The Northridge Earthquake: Vulnerability and Disaster

This book concentrates on the social aspects of disasters, focusing on the most expensive disaster to date in US history, the Northridge earthquake of 1994. Surveying historical and contemporary facets of life in Southern California, Robert Bolin explains how vulnerability to disaster has been shaped by more than a century of immigration, urbanization, environmental transformations, and economic development. This book also provides a global view of the social effects of other recent disasters in developed and developing countries. An invaluable insight into the field, the volume discusses key considerations of sustainable development and state policy, and suggests ways that vulnerability can be reduced in the future.