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 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
The 2020 Plinius Medal is awarded to Claire J. Horwell for her outstanding interdisciplinary research on the respiratory health implications of volcanic aerosols, including ash, minerals and liquid droplets.
The 2020 Sergey Soloviev Medal is awarded to John J. Clague for his remarkable scientific contributions in fundamental and applied research on earthquakes, tsunamis, outburst floods and landslides, directed towards risk reduction for the benefit of societies.
The 2020 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Vitor Silva for his fundamental contributions to the research on earthquake risk assessment.
The frequency and intensity of drought periods have increased since the 1950s over most land areas [1]. In fact, between 1998 and 2017, drought was the sixth natural hazard associated with disasters (4.8% of the total number of disasters) but the second in terms of the total number of affected people (33% of the total number of affected people), causing more than 21,000 deaths [2]. For example, in 1992, an intense and prolonged drought devastated a region of more than …
The General Assembly (GA) 2022 will take place from 3 to 8 April 2022, and, as of now, it is thought to be hosted in a hybrid format with in-presence events in Vienna (Austria) and online events on an ad hoc platform. The conference is still so far away, why do you have to think about it now? Well, for once, the call for abstract is open! So, it is time to review the provisional programme for sessions of interest …
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Trying something new and thinking outside the box is always challenging, both within and outside academia. Exploring alternative paths outside academia can be daunting, but you can also have a great time seizing every opportunity available. To shed a bit of light on this quest, it is my pleasure to interview Dr Alka Tripathy-Lang. Thank you, Alka, for accepting this interview! Alka received her PhD from Arizona State University and worked as a postdoc at Berkeley Chronology Center, California. She …
In the November issue of The Loupe we reflect on the recent COP26 meeting and the new Glasgow Climate Pact and discover what it’s like to be a member of the EGU Policy Working group with Noel Baker! Learn more about EGU’s new Policy Priority Area for 2022-24 Biodiversity and how you can get involved.
You can also watch the free recording of our special webinar about How to build an LGBT+ network in geoscience, available now on our YouTube channel.
Don’t forget to submit your abstract for EGU22, to be held 3 – 8 April 2022! Find out more here as well as information about the registration fees and submit your abstract by 12 January 2022 at 13.00 CET.
In addition this issue also shares the latest Journal Watch and GeoRoundup of November EGU journal highlights.