As a consequence of the floods in Germany in August 2002 the Umweltbundesamt (German Environment Agency) set up a research project on natural hazards and their relevance for the safety of establishments and installations containing hazardous substances, i.e. the prevention of “Natechs”...

The Risk Management Index, RMI, proposed in this paper, brings together a group of indicators that measure risk management performance and effectiveness. These indicators reflect the organizational, development, capacity and institutional actions taken to reduce vulnerability and losses in a...

Landslides represent a major threat to human life, property and the environment. Landslide hazard and risk assessments seek to inform the policy and practice of landslide hazard risk management, for example, by identifying high-risk areas so that appropriate policy and private actions could be...

Dam breaks have catastrophic consequences for human lives. This paper presents a new human risk analysis model (HURAM) using Bayesian networks for estimating human risks due to dam-break floods. A Bayesian network is constructed according to a logic structure of loss-of-life mechanisms. The...

The Tangjiashan landslide dam was formed during the Ms8.0 Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 and posed high risks to 1.2 million people downstream the dam. A human risk analysis model (HURAM) reported in the companion paper is applied to evaluate the human risk in the Tangjiashan landslide dam...

There is a tendency to equate the word “hurricane” with the tropical regions of the world. Many residents do not recognize the danger and risks that occur when a tropical cyclone reaches colder subtropical waters and undergoes extratropical transition. Atlantic Canada, particularly the...

With the increasing frequency of hydrological hazard events during the last years, also the problem of combined rain and snow melt hazards has increased. A series of remarkable hazardous events in Switzerland, particularly the severe flood in August 2005, triggered a cooperation between the...

The best strategy to cope with natural hazards is the integral risk management, which involves all participants, decides on the basis of risks and also accepts a residual risk. Therefore, a substantial risk dialogue is essential not only to encourage self-responsibility. Even if throughout the...

In Taiwan, the hillside is about 70 % of total area. These areas also have steep topography and geological vulnerability. When an event of torrential rain comes during a typhoon, the landslide disasters usually occur at these areas due to the long duration and high intensity of rainfall....

In the present study, damages associated with land subsidence phenomena in residential structures within the San Luis Potosi-Soledad de Graciano Sánchez Metropolitan Area (San Luis Potosí state, Mexico) were estimated based on a methodology that has been adapted to the Mexican context. As...