The "hotspots" project is developing a first-order assessment of natural disaster risks across the major natural hazards at a subnational scale. The project is identifying high-risk areas--hotspots--by overlaying the geographic distributions of hazard probabilities, elements at risk, and vulnerability factors. A companion set of local and regional case studies has been completed to improve understanding of the interactions among hazards, exposure, and vulnerability and to elucidate the critical multi-hazard risk management issues.