Environmental Hazards

The book series Environmental Hazards focuses on technical, social, and environmental issues in hazards and disasters.

Recent years have shown that all manner of disasters have become increasingly damaging, dangerous and complex; examples include the 2004 South Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the Sichuan earthquake of 2008.

Disasters like these have, for years, been understood as neither strictly man-made or strictly natural; most disasters are a complex blend of physical forces and social organization. And some disasters, such as the Madrid bombings of 2004 and the London bombings of 2005, are man-made, but their effects are vast, with structural, social, and environmental ramifications that reverberate locally, nationally, and globally. We cannot explain the full complexity of these events using single-discipline approaches.

This series therefore reflects and promotes the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of hazards and disaster research. Its reach is wide because hazards research is very broad, encompassing such varied fields of study as research on industrial accidents, research on public health, biosecurity issues and "homeland security", just to name a few. And its reach includes a wide array of facets because scholars from the social, natural, and behavioral sciences have concluded that we cannot fully understand hazards and disasters without an appreciation for the social, natural and man-made environments involved.

In addressing the technical, social and environmental issues of hazards and disasters, this series includes up-to-date, comprehensive texts on key hazards and disasters at the local, regional, national, and global levels. It covers numerous issues critical to successful research and practice and considers these issues through an international lens. And it involves all fields connected to the study of hazards and natural disasters, including disciplines found within the natural sciences, physical sciences, social sciences, and engineering. The series’ coverage therefore is broad, but is centered on the interactions between society, technology, and the natural environment in the hazards and disasters field.

Proposals for this book series may be sent to the Series Editor, Thomas A. Birkland, North Carolina State University, at tabirkla@ncsu.edu

or the Publishing Editor, Aaron Schiller, at Aaron.Schiller@springer.com

Editorial Board:
Nicole Dash, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA
Daniel Nohrstedt, Crisis Management and Research (CRISMART), Swedish National Defense College, Stockholm