Cities are places where the threat of hazards and the prospect of disaster are always a possibility. We are reminded of this whenever major disasters are televised and searing images are broadcast around the world, whether it be the drowning of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami waves that swept across the littoral of the Indian Ocean, the destruction of Port au Prince after the 2010 earthquake or the tsunami that battered Japan’s Pacific coast in 2011. Throughout history cities are places where disasters have occurred.