Integral to any study of risk in the human and physical worlds are the geographical concepts of place, space and scale. It is important to understand the spatial patterns of risk (where the risk is), the scale of the risk (how big is the risk and how bad the effects might be) and the influence of place on risk (what physical and human characteristics make a location risky). Geographers are by no means the only people interested in this. Businesses such as insurance companies, governments, environmental agencies and planners also analyse risk in the world, often with the aid of GIS. The purpose of this module is to explore the world of risk from a personal scale to a global scale. The media can seem full of stories about how we are at constant risk from crime, natural disasters, climate change, international terrorism and global epidemics. But who in the world is most at risk from natural or human disasters and is it possible to manage these risks/hazards?
