Giuseppe De Natale
- 2018
- Sergey Soloviev Medal
The 2018 Sergey Soloviev Medal is awarded to Giuseppe De Natale for his fundamental contributions to the assessment and management of seismic and volcanic hazards and risk.
Division on Natural Hazards
President: Giorgio Boni (nh@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Ira Didenkulova
(didenkulova@mail.ru)
The Natural Hazards (NH) Division of the EGU covers all the geological and geophysical processes that can be hazardous and can produce damage to the environment and to the society. Therefore it is a place where scientists and researchers of various geo-disciplines meet with sociologists, economists and people responsible for territorial and urban defense and planning policies. The aim is to improve the understanding of the evolution of the processes and to discuss new technologies, methods and strategies to mitigate their disastrous effects. The Division is structured in nine Subdivisions covering specific hazards. Of these seven are listed here: hydro-meteorological, volcanic, landslide, earthquake-, sea and ocean, remote sensing and hazards, wildfire hazards. The eighth Subdivision covers biological and environmental hazards and in addition hazards not included in the previous ones. The ninth (natural hazards and society) focuses on the social aspects of the hazards, including development sustainability, emergency, warning, after-disaster resilience, etc. Most of the topics that are treated in the NH Division are also treated in other EGU Divisions, which is expected due to the intrinsic transversal nature of the NH Division. For example, earthquakes are the main interest of the Seismology Division, but they are also of interest here where the chief topics are, among others, how to evaluate vulnerability and risk, how to reduce the impact on human lives and society, how geo-scientists can contribute to a prompt recovery of a community affected by disasters.
The NH Division is one the historical Divisions of the EGU that was established since when EGU was founded and has been and is one of the largest divisions to which many geo-scientists provide steadily contributions of papers and ideas over the years.
As for all EGU Divisions, an Early Career Scientist Award is established also for the NH Division and is given to young researchers who obtain outstanding results in the assessment and mitigation of natural hazard adopting a multidisciplinary approach. In addition, the NH Division awards the Plinius Medal devoted since 2012 to mid-career researchers and the Soloviev Medal for scientists who give outstanding contributions in fundamental aspects of research on natural hazards.
Recent awardees
Hannah L. Cloke
- 2018
- Plinius Medal
The 2018 Plinius Medal is awarded to Hannah L. Cloke for her outstanding research on uncertainties in modelling flood hazards and understanding risks in operational ensemble flood forecasting as well as climate impact assessments of future flood risks.
Thomas Wahl
- 2018
- Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists Award
The 2018 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists Award is awarded to Thomas Wahl for his fundamental contributions to the research on assessment of coastal-flood risk.
Augusto Neri
- 2017
- Sergey Soloviev Medal
The 2017 Sergey Soloviev Medal is awarded to Augusto Neri for his pioneering research in fluid dynamics that revolutionised our understanding of eruption processes, and for his generous insights and efforts worldwide to mitigate pyroclastic flow and ashfall/gas hazards.
Bruno Merz
- 2017
- Plinius Medal
The 2017 Plinius Medal is awarded to Bruno Merz for groundbreaking contributions in the field of flood risk research and practice through introducing and implementing an integrated framework of combined vulnerability and hazard assessment.
James E. Daniell
- 2017
- Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists Award
The 2017 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists Award is awarded to James E. Daniell for his interdisciplinary contribution to multi-risk research, focusing on the consequences of natural hazards, with strong links with socio-economic research.
Anastasiia Domina
- 2017
- Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards
The 2017 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Anastasiia Domina The effect of stratification and topography on high-frequency internal waves in a continental shelf sea
Florian Albrecht
- 2017
- Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards
The 2017 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Florian Albrecht Validating the usability of an interactive Earth Observation based web service for landslide investigation
Jamie W. McCaughey
- 2017
- Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards
The 2017 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Jamie W. McCaughey Societal acceptance of unnecessary evacuation
Latest posts from the NH blog
Mapping population dynamics to advance Disaster Risk Management
- Natural Hazards
- posted 1 week ago
Today we have the honour to introduce Sérgio Freire as our guest. Sérgio Freire is a Geographer, currently working as Scientific/Technical Project Manager at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), Directorate E. Space, Security and Migration, Disaster Risk Management Unit, based in Ispra, Italy. His main activities focus on developing applications of the JRC’s Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) in the context of disaster exposure, risk, and vulnerability analysis, including modelling population distribution at a range of spatial and …
Bridging the gap between science and decsion makers - a new tool for nuclear emergencies affecting food and agriculture
- Natural Hazards
- posted 3 weeks ago
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has developed an online system to assist in improving the response capabilities of authorities in the event of an emergency caused by natural hazards. This tool provides a clear overview of radioactive contamination of crops and agricultural lands through improved data management and visualization, it also assists in decision support processes by suggesting management actions to decision makers. In this interview, we have the pleasure to introduce Ms Amelia Lee Zhi Yi, working at …
Heavy metals in industrial wastewater: hazardous waste or secondary resource?
- Natural Hazards
- posted 1 month ago
Not long ago on the blog, we have talked about natural groundwater quality triggered by geogenic factors and related hazards such as a high concentration of heavy metals. Today’s topic concerns the anthropogenic input of heavy metals into the water and how to solve its impact effectively. Industrial processes can lead to heavy metal bearing wastewater, which is commonly treated by inefficient purification methods. Therefore, it is time to think about alternative methods for recovering the metals that would otherwise …
Hazard chains: from anthropic oil spills to ecosystem pollution. Can tiny organisms be the solution?
- Natural Hazards
- posted 1 month ago
Hello to everyone. Today I have the personal pleasure to interview Dr. Grégoire Michoud. He is a friend and a brilliant scientist working on ecosystem microbial ecology. In the interview, Grégoire will talk to us about oil spills in the marine system, a specific anthropic hazard that can evolve into a natural hazard with terrible environmental consequences. Hello Grégoire, please tell us a bit about environmental issues related to oil spills. When it comes to oil spills, widespread publicized releases …
Current issue of the EGU newsletter
A paper published in the EGU journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences this month shows that landslides triggered by human activity are on the rise. The conclusion is by a team at the UK's Sheffield University who compiled data on over 4800 fatal landslides during a 13-year period. You can read the press release on the EGU website.
Next month brings two important EGU deadlines. The call for candidates for EGU Treasurer is open until 15 September: we encourage EGU members to nominate themselves or propose a candidate. Before that, on 6 September, is the deadline to submit session proposals and short course ideas to the EGU 2019 General Assembly. We hope you help us shape the conference programme by submitting your proposals.