Scour (erosion) during floods can cause bridges to collapse. Modern design and maintenance mitigates the risk, so failures are rare. The residual risk is uncertain, but expert knowledge can help constrain it. We asked 19 experts about scour risk using methods designed to treat judgements alongside other scientific data. The findings identified knowledge gaps about scour processes and suggest wider uncertainty about scour risk than might be inferred from observation, models or experiments alone. Hide

Recent coastal floods in the USA have highlighted a lack of resilience in poor communities. By researching successes from Bangladesh and Cuba, this paper details how lessons from these countries can reduce the vulnerability of less well-off or isolated American citizens to future coastal storm surges. The relevance of the lessons learnt from Cuba and Bangladesh to the USA was assessed. Transferable lessons include the importance of volunteerism and education in developing a “culture of safety”. Hide

Time series of hindcast wave data on the eastern Mexican coast were analysed. The goal was to examine the presence of interannual trends in the number or the main features of wave storm events. Storms were classified as related to tropical cyclones or Norte events. There is no significant change in the events related to Nortes during the study period. However, there are subtle increases in the number, wave height and energy content of events related to tropical cyclones in the western Caribbean. Hide

L-band SAR remote sensing data are used for identification of high potential risk and susceptible zones for natural hazards of geological origin in tropical environments. Results of this investigation have great potential in terms of a solution to flood disaster management in tropical environments by providing important information to assess the natural hazards of geological origin. Hide

In this work, we present a methodology to compute a synthetic catalog of tsunami waveforms. To do this, we compute a synthetic earthquake catalog that respects the kinematics of the plate boundary. We use a method to do the fast computation of tsunami waveforms for all events of the synthetic waveform catalog. The method can be used in similar geological environments. Hide

This study provides cross-discipline lessons for earthquake and flood vulnerability assessment methods by comparing indicators used in both fields. It appears that there is potential for improvement of these methods that can be obtained for both earthquake and flood vulnerability assessment indicators. This increased understanding is beneficial for both scientists as well as practitioners working with earthquake and/or flood vulnerability assessment methods. Hide

This paper investigated the meteorological role of an extraordinary rain event over Artvin. Although alert messages were prepared by the Turkish State Meteorological Service on August 23 at 09:00 UTC, 11 people died and infrastructures, buildings, private property, and public goods were damaged as a result of the flash flood. It is hoped that more detailed studies will be performed on synoptic development leading to extreme summer precipitation events in the eastern Black Sea. Hide

The coupling of terrestrial lidar scans acquired in 2011 and a photogrammetric model created from 30 old Web-retrieved images enabled reconstructing in 3-D the Drus west face before the 2005 rock avalanche and estimating the volume of this event. The volume is calculated as 292 680 m³ (±5.6 %). However, despite functioning well for the Drus (legendary peak), this method would have been difficult to implement on a less-well-known site with fewer images available to be collected and downloaded. Hide

The effect of climate change on potentially infrastructure damaging heavy precipitation events in Europe is investigated. A novel technique records not only event frequency but also event size, duration and severity as these parameters determine the potential consequences of the event. Over most of Europe the frequency and size of heavy precipitation events is predicted to increase. Moreover, the most severe events are predicted for future periods. Hide

This study provides a new method for flood documentation based on user-generated flood images. We demonstrate how flood elevation and building inundation depth can be derived from photographs by means of 3-D reconstruction of the scene. With an accuracy of 0.13 m ± 0.10 m, the derived building inundation depth can be used to facilitate damage assessment. Hide

We present a method to use river flow forecasts to estimate the impacts of flood events in terms of flood-prone areas, economic damage, cities and population at risk. We tested our method by simulating the catastrophic floods occurred in May 2014 in Southern Europe. Comparison with observed data shows that our simulations can predict flooded areas and flood impacts well in advance. The method is now being used for real-time risk forecasts to help emergency response and management. Hide

Lanzarote is an island (Canaries, Spain), that has hosted the largest and longest eruption in the archipelago (Timanfaya 1730–36). It brought severe economic losses and forced local people to migrate. We have developed the first comprehensive hazard assessment for the island. New eruptions will take place close to the last one and will be characterised by Strombolian activity, with ash emission towards the S, medium-length lava flows and hydromagmatic activity only close to the coastal areas. Hide

We present an analytical expression for the surface area of the region within which landslides induced by a given earthquake are distributed. The expression is based on seismological scaling laws. Without calibration the model predicts, within a factor of 2, up to 49 out of 83 cases reported in the literature and agrees with the smallest region around the fault containing 95 % of the total landslide area. This model may be used for hazard assessment based on early earthquake detection parameters. Hide

Approaches to assess shallow slide susceptibility at the basin scale are conceptually different depending on the use of statistical or physically based methods. Two hypotheses are tested: (i) both methods generate similar shallow slide susceptibility results and (ii) the combination of both susceptibility maps generates a more reliable susceptibility model. Model combinations registered a higher predictive capacity and the identification of areas where the results from both models are uncertain. Hide

This paper presents a very high-resolution atlas of daily precipitations across the Balearic Islands. The generation of this data set not only allows us to lay the groundwork for future updates ingesting a myriad of observation sources but also aims to provide support to local and network–topology independent studies of precipitation–sensitive systems such as ecosystems, water resources and energy systems. As an example, a better understanding of the negative precipitation trends is found. Hide

In this work we assess the impacts in reshaping coastlines as a result of sea level rise and changes in wave climate. The methodology proposed combines two wave models to resolve the wave processes in two micro-tidal sandy beaches in Mallorca island, western Mediterranean. The modelling approach is validated with observations. Our results indicate that the studied beaches would suffer a coastal retreat of between 7 and up to 50 m, equivalent to half of the present-day aerial beach surface. Hide

Ice jams emerge from the accumulation of fragmented ice on a specific section of a river, obstructing the channel and restricting the flow. The resulting floods are socioeconomically costly as well as life threatening. When breakup occurs and ice starts to move downstream the river, a key question is, where would the released ice be susceptible to jam? The goal of this work was to develop a simplified geospatial model to estimate the predisposition of a river channel to ice jams. Hide

Floods are frequent natural hazards in Italy, triggering significant adverse consequences on the economy every year. Their impact is expected to worsen in the near future due to socio-economic development and climate variability. To be able to reduce the probability and magnitude of expected economic losses, flood risk managers need to be correctly informed about the potential damage from flood hazards. In this study, we have developed a new and accurate model for Italian residential buildings. Hide

An architectural element of the Royal Castle of Racconigi (northwestern Italy, 17th century) is subjected to nondestructive testing for structural integrity evaluation. It is found that the so-called acoustic emissions – high-frequency vibrations emitted as tiny cracks that develop inside stone and concrete – correlate with those of small nearby earthquakes, suggesting new approaches to monitoring gradual damage accumulation inflicted by such earthquakes on architectural heritage and monuments. Hide

Rip currents pose a major global beach hazard. Despite increased social research into beach-goer experience, little is known about levels of rip current knowledge within the general population. This study describes results of an online survey to determine the extent of rip current knowledge across the United States, with the aim of improving and enhancing existing beach safety education materials. Results suggest a need for locally specific and verified rip forecasts and signage. Hide

We propose a strategy for quantifying the maximum effect a temperature change has on heavy precipitation amounts, making use of the limited available sources of information: laws of physics, seasonal variations, mathematical estimation of probability, and s large number of climate model results. An upper bound is estimated rather than the most likely value. Hide

At catchment scale, it is challenging to provide the required input parameters for physically based slope stability models. In the present study, the parameterization of such a model is optimized against observed shallow landslides during two triggering rainfall events. With the resulting set of parameters the model reproduces the location and the triggering timing of most observed landslides. Based on that, potential effects of increasing precipitation intensity on slope stability are assessed. Hide