movement. Year 2015 has been very important in the history as three global agreements have been signed by global communities (Sustainable development goals, Paris agreement and Sendai framework for DRR). Where, SDGs are extension of MDGs to make the planet more sustainable. It proposed 17 goals and 15 years' time frame adopted in the year 2015. SDGs target various social, cultural, economic, challenges followed by wildlife, environmental protection through knowledge share and technological innovation among all member countries. In December 2015, UNFCCC reached a landmark agreement to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future known as Paris agreement. Sendai Framework 2015 is voluntary, non-binding agreement which recognizes that the state has the primary role to reduce disasterrisk but that responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders including local government, the private sector and other stakeholders. This framework focuses on the pre-disaster management rather than post disaster relief and recovery.
This book is an insight into the various issues related to the emerging disasters (both natural and man-made), vulnerable communities, and government initiatives taken with a geographical focus on India. This volume contains selected chapters written by faculty and research scholars. This book is an empirical work on disasters vulnerabilities and management which will benefit researchers, academicians, professional, practitioners and policy makers.