ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the construction and historical reconstruction of disaster risk reduction (DRR), including the framework of climate change adaptation (CCA), by exploring what is referred to as 'coping or adapting historically' in the context of the emergence and development of historical disaster research. Human interest in climate, that is, understanding it in order to respond to it and its changes, goes as far as classic antiquity. Identifying mid-to long-term processes related to DRR, including CCA, requires the review of a series of selected examples coming from different periods and regions throughout the world, which can enrich proposed typologies of disaster management, such as those proposed for pre-industrial Europe. History has an extraordinary role in understanding the build-up of contemporary vulnerability, as well as in identifying traditional and ancient response mechanisms and the long-standing experiences involved in designing contemporary DRR 'policies'. The chapter aims to offer evidence that explores the past with a longue duree perspective.
