This is the third edition of an introductory textbook on environmental hazards aimed primarily at an undergraduate audience. The latest edition was drafted at the end of the International Decade of Natural Disaster Reduction, and underlines how much remains to be done. Improvements in understanding trigger mechanisms, forecasting techniques and mitigation strategies have been counterbalanced by the continuing inadequacy of risk perception, increased exposure reflecting the growing world population and, especially in the less developed world, a combination of poverty, high hazard risk and chronic vulnerability.

As a discipline, the study of environmental hazards is continuing to broaden from its initial focus on site-specific, rapid-onset events to embrace large-scale, complex and more insidious threats. This is reflected in the new edition which includes additional material on disaster databases, sea-level rise and coastal flooding, global change and sustainability in mega-cities and elsewhere.