This document addresses preparedness as an important investment against natural and man-made disasters. Through good practices, it urges the humanitarian community, governments and regional bodies to use preparedness thinking to be aware of risks, to reduce them and to plan ahead to combat them in order to respond more effectively and reduce the threat of […]

The Water and Nature Initiative’s (WANI) latest toolkit publication provides an overview of the world’s shared water resources and insights for managing these resources. Using case studies from around the world, it describes the benefits to be gained from cooperation and the challenges of constructing legal frameworks, institutions, management processes and financing, and partnership strategies […]

This text brings together meteorology and the theory of glacier flow, providing a fundamental understanding of how glaciers respond to climate change. Attention is paid to the microclimate of glaciers and the physical processes regulating the exchange of energy and mass between glacier surface and atmosphere.

This book provides a thorough, updated account of glaciers and ice sheets as monitors and indicators of environmental change. It examines the record of environmental change within glaciers and ice sheets, and that of past environments left by retreating glaciers. These themes are examined within the context of environmental change in general and global climate […]

This publication is a joint effort of the Global Network of NGOs for Disaster Risk Reduction, an emerging network of national and international NGOs aiming to reduce disaster risk worldwide. The idea of publishing a compilation of good practices in Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction (CBDRR) has come out from a consultative meeting held with the […]

This book gives a brief description of the Aral sea until 1960 when the sea started dying out. For the first time it presents the chronological study, development and attempts made in the conservation and rehabilitation of the Aral sea.

The book describes a history of IFAS formation, its structural organizations in the founder-countries and their activities for 10 years. There are all materials of the sessions of the Heads of the states in the various cities of Central Asia, the questions considered by them connected to Aral Sea crisis and accepted measures on mitigation […]

This book explores how climate change and disaster risks threaten human security in Asia. Climate change and disaster risks have emerged as major human security challenges in the twenty-first century, and are an imminent “threat multiplier” with the potential to harm the vital core of human life and curtail people’s freedom and ability to live […]

No other natural phenomenon has the tremendous destructive power of a large earthquake, a power which is rivaled only by a large scale war. An earth­ quake in a highly industrialized region is capable of adversely affecting the econ­ omy of the whole world for several years. But another motivation is cognitive. The aim of […]

From a physical perspective, it examines the complex interplay between climate and the high-mountain cryosphere, with further chapters covering tectonics, volcano-ice interactions, hydrology, slope stability, erosion, ecosystems, and glacier- and snow-related hazards. Societal dimensions, both global and local, of high-mountain cryospheric change are also explored. The book offers unique perspectives on high-mountain cultures, livelihoods, governance […]

The occurrence of seismic events in glaciers has been an issue in the scientific literature since the early 1950s, following the report about icequakes in Baffin Island. Targeted seismological studies were undertaken by the Polish Expedition to Spitsbergen in 1962 and then continued at various glaciers in the Arctic, Antarctic and the Alps. The author […]

This book presents the latest findings from scientific research on climate variation, climate change and their links with disaster risk management. It showcases projects and other initiatives in this field that are being undertaken in both industrialised and developing countries, by universities and scientific institutions, government bodies, national and international agencies, NGOs and other stakeholders. […]