sCHOOL OF PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

 
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News and

Current and Recent Projects

 

Stafford Act Implementation Study

I am part of a team of scholars led by a group at the University of New Orleans, looking at how the implementation of the Stafford Act--the main federal law governing disaster response--aided or hindered recovery in New Orleans and in southern Louisiana and Mississippi. Our results are preliminary, but we have already learned valuable lessons, including, in particular, about the incoherent and inconsistent federal policies that are designed to aid in medium- to long-term recovery. We are learning that current policies are often a patchwork of separate policies, many of which were not intended to support a coherent process of disaster recovery. As our research progresses, we will develop recommendations for federal policy change.

 
 
   

New!! Book Series on Environmental Hazards

I am pleased to announce that Springer has launched a new book series, "Environmental Hazards," for which I am series editor, with help from a distinguished international panel of scholars.

Our editorial team is inviting authors to submit manuscripts that:

  • bring new knowledge and insights to matters of hazards, risk, and disasters
  • integrate knowledge from natural sciences, social sciences, engineering, and other disciplines
  • consider natural, technological, social, and intentional hazards and disasters
  • are useful and accessible to a broad range of readers in academia, in government, and in nongovernmental organizations and the private sector.

Please feel free to email me at tom_birkland@ncsu.edu for details and to discuss your project . To see a more complete flyer announcing this series, with instructions for submitting proposals or manuscripts, please click here. The book proposal form is here.

 
       
   

Enabling the Next Generation of Hazards and Disasters Researchers

I am extremely that this project is off and running after a very successful opening workshop held in July in Broomfield, Colorado, at the Broomfield Omni Hotel and Resort, the same location as the annual Natural Hazards Workshop. Many fellows in this program were able to stay for the Natural Hazards Workshop and, by all accounts, those who attended found both workshops inspiring and instructive. Follow the progress of our fellows and of this, the third iteration of this very successful training and mentoring project, at www.ncsu.edu/projects/nextgen