Under the pressure of harsh environmental conditions and natural hazards, large parts of the world population are struggling to maintain their livelihoods. Population growth, increasing land utilization and shrinking natural resources have led to an increasing demand of improved efficiency of existing technologies and the development of new ones. A

From the perspective of assessing and quantifying risks civil engineering as a discipline has achieved substantial progress over the last decades. However, regarding the broader utilization of risk assessment as a means for societal strategic and operational planning there is still a great need for further development. The present volume not only focusses on the more traditional technical issues relating to the assessment of reliability and risks for individual structures, facilities and activities but also pays attention to the societal context of decision making problems including the interaction between stakeholders.