Citation
Wilson, H.C. (2001), "World Disasters Report 2001: Focus on Recovery", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 10 No. 5, pp. 366-366. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2001.10.5.366.2
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
This year’s report focuses on disaster recovery and reviews how governments and humanitarian agencies have assisted disaster affected communities to recover and become more resilient to future catastrophes.
A new feature of this year is a full‐colour wall map, “Mapping the vulnerable”, which indicates, as a percentage of each country’s total population, the number of people killed and affected by disaster. Unfortunately, the reviewer cannot comment on this item as it was not included in the press package that was received.
But the rest of the book is well constructed and presented, as we have come to expect from these organisations. The report examines:
- •
The promotion of recovery from mega‐disasters in India and Bangladesh.
- •
The ecology of post‐disaster recovery.
- •
Methods to avoid “reconstructing the risk” following floods in Vietnam and mudslides in Venezuela.
- •
A methodology for social‐sector rehabilitation in post‐conflict Somalia.
- •
Root causes of hunger in Tajikistan.
- •
The role of volunteers in disasters.
Each section of the Report is well supported by reference sources and Web addresses.
Although many of the emergency management personnel in the Western world will not be presented with some of the disaster scenarios described in this report, the foundation of knowledge and innovative responses are illuminating and shows what can be done if we “think outside the box”.