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Exploring the Social Effects of Disasters: Causes, Consequences, and Mitigation

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International Handbook of Disaster Research
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Abstract

Disasters, both natural and human induced, have received greater attention in recent decades from scientists, policy makers, and the wider public, partly due to their increasing frequency and intensity and the growing human toll across the world and partly due to the urgent need to take diverse measures to reduce disaster risks emanating from different sources. With increasing disaster risks, social effects of disasters are also more than likely to intensify, leading to the disruption of long-established patterns of social, economic, and cultural life of people resulting from displacement, relocation, and resettlement. In this regard, the disruption of social networks, livelihoods, and social infrastructure can be critical factors. In this chapter, an attempt is made to discuss what measures are necessary to reduce and mitigate the adverse social effects of disasters resulting in the displacement of people. It is widely recognized today that disaster mitigation is a wide-ranging process that unfolds much before the onset of a major disaster and continues far beyond the immediate management of an actual disaster that has occurred. This perspective is particularly relevant in dealing with adverse social effects of disasters as these can be significantly reduced if an integrated, long-term perspective is adopted in identifying measures necessary to reduce disaster risks to families and communities, in particular, to vulnerable segments of a population such as children, the poor, and the elderly. The analysis in this chapter is largely based on the recent research experiences of the author and co-workers in investigating and documenting the impacts of several major disasters in the recent past.

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Hettige, S. (2023). Exploring the Social Effects of Disasters: Causes, Consequences, and Mitigation. In: Singh, A. (eds) International Handbook of Disaster Research. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8388-7_115

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