Environmental Health in Disasters: A Conceptual Framework, Health Services Management, and Multidisciplinary Approaches
Synopsis
Disasters are not merely events that cause physical destruction; they are multidimensional processes that generate both short- and long-term effects on public health, the environment, social life, and health systems. In recent years, earthquakes, floods, forest fires, droughts, climate-related disasters, mass displacements, and other extraordinary events experienced both worldwide and in our country have clearly demonstrated that disaster preparedness, risk reduction, and post-disaster recovery processes cannot be limited solely to emergency response. Within these processes, environmental health services emerge as one of the fundamental components of protecting community health.
During disaster periods, ensuring access to safe drinking water, maintaining sanitation services, managing waste, establishing safe shelter areas, protecting food security, preventing infections, managing environmental and chemical risks, and safeguarding vulnerable groups are among the key areas that determine the resilience of health systems. In addition, disasters should be addressed comprehensively not only in terms of their environmental impacts, but also with regard to chronic disease management, continuity of primary health care services, biological and clinical outcomes, and ethical and legal dimensions.
This book has been prepared with the aim of serving as a comprehensive resource that evaluates environmental health in the context of disasters not merely as a technical field of practice, but as an area interacting with public health, family medicine, clinical sciences, health management, ethics, law, and other health disciplines. The book covers a broad range of topics, beginning with the effects of disasters on environmental health and extending to water and sanitation services, air quality, environmental toxins, outbreak management, the organization of health services in disasters, chronic disease management, clinical presentations, and multidisciplinary practices.
The primary objective in preparing this book is to provide a scientifically grounded, up-to-date, and practice-oriented reference source for students, researchers, health professionals, family physicians, public health specialists, health managers, and all stakeholders working in the field of disasters. The chapters are intended not only to present theoretical knowledge, but also to offer a perspective that can be applied in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery processes.
Prepared with the understanding that reducing the impacts of disasters is possible not only through interventions during times of crisis, but also through prepared communities, strong primary health care services, the protection of environmental health, and interdisciplinary collaboration, we hope that this work will contribute to the field and serve as a useful resource for its readers.
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