ABSTRACT
Urban growth continues in most metropolitan areas around the world. Associated with urbanization is the landscape change from natural land cover types to anthropogenic impervious surfaces, which has been considered as a key indicator of environmental quality (Schueler 1994). While urban expansions continue in many metropolitan areas, many communities experience fatalities and injuries, property damage, and economic and social disruption resulting from different natural hazards such as landslides, floods, debris flows, and extreme heat events. In the last several decades, for example, population in the United States has migrated toward the coasts, concentrating along the earthquake-prone Pacific coast and the hurricane-prone Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and the value of their possessions has increased substantially (Iwan et al. 1999). Population has concentrated in large cities where many infrastructure are highly vulnerable to damage and distribution, and much of their residents are located in areas at risk to natural hazards and disasters. As consequence came into consideration, there is the need to move toward avoiding creation of additional vulnerabilities and reducing existing ones. The devastating outcomes resulting from the impact of hazards such as earthquakes, flash floods, cyclones, volcano eruptions, and tsunamis may be reduced if appropriate disaster risk reduction measures are put in place.
