Early Warning Systems for Natural Disaster Reduction [Paperback]

Written for a broad audience this book offers a comprehensive account of early warning systems for hydro meteorological disasters such as floods and storms, and for geological disasters such as earthquakes. One major theme is the increasingly important role in early warning systems played by the rapidly evolving fields of space and information technology. The authors, all experts in their respective fields, offer a comprehensive and in-depth insight into the current and future perspectives for early warning systems. The text is aimed at decision-makers in the political arena, scientists, engineers and those responsible for public communication and dissemination of warnings.This volume is the result of the International IDNDR-Conference on Early Warning Systems for the Reduction of Natural Disasters, held at the Geo? ForschungsZentrum in Potsdam, Germany from 7-11 September 1998. En? dorsed by the United Nations International Decade for Natural Disasters Reduc? tion which had been established by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1989, it was jointly organised by the GeoForschungsZentrum Pots? dam and the German IDNDR-Committee. The event brought together 370 scientists, public officials, and representatives of the United Nations system, non-governmental and international organisations and diverse professional, commercial, and civic individuals from 86 countries. Together they comprised a wide and multidisciplinary range of experience, as both providers and users of early warning and preparedness information related to natural disasters. The Potsdam Early Warning Conference represented the first major thematic com? ponent of IDNDR's concluding evaluation. It provides recommendations to en? sure disaster reduction into the 21st Century. The conference dealt with an essential goal of the decade, expressed as a ma? jor priority of the Decade's Scientific and Technical Committee. It was included in the Plan of Action adopted at the 1994 World Conference on Nl3y