Abstract

While the title of this Handbook emphasises hazard, risk and disaster, the key aspect that emerges from the foregoing chapters is the need to address vulnerability and the capacities required to overcome it. That does not mean neglecting risk, hazard and disaster. It means recognising that hazards, risk and disaster tend to be products of human action and inaction, of decisions about the allocation of and access to resources and locations, and the power and lack of power to make these decisions (Mueller-Mann 2011).