Multi-Hazard Natural Catastrophes: Modelling, Assessment and Mitigation

About this Research Topic

Background

Understanding of individual natural hazards, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, storms and flooding, and the associated risks is well developed. With increasing amounts of data, models are becoming more detailed and predictive. However, recent disasters have clearly demonstrated that quantitative risk assessments due to joint or cascading occurrences of multiple hazards are largely lacking. Hence the preparedness and resilience of our highly interconnected and interdependent urban and rural systems are inadequate. The true multi-hazard risk is often significantly underestimated with severe consequences. For instance, the cascading disasters of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake were caused by a sequence of intense shaking, massive tsunami, extensive geo-hazards, and aftershocks. In other situations, joint occurrences of independent events, such as the coincident rainfall and flooding following the Kaikoura earthquake hampering cleanup and exacerbating landsliding, have compounded the losses.

In longer time horizons, multiple different hazards might affect the same region or network asset, and the cumulative impact of these compounding disasters can become overwhelming. Across various hazards, spatial and temporal changes in exposure and vulnerability during successive hazards are poorly understood. Moreover, modern infrastructure and logistics networks can link the consequences of even spatially separate hazards. Therefore, there is an urgent need for holistic multi-hazard framework and decision support tools to enhance disaster preparedness and resilience from interdisciplinary perspectives.

We seek manuscripts that address any aspect of multihazard and multirisk modelling. This Research Topic includes, but is not limited to, the following themes:
• Multi-hazard triggering, either via hazard cascades, or coupled hazards from the same event;
• Multiple impacts on vulnerable infrastructure, including repeated impacts from the same or different hazards. This can include dynamic optimization of repair operations;
• Cascading infrastructure failure, where damage from multiple hazards to network elements propagates across a network;
• Data suitable for creating fully quantitative hazard cascade models;
• Mitigation measures for multiple hazards, including ‘bang for buck’ decisions;
• Loss estimates in a multi-hazard environment.

All article types are welcome, and we particularly encourage Original Research, Reviews and Perspectives.

Each manuscript submitted to this Research Topic should make sure to fit within the scope of the Research Topic as well as within the scope of the section it is submitted via (the sections via which a manuscript can be submitted to this Research Topic are: Geohazards and Georisk, Hydrosphere, Volcanology, Solid Earth Geophysics, Environmental Informatics and Remote Sensing, Earthquake Engineering) if they wish to be considered. If they do not follow the scope of the Research Topic and chosen section, they will not be considered.

Keywords: Cascading hazards, Multiple impacts, Spatio-temporal models, Networks, Infrastructure

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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