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<br /> <br />A """,""00'''0 """ ~",,,,,h,, C"he,," WI,,,, """ <br />sociologist J. EllgCflC Haas puhlished J pioneering report on the nation's ahility to \vithstanJ and respond to <br />naLura] disasters. At that time, resl'<Jrch OIl disasters \Vas dominated by physical scientists and engineers. As <br />\Vllite and Ha..1S pointed out in lhejr Assessmelll of nesearcl1 OJl Natural Hazards, little attempt had been <br />made to tap the social scicnces to lJf'ttN understand the economic, social. and political ramifications of <br />extreme naturalevl'nls. <br />\Vhite and Haas attempted to lilllhis void. But they also advanced the critical notion that rather than <br />simply picking up the pieces after disasters, the nation could employ betln planning, land-lIse controls, and <br />other preventive amJ mitigation rneasllft's to reduce the toll in the first place. 'I(')flay, at long last. public and <br />private programs and policies have hegun to adopt mitigation as the cornerstone of the nation's upproach to <br />addressing natural ami technological ha7.ards. <br />The 1975 report also had a profouml impact hy p~l\'ing the way for an inlerdisciplinary approach to <br />research ;-lnd management. giving birth to a "ha7ards con1I11unity"-people from man)' fields and agencies <br />who address the myriad aspects of natural disasters, Ilazards research now encompasses disciplines such as <br /> <br />climatology, economics, engim'('ring, gcography. geology, law, meteorology. planning, seismology, and sociolo- <br />gy. Professionals in those and other lie Ids have continuetlto invcstigate how engineering projeclS. wamings, <br />land-use management, planning for response and reco\'er)', insurance, and building codes can help individu- <br />als and groups adapt to natural hal.ards, as well as reduce the resulting deaths, injuries, costs, and social, <br />cJlvironmental, and economic disruption. These dedicated people have greatly improved our understanding <br />of the physical processes underlying n<ltural hal.ards amllhc complexities of social decision making llt.[orc, <br />during. and arler disasters. Yet troubling questions remain ahout why more progress has not bccll made in <br />reducing dollar losses. <br />One central problem is thaI many of the acccpted methods for coping with hel'l_ards have heen based on <br />the idea that people can use tcdHlolngy to control nature to make thl'lllsl'ln's safe. \Vhat's more, most <br />strategies for managing hazards hm-e follo\\'cd a lraditional planning model: study the problem, implement <br />one solution, and move on to the next problem. This approach casts hazards as slali<..' and mitigation as an <br />upward, positive, linear trend. <br />Hut en~nts during the past 4uarlcr-celllllry have shown that natural disasters and the technological haz- <br />ards thaI may accompany them arc not problems lhat Celll be solved in isolation. Rather, lhey arc symptoms of <br />broader and more basic prohlems. Losses from h~llanJs-and the fact that the nation cannol SCCIll to reduce <br />lhem-rcsult from shortsighted and narrow conceptions of the human relationship to thc natural environment. <br /> <br />2 <br />