“Extreme Natural Hazards, Disaster Risks and Societal lmplications” presents topics discussed at the scientific meetings held in the trans-disciplinary, international project ‘Extreme Natural Events and Societal Implications - ENHANS’, which was co-sponsored by several international, transnational, and inter-governmental organizations. The scope of ENHANS linked two major themes, natural hazards and disaster risks, with the laudable aim of developing ways that scientific understanding might reduce natural disaster risks for the benefit of society. Hence the content of this book seeks to emphasize the importance of effective collaborations between physical scientists, social scientists, engineers and experts dealing with political, legal, economic and insurance issues related to extreme natural events and disaster risks. Related issues at local, national, and international levels are addressed with the goals of making the world safer and contributing to the sustainable development of societies.

The book is arranged in three parts: (i) scientific knowledge about extreme natural hazards and disaster risks; (ii) regional and local case histories on hazards and risks; and (iii) societal implications of natural hazard and risks. In total, the book comprises a compendium of 30 peer-reviewed chapters, with authors including many prominent subject-matter researchers from around the world; importantly, the list of peer reviewers also includes leading domain specialists who have clearly ensured a uniformly high level of scholarship is presented in individual chapters.

The introductory chapters describe the ENHANS Project and major challenges of undertaking integrated research on disaster risk. These are followed by chapters on extreme volcanism, seismicity, landslides, hydro-meteorological events, space weather and related disaster risks, while Chapter 10 closes the first part by discussing the theoretical background for the characterization and prediction of extreme events.

In the second section, chapters are organised geographically to focus on specific problems in particular regions: e.g. earthquake, volcanic and tsunami hazards and disasters risks in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in Africa; earthquake, tsunami, and flood hazards and risks in the Middle East, and hydro-meteorological and geological hazards and risks in Asia and the Pacific region.

The final stage of the volume treats the more societally-oriented topics of: disaster risk reduction policy; disaster policy and climate change; vulnerability and adaptation to sea level related hazards, and insurance and reinsurance approaches to extreme natural catastrophes.

The standard of content presentation and of the grey-scale illustrations and black-and-white figures is generally high, although a few figures and photos – usually those taken from other publications - do not reproduce too well or informatively as small, grey-scale images or, for instance, with keys much reduced in effective font size. However, some of these are also presented among the 28 colour plates, which are grouped together two-thirds of the way through the volume (puzzlingly, located one page into Part V, rather than between Parts!). For this reviewer, some of the colour plates seem unjustified (e.g. Fig. 1.1, a world map showing simply six big markers denoting regions where ENHANS Project meetings were held), and – pace the author - the last plate (Fig. 29.1). The latter duplicates in colour a grey-scale image from Chapter 29 of the well-known MunichRe World Map of Natural Hazards, but at a scale too small to make it of much working value as a plate within the book. While the greyscale version serves to highlight the nature and attributes of the map for the unfamiliar reader, the map source is readily downloaded or, alternatively, a high resolution version could have been included in the volume on a CD of supplementary information.

This takes me on to a point where I think the publishers have missed a valuable trick: the volume includes several chapters where extensive databases are called up or specific analysis techniques are described and applied. The worth of the volume - and others like it – would be enhanced if such data were attached to the hardcopy on a CD, or made available online to purchasers of the book (where copyright and intellectual property rights allowed, of course). Then the interested researcher could replicate analyses, adopt them to their own datasets, or try out alternative techniques. For instance, some of the extreme event datasets in the case histories could be amenable to different statistical analysis techniques, e.g. peak-over-threshold models and time-dependence techniques, such as are increasingly accessible via R and other statistical implementation packages.

This thought leads naturally to the question: who will find value in “Extreme Natural Hazards, Disaster Risks and Societal lmplications”? To be honest, this is not easily answered for the reader hoping or expecting a clear recommendation or guidance: it all depends on one's outlook and interests. The present reviewer cannot claim a full appreciation of every topic discussed, but knows something in detail about several of the themes, and can report that these are given balanced and informed treatment, within the scope and limits of the project's remit, and the size of the book. Chapters relevant to my interests are not, and cannot be expected to be, total definitive reviews of the subjects, but they are comprehensive, authoritative treatments, full of information, pointers and thought-provoking issues. And I can believe all the content enjoys these attributes.

What makes the whole volume greater than the sum of its parts, and perhaps uniquely, is the way it brings together the many multidisciplinarities involved – ranging from the foundational scientific to the complex societal. Thus the book will be a important learning resource for students and post-grads in many fields, and a source of inspiration for specialists wishing to extend their knowledge and understanding beyond or across disciplinary boundaries, whether they are scientists or non-scientists. In short, “Extreme Natural Hazards, Disaster Risks and Societal lmplications” will be a valuable addition to many libraries, and an asset for personal use by professional specialists.