At Risk: Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerability and Disasters

The term "natural disaster" is often used to refer to natural events such as earthquakes, hurricanes, or floods. However, the phrase suggests an uncritical acceptance of a deeply engrained ideological and cultural myth.At Riskquestions this myth and argues that extreme natural events are not disasters until a vulnerable group of people is exposed. This new edition ofAt Riskconfronts a further ten years of ever more expensive and deadly disasters since it was first published, and discusses disaster not as an aberration, but as a signal failure of mainstream development. Two analytical models are provided as tools for understanding vulnerability. One links remote and distant root causes to unsafe conditions in a progression of vulnerability. The other uses the concepts of access and livelihood to understand why some households are more vulnerable than others. The book then concludes with strategies to create a safer world.