Anecdotal accounts and media stories about poor birth outcomes following a
major disaster have as yet not been verified in an academic context, especially
for the United States. If this relationship is true, the implications are that a
population already disproportionately affected by a disaster might continue
to suffer for literally years to come. The potential for this disproportionate
disaster legacy is no better illustrated than in the landscapes of post
Hurricane Katrina and Rita in Louisiana. In order to gain insight into whether
such a problem may exist for Louisiana, and by extension...

GIS, Human Geography, and Disasters is about people and places impacted by disasters. As geographers we emphasize the spatial, using maps to more fully understand the social processes at work. Topics covered include, "Social" GIS and disasters, spatial comparisons between disasters, spatial patterns in social and health vulnerability, post-disaster health, and neighborhood scale recovery. The book draws heavily from our ongoing experiences with Hurricane Katrina. However, we have written this book in such a way that instructors need not have personal experience with these events; nor...