Introduction

Flood, drought, famine, and infectious disease, all of them natural hazards, were once the principal hazards faced by society. Controlling risks has impacts on the benefits of technology. Few media accounts fail to put at least some of the blame for technological failures on industry or government. Benefits are often shared by people other than those exposed to risk. Benefits tend to be as clear and tangible as risks are ambiguous and elusive. Risk as perceived by people can vary widely from risk as defined by statistics or models. This adds conflict to hazard management. For example, according to the work of P. Slovic et al., people judge the risk of auto accidents as equal to that of nuclear power, even though most experts would rank them orders of magnitude apart. Risk management often creates new risks. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.