We live in a changing and increasingly complex and more vulnerable world. Disaster risks entail ever more international and global impacts and unforeseen cascading effects. One example is the drought in the U.S. farm belt in 2012 that triggered a global food price crisis and further limited the access to food for the over 1 billion people suffering from hunger. Another example happened in 2011 with the strongest earthquake ever measured in Japan triggering a tsunami that caused over 15’000 casualties and very severe damages to the Fukushima nuclear power plant finally resulting in severe radioactive contamination over hundreds of square kilometres. The 2011 flood in Thailand hampered the global supply chain for hard disks, which is another example. The outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian influenza has stated an example that only an internationally coordinated approach will pay off. In order to reduce such complex and multifaceted risks and to prepare, respond and recover from such events an integrative risk approach is needed. It is of utmost importance to include all the various risks into one and the same decision making process to allocate the resources effectively and efficiently. Natural hazards, technological and biological risks, climate change, land degradation, loss in biodiversity, water scarcity and natural resource depletion, but also health risks, food safety and security have to be analyzed and assessed within a holistic approach.

In this issue of Planet@Risk the state of the art collections, grey literature summaries, case studies for good practices and scientific reports shall provide guidance to governments and non-governmental actors alike on why they should and how they can, together, reduce risks and vulnerabilities and to increase resilience and sustainability.

I would like to thank the authors for their substantive contributions they share with us, and the Editorial Board members who secure the quality of the journal with their valuable work.. I wish you a lot of new insights with this issue of Planet@Risk!

Walter J. Ammann

Editor-in-Chief President Global Risk Forum Global Risk Forum GRF Davos Promenade 35 CH-7270 Davos Platz Switzerland Email: info@planet-risk.org