ABSTRACT
Understanding natural hazards is, alongside understanding our capacities and vulnerabilities, a critical foundation for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA). There can be little progress in reducing risk and adapting to hazards without fully understanding where, when and how a hazard may impact an area. Our understanding of these hazards may originate from experience, knowledge as well as scientific research. However, climate and weather hazards are dynamic owing to natural climate variability and, more recently, anthropogenic climate change. Our current understanding of these hazards combined with our changing vulnerabilities may no longer provide us with the knowledge we need to adapt, survive and thrive.
