European Geosciences Union
Division on Natural Hazards
President: Ira Didenkulova
(nh@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Heidi Kreibich
(heidi.kreibich@gfz-potsdam.de)
The Natural Hazards (NH) Division covers all the geological and geophysical processes that can be hazardous and can produce damage to the environment and to the society. Therefore it is a place where scientists and researchers of various geo-disciplines meet with sociologists, economists and people responsible for territorial and urban defence 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 nine subdivisions covering specific hazards. Of these seven are listed here: hydro-meteorological, volcanic, landslide, earthquake-, sea and ocean, snow-avalanche- and glacial, wildfire hazards. The eighth subdivision covers biological and environmental hazards and in addition hazards not included in the previous ones. The ninth (natural hazards and society) focuses on the social aspects of the hazards, including development sustainability, emergency, warning, after-disaster resilience, etc. 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 the historical Divisions of the EGU that was established since 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 adopting a multidisciplinary approach. In addition, the NH Division awards the Plinius Medal devoted since 2012 to mid-career researchers and the Soloviev Medal for scientists who give outstanding contributions in fundamental aspects of research on natural hazards.
The 2022 Sergey Soloviev Medal is awarded to Anne Mangeney for unique contributions to the understanding of geohazards by integrating novel modelling approaches with field and laboratory observations, and the transfer of knowledge towards risk assessment.
The 2022 Plinius Medal is awarded to Slobodan Nickovic for pioneering work on modelling sand and dust storms and for significant contributions to the development of a global dust advisory and warning system.
The 2022 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Christian Grimm Advancing the ETAS Model to Improve Forecasts of Earthquake Sequences and Doublets
The 2022 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Ingrid Bjørge-Engeland Observations by ASIM of Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes accompanied by Elves
The 2022 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Joan Villalonga Observational characterization of meteotsunami triggering in the Balearic Islands from an ultra-dense observational network
The 2022 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Wazita Scott Weather circulation patterns associated with extreme precipitation events over Italy
The 2022 Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists is awarded to Jakob Zscheischler for fundamental work of an international standing, defining and developing models for the identification and risk assessment of compound and inter-related hazards, in a changing climate.
The 2021 Sergey Soloviev Medal is awarded to Fausto Guzzetti for his fundamental contributions to the field of natural hazards and his remarkable efforts to link the scientific community and civil protection authorities to mitigate risk for exposed populations.
The 2021 Plinius Medal is awarded to Giuliano Di Baldassarre for outstanding research on the interplay between hydrological hazards and society, and significant contributions to the development of policy for the mitigation of floods and droughts.
The 2021 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Maria Pregnolato for her outstanding research in the field of flood impacts, flood risk assessment, and infrastructure resilience.
The 2021 Virtual Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (vOSPP) Award is awarded to Bixen Telletxea Identification and characterization of rockfalls using seismic signals, LiDAR, and imagery. Advances on real-time detection
The 2021 Virtual Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (vOSPP) Award is awarded to Dion Häfner Real-World Rogue Wave Probabilities
The 2021 Virtual Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (vOSPP) Award is awarded to Janneke van Ginkel An approach to construct a Netherlands-wide ground-motion amplification model
The 2021 Virtual Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (vOSPP) Award is awarded to Matthew Hayward Numerical simulations of tsunami generation in caldera lakes by subaqueous explosive volcanism
Earlier this year, the EGU Natural Hazards Division launched a new sub-division dedicated to climate hazards. In today’s interview, Dr Steven Hardiman, a Senior Research Scientist at the Met Office (UK) and the Science Officer of this new sub-division, will share some insights about NH11 and its future development. Hi Steve, and congratulations on your new role! Please tell us about your career and field of research I work on global-scale atmospheric dynamics, teleconnections, and regional climate prediction. After completing …
In my blog post last year, I talked about the escalation of extreme events in Brazil, and one of the main questions was whether the scientific community would need new methods and technologies to deal with extreme events aggravated by climate change. This year, during one of the Innovations (WG05) working group meetings of the International Network on Landslide Early Warning Systems (LandAware), I was introduced to the use of the Internet of Things (IoT) applied to landslide monitoring. Although …
Every natural event that causes damage to the built environment must be followed by recovery; however, this phase of disaster risk management has received less attention from academics than the others [1]. In all its aspects, disaster recovery has remained a contentious topic, with experts debating its definition, approaches, objectives, activities, and even when it should begin and finish [2–4]. Recovery, from early recovery activities to major construction, is a long-term process that might take years or decades to complete …
The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, “there is nothing permanent except change”. We are living in an epoch where constant change is the new normal. Unquestionably, climate change is one of the most significant challenges of our time. How can we shape our thinking to become more agile to change, and what attributes do organisations and societies need to increase their capacity to adapt? As the Earth continues to warm, changes in the climate system are becoming more significant, …
In the November newsletter, we celebrate geoscientists who see the unseen: from German scientist Alfred Wegener who proposed the shocking theory of continental drift, to Morelia Urlaub, researcher of underwater landslides, a phenomena otherwise unseen by humans.
We also hear from Sustainable Energy Geoscientist Munira Raji who reflects on attending the UN’s COP27 in Egypt, and EGU Policy Manager Chloe Hill describes what happened during our special EU Parliament event, ‘Supporting the EU’s Biodiversity Targets by Bridging the Science-Policy Divide’.
Lastly, don’t forget to check your inbox for the next EGU23 monthly Update from Copernicus, arriving early December. If you miss an Update you can subscribe here.