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Nature's fireworks (Credit: Derya Gürer, distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

NH Natural Hazards Division on Natural Hazards

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European Geosciences Union

Division on Natural Hazards
nh.egu.eu

Division on Natural Hazards

President: Heidi Kreibich (nh@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Ira Didenkulova (didenkulova@mail.ru)

The Natural Hazards (NH) Division covers all natural hazards that can produce damage to the environment and to the society. Therefore, it is a place where scientists and researchers of various geosciences disciplines meet with sociologists, economists and people responsible for territorial and urban security and planning policies. The aim is to improve the understanding of the evolution of the processes and to discuss new technologies, methods and strategies to mitigate their disastrous effects. The division is structured in eleven subdivisions as follows: Hydro-Meteorological Hazards, Volcanic Hazards, Landslide and Snow Avalanche Hazards, Earthquake Hazards, Sea and Ocean Hazards, Remote Sensing and Hazards, Wildfire Hazards, Environmental, Biological and Natech Hazards, Natural Hazards and Society, Multi-Hazards and Climate Hazards. Most of the topics that are treated in the NH Division are also treated in other EGU divisions, which is expected due to the intrinsic transversal nature of the NH Division.

The NH Division is one of the historical Divisions of the EGU that was established when EGU was founded and has been and is one of the largest divisions to which many geo-scientists provide steadily contributions of papers and ideas over the years.

As for all EGU Divisions, an Early Career Scientist Award is established also for the NH Division and is given to young researchers who obtain outstanding results in the assessment and mitigation of natural hazard. In addition, the NH Division awards the Plinius Medal that recognises outstanding interdisciplinary natural-hazard research and the Soloviev Medal that recognises outstanding scientific contributions in fundamental research on natural hazards. Both medals are open for all career stages.

Recent awardees

Hayley J. Fowler

Hayley J. Fowler

  • 2024
  • Sergey Soloviev Medal

The 2024 Sergey Soloviev Medal is awarded to Hayley J. Fowler for her remarkable scientific contributions in fundamental research on climate change impacts on rainfall extremes, and applications on flood risks for the improvement of climate resilience.


Jacopo Selva

Jacopo Selva

  • 2024
  • Plinius Medal

The 2024 Plinius Medal is awarded to Jacopo Selva for his transformative research in quantitative seismic, volcanic and tsunami hazard modelling, leading to relevant applied solutions used in civil protection and emergency management.


Marleen C. de Ruiter

Marleen C. de Ruiter

  • 2024
  • Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award

The 2024 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Marleen C. de Ruiter for her outstanding scientific work on cascading hazards, multi-risk assessment and management.


Alberto Viglione

Alberto Viglione

  • 2023
  • Plinius Medal

The 2023 Plinius Medal is awarded to Alberto Viglione for seminal contributions to understanding and assessing hydrological extremes.


Peng Cui

Peng Cui

  • 2023
  • Sergey Soloviev Medal

The 2023 Sergey Soloviev Medal is awarded to Peng Cui for his high-level career in research and applications on debris flows and other mountain hazards, and his leadership on disaster risk reduction in adherence with the Sendai Framework.


Ankit Agarwal

Ankit Agarwal

  • 2023
  • Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award

The 2023 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Ankit Agarwal for his distinguished work in complexity science for better understanding, quantifying and predicting hydroclimatic extremes.


Ambra Hyskaj

Ambra Hyskaj

  • 2023
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2023 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Ambra Hyskaj Naturally Occurring Asbestos in the asbestos-free European Union approach. Is asbestos exposure prevention being understood correctly?


Sarah Hồ

Sarah Hồ

  • 2023
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2023 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Sarah Hồ A Comparison of Agriculture-related Characteristics of Flash and Traditional Drought


Yuly Paola Rave Bonilla

Yuly Paola Rave Bonilla

  • 2023
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2023 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Yuly Paola Rave Bonilla Numerical modelling of the volcanic emissions dispersion from La Soufrière de Guadeloupe

Latest posts from the NH blog

“Studying earthquakes is a great opportunity to learn every day a lot about many different fields of earth sciences” Yann Klinger- Stephan Mueller Medalist-2024

Hi Yann, first of all, congratulations on the Stephan Mueller Medal, and it is my pleasure to interview you!! To all my readers, the Stephan Mueller Medal is one of the prestigious medals awarded for exceptional contributions to tectonics and structures by the European Geosciences Union (EGU). Dr Yann Klinger wears many hats, he is a seismologist who studies recent and past earthquakes and is also an expert in space seismology. Let us learn more about his research and what …


How can you contribute to Science-Based policy-making? Ask the new Policy Officer in the Natural Hazards Division!

The EGU Natural Hazards Division now has a new Policy Officer to help promote evidence-based policy-making and support members of the Division in participating in policy-making processes. The Policy Officer aims to bridge between the Division and the EGU Science for Policy Working Group, helping to ensure that evidence-based decisions are made in the policy-making processes related to our areas of expertise. So here I am, the new Policy Officer for the Natural Hazards Division. My name is Antonella Peresan, …


New Era of AI: How can foundation models help disaster risk reduction?

In recent decades, AI-based methods have increasingly been adopted to tackle various problems in the field of natural hazards. The escalation of climate change has fuelled the complexity of tasks within the field of disaster risk reduction, such as capturing the formation of an extreme event timely to evacuate an area at risk. In this context, with the greater availability of data and computerised methods, we have had the application of mostly machine learning and deep learning methodologies as great …


Environmental (non-)migration: Whose security is at stake?

Migration is commonly perceived as a strategic response to address the repercussions of environmental threats and climate change. The International Organization for Migration defines ‘environmental migrants’ as those individuals who alter their place of residence due to a sudden or progressive change in the environment that adversely affects their lives or living conditions. Conversely, those who either choose not to migrate or are unable to do so have been described in various ways, including as immobile, nonmigrants, sedentary, stuck, left …

Current issue of the EGU newsletter

How do you get more people to care for the geosciences – a field that affects and influences all of life itself? Scientists across the EGU network share their stories!

Friedrich Barnikel outlines how, since 2003, EGU brings together scientists and teachers for capacity-building workshops, while Evi Nomikou takes us through EGU’s third Geoscience Day, highlighting volcanic geohazards to over 260 school students.

We also hear from Grace Skirrow who breaks down a seemingly complex subject like fluvial geomorphology and the role that it can play in policy decisions. Meanwhile, geologist Sinelethu Hashibi explains why she’s driven to translate geoscience for isiXhosa-speaking communities. And for those of you fond of card games, don’t miss the launch of QUARTETnary: a game about the geological time scale, developed by Iris van Zelst and Lucia Perez-Diaz and partly funded by the EGU Public Engagement Grant 2021.

Finally, don’t forget to visit our EGU24 page to stay up-to-date with information on the upcoming General Assembly this April. You can also subscribe to receive monthly updates in your inbox at the beginning of each month.

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