This study analyzes fatalities caused by rip currents in the conterminous United States for the period 1994–2007. Results include the frequency of fatalities from rip currents, their cause, and their unique spatial distributions. An analysis of historical hazard event data illustrate that, on...

The hazard posed by a rip current depends in part on the ability of beach users to identify a rip current and to associate surf conditions with the potential for rip currents. Understanding which visual features beach users associated with rip currents is an important step in the development of...

Lagrangian flow of two rip currents was measured using human drifters to understand how variations in surf zone circulation affect exit positions of floating swimmers. Based on these results, two escape strategies were assessed, ‘do nothing’ and ‘swim parallel to the beach’. The drifter...

A dynamic model of self insurance and market insurance demand against uncertain natural hazards is developed where agents incur emotional costs when the true information about potential future catastrophes becomes known. Agents purposefully ignore the incoming signals about future hazards in...

Coastal cities are exposed to high risks due to climate change, as they are potentially affected by both rising sea levels and increasingly intense and frequent coastal storms. Socio-economic drivers also increase exposure to natural hazards, accelerate environmental degradation, and require...

A new hazard zonation methodology is applied to the East Coast Bays area of North Shore City, one of the most residentially developed cliffed shorelines in New Zealand. It is based on a series of geotechnical cliff profiles from three pilot study areas (George Gair Lookout, Rahopara...

Southeast Asian countries suffer from severe coastal hazards each year. A large number of these countries are incurring consequential costs that impact their national economies. It is crucial, therefore, to analyze the impact of such hazards on their economic development and provide a solid...

A review is presented of the nature of tidal changes and their importance in the context of coastal hazards. This is done in order to illustrate the way in which tides do and may impact on the coast as a hazard and highlight the need for research to be carried out in this context. Three main...

Several decades of research has produced considerable understanding of the complex and interacting factors contributing to the construction of social vulnerability to natural hazards. However, natural hazards remain a considerable challenge to poverty reduction and development in many countries...