Book review: Natural Disasters and Development in a Globalizing World / by Mark Pelling (Ed.). - Routledge, London, 2003. - ISBN 0-415-27957-7

This book discusses a very important planning issue which has unfortunately been neglected with devastating consequences, especially in developing countries. Several international organizations have made calls to put disaster management high on planning agendas, the first major call being the United Nation’s Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action for a Safer World launched in 1984. This call led to the 1990s being declared the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR), its focus being the application of scientific knowledge for disaster prevention. Presently, the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction has superceded the IDNDR, this new initiative showing a clear shift towards risk management and policy-making. The discussion presented in this book, illustrates such a shift in perspective.