As you may well be aware Cyprus lies in one of the active seismogenic regions of the Eastern Mediterranean Basin and throughout its long history has been numerously devastated by strong earthquakes. The most recent earthquake of October 09 1996 rocked a wide swath of the Eastern Mediterranean Region and caused casualties and structural damage in southwestern Cyprus. The seismic hazard of Cyprus has been the focus of several international programs such as the UNESCO and USGS Project on the Reduction of Earthquake Losses in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (RELEMR) and UNESCO-IGCP Project on the Seismotectonics and Seismic Hazard Assessment of the Mediterranean Basin (SEASAME). In parallel with the earthquake hazard, it is believed that due to high rate of urbanisation the attendant earthquake risk in the island has also reached high levels.

These are the main reasons that motivated the organisation of the International Conference on the "Earthquake Hazard and Risk in the Mediterranean Region" on 18-22 October 1999 at Near East University in Nicosia, North Cyprus. The Conference aimed to contribute to the understanding of the earthquake hazard and risk and the related problems in the Mediterranean Region, in general, and in Cyprus, in particular. The Conference enhanced the combined efforts of geology, geophysics, earthquake engineering and civil engineering for the understanding, assessment and mitigation of the earthquake risk, and to contribute to the solidarity of people in reducing of earthquake disasters as expressed in the declaration of the International Decade for the Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) of the United Nations.

This international forum provided a sincere environment to the scientists, researchers and engineers, to introduce, discuss and exchange the latest developments and the solutions on the earthquake problems.