This special issue focuses on intensifying extreme weather events with low frequency of occurrence, provides basic knowledge of extreme weather events, and presents voices from affected areas suffering from disasters that happened one after another. This issue also introduces “Facing growing mega-disasters, how should civil engineers plan to take actions in cooperation with experts in related fields”. In particular, focusing on the contents of the Fifth Assessment Report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in September 2013, which provides an important perspective to climate change in the future, the intent of this special issue is to gain understanding and cooperation from readers in preparing for disaster prevention and taking necessary countermeasures against disasters, resulting from extreme weather events and climate change.

Recognizing that “Weather is a random phenomenon”, it is necessary for us civil engineers to understand low-frequency extreme weather events more accurately, convey the information quickly and precisely, and take serious actions. In order to take appropriate actions to prevent catastrophic damage from recurring disasters, it is required that safety of society should be enhanced through both “hard” and “soft” countermeasures, and social consensus toward disaster prevention in the region should be built. Overcoming the challenges featured in this special issue will be an important mission in the 21st century for civil engineers, who play an indispensable role in disaster mitigation and disaster prevention, and it is our intention to share such topics to readers.