Contents


*by Zhao Xueying, Zhang Shunfu and Zhao Xiaoqiu*


Preface

When we interact with nature, we generally do so to gain something like space, resources, or some other advantage; and we may get just what we expect. But we may also generate risks or dangers with which we must eventually contend. Undesirable outcomes present challenges for our lives, health, or properties. Hazard management requires our awareness and understanding of the sources of risk. How is it manifested? What triggers dangerous conditions? What can be done to avoid

This volume includes 12 studies that address aspects of hazards from several perspectives. This research was undertaken by scholars working in diverse settings on an array of hazardous processes. The chapters are organized into four sections that reflect themes of this collection: risk assessment, hazard assessment, human responses to perceived or realized hazards, and social vulnerability and resilience. This preface introduces these themes and briefly describes the studies to highlight

In the first section, "Assessing Risk: Elucidating Extreme Events," three studies reflect the use of mathematical modeling and risk assessment to predict the dimensions and distributions of earthquakes, torrential rainstorms, and the intersections of extreme natural events and nuclear power plants. In "Assessing Seismic Hazard in Chile Using Deep Neural Networks," Plaza, Salas, and Nicolis employ machine-learning techniques, principally neural networks, to tackle the vexing problem of anticipating earthquakes. In "Strong Rainfall in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil: Synoptic Analysis and Numerical Simulation," Franchito, Gan, and Reyes Fernandez mathematically model meteorological conditions synoptically to determine the development of a torrential rainstorm that struck southwestern Brazil. And in "Natural Hazards and Nuclear Power Plant Safety," Katona asks whether the challenge of preparing nuclear facilities for the contingencies associated with an array of extreme natural events exceeds the industry's ability to plan for them.

The second section of this book, "Revealing Hazard: Imagining Exposure and Impact," contains five studies that examine the nature of the hazards generated by natural events impacting people and their built environments. Each study involves mathematical and graphical modeling of both the physical processes that yield the "natural" risks and the human processes that drive either activities that might be impacted or the use of hazardous environments. In "Estimation of Shear-wave Velocity Profiles Employing Genetic Algorithms and the Diffuse Field Approach on Microtremors Array: Implications on Liquefaction Hazard at Port of Spain, Trinidad," Salazar, Mannette, Reddock, and Ash employ genetic algorithms to estimate shear-wave velocity and examine the implications of microtremors in a coastal setting in Trinidad. In "Long-wave Generation Due to Atmosphericpressure Variation and Harbor Oscillation in Harbors of Various Shapes and Countermeasures against Meteotsunamis," Kakinuma models the meteorology of pressure patterns over the East China Sea that generate atmospheric disturbances that can be transferred to ocean surfaces. These oscillations are amplified to produce long-period sea waves, so-called "meteotsunamis" that can impact coastlines,

hazards? Can we live with extreme events?

their connections.
