Sharing Environmental Risks: How to Control Governments' Losses in Natural Disasters.

• Author: Casey, Joseph P.

Recent natural disasters have demonstrated the public sector's vulnerability to natural hazards. It is estimated that state and local governments lose $1 billion annually as a result of damages to public facilities from such disasters, which are minimally covered by insurance or disaster assistance from the federal government.

The book identifies four options to address environmental risk: react to disasters through available resources; risk elimination or risk reduction by relocating infrastructure away from highly vulnerable locations or by redesigning existing infrastructure; or transfer risk to other levels of government, to the private sector or through additional insurance coverage.

Environmental risk assessment and policy formulation should be assigned to the department responsible for risk management. According to Burby, current state and local policies are lacking in three areas: costs containment, incentives for governments to prevent or minimize loss and equal criteria among governments to define the need for aid.

The intergovernmental issues in assumption of responsibility and financial assistance are addressed in the book, including the history of the federal disaster relief policy. All of the existing disaster relief acts are identified and explained in a concise manner, and the book provides a candid interpretation of the policies and intentions of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The focus of the book is centered around local governments and their dilemma referred to as the "land-use management paradox," which states that, until exposure to losses in natural disasters becomes serious, policy approaches to hazard mitigation (e.g., building standards and zoning) lack sufficient political priority to be enacted. It is noted that, even when localities have adopted regulatory approaches to reduce risk associated with new infrastructure, this does not reduce the potential risk associated with existing development.

More than 130 natural disasters were studied, concentrating on developing policy options and identifying constraints for being proactive as well as reactive to a disaster. There are varying degrees to which natural hazards impede the ability of infrastructure to function properly in a locality and in which a locality can provide relief and remedy the infrastructure.

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