Introduction

Risk Analysis 2014 is the ninth international conference on computer simulation in risk analysis and hazard mitigation. Risk Analysis 2014 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); Algarve, Portugal (2010) and more recently on the island of Brac in Croatia (2012). The conference covers a series of important topics of current research interests and many practical applications. It is concerned with all aspects of risk management 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. Natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes, landslides, fires and others have always affected human societies. Man-made hazards, however, played a comparatively small role a few centuries ago until 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.