Introduction

Risk Analysis 2012 is the eighth international conference on risk analysis and hazard mitigation. Covering a series of important topics of current research interest and with many practical applications, the conference is concerned with all aspects of risk analysis and hazard mitigation, associated with both natural and anthropogenic hazards.

The analysis and management of risk and the mitigation of hazards is of fundamental importance to planners and researchers around the world. We live in an increasingly complex society with the potential for disasters on a worldwide scale. Scientific knowledge is essential to our better understanding of risk. Natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes, landslides, fires and others have always affected human societies. Man-made hazards, however, played a comparatively small role until the industrial revolution when the risk of catastrophic events started to increase due to the rapid growth of new technologies. The interaction of natural and anthropogenic risks adds to the complexity of the problem.

Advances in computational methods and the ability to model systems more precisely now enables hazards to be quantified, their effects to be simulated and risk analysis to be pursued with greater accuracy, providing more effective risk management. These developments are important for all areas of human endeavour and have particular relevance to environmental issues where the risks involved are substantial. Effective risk management and the mitigation of possible hazards have become a high priority of government and a public concern.

Risk Analysis 2012 follows on from the other successful meetings in this series, which first started in Valencia, Spain (1998) and continued in Bologna, Italy (2000); Sintra, Portugal (2002); Rhodes, Greece (2004); Malta (2006); Cephalonia, Greece (2008); and more recently in the Algarve, Portugal (2010).