In response to Scot Phelp's comment suggesting his top 5 graduate-level disaster science books, here is the list and all of the titles are avaliable to be borrowed by library members.
Facing the Unexpected, 2001, by Kathleen J.Tierney, Michael K. Lindell and Ronald W. Perry. This book presents the wealth of information derived from disasters around the world over the past 25 years. The authors explore how these findings can improve disaster programs, identify remaining research needs, and discuss disaster within the broader context of sustainable development.
Hurricane Andrew: ethnicity, gender and sociology of disasters, 1997, edited by Walter Gillis Peacock, Hugh Gladwin and Betty Hearn Morrow. This book explores how social, economic and political factors set the stage for Hurricane Andrew by influencing who was prepared, who was hit the hardest, and who was most likely to recover. Employing unique research data the authors analyze the consequences of conflict and competition on disaster preparation, response and recovery, especially where associated with race, ethnicity and gender.
Mission improbable: using fantasy documents to tame disaster, 1999, by Lee Clarke. What happens when we must plan for massive disaster but have no experience, no clue about how to go about it? Mission Improbable enters the world of managers and experts who think they can rebuild societies after nuclear war, who think they can evacuate huge numbers of people after nuclear meltdowns, and who think they can cleanup huge oil spills. It is a world of whimsy and fantasy, a world where people have to think they can control the uncontrollable.
Resilience engineering in practice, 2011, edited by Erik Hollnagel, Jean Paries,David Woods and John Wreathall. Resilience engineering has since 2004 attracted widespread interest from industry as well as academia. Practitioners from various fields, such as aviation and air traffic management, patient safety, off-shore exploration and production, have quickly realised the potential of resilience engineering and have became early adopters.
Key readings in crisis management: systems and structures for prevention and recovery, 2006, edited by Denis Smith and Dominic Elliott. One of the first books of its kind in the subject area, this groundbreaking text brings together seminal papers in the area of crisis management and organizational theory. Covering this important field from both a theoretical and practical perspective, it features key readings from Karl Weick, Charles Perrow and many other luminaries of the field.
