Disasters by Design

"Disasters by Design" by Dennis Mileti

In 1994 the NSF commissioned a disaster study to explore how to go beyond mitigation toward a more resilient way of life, one that rolls with nature's punches and returns to normalcy quickly. Under the name "sustainable hazard mitigation," that vision is the central concept of "Disasters By Design."

The first two chapters flesh out what sustainable hazard mitigation means. Chapter 1 puts it in familiar terms, if "sustainability" is in your vocabulary. It means living politically the way we live personally, in ways our descendants won't end up paying for.



Chapter 2 brings the concept to life with specific scenarios for real cities. One involves a severe flood in Boulder, Colorado, that tests the current system of culverts and greenbelts and arouses the citizens to improve their readiness for the next flood. Another scenario involves San Francisco, which undertakes a deep civic makeover, knowing that the next great earthquake there is inevitable. Both cities gain benefits beyond the insurance their new policies provide—the people and their institutions are stronger, and wealthier too.

Once those stories fire your appetite to try something like that where you live, there is plenty of hard information in the rest of the book, aimed at nonspecialists. I have little doubt that President Clinton learned from Disasters By Design, and if you're looking for what to do beyond stockpiling water and batteries, you'll take inspiration from it too. Dennis Mileti told me not long ago that this was the National Acadamy's most popular title. It was out of print for a while, but is available again in hard copy and PDF.

PS: To dig deeper into disaster research, you might start with the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado. There, among other things, you can read the Disaster Research newsletter or the excellent peer-reviewed journal Natural Hazards Informer, with lucid articles about flood-control planning and earthquake education.

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