Book excerpt: The world's population is expected to increase to over 8 billion by 2020. About 60% of the total population of the world lives in coastal areas and 65% of the cities with a population of over 2.5 million are located in coastal areas. Written by an international panel of experts in the fields of engineering and risk management, The Handbook of Coastal Disasters Mitigation presents a coherent overview of 10 years of coastal disaster risk management and engineering, during which some of the most relevant events of recent time have taken place, including the Indian Ocean tsunami, hurricanes Katrina and Sandy in the United States or the 2011 Japanese tsunami. - International case studies offer practical lessons on how disaster resilience can be improved in the future - Contains tools and techniques for analyzing and managing the risk of coastal disasters - Provides engineering measures for mitigating coastal vulnerability to tsunamis, tropical cyclones, and hurricanes - Includes crucial tactics for rehabilitation and reconstruction of the infrastructure