An iron sphere was applied to substitute of debris flow. Walls were constructed in prototype dimensions to physically simulate the damaged structures in debris flows. The quantitative estimation of the vulnerability of brick and concrete wall was established based on fuzzy mathematics and the proposed failure criterion. The results show that the maximum impact bending moment seems to be most suitable for the disaster intensity index in establishing vulnerability curve and formula.

This paper presents a semi-quantitative assessment of the physical vulnerability of buildings to landslides, and quantitative landslide risk analysis computed as the product of the landslide hazard by the vulnerability and the economic value of the buildings. The work was developed for a Portuguese municipality (Loures). The highest risk was found for the landslides 3 m deep, because these landslides combine a relatively high frequency with a substantial potential damage.

The paper integrates land and marine geological data with meteorological, hydraulic, and hydrological analyses, as well as historical documentation of past events, to model the 9 September 2010 flash flood which occurred at Atrani, Amalfi Coast, southern Italy. The approach used is representative of small ungauged watersheds with local communities living at stream mouths, aiding proper land use planning, damage mitigation, and reduction of human fatalities.

This research reviews flood risk within the Lagos area of Nigeria over the period 1968 to 2012. During this period, floods have caused harm to millions of people physically, emotionally, and economically. Arguably over this period the efforts of stakeholders to address the challenges appear to have been limited by, among other things, lack of reliable data, lack of awareness among the population affected, and lack of knowledge of flood risk mitigation. Recommendations are made for flood modeling.

This work explores the meteorological conditions of the hydro-geomorphologic event of December 1909 that triggered the highest floods in more than 100 years at the Douro river's mouth and caused important social impacts over the Portuguese and Spanish territories. The study of this extreme event contributes to a comprehensive and systematic synoptic evaluation of the second most deadly hydro-geomorphologic disaster event occurred in Portugal since 1865.

The extreme waves caused by tropical cyclones and cold fronts have different effects along the Colombian Caribbean coast. Storms and hurricanes are of greater importance in the northern region of the Colombian Caribbean coast. In the central and the southern region, the strong influence of cold fronts on extreme waves is evident. In the islands of San Andrés and Providencia, the extreme waves generated by cold fronts have lower return periods than the extreme waves associated with hurricanes.

Dead fine fuel (e.g. litter) moisture is a key parameter for wildfire and ecological applications, as it is related to ignitability, fire behavior and soil respiration. For example, fire ignition is highly likely at moisture contents below 10 %, yet nearly impossible above 25 %. Thus, fine fuel moisture measurements are very desirable; however, there is no easy-to-use automated technique available to date. This study investigates the applicability of different sensor types for this measurement.

The building exposure component of risk models is frequently based on census data at coarse resolutions. Spatial disaggregation into finer resolutions is usually performed based on proxy variables, which is a reasonable but not ideal procedure. The availability of open data is increasing and these data can be taken into account in order to generate more accurate exposure models, which in turn can improve the results of risk models. A method to do so is proposed and its limitations are analysed.

Twelve Hector events, a storm which develops in northern Australia, are analyzed with the aim of identifying the main meteorological parameters involved in the convective development. The analysis suggests that the strength of convection, defined in terms of vertical velocity, largely contributes to the vertical distribution of hydrometeors.

The main objective is to fill knowledge gaps related to debris flow hazards in northern Canada for decision-makers. This study has tested two debris flow susceptibility methods in areas along the Yukon Alaska Highway corridor. One knowledge driven qualitative heuristic method for the northern part of the corridor and one data driven quantitative method using Flow-R for a smaller area close to Kluane Lake within the corridor. Both methods have shown good correlation with debris flow inventory.

GRACE provided a new perspective on the anomaly monitoring of water resources. In 2003–2013, TWS in China generally followed variations in annual precipitation; it decreased in northern basins and increased in the south. In the North China Plain, human activities might have interfered with TWS's response to climate; it kept decreasing until 2012. With grid-scaled TWS, small regions with significant increasing trends were also identified in Hoh Xil and the headstream region of the Yellow River.

The 3 August 2014 Ludian, China, M_s = 6.5 earthquake caused many large landslides. The biggest occurred at Hongshiyan near the epicenter, had a volume of 1.0  ×  10⁷ m³ and dammed the Niulanjiang River, creating a large lake. Post-event field investigations yielded detailed data on the rock structure, the local lithology and geometry of the landslide dam and composition and grain sizes of the debris avalanche. Based on these data, this work analyzes the geology and topography of the Hongshiyan area.

This study examines 12 debris flow events occurring in northeast Italy. The study is one of the first to incorporate synoptic-scale atmospheric pattern analysis and meso-scale cloud-to-ground lighting flashes (CGFs) to analyze locally intense convective rainfall (LICR) that initiates debris flows in the Dolomite Alps. Three synoptic classifications were identified. CGFs are shown to be very good indicators of LICR and debris flows, confirmed via time-series analysis and correlation analysis.

The Central Asia Fault Database is the first publicly accessible digital repository for active faults in central Asia and the surrounding regions. It includes an interactive map and a search tool that allow users to query and display critical fault information such as slip rates and earthquake history. The map displays over 1196 fault traces and 34 000 earthquake locations. The database contains attributes for 123 faults mentioned in the literature.

In this study, TEC and positional variations have been examined seperately regarding the earthquake, which occurred in the Aegean Sea. Then The correlation of the said ionospheric variation with the positional variation has been investigated; it can be said definitely that it is a seismic origin anomaly; it is believed that upper air, geophysical, and geological data are required.

We provide simple functional expressions to characterise the development of coastal flood damage for rising mean sea levels as well as implemented flood protection levels. Furthermore, we are able to quantify the aleatory uncertainty of our estimates. All results are mathematically proven and their usability confirmed by employing two case study regions. Thus, we gain fundamental insights into the interplay of coastal flood damage, the mean sea level, and flood defence.

This study investigates the issues related to underestimation of earthquake magnitude in the context of tsunami early warning and tsunami risk assessment. The investigation is motivated by the past case of early warning performance and consequences during the 2011 Tohoku tsunami in Japan. The quantitative tsunami loss results provide with valuable insights regarding the importance of deriving accurate seismic information as well as the potential biases of the anticipated tsunami consequences.

In this paper, we present a performance analysis of the European lightning location system EUCLID for cloud-to-ground flashes/strokes in terms of location accuracy, detection efficiency and peak current estimation. The performance analysis is based on ground truth data from direct lightning current measurements at the Gaisberg Tower and data from E-field and video recordings.

Cloud-to-ground lightning data from the EUCLID network over the period 2006–2014 are explored. Mean flash densities vary over the European continent, with the highest density found at the intersection of the borders of Austria, Italy and Slovenia. The majority of lightning activity takes place between May and September, while the diurnal cycle peaks around 15:00 UTC. In addition, it is found that flashes with higher peak currents occur in greater proportion over sea than over land.

We studied how rainfall attributes and topography affected the hydrologic processes that triggered different types of landslides in unwelded pyroclastic flow deposits in southern Kyushu, Japan. Storms with higher intensities and drier conditions preceding the storm typically triggered landslides by rapid pore pressure response, while during small storms with lower intensity, landslides were influenced by the combined increase in soil weight and loss of suction.

We developed a systematic hazard interaction classification based on the geophysical environment that natural hazards arise from. This classification ensures all possible hazard interactions among different hazards are considered in multi-hazard risk assessment. Using the developed classification, the probability and magnitude of multiple natural hazards occurring simultaneously can then be modelled in order to provide a more comprehensive multi-hazard risk assessment.