Hundreds of natural catastrophes occur worldwide every year—there were 780 loss events per year on average over the last 10 years. Since 1980, these disasters have claimed over two million lives and caused losses worth US$ 3,000 billion. The deadliest disasters were caused by earthquakes: the...

No other region is more threatened by natural perils than coasts. Fierce winds, storm surges, large waves and tsunamis expend their destructive energy when they reach the coastline. Constituting, in many cases, the boundary between continental plates, coasts experience earthquakes and volcanic...