Flood Hazards and Health Responding to Present and Future Risks

About this book

Examines flooding in the context of climate change.

Flood Hazards and Health provides the first detailed discussion of the global health risk from floods within the context of climate change. The book combines an analysis of the human health impacts of flooding with analysis of individual and societal response to those risks, in light of the potential future increases in flood hazard as a result of climate change. Analysis is rooted in a social science approach to hazards and disaster research and emphasizes the developmental as well as environmental causes of flood risk and the socially differentiated nature of vulnerability and coping capacity. The first part of the book sets out the scope of the issues and provides a global overview of flooding, health risk and responses, a summary of current and future global flood risk, human vulnerability to floods and processes of response and adaptation to environmental hazards and a detailed discussion of the health impacts of floods and the nature of human response to the health risks posed. The second part covers specific health aspects of floods - mental health, water and sanitation, health systems and local level response - offering an in-depth empirical examination of the evidence and drawing on material from Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. The conclusion draws out implications and recommendations for present and future adaptation to the coming climate induced risk of floods.

Written in an accessible, jargon-free style: ideal for policy-makers, students and the general reader alike.

Contents

Introduction * Flood Hazards, Vulnerability and Risk Reduction * The Health Impacts of Floods * Responses to the Health Risks from Flooding *The Mental Health Aspects of Floods: Evidence from England and Wales * The Mozambique Floods of 2000: Health Impact and Response * Coping with Floods in the Mekong Delta, Viet Nam * Flooding in the US: Responses from Government and the Medical and Public Health Sectors * Flood Hazards and Health: Implications for Action and Research *

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Biography

Roger Few is Senior Research Fellow in the School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, UK, an Affiliated Researcher of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, and an ESRC Research Fellow on climatic hazards, health risk and response in developing countries. Franziska Matthies is a Visiting Fellow at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, an Assistant Professor at the Department for International Health at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Research Analyst for the German Advisory Council on Global Change to the Federal Government.