This book gives insight into hard-to-understand problems of catastrophies. It is the first book on theories of disaster. Based on physical and mathematical theories, the general principles of disaster appearance are explained.

I. General.- 1. Entropy, Complexity, Predictability, and Data Analysis of Time Series and Letter Sequences.- 2. Wavelet Based Multifractal Formalism: Applications to DNA Sequences, Satellite Images of the Cloud Structure, and Stock Market Data.- II. Climate Systems.- 3. Space-Time Variability of the European Climate.- 4. Is Climate Predictable?.- 5. Atmospheric Persistence Analysis: Novel Approaches and Applications.- 6. Assessment and Management of Critical Events: The Breakdown of Marine Fisheries and The North Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation.- III. Biodynamics.- 7. Fractal and Multifractal Approaches in Physiology.- 8. Physiological Relevance of Scaling of Heart Phenomena.- 9. Local Scaling Properties for Diagnostic Purposes.- 10. Unstable Periodic Orbits and Stochastic Synchronization in Sensory Biology.- 11. Crowd Disasters and Simulation of Panic Situations.- IV. Nonlinear Economics.- 12. Investigations of Financial Markets Using Statistical Physics Methods.- 13. Market Fluctuations I: Scaling, Multiscaling, and Their Possible Origins.- 14. Market Fluctuations II: Multiplicative and Percolation Models, Size Effects, and Predictions.