Geomorphological hazards and disaster prevention / [edited by] Irasema Alcántara-Ayala, Andrew S. Goudie.

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Regional seismic shaking hazards in mountains / William B. Bull -- Volcanic hazards and risks : a geomorphological perspective / Jean-Claude Thouret -- Mountain hazards / Olav Slaymaker -- Review and future challenges in snow avalanche risk analysis / Michael Bründl ... [et al.] -- Landslide hazards / David Petley -- Catastrophic landslides and sedimentary budgets / Monique Fort ... [et al.] -- Landslides and climatic change / Lisa Borgatti and Mauro Soldati -- The hazardousness of high-magnitude floods / Avijit Gupta -- Flood hazards : the context of fluvial geomorphology / Gerardo Benito and Paul F. Hudson -- Geomorphology and coastal hazards / Harley J. Walker and Molly McGraw -- Weathering hazards / Andrew S. Goudie and Heather Viles -- Hazards associated with karst / Francisco Gutiérrez -- Soil erosion / Andrew S. Goudie and John Boardman -- Desertification and land degradation in arid and semi-arid regions / Yang Xiaoping -- Dune migration and encroachment / Andrew S. Goudie -- GIS for the assessment of risk from geomorphological hazards / Cees J. van Westen -- Hazard assessment for risk analysis and risk management / Michael Crozier and Thomas Glade -- Vulnerability analysis in geomorphic risk assessment / Gabi Hufschmidt and Thomas Glade -- Geomorphological hazards and global climate change / Andrew S. Goudie -- Geomorphic hazards and sustainable development / David Higgitt -- Geomorphology and disaster prevention / Irasema Alcántra-Alaya -- Geomorphology and the international agenda : concluding remarks / Irasema Alcántra-Alaya.

Human activities have had a huge impact on the environment and landscape, through industrialisation and land-use change, leading to climate change, deforestation, desertification, land degradation, and air and water pollution. These impacts are strongly linked to the occurrence of geomorphological hazards, such as floods, landslides, snow avalanches, soil erosion, and others. Geomorphological work includes not only the understanding but the mapping and modelling of Earth's surface processes, many of which directly affect human societies. In addition, geomorphologists are becoming increasingly involved with the dimensions of societal problem solving, through vulnerability analysis, hazard and risk assessment and management. The work of geomorphologists is therefore of prime importance for disaster prevention. An international team of geomorphologists have contributed their expertise to this volume, making this a scientifically rigorous work for a wide audience of geomorphologists and other Earth scientists, including those involved in environmental science, hazard and risk assessment, management and policy.