Giuseppe De Natale
- 2018
- Sergey Soloviev Medal
The 2018 Sergey Soloviev Medal is awarded to Giuseppe De Natale for his fundamental contributions to the assessment and management of seismic and volcanic hazards and risk.
Division on Natural Hazards
President: Giorgio Boni (nh@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Ira Didenkulova
(didenkulova@mail.ru)
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.
Recent awardees
Hannah L. Cloke
- 2018
- Plinius Medal
The 2018 Plinius Medal is awarded to Hannah L. Cloke for her outstanding research on uncertainties in modelling flood hazards and understanding risks in operational ensemble flood forecasting as well as climate impact assessments of future flood risks.
Thomas Wahl
- 2018
- Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists Award
The 2018 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists Award is awarded to Thomas Wahl for his fundamental contributions to the research on assessment of coastal-flood risk.
Augusto Neri
- 2017
- Sergey Soloviev Medal
The 2017 Sergey Soloviev Medal is awarded to Augusto Neri for his pioneering research in fluid dynamics that revolutionised our understanding of eruption processes, and for his generous insights and efforts worldwide to mitigate pyroclastic flow and ashfall/gas hazards.
Bruno Merz
- 2017
- Plinius Medal
The 2017 Plinius Medal is awarded to Bruno Merz for groundbreaking contributions in the field of flood risk research and practice through introducing and implementing an integrated framework of combined vulnerability and hazard assessment.
James E. Daniell
- 2017
- Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists Award
The 2017 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists Award is awarded to James E. Daniell for his interdisciplinary contribution to multi-risk research, focusing on the consequences of natural hazards, with strong links with socio-economic research.
Anastasiia Domina
- 2017
- Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards
The 2017 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Anastasiia Domina The effect of stratification and topography on high-frequency internal waves in a continental shelf sea
Florian Albrecht
- 2017
- Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards
The 2017 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Florian Albrecht Validating the usability of an interactive Earth Observation based web service for landslide investigation
Jamie W. McCaughey
- 2017
- Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards
The 2017 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Jamie W. McCaughey Societal acceptance of unnecessary evacuation
Latest posts from the NH blog
Heavy metals in industrial wastewater: hazardous waste or secondary resource?
- Natural Hazards
- posted 6 days ago
Not long ago on the blog, we have talked about natural groundwater quality triggered by geogenic factors and related hazards such as a high concentration of heavy metals. Today’s topic concerns the anthropogenic input of heavy metals into the water and how to solve its impact effectively. Industrial processes can lead to heavy metal bearing wastewater, which is commonly treated by inefficient purification methods. Therefore, it is time to think about alternative methods for recovering the metals that would otherwise …
Hazard chains: from anthropic oil spills to ecosystem pollution. Can tiny organisms be the solution?
- Natural Hazards
- posted 2 weeks ago
Hello to everyone. Today I have the personal pleasure to interview Dr. Grégoire Michoud. He is a friend and a brilliant scientist working on ecosystem microbial ecology. In the interview, Grégoire will talk to us about oil spills in the marine system, a specific anthropic hazard that can evolve into a natural hazard with terrible environmental consequences. Hello Grégoire, please tell us a bit about environmental issues related to oil spills. When it comes to oil spills, widespread publicized releases …
How to study Mega-earthquakes? By generating them!
- Natural Hazards
- posted 1 month ago
Francesca Funiciello is an Associated Professor at Roma Tre University (Rome, Italy). Her research interests are, among others, geodynamics, seismotectonics, rheology of analogue materials and science communication. She leads an active and young research group composed by Fabio Corbi, Silvia Brizzi and Elenora van Rijsingen, and collaborates with many other young and experienced researchers in Europe. The main activities of Francesca, Fabio, Silvia and Elenora involve analogue and numerical modelling of subduction zones, geophysical data analysis and geostatistics in the …
The emergency of disaster emergency planning
- Natural Hazards
- posted 1 month ago
Today I have the honour to introduce Prof. David Alexander as our guest. David is Professor of Risk and Disaster Reduction at University College London (UK). His expertise comprises holistic aspects of disaster risk reduction and practical matters in emergency planning and management. He has also worked as Scientific Director of the Advanced School of Civil Protection of the regional government of Lombardy (Italy). As a Professor at the University of Florence (2005-11) he was a leading member of the …
Current issue of the EGU newsletter
This month we are highlighting two new studies published in EGU journals. One, published in The Cryosphere, shows how much sea level would rise following the collapse of two Antarctic ice shelves. The other, featured in Biogeosciences, shows that oxygen loss in the coastal Baltic Sea over the past century is unprecedented in the last 1500 years. You can read the press releases for both studies on the EGU website.
Also this month, we have opened the call for candidates for EGU Treasurer: if you'd like to nominate yourself or propose a candidate, you can do so by 15 September.
Finally, if you'd like to apply for financial support from the EGU to organise a meeting, make sure to submit an application by 15 August. This is also the deadline to submit proposals for Union Symposia and Great Debates at the EGU 2019 General Assembly. The deadline for scientific sessions is 6 September.