Natural Hazards

This section of “Geosciences” is dedicated to the publication of pure, experimental, or applied research that aims to advance methodologies, technologies, expertise, and capabilities to detect, characterize, monitor, and model natural hazards and assess their associated risks.

We are aware that geoscientific research has reached a high degree of specialization, and we want to analyze the state-of-the-art and most recent achievements. Nevertheless, from a holistic perspective, we acknowledge that this is a multi-disciplinary research realm.

Therefore, this section is open to geoscientific studies of natural hazards via ground investigations, in situ instrumentations and remote sensing, and methodological papers for modelling and forecasting, as well as cross-cutting articles dealing with the different aspects of hazard assessment and management. These encompass hazard mitigation, emergency management, post-disaster recovery, the scientific communication of hazards, and capacity building.

The focus is on hazards that are predominantly associated with natural processes and phenomena, including environmental, geological or geophysical, hydro-meteorological, atmospheric, climatological, oceanographic, and biological hazards. However, we are also interested in research investigating the role played by human action in (co-)triggering natural hazards and/or exacerbating their impact on the environment.

Furthermore, we welcome submissions on natural hazards that display slow kinematics and increasingly manifest in time (for example land subsidence), or require long-term observations and measurements to be detected and characterized, as well as on hazards with an abrupt onset or that quickly spread and affect large areas.