Description:
Urban Disasters and Resilience in Asia presents the latest information on the intensity and frequency of disasters. Specifically, the fact that, in urban areas, more than 50% of the world's population is living on just 2% of the land surface, with most of these cities located in Asia and developing countries that have high vulnerability and intensification.
The book offers an in-depth and multidisciplinary approach to reducing the impact of disasters by examining specific evidence from events in these areas that can be used to develop best practices and increase urban resilience worldwide.
As urban resilience is largely a function of resilient and resourceful citizens, building cities which are more resilient internally and externally can lead to more productive economic returns. In an era of rapid urbanization and increasing disaster risks and vulnerabilities in Asian cities, Urban Disasters and Resilience in Asia is an invaluable tool for policy makers, researchers, and practitioners working in both public and private sectors.
Brief description: Gulsan Ara Parvin is researcher in the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies of Kyoto University, Japan. She has 12 years of teaching and research experience at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). She was an Associate Professor in the Urban and Regional Planning Department of BUET. Dr. Parvin was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to conduct research at Kyoto University from 2007 to 2010. She obtained her Ph.D degree from the Urban Engineering Department of the University of Tokyo in 2003 and M.Sc degree from Agriculture Conservation and Rural Development Program of Asian Institute of Technology in 1999. She acquired her BURP degree from Khulna University, Bangladesh. She has several publications in international journals and journals. Her research interests mostly concentrate on community development, vulnerability and disaster management for the poor, climate change impact and adaptation, women's empowerment, and the role of NGOs.
Review Quotes:
"Westerners in particular have much to learn from a book with the words 'Asia' and 'resilience' in the title...As the career paths of security personnel become increasingly unpredictable, it will do no harm to sample the flavors of urban disasters and resilience offered in this book." --Security Management