Individual and Societal Responses to Natural Hazards

摘要

In spite of a vast and growing body of literature devoted to the 'wise' and 'rational' development, use and management of lands subject to floods, fires, droughts, erosion, landslides, hurricanes, typhoons and earthquakes, we continue to observe the opposite. People continue to build and live on lands subject to natural hazards. People develop and live on floodplains along rivers. They construct and occupy homes on coastal lands bordering seas and oceans, in forests, and on the tops of unstable cliffs. They live on geologic faults in regions subject to earthquakes. People do these things even at the risk of their property being flooded, burned, eroded or damaged, if not totally destroyed in other ways. Observe, for example, the strong desire expressed by many, who lived in New Orleans, to restore and rebuild their homes and property, even though they know they can suddenly lose everything from just one big storm. Development in hazardous regions continues. Damages caused by natural hazards continue to increase, despite increased investments in hazard protection and mitigation (Cutter and Emrich 2005; Downton et al. 2005; Pielke et al. 2002). Why?