Natural Hazards: Earth's Processes as Hazards, Disasters, and Catastrophes

by Edward A. Keller, Duane E. DeVecchio

The new revised fifth edition of Natural Hazards remains the go-to introductory-level survey intended for university and college courses that are concerned with earth processes that have direct, and often sudden and violent, impacts on human society. The text integrates principles of geology, hydrology, meteorology, climatology, oceanography, soil science, ecology, and solar system astronomy. The textbook explains the earth processes that drive hazardous events in an understandable way, illustrates how these processes interact with our civilization, and describes how we can better adjust to their effects. Written by leading scholars in the area, the new edition of this book takes advantage of the greatly expanding amount of information regarding natural hazards, disasters, and catastrophes. The text is designed for learning, with chapters broken into small consumable chunks of content for students. Each chapter opens with a list of learning objectives and ends with revision as well as high-level critical thinking questions. A Concepts in Review feature provides an innovative end-of-chapter section that breaks down the chapter content by reviewing the learning objectives, summary points, important visuals, and key terms. New case studies of hazardous events have been integrated into the text, and students are invited to actively apply their understanding of the five fundamental concepts that serve as a conceptual framework for the text. Figures, illustrations, and photos have been updated throughout. The book is designed for a course in natural hazards for nonscience majors, and a primary goal of the text is to assist instructors in guiding students who may have little background in science to understand physical earth processes as natural hazards and their consequences to society.

Genres: Science, School

642 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2005

Reviews

[P.Marie Boydston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good at enforcing previous knowledge on geological topics. Chapters are organized well for the most part, although I would've preferred Case Studies at the end of the chapter so as not to break up the flow of the chapter content. Very up to date information on severe storms and catastrophes. Don't know why anyone would live on the west coast of the U.S. after studying this material. Plate Tectonics chapter has great and very helpful illustrations!

[Kelley Frye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book!
I had to read this for my geology class.
If you want to know a more modern approach to educating yourself in the weather, climate, and earth processes....this is the book that will get the job done!
You will be more informed.
Very sciency!
One of the authors that wrote this book was also my professor! :)
I recommend this book to people that love nature, love the weather, love the earth 🌎.

[A E Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most interesting textbooks I have ever read. I actually read everything in this book and retained more than needed information. It was enjoyable and helped me to engage in classroom discussions. Let's just say it helped me get an A in an online course. I would most definitely suggest this book.

[Renee Is A Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy read. My fifth grader was able to understand most concepts. Although some of the terms were difficult to pronounce for him, it did open his eyes to how much the world could go wrong. I had a lot of reassuring to do.

[Del · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although written entirely from a US perspective for a US audience, this is still a handy introduction to the subject matter.

[Lovely Fortune · Rating 3 out of 5]

For Physical Science course. Hated this class, but many parts of the textbook were actually quite interesting.

[lillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was fine but this class is so tiring lol

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a textbook this one wasn't too bad. I sometimes got lost in the more science part of the reading (one part, a couple pages long, about dirt/soil was the worst for me to get through. The reading was interspersed with lots of real life accounts and interesting images though so on a whole it was a pretty good textbook.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has really great case studies of natural hazards and does a nice job of explaining how natural hazards occur. However, this book assumes that everyone reading it is a science major or person interested in science. This is not always the case! (I'm an example).

[Chelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting textbook lots of good case studies. Assumes all are science majors that read it.

[Brian Tang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took a class that needed this textbook. Great pictures and information; biggest thing I didn't like was the margins... Sometimes the margins were so small on some pages.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

very interesting textbook and covered topics well! was easier to read then all my other textbooks and the topics, pictures and graphs were very helpful

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am still trying to finish that book

[Kalyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for a Natural Disasters Class, the textbook gave a lot of detail and made the material easier to understand.

[Matthew Barlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good reference guide.