Natural Disasters and Adaptation to Climate Change

Sarah Boulter is a Research Fellow with the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF), Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia where she works on synthesis and communication of adaptation research. She has been involved in the development of programmes of policy guidance development for adaptation, research programmes on historical case studies, the assessment of forest vulnerability in Australia, and as the convenor of Australia's Climate Adaptation conferences. She is a contributing author to the Australia chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report. Her research background includes studies of biodiversity and reproductive ecology of forested systems and the impacts of climate change. Jean Palutikof is the Director of the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF), Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia. At NCCARF, she has built a national programme of adaptation research, communication and partnerships. Her work at NCCARF has convinced her of the need for case studies of good practice in adaptation action, to build adaptive capacity and knowledge amongst decision makers. Such good practice examples are hard to come by - hence this book, which seeks to extrapolate from responses to natural hazards to understand the perils and pitfalls around adapting to climate change. Prior to joining NCCARF, Professor Palutikof managed the production of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report for Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability), while based at the UK Met Office. Prior to joining the Met Office, she was a Professor at the School of Environmental Sciences and Director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. Her research interests focus on climate change impacts and adaptation, and the application of climatic data to economic and planning issues. David John Karoly is Professor of Climate Science in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He is an internationally recognised expert in climate change and climate variability, including greenhouse climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion and interannual climate variations due to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. He was heavily involved in preparation of the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC. He joined the University of Melbourne in 2007 as an ARC Federation Fellow funded by the Australian Government. He is a member of the new Climate Change Authority in Australia, the Science Advisory Panel to the Australian Climate Commission and the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. Daniela Guitart is an environmental scientist working at the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF), Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia. At NCCARF she coordinates the Adaptation Research Network activities and manages the production of information tools that communicate climate change adaptation research. Prior to joining NCCARF, she was conducting research on community-based urban agriculture, and its contribution to food security and the conservation of agricultural biodiversity.

Part I. Case Studies from North America: 1. Introduction Jean Palutikof, David John Karoly, Sarah Boulter and Daniela Guitart; 2. Climate change and disaster risk management: challenges and opportunities Madeleine C. Thomson; 3. Hurricane Katrina and the city of New Orleans Andrew W. Garcia; 4. A brief history of flooding and flood control measures along the Mississippi river basin, USA Timothy M. Kusky; 5. The 2003 and 2007 wildfires in southern California Jon E. Keeley, Alexandra D. Syphard and C. J. Fotheringham; 6. Adapting to extreme heat events: thirty years of lessons learned from the Kansas City, Missouri, extreme heat program David M. Mills and William D. Snook; Part II. Case Studies from Australia: 7. Drought and water in the Murray-Darling Basin: from disaster policy to adaptation Linda C. Botterill and Stephen Dovers; 8. After 'Black Saturday': adapting to bushfires in a changing climate Joshua Whittaker, John Handmer and David John Karoly; 9. Cyclone Tracy and the road to improving wind resistant design Matthew Mason, Katharine Haynes and George Walker; 10. Adaptation and resilience in two flood prone Queensland communities David King, Armando Apan, Diane Keogh and Melanie Thomas; Part III. Case Studies from Europe: 11. The most costly natural hazard in Europe: windstorms Uwe Ulbrich, Gregor C. Leckebusch and Markus G. Donat; 12. The 2003 heat wave: impacts, public health adaptation, and response in France Mathilde Pascal, Alain Le Tertre and Karine Laaidi; 13. Lessons from river floods in central Europe, 1997–2010 Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz; 14. Lessons learned from the North Sea flooding disaster in the Netherlands, 1953 Pier Vellinga and Jeroen Aerts; Part IV. Case Studies from the Developing World: 15. Adapting to drought in the West African Sahel Simon P. J. Batterbury and Michael J. Mortimore; 16. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami: Sri Lankan experience Sam S. L. Hettiarachchi and W. Priyan S. Dias; 17. Recovery efforts: the case of the 2007 cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh Bimal K. Paul and Munshi K. Rahman; 18. Coffee, disasters, and social-ecological resilience in Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico Hallie Eakin, Helda Morales, Edwin Castellanos, Gustavo Cruz-Bello and Juan F. Barrera; 19. Responding to floods in the Nile Basin: a case study of the 1997/98 floods in the Upper White Nile Marisa C. Goulden and Declan Conway; 20. Floods in the Yangtze river basin, China Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz, Jiang Tong and Su Buda; Part V. Synthesis Chapters: 21. Disasters and development Jessica Ayers, Saleemul Huq and Sarah Boulter; 22. What next? Climate change as a game-changer for policy and practice Karen O'Brien and Thomas E. Downing; 23. Barriers and limits to adaptation: cautionary notes Jon Barnett, Colette Mortreux and W. Neil Adger; 24. Lessons learned for adaptation to climate change S. Boulter, J. Palutikof and D. Karoly; 25. Afterword: floods, storms, fire, and pestilence - disaster risk in Australia during 2010/11 D. Karoly and S. Boulter.