Rainfall-Induced Geohazards: Thresholds, Mechanisms, and Early Warning

Dear Colleagues,

Rainfall is one of the most pervasive and destructive trigger factors for geohazards worldwide. Landslides, debris flows, rock avalanches, and ground collapses induced by extreme or prolonged rainfall events pose escalating threats to human lives, critical infrastructure, and socio-economic development—a trend that is being exacerbated by climate change, rapid urbanization, and land-use intensification. Despite decades of research, accurately predicting when and where rainfall will trigger slope failures remains a formidable challenge, largely due to the complex interplay of hydrological processes, geological heterogeneity, vegetation dynamics, and antecedent moisture conditions across diverse temporal and spatial scales.

Central to this challenge is the determination of reliable rainfall thresholds—critical intensity-duration conditions that separate stable slopes from those poised for failure. However, traditional threshold approaches often suffer from significant uncertainties arising from limited landslide inventories, seasonal rainfall variability, extreme precipitation events, and the lack of standardized methodologies. Moreover, the physical mechanisms linking rainfall infiltration to pore-pressure buildup, shear-strength reduction, and eventual slope instability are far from fully understood, particularly under changing climate regimes and in multi-hazard cascade scenarios where earthquakes or wildfires may precondition landscapes for rainfall-triggered failures. Equally pressing is the translation of scientific understanding into operational early warning systems that balance predictive accuracy with practical usability, minimizing false alarms while ensuring timely and effective risk communication to vulnerable communities.

This Special Issue, entitled “Rainfall-Induced Geohazards: Thresholds, Mechanisms, and Early Warning”, aims to bring together cutting-edge research that advances our fundamental understanding of rainfall-triggered geohazard processes and translates these insights into actionable tools for hazard mitigation and disaster risk reduction. We welcome submissions of original research articles and comprehensive review papers on topics including, but not limited to:

(1) Rainfall threshold determination methodologies (empirical, physically based, and data-driven approaches);

(2) Hydrological and hydro-mechanical mechanisms of rainfall-induced slope instability;

(3) Antecedent rainfall, soil moisture dynamics, and their roles in preconditioning failure;

(4) Multi-hazard interactions and cascading effects involving rainfall-triggered geohazards;

(5) Field monitoring, remote sensing, and AI/ML techniques for real-time hazard detection and prediction;

(6) Probabilistic and deterministic frameworks for rainfall-induced geohazard forecasting;

(7) Development, validation, and operational implementation of early warning systems;

(8) Climate change impacts on rainfall patterns and associated geohazard frequencies and intensities;

(9) Risk assessment, vulnerability analysis, and resilience strategies for rainfall-triggered events.

We particularly encourage interdisciplinary studies that bridge hydrology, engineering geology, geomorphology, climatology, and data science, as well as case studies from diverse climatic and geological settings that offer practical implications for rainfall-induced geohazard forecasting, early warning, climate adaptation, and sustainable disaster risk reduction.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Tengfei Wang
Prof. Dr. Changbin Yan
Dr. Wenmin Yao
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. GeoHazards is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• rainfall-induced geohazards
• rainfall thresholds
• triggering mechanisms
• early warning systems
• hydro-mechanical coupling
• slope instability
• climate change impacts
• hazard forecasting and risk assessment