Integrating environmental safeguards into disaster management : a field manual. Volume 1 : reference material

Increasing incidence and intensity of natural disasters and climate change are having over-arching impacts on the environment. Sustainable development is being undermined. Ecological services and their indirect economic values are frequently omitted from assessments. Mainstreaming ecosystem concerns – both ecological and economical – and integrating them into disaster management is essential. This multi-volume manual attempts to provide background information and guidance for integrating environmental concerns into disaster management. Volume 1 briefly describes the framework of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) which links ecosystem well-being to human well-being, and presents the major threats imposed by human activities to services that ecosystems provide. It gives views of ecosystem and human well-being in Asia and a brief overview of selected ecosystems in the region. Climate change and its impacts on natural disasters are also discussed.Climate change and its impacts on natural disasters is also discussed.