Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Climate change and disaster risk management : challenges and opportunities / Madeleine C. Thomson -- A few words from Andrew W. Garcia -- Hurricane Katrina and the city of New Orleans / Andrew W. Garcia -- A brief history of flooding and flood control measures along the Mississippi River basin / Timothy M. Kusky -- The 2003 and 2007 wildfires in southern California / Jon E. Keeley, Alexandra D. Syphard, and C.J. Fotheringham -- 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 -- Drought and water in the Murray-Darling basin : from disaster policy to adaptation / Linda C. Botterill and Stephen Dovers -- After 'Black Saturday' : adapting to bushfires in a changing climate / Joshua Whittaker, John Handmer, and David John Karoly -- Cyclone Tray and the road to improving wind-resistant design / Matthew Mason, Katharine Haynes and George Walker -- Adaptation and resilience in two flood-prone Queensland communities / David King [and others] -- Windstorms, the most costly natural hazard in Europe / Uwe Ulbrich, Gregor C. Leckebush, and Markus G. Donat -- The 2003 heatwave : impacts, public health adaptation and response in France / Mathilde Pascal, Alain Le Tertre, and Karine Laaidi -- Lessons from river floods in central Europe, 1997-2010 / Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz -- Lessons learned from the North Sea flooding disaster in the Netherlands, 1953 / Pier Vellinga and Jeroen Aerts -- Adapting to drought in the West African Sahel / Simon P.J. Batterbury and Michael J. Mortimore -- The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami : Sri Lankan experience / Sam S.L. Hettiarachchi and W. Priyan S. Dias -- Recovery efforts : the case of the 2007 cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh / Bimal K. Paul and Munshi K. Rahman -- Coffee, disasters and social-ecological resilience in Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico / Hallie Eakin [and others] -- Responding to floods in the Nile basin : a case study of the 1997-1998 floods in the Upper White Nile / Marisa C. Goulden and Declan Conway -- Floods in the Yangtze River basin, China / Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz, Jiang Tong, and Su Buda -- Disasters and development / Jessica Ayers, Saleemul Huq, and Sarah Boulter -- What next? Climate change as a game-changer for policy and practice / Karen O'Brien and Thomas E. Downing -- Barriers and limits to adaptation : cautionary notes / Jon Barnett, Colette Mortreux, and W. Neil Adger -- Lessons learned for adaptation to climate change / Sarah Boulter, Jean Palutikof, and David John Karoly -- Afterword : floods, storms, fire and pestilence : disaster risk in Australia during 2010-2011 / David John Karoly and Sarah Boulter.

This volume presents eighteen case studies of natural disasters from Australia, Europe, North America and developing countries. By comparing the impacts, it seeks to identify what moves people to adapt, which adaptive activities succeed and which fail, and the underlying reasons, and the factors that determine when adaptation is required and when simply bearing the impact may be the more appropriate response. Much has been written about the theory of adaptation, and high-level, especially international, policy responses to climate change. This book aims to inform actual adaptation practice - what works, what does not, and why. It explores some of the lessons we can learn from past disasters and the adaptation that takes place after the event in preparation for the next. This volume will be especially useful for researchers and decision makers in policy and government concerned with climate change adaptation, emergency management, disaster risk reduction, environmental policy and planning.