Natural Hazards ñ the journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards ñ is devoted to original research work on the physical aspects of natural hazards the statistics of forecasting catastrophic events risk assessment and the nature of precursors of natural and/or technological hazards. Although the origin of hazards can be different sources and systems (atmospheric hydrologic oceanographic volcanologic seismic neotectonic) the environmental impacts are equally catastrophic. This circumstance warrants a tight interaction between the different scientific and operational disciplines which should enhance the mitigation of hazards. Hazards of interest to the journal are included in the following sections: general atmospheric climatological oceanographic storm surges tsunamis floods snow avalanches landslides erosion earthquakes volcanoes man-made technological and risk assessment.