1. Introduction: Exploring Linkages Between Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Change Adaptation, Migration and Sustainable Development

The goal of this book is to explore inter-linkages between disasters, migration, climate change and sustainable development from a number of different geographical, social and natural science angles. It is being published at a time when these topics are continuously making headlines and are subject to extensive debates and policy dialogues. The media, academia and governments are asking questions about the extent to which climate change and disasters are main drivers of migration, whether certain types of migration are causing environmental degradation and how to best facilitate human mobility that leads to positive outcomes in both the place of destination and place of origin. This book takes disaster risk reduction (DRR) as the point of departure for addressing many of the above questions and by doing so, offers a more comprehensive platform, as mobility choices are part of complex household-level livelihoods strategies to minimize risks and optimize economic, social, political gains. While not attempting to take an exhaustive, textbook approach to these topics, this book covers a myriad of aspects by authors from both South and North and from various disciplines, whether social or natural science, yet all touching upon inter-linkages between DRR, migration, climate change and sustainable development.