Land Use/Land Cover and Natural Hazards

Over the past few decades, the risks associated with natural hazards have increased significantly due to changes in climate as well as land use/land cover (LULC), both of which are mainly driven by anthropic pressure on landscapes, such as urbanization, forest management practices, agricultural practices, and similar processes. Climate and LULC change contribute significantly to variations in the frequency, variability, and magnitude of natural hazards, including floods, landslides, erosion, and others.  Constant progress in remote sensing (RS) enables the rapid collection of high-quality and accurate information on landscape characteristics, particularly LULC. Geographic information systems (GIS), in turn, provide tools for processing, modeling, analyzing, and synthesizing spatial data. Together, RS and GIS play an essential role in natural hazards mapping, monitoring, and assessment. Therefore, the focus of this Special Issue was to gather and present current knowledge on the interactions between LULC and natural hazards and to examine the impacts of LULC changes and scenarios on the occurrence of natural hazards, as well as vice versa—the impacts of natural hazards on LULC and society—across various spatial scales, from local to global. Addressing these issues has the potential to support risk managers and decision-makers in adopting appropriate mitigation and adaptation actions, as well as resilient preparedness and response strategies.