Introductory Chapter: Earthquakes - Impact, Community Vulnerability, and Resilience

Earthquakes may be regarded as one of the most devastating and terrifying natural forces on earth. Past earthquake disasters (including tsunamis triggered by earthquakes) have demonstrated that literally within a few or a fraction of seconds, many people can be killed or injured; further, the psychological impact on communities can last for years. Furthermore, due to its force of destruction, any physical infrastructure could be (and have been) damaged or destroyed. But what are the trends? In the UNISDR report [1], some of the key conclusions relevant to earthquakes during a 20-year period (i.e., 1998–2017) were the following (Figure 1):