Dear Colleagues,

The first organized responses to the so called natural disasters were defensive structures to offer protection from the “hostile forces” of nature. Since the ambitious flood-resistant works of the ‘30s in USA the approach of structural protective measures has greatly influenced (and restricted) the strategies versus disasters. It has been feasible in the mid-20^th century owing to the trust then to science (meteorology, hydrology, engineering, computer science) and availability of capital for engineering works. This strategy of technical fix has been supported by the modeling/forecasting of extreme phenomena and emergency plans. The latter were assigned to state agencies and army crops as the only agents to ensure rehabilitation of law, order and rationality in the society.

The technical fix considered also as the adjustment to hazard approach has been criticized for its unilaterally technocratic perspective, not addressing the role of institutional and socio-economic factors increasing vulnerability to hazards and for failing to consider the repercussions of maladjustment to hazard. Since the mid ‘70s a new paradigm has gained ground, the structuralism approach: It is based on qualitative risk assessment, it questions large scale engineering schemes and advocates community based strategies to mitigate livelihood and social vulnerability.

The next paradigm shifts the emphasis from vulnerability mitigation to resilience building/enhancement. Attention is (re)directed to the adaptive capacities of social agents and their own accountability for self-protection instead of state responsibility. Uncertainty and subjectivity of contemporary risks is widely acknowledged giving birth to risk communication and risk governance approaches.

Currently all above disaster strategies co-exist as they are active in various countries and regions of the world: the engineering strategies due to their pragmatism, the social vulnerability mitigation due to their concern for equal rights to safety, the resilience strategies due to political acceptance, and finally risk governance due to respect of the right to risk information and risk multi-culturalism. The Special Issue invites contributions presenting (a) specific cases of strategies for natural disasters (at various scales) including successes/failures or catalysts/obstacles to implementation; (b) disaster experiences revealing lack of pre-disaster or flawed strategies; (c) theoretical/empirical works correlating specific hazards, socio-political, technological, cultural contexts and spatial scales with the respectively appropriate strategies.

Original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Modelling / forecasting of extreme events as background for crisis/disaster strategies;
• Emergency and preparedness planning based on warning systems;
• Sectoral plans/programs for specific emergency operations (e.g. evacuation);
• Civil Protection operating structures;
• Technology-based strategies (technical fix) for disaster risk mitigation;
• Successes and failures of flood-resistant works;
• Successes and failures of policies for anti-seismic building design and retrofitting;
• Strategies for reduction of social, economic, institutional vulnerability;
• Risk-informed development planning;
• Building community resilience to disasters;
• Strategies for livelihood resilience;
• Planning for infrastructure resilient to disasters;
• Resilient cities and urban strategies for adaptation to CC hazards;
• Spatial, land use and landscape planning for disaster risk mitigation;
• Insurance programs against disasters;
• Disaster risk information campaigns and risk communication projects;
• Disaster risk governance experiences.

Prof. Dr. Kalliopi Sapountzaki
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.