About this Research Topic
According to the United Nations, water-related hazards such as floods, droughts, seal level rise, and thunderstorms, account for nearly 90% of all natural hazards occurring worldwide. The frequency and intensity of water-related natural disasters is increasing since the industrial revolution, and is expected to increase in the future as a consequence of climate change.
Urban systems comprising of their constituent socio-economic and technological networks, which continue to expand in the face of rapid urbanization and population growth, are at highest risk to water-related natural disasters. As such, it is important to develop strategies to enhance the resiliency of urban systems around the globe to water-related disasters.
The goal is to assess and enhance the resiliency of urban systems to water-related disasters.
The physical processes shaping water-related disasters in urban areas can be understood for instance by assessing observational data during past disaster events, or performing high resolution climate simulations. This will help obtain reliable estimates of the magnitudes, frequencies, and durations of water-related disasters urban centers have been exposed to in the past, and will be exposed to in the future.
It is equally important to understand how urban systems interact with water-related disasters and quantify resiliency of different elements of the urban systems during and following the disaster events. This will help identify adaptation strategies to improve urban resiliency which is essential in the face of several sources of non-stationarity such as climate change, rapid urbanization, and population growth.
This Research Topic will consider studies focusing on the assessment and enhancement of urban systems across the globe to water-related disasters, including:
• Investigation of physical processes behind the development of different water-related disasters such as flood, droughts, sea-level rise, thunderstorms etc. surrounding urban centers around the globe;
• Interaction of water-related disasters with urban systems;
• Approaches to quantify resiliency of urban systems in the face of disaster event(s);
• Modeling and forecasting of water-related disasters surrounding the urban areas; and,
• Evaluation of adaptation strategies to improve the resiliency of urban systems to water-related disasters.
Urban systems comprising of their constituent socio-economic and technological networks, which continue to expand in the face of rapid urbanization and population growth, are at highest risk to water-related natural disasters. As such, it is important to develop strategies to enhance the resiliency of urban systems around the globe to water-related disasters.
The goal is to assess and enhance the resiliency of urban systems to water-related disasters.
The physical processes shaping water-related disasters in urban areas can be understood for instance by assessing observational data during past disaster events, or performing high resolution climate simulations. This will help obtain reliable estimates of the magnitudes, frequencies, and durations of water-related disasters urban centers have been exposed to in the past, and will be exposed to in the future.
It is equally important to understand how urban systems interact with water-related disasters and quantify resiliency of different elements of the urban systems during and following the disaster events. This will help identify adaptation strategies to improve urban resiliency which is essential in the face of several sources of non-stationarity such as climate change, rapid urbanization, and population growth.
This Research Topic will consider studies focusing on the assessment and enhancement of urban systems across the globe to water-related disasters, including:
• Investigation of physical processes behind the development of different water-related disasters such as flood, droughts, sea-level rise, thunderstorms etc. surrounding urban centers around the globe;
• Interaction of water-related disasters with urban systems;
• Approaches to quantify resiliency of urban systems in the face of disaster event(s);
• Modeling and forecasting of water-related disasters surrounding the urban areas; and,
• Evaluation of adaptation strategies to improve the resiliency of urban systems to water-related disasters.
Keywords: cities and disasters, urban resiliency, urban adaptation strategies, urban flooding, climate change
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.
