The damage caused by disasters and their impact on societies have increased over the past decades. Extreme events cannot always be prevented. However, we can minimize the amount of damage which they inflict upon society. Vulnerability and disaster impact on society are influenced by many factors. It is therefore necessary to combine methods and knowledge from various academic disciplines and from all relevant sectors of society to prevent disasters and to minimize their impact. This book compiles presentations given at the international conference "Disasters and Society - From Hazard Assessment to Risk Reduction" (University of Karlsruhe, Germany, 2004). The book provides insights into the state of disaster research in different academic disciplines as well as insights into the practice of risk and disaster management. The contributions cover the entire functional chain associated with disasters in industrial societies. They are written by national and international specialists from universities, administration, civil defence, private companies and re-insurers. They report work on different natural hazards such as severe storms, heavy precipitation, flood, earthquakes, and mass movements (e.g. land slides) as well as research results in the area of human-made hazards. The applied methodologies come from many different areas such as the natural sciences, engineering, informatics, geography, sociology, actuarial statistics and mathematics. The book is structured into six sections: Understanding and modelling of hazards," "Hazard and risk assessment," "Forecasting and early warning," "Information and communication," "Disaster management," and "Risk reduction in industrialized societies." As a particular strength of the book, each of the six sections contains work addressing different types of hazards as well as specialists from a variety of areas of expertise. The book is written in English with the exception of a few contributions which are in German.