Risk and Uncertainty Assessment for Natural Hazards

Jonathan Rougier, Steve Sparks, Lisa J. Hill

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9781107006195
• eBook ISBN:
  9781107302334
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Environmental Science
• Index: Biological Sciences

Assessment of risk and uncertainty is crucial for natural hazard risk management, facilitating risk communication and informing strategies to successfully mitigate our society's vulnerability to natural disasters. Written by some of the world's leading experts, this book provides a state-of-the-art overview of risk and uncertainty assessment in natural hazards. It presents the core statistical concepts using clearly defined terminology applicable across all types of natural hazards and addresses the full range of sources of uncertainty, the role of expert judgement and the practice of uncertainty elicitation. The core of the book provides detailed coverage of all the main hazard types and concluding chapters address the wider societal context of risk management. This is an invaluable compendium for academic researchers and professionals working in the fields of natural hazards science, risk assessment and management and environmental science, and will be of interest to anyone involved in natural hazards policy.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Contributors
• Preface
• 1 Risk assessment and uncertainty in natural hazards
• 2 Quantifying hazard losses
• 3 Model and data limitations: the sources and implications of epistemic uncertainty
• 4 Quantifying scientific uncertainty from expert judgement elicitation
• 5 Risk and uncertainty in hydrometeorological hazards
• 6 Hydrometeorological hazards under future climate change
• 7 Flood risk and uncertainty
• 8 Scientific uncertainties: a perspective from probabilistic seismic hazard assessments for low-seismicity areas
• 9 Landslide and avalanche hazards
• 10 Tsunami hazard and risk
• 11 Risk and uncertainty assessment of volcanic hazards
• 12 Risk assessment and management of wildfires
• 13 Catastrophic impacts of natural hazards on technological facilities and infrastructure
• 14 Statistical aspects of risk characterisation in ecotoxicology
• 15 Social science perspectives on natural hazards risk and uncertainty
• 16 Natural hazards and risk: the human perspective
• Index