This book aims to uncover the root causes of natural and man-made disasters by going beyond the
typical reports and case studies conducted post-disaster. It opens the black box of disasters
by presenting 'forensic analysis approaches' to disasters thereby revealing the complex
causality that characterizes them and explaining how and why hazards do or do not become
disasters. This yields 'systemic' strategies for managing disasters. Recently the global threat
landscape has seen the emergence of high impact low probability events. Events like Hurricane
Katrina the Great Japan Earthquake and tsunami Hurricane Sandy Super Typhoon Haiyan global
terrorist activities have become the new norm. Extreme events challenge our understanding
regarding the interdependencies and complexity of the disaster aetiology and are often referred
to as Black Swans. Between 2002 and 2011 there were 4130 disasters recorded that resulted from
natural hazards around the world. In these 1 117 527 people perished and a minimum of US$1 195
billion in losses were reported. In the year 2011 alone 302 disasters claimed 29 782 lives
affected 206 million people and inflicted damages worth a minimum of estimated US$366 billion.
