“The best disaster response and recovery policy is advance planning, land use, and building codes to prevent a disaster from happening in the first place. Society has the experience and tools at its disposal to prevent many of the devastating impacts disasters have on humans.”
In this month’s Natural Hazards Observer (PDF), Edward A. Thomas and Sarah Bowen share compelling arguments for why communities, coastal or otherwise, must do a better job protecting people and property, and how they can best do so. In particular, they discuss what a critical role land-use decisions play in public safety, and how even they must be only a part of a larger, all-encompassing approach to disaster prevention (what they call the patchwork quilt) based in the principles of No Adverse Impact.
You can download a PDF of this month’s issue from the Natural Hazards Center’s website. Archives of past issues of the Natural Hazards Observer are also available on their site.