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7.1 Introduction
Natural hazards pose significant threats to the long-term sustainability of human
settlements, as major events can overcome measures put in place to increase resilience, and can destroy the ability of socio-cultural systems to recover (Mino et al.
2016). Thus, how to prepare and manage natural disasters are two crucial topics for
sustainability scientists, given that the very essence of sustainability science is to
examine the long-term links between human life, well-being, and the environmental
systems on which they are based. An event such as a landslide or an earthquake that
occurs in a remote area and does not impact human life is considered merely a natural event, not a hazard or disaster. Such natural events are not included within the
subject matters of sustainability science (at least in the narrow interpretation), and
thus are excluded from consideration in this chapter.
When thinking about natural hazards, it is important to keep in mind that these
events tend to repeat themselves at regular intervals, based on atmospheric or geological criteria that have a range of time spans (depending on the geographical location and nature of the hazard). The scale of the area and timelines involved can vary
significantly, and humans (both individually and as a society) make conscious and
unconscious calculations about such issues when designing socio-economic systems. The issue of hazard preparedness is thus clearly important, and the types of
countermeasures, actors or stakeholders involved, and person(s) in charge of these
measures will significantly differ depending on the type of disaster, level of development, and other characteristics of a given society.
For example, considering adaptation measures to the impacts of long-term climate change and “normal natural disasters” (which occur even without humaninduced climate change) requires a different type of discourse; that is, they require
a different “framing”, especially concerning responsibility and the causes of the
event (see for example Yamamoto and Esteban 2014). Other examples include
building river dikes in preparation for the scale of heavy rains that may occur once
in 50 years, constructing seawalls that anticipate a major tsunami that may occur
once every 1000 years, and preparing for a volcanic eruption that can take place
once in every 10,000 years and cover a huge area with its lava flow. These examples
are framed differently and hence require different principles and processing for
developing preventive measures and emergency plans.
Essentially, in the present chapter the authors argue that, when it comes to largescale natural hazards, human societies tend to think in three different time scales
(see Table 7.1). The first of these involves the largest scale event that is likely to take
place during the life of one individual (i.e. individuals often think that they should
prepare against it, as it is something that they can expect will happen during their
own lifetime). The second relates to the largest scale event that can be thought possible in the course of that individual’s civilization, and typically encompasses looking at time frames of hundreds to thousands of years. In this case the time scales
used by different countries may differ significantly, depending on the length of their
history and the quality of historical records and geological evidence. For example,
M. Esteban et al.
7.1 Introduction
Natural hazards pose significant threats to the long-term sustainability of human
settlements, as major events can overcome measures put in place to increase resilience, and can destroy the ability of socio-cultural systems to recover (Mino et al.
2016). Thus, how to prepare and manage natural disasters are two crucial topics for
sustainability scientists, given that the very essence of sustainability science is to
examine the long-term links between human life, well-being, and the environmental
systems on which they are based. An event such as a landslide or an earthquake that
occurs in a remote area and does not impact human life is considered merely a natural event, not a hazard or disaster. Such natural events are not included within the
subject matters of sustainability science (at least in the narrow interpretation), and
thus are excluded from consideration in this chapter.
When thinking about natural hazards, it is important to keep in mind that these
events tend to repeat themselves at regular intervals, based on atmospheric or geological criteria that have a range of time spans (depending on the geographical location and nature of the hazard). The scale of the area and timelines involved can vary
significantly, and humans (both individually and as a society) make conscious and
unconscious calculations about such issues when designing socio-economic systems. The issue of hazard preparedness is thus clearly important, and the types of
countermeasures, actors or stakeholders involved, and person(s) in charge of these
measures will significantly differ depending on the type of disaster, level of development, and other characteristics of a given society.
For example, considering adaptation measures to the impacts of long-term climate change and “normal natural disasters” (which occur even without humaninduced climate change) requires a different type of discourse; that is, they require
a different “framing”, especially concerning responsibility and the causes of the
event (see for example Yamamoto and Esteban 2014). Other examples include
building river dikes in preparation for the scale of heavy rains that may occur once
in 50 years, constructing seawalls that anticipate a major tsunami that may occur
once every 1000 years, and preparing for a volcanic eruption that can take place
once in every 10,000 years and cover a huge area with its lava flow. These examples
are framed differently and hence require different principles and processing for
developing preventive measures and emergency plans.
Essentially, in the present chapter the authors argue that, when it comes to largescale natural hazards, human societies tend to think in three different time scales
(see Table 7.1). The first of these involves the largest scale event that is likely to take
place during the life of one individual (i.e. individuals often think that they should
prepare against it, as it is something that they can expect will happen during their
own lifetime). The second relates to the largest scale event that can be thought possible in the course of that individual’s civilization, and typically encompasses looking at time frames of hundreds to thousands of years. In this case the time scales
used by different countries may differ significantly, depending on the length of their
history and the quality of historical records and geological evidence. For example,
M. Esteban et al.