Coordinator research program Disasters and Environmental Hazards; endowed professor 'Crises, safety and health', University of Groningen, the Netherlands
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Towards resilient organisation of recovery and care after disaster.
Dückers, M., Rooze, M., Alexander, D. Towards resilient organisation of recovery and care after disaster. In: Bierens, J.J.L.M. Drowning: prevention, rescue, treatment. Berlijn: Springer. (2014) p. 1033-1038.
It is sometimes said that ‘water comes in three kinds: too little (drought), too much (floods) or too dirty (polluted)’. Floods are the most widespread disaster on land and can be generated by excessive precipitation coupled with saturation of the ground, very rapid rainfall which generates flash floods, rapid snowmelt, storm surges, tsunamis, the breaching of volcanic crater lakes or anthropogenic causes such as dam bursts. The devastating power of water necessitates precautionary and protective measures. Examples of risk assessment, spatial planning, capacity management and specific lessons drawn from past disasters are described elsewhere in this book. While emphasising their relevance, in this section we consider what happens after protective barriers fail and floods occur.
It is sometimes said that ‘water comes in three kinds: too little (drought), too much (floods) or too dirty (polluted)’. Floods are the most widespread disaster on land and can be generated by excessive precipitation coupled with saturation of the ground, very rapid rainfall which generates flash floods, rapid snowmelt, storm surges, tsunamis, the breaching of volcanic crater lakes or anthropogenic causes such as dam bursts. The devastating power of water necessitates precautionary and protective measures. Examples of risk assessment, spatial planning, capacity management and specific lessons drawn from past disasters are described elsewhere in this book. While emphasising their relevance, in this section we consider what happens after protective barriers fail and floods occur.