This book includes papers, presented at the workshop on "Reduction and Predictability of Natural Disasters" held in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1994, on various ways to reduce and mitigate the occurrence of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, and landslides.

Preface /J. B. Rundle, B. Klein, and D. L. Turcotte -- Societal Effects of Natural Disasters -- Scaling Laws for Natural Disaster Fatalities /S. F. Nishenko and C. C. Barton -- Global Fatalities from Earthquakes in the Pt 2000 Years: Prognosis for the Next /R. Bilham -- Floods and Landslides -- Diffusion-Limited Aggregation as a Paradigm for Modeling Dynamical Processes /L. M. Sander -- A Dynamical Systems Approach to Flood-Frequency Forecasting /D. L. Turcotte and K. Haselton -- Multiplicative Cascades and Spatial Variability in Rainfall, River Networks, and Floods /V. K. Gupta and E. Wayrnire -- Inference for a Channel Network Model and Implications for Flood Scaling /B. M. Troutman -- Thickness Statistics of Sedimentary Layers Generated by Gravity-Driven Flows /D. H. Rothman and J. P. Grotzinger -- Earthquakes -- Thoughts on Modeling and Prediction of Earthquakes /S. C. Eubank -- Complexity and Earthquake Forecasting /C. C. Sammis, D. Sornette, and H. SaZeur -- on the Scaling of Average Slip with Rupture Dimensions of Earthquakes /S. Gross -- Rupture Characteristics , Recurrence , and Predict ability in a Slider-Block Model for Earthquakes /Ja B. Rundle. W. Klein. and S. Gross -- A Comparison of Simple Eqrthquake Models: -- Self- Organized Criticality vs . Intermittent P hose Locking /A . V. He rz -- Spinodals and Scaling in Slider-Block Models /w. Klein, C. Ferguson, and J. B. Rundle -- A Hierarchical Model for Precursory Seismic Activation /w. L Newman, D. L. Turcotte, and A. Gabrielov -- Observation of Boltzmann Fluctuations in Stochastic, Massless Slider-Block Simulations /J. B. Rundle, W. Klein, and D. L. Turcotte -- Prediction Studies of Earthquake Falut Models and Applicat ions to Seismic Catalogs /J. Carison -- Index.