ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines environmental circumstances that cause significant harm to people and property. It focuses on assessment techniques developed to prevent potential hazards from affecting people or property by using landscape and land use planning techniques. The chapter discusses the combined assessment of all major hazards is even more important than individual hazard assessments. Flooding, landslides, and earthquakes are among the most damaging hazards that affect urbanized regions. Potential natural hazards tend to be ignored because they occur infrequently. Air pollution and unwanted noise, however, are significant hazards of the metropolitan landscape, contributing to the exodus of many residents from central cities. The hazard potential of air pollution is significant on the global, regional, and local scale. On the global level, the volume of pollutants produced today may eventually cause climatic changes that endanger future populations. Noise pollution, unlike air pollution, has not produced dramatic episodes of death and widespread illness.
