Natural hazards are becoming increasingly significant these days. There is a need for documentation that concisely presents the type and magnitude of natural hazards as an aid to political and economic decision making.With the aim of presenting the global distribution of exposure to the most significant natural hazards as objectively as possible, Munich Re's Geoscience Research Group published its first World Map of Natural Hazards in 1978. After being revised in 1988, the map was completely reworked and extensively expanded in 1998. The results of earlier work and the latest findings in scientific literature were drawn together and presented in a form that practitioners find both accessible and – bearing in mind the needs of the insurance technicians in particular – readily usable. In the production of this third edition, all the basic data were for the first time recorded, adjusted, and analysed with the aid of geographic information systems (GIS). The resulting map in DIN A0 format (841×: 1189mm) and the30-cm globe were produced exclusively with the techniques of digital cartography. A main map and four auxiliary maps present the following types of hazards together with background information: • Earthquake and vulcanism (shaking risk, Mexico-City-effect, tsunami,volcanic activity, plate tectonics). • Windstorm (tropical cyclone, extratropical storm, regional storm, tornado, hail, and lightning). • Flood (storm surge, severe rainfall). • Marine hazards (high waves, pack ice, and iceberg drift). • Effects of El Niño and climate change. In particular, hazard information has been stated, as far as possible,as numbers which can be checked and be used directly in insurance calculations.Hazard is often understood as a quantity that relates the occurrence/frequency and intensity of an event to a specific time interval and so is usually expressed in terms of a probability. Whenever possible, therefore,the hazard information on the world map has three essential components – intensity, frequency and reference period. The map comes with an accompanying brochure, which contains a description ofthe methods and scales used as well as a comprehensive catalogue of major natural catastrophes throughout the world. A considerably extended CD-ROM version of the World Map of Natural Hazardswith numerous additional functionalities is also available now. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2001
