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GeoHazards

GeoHazards is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal on theoretical and applied research across the whole spectrum of geomorphological hazards, namely endogenous and exogenous hazards, as well as those related to climate change and human activity, published quarterly online by MDPI.

All Articles (263)

Hydrological Vulnerability and Flood Risk: Mexico City Study Case

  • Emmanuel Zúñiga and
  • Enrique Pérez-Campuzano

Mexico City (CDMX) is located in an endorheic basin historically prone to flooding and waterlogging, the recurrence and magnitude of which have intensified in recent decades. However, flood risk assessment tends to focus primarily on the occurrence of intense rainfall to explain this phenomenon. The main objective of this study is to demonstrate that the risk of flooding in Mexico City (CDMX) depends not only on intense rainfall, but also on changes in hydrological vulnerability resulting from the loss of natural vegetation cover. The curve number (CN) method is used to determine hydrological vulnerability and flood risk in CDMX, integrating environmental information and precipitation values. Changes in surface runoff are also determined for 10 watersheds located west of Mexico City, considering urbanization in 1992 and 2021, as well as a non-urbanized scenario. The results indicate that hydrological vulnerability and flood risk increased from acceptable levels to “high” and “very high” levels, mainly in regions where urbanization increased and natural vegetation decreased. It was also identified that, under different levels of precipitation, agricultural and urban land cover have considerably lower infiltration capacities compared to natural land cover, such as forests, which infiltrate more than half of the precipitation. Finally, the increase in surface runoff in the watersheds located west of the city is closely related to the urbanization process and the physical characteristics of the territory. It was also observed that a degraded watershed can generate approximately 90% more runoff than a non-urbanized watershed.

20 February 2026

Map of the geographical location of Mexico City. The study area is shown on the right side of the figure. The upper right box shows the area where the hydrological basins of western Mexico City are located. I (San Joaquín), II (Tecamachalco), III (Tacubaya), IV (Becerra), V (Mixcoac), VI (Tarango), VII (Tequilasco), VIII (Texcalatlaco), IX (San Jerónimo) and X (Anzaldo). The direction of flow in the basins (west–east) is indicated with a red arrow.

Building resilience is largely affected by the socioeconomic characteristics of the community as well as the physical and environmental local characteristics. The effectiveness of the adopted policies for resilience building partly relies on considering public concerns and insights. Insights from public narratives can enrich the resilience-building policies by sharing experiences or evidence from past disasters. Furthermore, it reveals priorities and concerns that society is expecting to be addressed. Even if the concerns are triggered by misinformation, addressing them (e.g., by disseminating corrective information) can increase the success of resilience-building policies. Tracing the public narrative over time shows how much people’s perspectives have changed after the disaster and how the relief and resilience-building efforts were compatible with society’s expectations. This study is aimed at extracting such insights from the public narrative on social media platforms after Morocco’s 2023 earthquake.

14 February 2026

PDA conceptual model [8].

A dam breach is an uncommon but profoundly destructive event that transpires when a dam collapses, releasing accumulated water downstream and leading to extensive damage. This study focuses on the Jure landslide dam, located in the Sindhupalchowk district, Nepal. The region is characterized by complex river channels and steep terrains, which are significantly influenced by flood dynamics. This study aims to establish a compressive numerical simulation of a two-dimensional dam breach unsteady flow hydraulic model to simulate the dam breach process and downstream flood propagation. The study analyzes the dynamics of the Jure landslide dam outburst flood, emphasizing the flood characteristics, inundation, and velocity hazards in the mitigation of flood impacts. The results reveal that the peak discharge of the Jure landside dam was 5336.7 m3/s, while it decreased to 1181.4 m3/s when traveling 35 km. The flood depth obtained by 2D (HEC-RAS) downstream of the dam rages between 0.0334 and 55.9 m, while the corresponding estimated peak flow velocity of simulated breaches was 21.46 m/s, demonstrating extreme hydraulic force conditions, capable of catastrophe. The proposed hydraulic simulations reveal significant variations in overflow dynamics across different terrain types, with narrower sections exhibiting faster flood progression and greater water depths. The findings underscore the necessity of accounting for terrain heterogeneity in future flood risk assessments. This work offers valuable insights into the emergency management of landslide dams in similar regions.

13 February 2026

Location of the study area, basin map, and landslide dam.

Cosmogenic 36Cl Dating of Fault Activity in East Messinia, Greece

  • Constantin D. Athanassas,
  • Vassiliki Kanavou and
  • Harris Zampoukos
  • + 4 authors

This work deals with the quantification of long-term fault slip rates as a basis for seismic hazard assessment along a segment of the Eastern Messinia Fault Zone (EMFZ) in southwestern Peloponnese, Greece. Using cosmogenic 36Cl exposure dating, it provides independent numerical constraints on recent deformation. The resulting late Holocene slip-rate estimates (~0.32–0.46 mm/yr) confirm ongoing fault activity, consistent with earlier paleoseismological and geomorphic studies, while indicating spatially distributed extension. These rates imply loading timescales of several hundred years for moderate (Mw ≈ 5.8–6.0) earthquakes. Although individual exposure ages cannot be uniquely associated with single seismic events, they offer robust benchmarks for cumulative displacement and long-term strain accumulation. Overall, this work demonstrates how numerical dating methods (particularly cosmogenic nuclide techniques applied to carbonate bedrock) can link geological observations with engineering requirements by constraining fault behavior over 103–105 year timescales and improving long-term seismic hazard evaluation in complex tectonic settings.

10 February 2026

(A) location of study area. (B) Relief map and fault pattern along a segment of the Eastern Messinia Fault Zone (EMFZ). The study area is indicated by the cluster of red dots representing sampling locations. The digital elevation model (DEM) is sourced from the Hellenic Cadastre. Active and potentially active faults are shown based on the AFG database [7], while faults depicted in black are in superposition and extracted from the 1:50,000-scale geological map of the Hellenic Survey of Geology and Mineral Exploration (HSGME), Kalamata sheet. The trench site investigated by [25] is also indicated.

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Geotechnics for Hazard Mitigation
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Geotechnics for Hazard Mitigation

Editors: Mowen Xie, Yan Du, Yujing Jiang, Bo Li, Xuepeng Zhang
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GeoHazards - ISSN 2624-795X