The expanded fifth edition of Environmental Hazards provides a balanced overview of all the major rapid-onset events that threaten people and what they value in the twenty-first century. It integrates cutting-edge material from the physical and social sciences to demonstrate how natural and human systems interact to place communities of all sizes, and at all stages of economic development, at risk. It also shows how the existing losses to life and property can be reduced.
Part I of this established textbook defines basic concepts of hazard, risk, vulnerability and disaster. Critical attention is given to the evolution of theory, to the scale of disaster impact and to the various strategies that have been developed to minimise the impact of damaging events. Part II employs a consistent chapter structure to explain how individual hazards, such as earthquakes, severe storms, floods and droughts, plus biophysical and technological processes, create distinctive patterns of loss throughout the world. The ways in which different societies make a positive response to these threats are placed in the context of ongoing global change.
In this extensively revised edition:
An entirely new and innovative chapter explains how modern-day complexity contributes to the generation of hazard and risk
Additional material supplies fresh perspectives on landslides, biophysical hazards and the increasingly important role of global-scale processes
The increased use of boxed sections allows a greater focus on significant generic issues and offers more opportunity to examine a carefully selected range of up-to-date case studies
Each chapter now concludes with an annotated list of key resources, including further reading and relevant websites.
Environmental Hazards is a well-written and generously illustrated introduction to all the natural, social and technological events that combine to cause death and destruction across the globe. It draws on the latest research findings to guide the student from common problems, theories and policies to explore practical, real-world situations. This authoritative, yet accessible, book captures both the complexity and dynamism of environmental hazards and has become essential reading for students of every kind seeking to understand the nature and consequences of a most important contemporary issue.

Preface to the sixth edition
It is over 20 years since the first edition of Environ-mental Hazards was published. Since then, our understanding of the environment and its hazards has improved. The theoretical base is stronger and more sophisticated tools for hazard monitoring and risk mitigation have become available. The whole field of study has matured from a relatively small sub-discipline into a mainstream, policy-driven area of active and relevant research. Posi-tive outcomes have not always followed. The financial resources and the political will required for effective disaster reduction are often lacking. Surprise remains a common reaction when the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004), hurricane 'Katrina' (2005) and the Japan earthquake (2011) inflict death and destruction in these widely separated places. Environmental hazards pose important -even growing -threats which are rarely capable of simple solutions. Complex on-going processes -globalization, climate change, population growth, resource depletion, increasing material wealth -influence the death and destruction that disaster brings. This applies to all nations, although it is the poorest countries, and the most disadvantaged people, who suffer most.
Environmental Hazards strives to explain the drivers of hazard and outline the measures that can reduce the disaster losses. From the outset, an account limited to 'natural' forces was insufficient and technological hazards, for example, have always been included. The scope of the book has widened further as fresh material has claimed its rightful place within a dynamic framework of emerging research and its applications. This new edition provides an up-to-date and bal-anced overview by drawing on multi-disciplinary sources. Although the structure of the book will be familiar to existing users, the content has been substantially re-written and expanded. There are more case studies, now supported by full-colour diagrams and photographs to illustrate real world situations, backed up by a comprehensive updated bibliography.
Over the years, the information highway lead-ing to hazards and disasters has become increas-ingly congested. It is hoped that this book will continue to provide the reader with a useful road map that includes signposts along the way that encourage exploration of some of the minor routes that lie beyond the confines of this book.
Keith Smith
Braco, Perthshire
April 2012
Preface to the first edition
This book has been written primarily to provide an introductory text on environmental hazards for university and college students of geography, environmental science and related disciplines. It springs from my own experience in teaching such a course over several years and my specific inability to find a review of the field which matches my own priorities and prejudices. I hope, therefore, that this survey will prove useful as a basic source for appropriate intermediate to advanced undergraduate classes in British, North American and Antipodean institutions of higher education. If it encourages some students to pursue more advanced studies, or provides a means whereby other readers become more informed about hazardology, either as policy makers or citizens, then I will be well satisfied. Without a wider appreciation of the factors underlying the designation by the United Nations of the 1990s as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR), the important practical aims of the Decade to improve human safety and welfare are unlikely to be achieved.
The term 'environmental hazards 'defies precise definition. Not everyone, therefore, will endorse either my choice of material or its treatment in terms of the balance between physical and social science concepts. In this book, the prime focus is on rapid-onset events, from either a natural or a technological origin, which directly threaten human life on a community scale through acute physical or chemical trauma. Such events are often associated with economic losses and some damage to ecosystems. Most disaster impact arises from 'natural' hazards and is mainly suffered by the poorest people in the world. Within this context, my intention, as expressed in the subtitle, has been to assess the threat posed by environmental hazards as a whole and to out-line the actions which are needed to reduce the disaster potential.
The structure of the book reflects the need to distinguish between common principles and their application to individual case studies. Part I, 'the nature of hazard, seeks to show that, despite their diverse origins and differential impacts, environmental hazards create similar sorts of risks and disaster-reducing choices for people every-where. Here the emphasis is on the identification and recognition of hazards, and their impact, together with the range of mitigating adjustments that humans can make. These loss-sharing and loss-reducing adjustments form a recurring theme throughout the book. In Part II,' The experience and reduction of hazard', individual environ-mental threats are considered under five main generic headings (seismic hazards, mass move-ment hazards, atmospheric hazards, hydrologic hazards and technologic hazards). In this section the concern is for the assessment of specific hazards and the contribution which particular mitigation strategies either have made, or may make, to reducing the losses of life and property from that hazard.
Keith Smith
Braco, Perthshire July 1990

List of figures viii

List of plates xiv

List of tables xvi

List of boxes xviii

Preface to the sixth edition xxi

Preface to the first edition xxii

Acknowledgements xxiv

PART I

THE NATURE OF HAZARD 1

1 Hazard in the environment 3

A Introduction 3

B What are environmental hazards? 4

C Hazard, risk and disaster 11

D Earlier perspectives 14

E Current views: the complexity paradigm 18

F The organizational context 20

2 Dimensions of disaster 23

A Introduction 23

B Defining disaster 24

C Measuring disaster: archives 28

D Explaining disaster: time trends 31

E Explaining disaster: spatial patterns 37

F Managing disaster 42

3 Complexity, sustainability and vulnerability 46

A Introduction 46

B Complexity science 46

C Complexity and disasters 47

D An example: the Bam earthquake 48

E Sustainability and disasters 51

F Vulnerability and resilience 52

G Drivers of vulnerability and disaster 61

4 Risk assessment and management 71

A The nature of risk 71

B Risk assessment 75

C Risk perception and communication 81

D Risk perception in practice 84

E Risk management 86

F The role of information technology 91

5 Reducing the impacts of disaster 96

A Scoping the task 96

B Protection: hazard resistance 99

C Mitigation: disaster aid 106

D Mitigation: insurance 114

E Adaptation: preparedness 118

F Adaptation: predictions, forecasts and warnings 124

G Adaptation: land use planning 127

PART II

THE EXPERIENCE AND

REDUCTION OF HAZARD 137

6 Tectonic hazards: earthquakes and tsunamis 139

A Earthquake hazards 139

B Earthquake behaviour 142

C Primary earthquake hazards 146

D Secondary earthquake hazards 148

E Protection 153

F Mitigation 160

G Adaptation 164

7 Tectonic hazards: volcanoes 176

A Volcanic hazards 176

B The nature of volcanoes 177

C Primary volcanic hazards 179

D Secondary volcanic hazards 185

E Protection 189

F Mitigation 193

G Adaptation 193

8 Mass movement hazards 205

A Landslide and avalanche hazards 205

B Landslides 208

C Landslides: cause and triggers 213

D Snow avalanches 218

E Protection 220

F Mitigation 224

G Adaptation 226

9 Severe storm hazards 235

A Atmospheric hazards 235

B The nature of tropical cyclones 236

C How tropical cyclones develop 238

D Tropical cyclone hazards 241

E Severe summer storms 247

F Severe winter storms 251

G Protection 255

H Mitigation 259

I Adaptation 261

10 Weather extremes, disease epidemics and wildfires 268

A Introduction 268

B Extreme temperature hazards 270

C The nature of disease epidemics 273

D Infectious diseases and climate 278

E Disease hazard reduction 283

F Wildfire hazards 286

G The nature of wildfires 288

H Wildfire hazard reduction 294

11 Hydrological hazards: floods 299

A Flood hazards 299

B Flood-prone environments 302

C The nature of floods 309

D Protection 318

E Mitigation 323

F Adaptation 329

12 Hydrological hazards: droughts 337

A Drought hazards 337

B Types of drought 339

C Causes of drought hazards 351

D Protection 358

E Mitigation 361

F Adaptation 363

13 Technological hazards 371

A Introduction 371

B The scale and nature of the hazard 373

C An outline of theory 378

D Technological hazards in practice 379

E Perception: the transport and nuclear industries 385

F Protection 391

G Mitigation 391

H Adaptation 393

14 Environmental hazards in a changing world 402

A Introduction 402

B The globalization of hazard 403

C Environmental change 405

D Air pollution and climate change 407

E Geophysical paths to disaster 410

F Climate change and environmental hazards 419

Bibliography 435

Index 471

Keith Smith is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Science, University of Stirling, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

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