In the Earth Sciences, the concept of fractals and scale invariance is well-recognized in many natural objects. However, the use of fractals for spatial and temporal analyses of natural hazards has been less used (and accepted) in the Earth Sciences. This book brings together twelve contributions that emphasize the role of fractal analyses in natural hazard research, including landslides, wildfires, floods, catastrophic rock fractures and earthquakes. A wide variety of spatial and temporal fractal-related approaches and techniques are applied to 'natural' data, experimental data, and computer simulations. These approaches include probabilistic hazard analysis, cellular-automata models, spatial analyses, temporal variability, prediction, and self-organizing behaviour. The main aims of this volume are to present current research on fractal analyses as applied to natural hazards, and to stimulate the curiosity of advanced Earth Science students and researchers in the use of fractals analyses for the better understanding of natural hazards.

The subject of wavelet analysis and fractal analysis is fast developing and has drawn a great deal of attention in varied disciplines of science and engineering. Over the past couple of decades, wavelets, multiresolution, and multifractal analyses have been formalized into a thorough mathematical framework and have found a variety of applications w

Historically, science has developed by reducing complex situations to simple ones, analyzing the components and synthesizing the original situation. While this 'reductionist' approach has been extremely successful, there are phenomena of such complexity that one cannot simplify them without eliminating the problem itself. Recently, attention has turned to such problems in a wide variety of fields. This is in part due to the development of fractal geometry. Fractal geometry provides the mathematical tools for handling complexity. The present volume is a collection of papers that deal with the application of fractals in both traditional scientific disciplines and in applied fields. This volume shows the advance of our understanding of complex phenomena across a spectrum of disciplines. While these diverse fields work on very different problems, fractals provide a unifying formalism for approaching these problems.

The aim of this book is to provide a basic and self-contained introduction to the ideas underpinning fractal analysis. The book illustrates some important applications issued from real data sets, real physical and natural phenomena as well as real applications in different fields, and consequently, presents to the readers the opportunity to implement fractal analysis in their specialties according to the step-by-step guide found in the book.Besides advanced undergraduate students, graduate students and senior researchers, this book may also serve scientists and research workers from industrial settings, where fractals and multifractals are required for modeling real-world phenomena and data, such as finance, medicine, engineering, transport, images, signals, among others.For the theorists, rigorous mathematical developments are established with necessary prerequisites that make the book self-containing. For the practitioner often interested in model building and analysis, we provide the cornerstone ideas.

During the last couple of years, fractals have been shown to represent the common aspects of many complex processes occurring in an unusually diverse range of fields including biology, chemistry, earth sciences, physics and technology. Using fractal geometry as a language, it has become possible to get a deeper insight into previously intractable problems. Among many others, a better understanding of growth phenomena, turbulence, iteractive functions, colloidal aggregation, biological pattern formation and inhomogenous materials has emerged through the application of such concepts as scale invariance, self-affinity and multifractality.This volume contains a selection of high quality papers that discuss the latest developments in the research of fractals. It is divided into 5 sections and contains altogether 64 papers. Each paper is written by a well known author or authors in the field. Beginning each section is a short introduction, written by a prominent author, which gives a brief overview of the topics discussed in the respective sections.

The history of describing natural objects using geometry is as old as the advent of science itself, in which traditional shapes are the basis of our intuitive understanding of geometry. However, nature is not restricted to such Euclidean objects which are only characterized typically by integer dimensions. Hence, the conventional geometric approach cannot meet the requirements of solving or analysing nonlinear problems which are related with natural phenomena, therefore, the fractal theory has been born, which aims to understand complexity and provide an innovative way to recognize irregularity and complex systems. Although the concepts of fractal geometry have found wide applications in many forefront areas of science, engineering and societal issues, they also have interesting implications of a more practical nature for the older classical areas of science. Since its discovery, there has been a surge of research activities in using this powerful concept in almost every branch of scientific disciplines to gain deep insights into many unresolved problems. This book includes eight chapters which focus on gathering cutting-edge research and proposing application of fractals features in both traditional scientific disciplines and in applied fields.

This volume investigates the interdisciplinary and cross-cutting challenges in the risk analysis of natural hazards. It brings together leading minds in engineering, science, philosophy, law, and the social sciences. Parts I and II of this volume explore risk assessment, first by providing an overview of the interdisciplinary interactions involved in the assessment of natural hazards, and then by exploring the particular impacts of climate change on natural hazard assessment. Part III discusses the theoretical frameworks for the evaluation of natural hazards. Finally, Parts IV and V address the risk management of natural hazards, providing first an overview of the interdisciplinary interactions underlying natural hazard management, and then exploring decision frameworks that can help decision makers integrate and respond to the complex relationships among natural events, the built environment, and human behavior.

Emphasizes Resilient Policies, Rather Than Rigid PhilosophyEconomic and environmental consequences of natural and man-made disasters have grown exponentially during the past few decades. Whether from hurricanes, chemical spills, terrorist incidents, or other catastrophes, the negative impacts can often be felt on a global scale. Natural Hazards Ana

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 196. Extreme Events and Natural Hazards: The Complexity Perspective examines recent developments in complexity science that provide a new approach to understanding extreme events. This understanding is critical to the development of strategies for the prediction of natural hazards and mitigation of their adverse consequences. The volume is a comprehensive collection of current developments in the understanding of extreme events. The following critical areas are highlighted: understanding extreme events, natural hazard prediction and development of mitigation strategies, recent developments in complexity science, global change and how it relates to extreme events, and policy sciences and perspective. With its overarching theme, Extreme Events and Natural Hazards will be of interest and relevance to scientists interested in nonlinear geophysics, natural hazards, atmospheric science, hydrology, oceanography, tectonics, and space weather.