Cascading Disaster Modelling and Prevention

Dear Colleagues,

Cascading disasters, which follow from an initial trigger to a range of disaster impacts, can contribute a significant part of the loss caused by any natural hazard event, and become as catastrophic as the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, in the Sichuan Province of China, provides another example. This disaster led to over 69,000 deaths, 18,000 missing people, and 374,000 injured people. Around one-third of this tremendous human toll was caused by a cascade of landslides, flooding, and other events that were triggered by the earthquake. Extreme rainfall can also cause cascading disasters, involving flooding, landslides, infrastructure collapse, and traffic jams. Like the cascades following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and the 2008 Wechuan Earthquake, these kinds of cascading disasters spread disruptions in complex ways that make them difficult to comprehend and challenging to deal with.

The 2015 Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction highlighted the need to better research and manage cascading disasters. However, cascading disaster modeling and prevention research has typically been challenged by relying on complex mathematic models that exclude social factors and do not usually integrate qualitative and quantitative approaches. The role of social media has generally not been considered. There is an ongoing need for high-quality academic publications that help us to better understand the challenges and potentials for better modeling and managing cascading disaster risks. We also need to curate new publications to make sure they are as coherent and accessible as possible.

This Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, “Cascading Disaster Risk”, offers an opportunity to publish high-quality research into cascading disasters as part of a curated, open-access volume. We are particularly interested in research that has mathematically modeled, or otherwise predicted, aspects of cascading disasters. All manuscripts will be peer-reviewed by experts in the field and should be submitted before the 31^st of August 2020.

Dr. Thomas J. Huggins
Prof. Dr. Lili Yang
Prof. Didier Sornette
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2500 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.