European Geosciences Union
Division on Natural Hazards
President: Ira Didenkulova (nh@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Paolo Tarolli
(paolo.tarolli@unipd.it)
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 2019 Sergey Soloviev Medal is awarded to Kyoji Sassa for outstanding scientific contributions in fundamental research in landslide hazards and in landslide risk-reduction initiatives for the benefit of societies.
The 2019 Plinius Medal is awarded to Philip J. Ward for outstanding research on flood and drought risk assessments from global to local scales.
The 2019 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists Awards is awarded to Jadranka Šepić for fundamental contributions to the research on meteorological tsunamis and high-frequency sea level oscillations.
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Alexandra Urgilez Vinueza The occurrence of Landslides in Guarumales, Ecuador
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Ina Teutsch Rogue Waves in the Southern North Sea
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Rahul Kumar Urban interactions with heatwaves in India
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Ricarda Gatter The significance of weak layers for submarine slope failure
In this last post of 2019, I have the pleasure to ask some questions to Ira Didenkulova, the President of the EGU Natural Hazards division who has been recently elected for a second mandate. Ira, can you introduce yourself and tell what led you the position of EGU Natural Hazard (NH) Division president? What are the main challenges you had and what’s next for the NH division? It seems this is the most difficult question. OK. Let’s be short and …
Today I got the chance to grab a coffee with Mr Fujitsuka, an ex-officer of the Ministry of Environment of Japan in charge of disaster preparedness, management and recovery. The reason why I decided to interview Mr Fujitsuka is that he helped in first person to manage the recovery process during Typhoon Hagibis that paralyzed the eastern coast of Japan on the first week of October. But, before exploring the disaster aftermath, it is necessary to draw a complete picture …
We are getting closer to 2020 and one of the first deadlines is for the submission of abstracts for the next EGU General Assembly (GA) in Wien, from the 3rd to the 8th of May 2020. The Natural hazards Early career scientist Team (NhET) has proposed several sessions and short courses also for next GA. Below you can find a list of them. We also remind that there is an opportunity for financial support to attend EGU for both Early …
Before continuing, if you haven’t read it yet, catch up with the first part of this blog article by clicking on this link. The good Living with volcanoes is not all bad. Volcanoes provide a wealth of natural resources in the form of building materials, hot springs, freshwater and fertile soil. However, there are more hidden aspects, which was the focus of a recent collaboration with an archaeologist. We believe that volcanoes and their landforms provide “cultural services”, which is …
This month the EGU announced the results of the autumn 2019 elections, which included selecting the Union’s next President, General Secretary and Division Presidents. We also opened two calls for geoscience teachers: one to attend a GIFT workshop in March that will be held in conjunction with the 36th International Geological Congress in Delhi, India, and a second for university-level geoscience teachers to attend a teaching focus group meeting associated with the 2020 General Assembly.
Please remember that the deadline for abstracts for the General Assembly is 15 January 2020 at 13:00 CET. Before then, consider renewing your EGU membership to be part of Europe’s largest geosciences union. EGU members are eligible to submit an abstract to the General Assembly and enjoy substantially reduced meeting registration rates, among other benefits.
Applications are now open for the EGU General Assembly Mentoring Programme (deadline: 31 January 2020).