Climate and Natural Hazard Risks,

Edition 1

Editors: By Peter Sammonds, Lisa Guppy and Ting Sun, Lecturer in Climate and Meteorological Hazard Risks, University College London, UK

Publication Date: 17 Apr 2026

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Climate and Natural Hazard Risks is an in-depth examination of the physical, environmental, economic, and social impacts of climate change and natural hazards on vulnerable populations in different regions around the world. The authors open with the simple question “What is risk?,” taking a detailed look at historical and global trends and risk frameworks as they relate to the Earth system and climate change. The authors then examine the drivers of social and physical vulnerability. From there, the chapters systematically review different hazards and their implications for risk (hurricanes, cyclones, flooding, extreme temperatures, food insecurity, earthquakes, tsunamis). The authors then delve into the latest methods and research for multihazard risk assessment. The book closes with challenging explorations of resilience, and environmental and social transitions for climate change. Students, practitioners and policy-makers working across climate science, hazard risk assessment, disaster management and humanitarian response will find this instructive and thought-provoking text essential reading.

Key Features

Examines hazard risk and vulnerability through a transdisciplinary approach
Demonstrates the links between climate change, natural hazards, humanitarian crises and disasters
Explains modern approaches to hazard, vulnerability and risk analyses providing an analytical toolbox, case studies and worked examples
An accessible text book for the student with up-to-date research and methods for the professional

About the author

By Peter Sammonds, Professor of Geophysics and Climate Risks, University College London, UK; Lisa Guppy, Lecturer in Global Humanitarian Studies, University College London, UK and Ting Sun, Lecturer in Climate and Meteorological Hazard Risks, University College London, UK

1.What is risk?
Introduction
1.1 Key concepts in disaster risk
1.2 The disaster risk ``equation''
1.3 Climate-related risks
1.4 Why is risk important?
1.5 Further concepts of risk
1.6 Exercise: indigenous knowledge and risk perception in the Himalayas

2. Global trends
Introduction
2.1 Global trends in disasters
2.2 Global trends in development
2.3 Global trends in population
2.4 Global trends in human displacement
2.4.1 Sudden disaster displacement: 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami
2.4.2 Slow onset displacement: Solomon islands

3. Risk frameworks
3.1 Disaster risk management concepts and definitions
3.2 International frameworks
3.3 Concepts in review
3.4 Chapter quiz

4. Dynamic Earth
Introduction
4.1 Earth as a planet in the Solar System
4.2 Earth history
4.3 Plate tectonics framework
4.4 Ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere system
4.5 Biogeochemical cycles
4.6 Case study: coupling of the dynamics of the solid and fluid Earth in the Himalayas
4.7 Concepts in review

5. Earth’s climate
Introduction
5.1 How does the Earth’s climate system work
5.2 Solar radiation and the greenhouse gases: the duo regulating Earth’s climate
5.3 Modelling Earth’s climate system
5.4 Why is the climate changing?
5.5 Implications 156 Global temperature changes
5.6 Concepts in review
5.7 Chapter quiz

6. Climate change, the threat multiplier
Introduction
6.1 Contexts of threats
6.2 Worsening natural hazards
6.3 Resource scarcity
6.4 Eroding capacity, increasing vulnerability
6.5 Addressing climate change as a threat multiplier
6.6 Concepts in review
6.7 Chapter quiz

7. Social vulnerability
Introduction
7.1 Disaster vulnerability and its implications
7.2 Conceptual frameworks
7.3 Case study: gender relations in the 1991 Bay of Bengal cyclone
7.4 Vulnerability and climate change
7.5 Methodological approaches
7.6 Measuring vulnerability
7.7 Concepts in review

8. Physical vulnerability
Introduction
8.1 Physical vulnerability and its implications
8.2 Conceptual frameworks
8.3 Physical vulnerability and climate change
8.4 Engineering structures
8.5 Corruption
8.6 Exercises
Concepts in review

9. Temperature extremes and drought risks
Introduction
9.1 Heat waves
9.2 Wildfires
9.3 Cold waves
9.4 Drought
9.5 Concepts in review
9.6 Chapter quiz

10. Flood risk
Introduction
10.1 Floods and their impacts
10.2 Science basis for flood risk assessment
10.3 Floods and climate change
10.4 Surface water floods
10.5 River flooding
10.6 Indus River flood disaster, 2022
Concepts in review

11. Cyclone risk
Introduction
11.1 Cyclones and their impacts
11.2 Science basis for cyclone risk assessment
11.3 Cyclones and climate change
11.4 Extratropical cyclones
11.5 Tropical cyclones
11.6 Storm surge
11.7 Landslides
11.8 Multiple cyclone hazards
11.9 Concepts in review

12. Geological hazard risks
Introduction
12.1 Geological hazards and their impacts
12.2 Science basis for assessment of geological hazards
12.3 Geological hazards and climate change
12.4 Volcanic eruptions
12.5 Earthquakes
12.6 Exercise: 2010 Haiti earthquake disaster
12.7 Concepts in review

13. Risk assessment
Introduction
13.1 Disaster scenarios
13.2 Statistical distributions
13.3 Probabilistic approaches
13.4 Climate change
13.5 Decision making tools
13.6 Exercise: AHP cyclone risk assessment
13.7 Concepts in review

14. Resilience
Introduction
14.1 Capacity: the road to resilience?
14.2 Maladaptation and capacity challenges
14.3 Resilience as a multi-level outcome
14.4 Measuring and monitoring resilience
14.5 Food insecurity
14.6 Early warning systems
14.7 Concepts in review

15. Transitions
Introduction
15.1 Climate justice
15.2 What is progress?
15.3 Global economic risks from climate change
15.4 Case study: development in Britain and its Empire
15.5 Rural transition
15.6 Urban transition
15.7 Nature-based solutions
15.8 Concepts in review

Appendix 1: Glossary of Terms and Definitions
Appendix 2: Geographical Information Systems
Appendix 3: Analytical Hierarchy Process
Appendix 4: Quantitative Methods
Appendix 5: Qualitative Methods