This volume encompasses latest research presented on the 6th edition of the Disaster Management Conference. The research published in this book is contributed by academics and experts on public health, security and disaster management in order to assess the potential risk from various disasters and discuss ways to prevent or alleviate damage.

Today the world faces unparalleled threats from human-made disasters that can be attributed to failure of industrial and energy installation as well as to terrorism. Added to this is the unparalleled threat of emerging and re-emerging diseases, with scientists predicting events such as an influenza pandemic.

The increase in the number of large-scale natural disasters in recent years has been alarming.Major fl oods, hurricanes, earthquakes and many others have affected millions of people, with great destruction of property and loss of life, while forest fires, pipeline failures, and bombings have had equally devastating affects over a smaller scale. It is clear that future threats stem both from human failures and from terrorism, as well as from less predictable natural phenomena. The increased threats make the convening of the Second International Conference on Disaster Management and Human Health Risk important for the sharing of knowledge among experts on public health, security, and disaster management. This book contains their contributions to the conference. Topics covered will include Emergency preparedness; Risk mitigation; Natural disasters; Man-made disasters; Learning from disasters; Disaster analysis, monitoring and mitigation; Global risks and health; Pandemic and biological threats; Surveillance and early warning systems; Public health preparedness; Socio-economic issues; and Service sustainability.

As human population has continued to concentrate in urban areas, the number of people and the value of property affected by disasters, both natural and human-generated, have grown as well. Earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, cyclones, tornadoes, and forest fires have all taken their toll so have such anthropogenic disasters as pipeline failures, industrial spills, and terrorist attacks. The contents of this volume consist of papers presented at the fourth in a series of conferences convened to assess the potential risk from various disasters and discuss ways to prevent or mitigate damage. The papers have been contributed by experts on public health, security, and disaster management from academia, industry, and government. Topics covered include Disaster Analysis; Disaster Monitoring and Mitigation; Emergency Preparedness; Risk Mitigation; Risk and Security; Safety and Resilience; Socio-economic Issues; Health Risk; Human Factors; Multi-hazard Risk Assessment; Case Studies.

Disasters such as earthquakes, cyclones, floods, heat waves, nuclear accidents, and large scale pollution incidents take lives and cause exceptionally large health problems. The majority of large-scale disasters affect the most vulnerable populations, which are often comprised of people of extreme ages, in remote living areas, with endemic poverty, and with low literacy. Health-related emergency disaster risk management (Health-EDRM) [1] refers to the systematic analysis and management of health risks surrounding emergencies and disasters; it plays an important role in reducing hazards and vulnerability along with extending preparedness, response, and recovery measures. This concept encompasses risk analyses and interventions, such as accessible early warning systems, timely deployment of relief workers, and the provision of suitable drugs and medical equipment, to decrease the impact of disaster on people before, during, and after disaster events. Disaster risk profiling and interventions can be at the personal/household, community, and system/political levels; they can be targeted at specific health risks including respiratory issues caused by indoor burning, re-emergence of infectious disease due to low vaccination coverage, and gastrointestinal problems resulting from unregulated waste management. Unfortunately, there has been a major gap in the scientific literature regarding Health-EDRM. The aim of this Special Issue of IJERPH was to present papers describing/reporting the latest disaster and health risk analyses, as well as interventions for health-related disaster risk management, in an effort to address this gap and facilitate major global policies and initiatives for disaster risk reduction.

This book presents the health emergency and disaster risk management (H-EDRM) research landscape, with examples from Asia. In recent years, the intersection of health and disaster risk reduction (DRR) has emerged as an important interdisciplinary field. In several landmark UN agreements adopted in 2015–2016, including the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris climate agreement, and the New Urban Agenda (Habitat III), health is acknowledged as an inevitable outcome and a natural goal of disaster risk reduction, and the cross-over of the two fields is essential for the successful implementation of the Sendai Framework. H-EDRM has emerged as an umbrella field that encompasses emergency and disaster medicine, DRR, humanitarian response, community health resilience, and health system resilience. However, this fragmented, nascent field has yet to be developed into a coherent discipline. Key challenges include redundant research, lack of a strategic research agenda, limited development of multisectoral and interdisciplinary approaches, deficiencies in the science–policy–practice nexus, absence of standardized terminology, and insufficient coordination among stakeholders. This book provides a timely and invaluable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers, scholars, and frontline practitioners as well as policymakers from across the component domains of H-EDRM.

When communities face complex public health emergencies, state local, tribal, and territorial public health agencies must make difficult decisions regarding how to effectively respond. The public health emergency preparedness and response (PHEPR) system, with its multifaceted mission to prevent, protect against, quickly respond to, and recover from public health emergencies, is inherently complex and encompasses policies, organizations, and programs. Since the events of September 11, 2001, the United States has invested billions of dollars and immeasurable amounts of human capital to develop and enhance public health emergency preparedness and infrastructure to respond to a wide range of public health threats, including infectious diseases, natural disasters, and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear events. Despite the investments in research and the growing body of empirical literature on a range of preparedness and response capabilities and functions, there has been no national-level, comprehensive review and grading of evidence for public health emergency preparedness and response practices comparable to those utilized in medicine and other public health fields. Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response reviews the state of the evidence on PHEPR practices and the improvements necessary to move the field forward and to strengthen the PHEPR system. This publication evaluates PHEPR evidence to understand the balance of benefits and harms of PHEPR practices, with a focus on four main areas of PHEPR: engagement with and training of community-based partners to improve the outcomes of at-risk populations after public health emergencies; activation of a public health emergency operations center; communication of public health alerts and guidance to technical audiences during a public health emergency; and implementation of quarantine to reduce the spread of contagious illness.