Research
You will find a complete range of our monographs, muti-authored and edited works including peer-reviewed, original scholarly research across the social sciences and aligned disciplines. We publish long and short form research and you can browse the complete Bristol University Press and Policy Press archive.
Policy Press also publishes policy reviews and polemic work which aim to challenge policy and practice in certain fields. These books have a practitioner in mind and are practical, accessible in style, as well as being academically sound and referenced.
Books: Research
The conclusion draws up a list of points that could possibly improve the way spatial planning deals with disasters. In this context, the chapter discusses the opportunities and limitations of transferring lessons learned in one country to others. Thus, emphasis is placed on opportunities that can be jointly implemented in each of the participating countries as well as others that are tailor-made for a specific legal administrative context and offer a source of improvements for practitioners around the world. On this basis, this chapter develops elements of a new concept for change-proof cities and regions.
A series of large scale disasters has long impacted Indonesia, and the tsunami in 2004 hit the hardest. The Indonesian government has indeed accelerated its policies and activities to be better prepared and to manage the impacts of disasters. Immediately after the 2004 tsunami the Hyogo Framework for Action was adopted globally. In Indonesia a series of laws and regulations were enacted, most notably the Disaster Management Law in 2007. However, some challenges are still remaining for implementation at the local level due to the capacity of local government. This paper examines how local governments try to mainstream risks into their urban planning and policies. The cities of Semarang and Padang in Indonesia have been selected as case studies to represent coastal cities that are very vulnerable to coastal disasters. The analysis is conducted through literature review and semi-structured interviews with city government and non-government officers.
This chapter analyses the content of all chapters in Part A and develops the basis for Part B. It determines similarities and differences in the legal frameworks for spatial planning and disaster risk assessment and management. Moreover, the chapter identifies characteristic problems and bottlenecks in the practice of disaster risk management through spatial planning. A particular focus is on the recovery phase. The identified problems serve as starting points for Part B of this book.
This introduction will give a general overview of the role of spatial planning for disaster response and the related key challenges that spatial planning needs to deal with in this respect. Moreover, it will discuss the variety of the national planning cultures and related concepts and instruments. It will also introduce key terminology to the reader (e.g. spatial resilience, resilience of space) and explain the dominant methodological frameworks for disaster risk assessment and management.
Over the past several decades the Japanese government has iteratively improved institutional and legislative frameworks for risk management after major natural disasters. Recently, reducing spatial vulnerability has been emphasized and laws related to land use and disaster management acts have been refined for implementation. Nevertheless, actual risk control via land use had been limited prior to the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 (GEJE). Since Japan has relatively little residential land compared to their large population, designating hazardous areas was considered impractical and financially infeasible. In post-GEJE rebuilding, however, a paradigm shift has been observed – land use control has been strictly enforced, with an unprecedented amount of land designated as hazardous. This chapter explains the foundation of the disaster management system and land use control in Japan by introducing institutional and legislative frameworks that relate to water-related disasters.
This chapter describes in detail the project titled “Enhancement of Flood Management and Flood-protection Planning of Hornad river Basin on Territory of Slovak Republic” which was implemented by the Kosice Self-Governing Region together with other relevant partners in Eastern Slovakia. The project was the first of the necessary steps that had to be taken to build comprehensive flood-protection planning systems and flood management systems in Eastern Slovakia. Project outputs, in particular flood hazard maps and flood risk maps as well as the flood-protection action plans, enable better preparation for the floods and lead to a significant decrease of life losses and economic damages caused by the floods. It could also be used as a good practice, applicable for the whole country.
The chapter is about flood risk management through spatial planning in Germany. The first part introduces the concept of spatial planning in Germany. Section two discusses the role of spatial planning for the assessment and management of (flood) risks. The role of the Strategic Environmental Assessment for risk assessment is explained by section three. Section four discusses a severe flood event, specifically the flood in June 2013 that affected large parts of Southern and Eastern Germany. Particular emphasis will be placed on options to retreat from flood prone areas. Here, the disaster is seen as a window of opportunity to reorganize the settlement structures in sparsely populated rural areas in a more sustainable way that supports the maintenance of services of general interest. The chapter concludes with some thoughts on strength and weaknesses of spatial planning in the field of disaster risk response.
This chapter illustrates the land use planning after Mega-Disasters in four countries. First, the main contents of the spatial reconstruction plan of each country are summarized, followed by the summary of methods of planning implementation and substantive formation conditions in the affected areas and other related areas. Then, the author discusses the way of balancing the disaster preparedness and the spatial sustainability and about the reality of urban area formation in each country from a comparative approach. Finally, the ways of land use planning in the reconstruction process of each country are characterized.
The frequency of tragic major-accident hazards around the world reveals the importance to address this topic. Especially due to the fact that major-accidents are able to occur independently, but can also be triggered by natural hazards (so-called NaTech hazards) makes them hard to predict. After several major-accidents in the 1970s, the European Union issued the Seveso Directive in 1982, which was repeatedly amended and replaced. The main aim of the Seveso Directive is to prevent major-accidents that include dangerous substances and reduce the threat of such accidents if they still occur. This chapter gives an overview about the intention and content of the Seveso Directive and discusses its relevance for the field of spatial planning. It explains the implementation of the directive in Germany and illustrates its application with a practical example. The chapter finally draws a conclusion with possible points of transferability.
Worldwide, the urban development and disaster management arena finds itself at a critical crossroad. This is driven by rapid urbanization (and de-urbanization) as well as a growing volume of damage caused by natural (and un-natural) disasters, which are increasingly affecting urban and rural inhabitants. Bearing this in mind, experiences from disaster management and especially from disaster recovery have led to advances in the field and an increase in the importance of the role of spatial planning. This book brings together experiences and knowledge of spatial planning after significant disasters, and highlights on-going efforts to improve spatial resilience across the globe. One of the main goals is to understand the influence of significant disasters on spatial planning and spatial resiliency under different legal-administrative and cultural framework conditions. In part A of the book, experts from Japan, Indonesia, USA, Slovakia and Germany write about their experiences and efforts to rebuild their communities in a more resilient manner after major disasters and thus give an overview of the state of the art. Part B gives a cross-country analysis of five important topics: Transformation of spatial planning after significant disasters, efforts in building spatial resilience after disasters, coordination in building spatial resilience, participation in rebuilding space more resilient and spatial planning under uncertainty. Part B further identifies key factors that can be shared throughout the countries and can be used for building back better.
