Considered by the ecologists a complex of ecosystem and by the geographers a territorial system, the landscape represents the result of long-term interaction between man and nature, translated into a certain specific structural and functional organization and into the way it is perceived by human communities. The interaction between man and landscape is reflected in land cover and use changes, which represent an instrument to assess trends of interest

This book, which is the second volume in a new series “Environmental hazards”, addresses a topic very much neglected in current research: the role of urban planning in earthquake disaster management. It is not a book about earthquake engineering issues but rather about management issues. Social sciences and arts are often disregarded in earthquake disaster management, the focus being mostly on technical aspects. But the study of the impact is