ABSTRACT
Hazards are threats to humans and what they value: life, well-being, material goods and environment. A tradition of hazard research can be traced back for over half a century in the United States to the basic theoretical work of Barrows on how Man can structure and adjust to his environment. Hazard research has emerged as a recognisable subarea of geographical inquiry and an important element of the Man-environment relationship that is central to geographical studies. Natural hazards can be viewed as processes whereby energy is transferred rapidly from the environment to the works of Man, inflicting damage to both life and property. There are a range of hazards which are largely the result of human action, often the result of Man's modification of natural systems, which are transmitted through the natural processes of the environment that have come to be known as environmental hazards.
