Introduction: Hazards, Risks, and Disasters in Society

This introductory chapter outlines why it is important to explore in more depth the relationships between environmental hazards, risks, and disasters in society. It presents an introduction to the challenges presented by mainstream approaches to the human side of disaster studies, whereby perspectives on environmental hazards and human development meet policy and practice. This is informed by analyzing the influences of extreme environmental events on society, exposure factors, and the nature of emergent systems of response. In this field, people are considered as vulnerable and resilient to disaster impacts, suffering, or prospering in times of climate change, development, societal instability, and governance scenarios that can be unpredictable and out of control. This is in part balanced by hope in the emergence of new-found awareness and capacity, to be able to live with hazards and risks, cope with disaster, and prosper socially and economically. A challenge presented by hazards, risks, and disasters is to achieve the capacity to both anticipate the unexpected and act on the known. A wealth of well-grounded emergent knowledge and experience exists to facilitate this, some of the most enlightening and innovative of which is revealed in the selection of contributions to this volume.