Natural Hazards and Disaster Risks Reduction

Dear Colleagues,

The physical forces governing the Earth system can give rise to abrupt and severe natural events as a violent expression of ordinary environmental processes. Their impact is unevenly distributed on the land surface because of complex continental, regional, and local natural processes that overlap with anthropogenic forcing. The derived climate variations can directly or indirectly exacerbate most of the occurrences at different spatial and temporal scales. When such phenomena interact directly with inhabited areas and society, different risk scenarios can develop, characterised by a continuous and persistent dynamic or by a rapid mutability. From this perspective, natural hazards create a potential disaster that could impact anthropic activities, either through loss of life or injury, or through economic loss. The degree of safety in a community is the result of differential exposures to these events and of the level of preparation for them based on awareness and perception. The social development and spatial growth of human activities by consuming soil and natural resources has further contributed to creating vulnerability, increasing the challenges of conscious societies to cope with severe natural processes and their effects. The protection of territory is a key element in the UN 2030 Agenda’s the action strategy for sustainable development. The risk reduction is one of the guiding criteria of the 2015–2030 Sendai Framework’s sustainability policy.

This Topic collects original papers and inherent studies of different types of natural hazards (extreme climate and weather-related events and geological occurrences such as floods, landslides, subsidence, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, etc.), vulnerability domains, exposure to disaster risk, but also manuscripts whose contents can help to mitigate risks. Among them, technical interventions and operational methodologies oriented to risk reduction strategies such as plans, protocols, working procedures, early warning systems, and any other innovations in the sector or elements that combine modern concepts with consolidated realities of the past should be included. State-of-the-art techniques are encouraged in the following three operating areas: spaceborne, aerial, and terrestrial activities. Numerical and experimental investigations for basic or application research and representative case studies are welcome too. Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches are considered added values to contribute to progress in the field of responsible and sustainable risk mitigation.

Dr. Stefano Morelli
Dr. Veronica Pazzi
Dr. Mirko Francioni
Topic Editors