The past years set a record in the number of natural disasters accompanied by unprecedented damage to industrial facilities and other infrastructures. In addition to the Japan twin disasters in 2011, recent major examples include Hurricane Sandy in 2012 that caused multiple hydrocarbon spills and releases of raw sewage, the damage to industrial parks during the Thai floods in 2011, or Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 that wreaked havoc on the offshore oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico.

These events clearly demonstrated the potential for natural hazards to trigger fires, explosions, and toxic or radioactive releases at hazardous installations and other infrastructures that process, store, or transport dangerous substances. These technological “secondary effects” caused by natural hazards are also called “Natech” accidents. They are a recurring but often overlooked feature in many natural-disaster situations and have repeatedly had significant and long-term social, environmental, and economic impacts. In the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster, Natech accidents add significantly to the burden of the population already struggling to cope with the effects of the triggering natural event.

Natural hazards can cause multiple and simultaneous releases of hazardous materials over extended areas, damage or destroy safety barriers and systems, and disrupt lifelines often needed for accident prevention and mitigation. These are also the ingredients for cascading disasters. Successfully controlling a Natech accident has often turned out to be a major challenge, if not impossible, where no prior preparedness planning has taken place.

Unfortunately, experience has shown that disaster risk reduction frameworks do not fully address the issue of technological hazards in general, and Natech hazards in particular. Also, chemical-accident prevention and preparedness programs often overlook the specific aspects of Natech risk. This is compounded by the likely increase of future Natech risk due to worldwide industrialization, climate change, population growth, and community encroachment in areas subject to these kinds of hazards.

With increasing awareness of Natech risk and a growing body of research into the topic, in some countries first steps have been taken toward implementing stricter regulations for the design and operation of industrial activities in natural-hazard prone areas. Nonetheless, dedicated risk-assessment methodologies are lacking, as is guidance for industry and authorities on how to manage Natech risks in their installations and offsite. It is necessary to revisit existing expertise and practices in risk management at industrial facilities and to implement dedicated measures for Natech risk reduction where gaps are identified.

This book aims to address the entire spectrum of issues pertinent to Natech risk assessment and management in an effort to support the reduction of Natech risks. While in principle also natural-hazard triggered nuclear and radiological accidents qualify as Natech events, the book focuses on Natech risk management in the chemical industry. Nuclear risks are governed by different legislation and mature risk-assessment methodologies that allow the evaluation of natural-hazard impacts are available.

The book is also intended to serve as a reference information repository and state-of-the-art support tool for the industry user, government authorities, disaster risk reduction practitioners, and academia. In its 15 chapters, it collects modeling and assessment approaches, methodologies and tools, and presents measures to prevent Natech accidents or to mitigate their consequences.

Chapters 2–4 are introductory chapters that discuss the characteristics of Natech risk by giving detailed descriptions of selected Natech accident case studies at chemical plants, pipelines, and offshore infrastructure. This is complemented by general and natural-hazard specific lessons learned and a discussion of the treatment of Natech risk in regulatory frameworks for chemical-accident prevention and preparedness currently in force. Chapters 5 and 6 address the prediction and measurement of natural hazards from an engineering point of view and introduce the characteristics of technological hazards arising from the use of hazardous materials. Chapters 7–12 are dedicated to Natech risk assessment. They outline the general assessment process and describe the different approaches available. Examples of existing Natech risk-assessment methodologies are presented and applied to case studies. Chapters 13 and 14 focus on structural and organizational prevention and mitigation measures. These measures range from engineered safety barriers to early-warning systems and risk governance. Finally, Chapter 15 summarizes recommendations for effective Natech risk reduction and remaining gaps that need to be addressed in the future. A glossary of terms is included in the Annex.