Book Review: Climate and Disaster Resilience in Cities
eds Rajib Shaw and Anshu Sharma
Emerald Books
ISBN 978-0-85724-319-5
287 pages

Resilience is one of those words – like “sustainable” and “green” – that is losing its meaning through constant fudging and smudging. So although I was keen to read this, I was braced for disappointment. Needlessly, so, since this is a very good collection of articles indeed.

Emerald Books’ “Community, Environment and Disaster Risk Management” series “connects academic research to field practice, strengthening the links between the environment, disaster, and community.” This specific book, volume six in the series, sets out to “show how to enhance actions at local levels, and how … plans can be implemented through multi-stakeholder collaboration.”

The fourteen brief chapters (all of which appeared as journal articles) fall into four categories. The first two give an overview of urban development and resilience. The next four look at implementation of the Climate and Disaster Resilience Initiative (CDRI) from nation to city level. The next five chapters look at action planning and – dread phrase – ‘capacity building’, with the final chapters examining at risk communication and future challenges. All focus on the “developing world (largely Asia), but the concepts and implications are, I believe, universal.

The chapters that will be most of interest to people looking to build social networks, and engage critically but constructively with local authorities and the like will be chapter 6 “Climate and Disaster Resilience Mapping at Micro-level of Cities” and Chapter 8 “From Resilience Mapping to Action Planning.” Meanwhile, Eiko Wataya’s “Capacity Development and Training: Blended Learning Program” (Ch 10) is a rich vein of insights and concepts for anyone (like the present reviewer) looking to increase the depth and breadth of relevant skills and knowledge in order to improve a city’s response.

The authors note in their overview, there is an “insidious risk, often ignored, of continuing disaster: of communities maintained in poverty by the constant setback of ongoing disasters.” All surplus resources (time, money, enthusiasm etc) that could be used to nurture communities so they were better able to bounce back from future knocks is instead spent coping with today’s disaster (the contrast they make is between “shocks” and “stresses.”) As a friend says “If you spend all your time fighting the alligators, it’s easy to forget that you came with the intention of draining the swamp.”

Every academic library should, imho, have (at least) one copy of this book. Every serious academic, policy maker or activist who is interested in how societies might become clever and “tough” enough to cope with the firestorms this species seems determined to bring down itself should read with care. That care will be rewarded..

Marc Hudson
mcmonthly@gmail.com