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 of the EGU 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 defense 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, remote sensing and hazards, 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. For example, earthquakes are the main interest of the Seismology Division, but they are also of interest here where the chief topics are, among others, how to evaluate vulnerability and risk, how to reduce the impact on human lives and society, how geo-scientists can contribute to a prompt recovery of a community affected by disasters.
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 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
Flood hazards often turn destructive and cause substantial loss of life and assets. Annually floods cause significant damage; for example, during the last decade of the 20th century, around 100,000 people lost their lives, and more than 1.4 billion people were affected [1]. Historically, flooding has been viewed as a friend and foe of human civilisations. As a good friend, floods bring nutritious, mineral-rich sediments and help increase agricultural production, among several other benefits. But at the same time, some …
Earth is the only known planet with fire activity – everywhere else, there is not enough oxygen for this process to occur. Since fire appeared on Earth many millions of years ago, it has played a key role in the development of plant adaptation and the distribution of ecosystems. However, the natural occurrence of fire changed with the onset of human evolution. The purposeful use of fire for different aims and the changes in landscape related to livestock and cultivation, …
Answering disasters triggered by natural hazards is a profoundly political process; who can tell us about this is Isabelle Desportes with her study cases of Ethiopia (the 2016 drought), Myanmar (cyclone Komen in 2015) and Zimbabwe (the 2016/2019 drought). Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Dr Isabelle Desportes, a researcher who approaches disaster risk governance from the angle of political science and sociology. Dr Isabelle Desportes is an Associate Researcher at the Disaster Research Unit, Free University Berlin. She …
As part of the NH Division blog editorial team, we, Joana and Shreya, describe our experience at the EGU General Assembly (GA) 2022 (#EGU22), held in the Austria Centre in Vienna, from May 24th-28th. It was the first hybrid conference we attended in-person after two years of the pandemic, with a footfall of more than 7,000 people and about the same number joining virtually. It was an enriching experience to see everyone again and meet new people. Despite the challenges …
In the July issue of The Loupe, scientists share insights and learnings from diverse ecosystems under threat today. Researchers from Northwestern University have developed a physics-based numerical model to predict areas susceptible to landslides, Savanna conservationist Abraham Dabengwa tells us of his work in grassland biomes where fires, large herbivores, and humans are involved in the development and maintenance of these ecosystems, and scientists investigate the emergence of new seasons created by anthropogenic effects on our planet.
Also in this issue: EGU’s GeoPolicy blog highlights the Competence Framework ‘Science for Policy’ for researchers developed by the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC). Also apply to the EGU Policy Pairing scheme that invites researchers to spend a week in Brussels with a Member of the European Parliament (MEP).