The Adaptation to and Mitigation of Climate-Sensitive Natural Hazards

Climate-sensitive natural hazards such as extended droughts, sandstorms, flash floods and debris flow, and tectonic earthquakes, deserve a unified approach in their prevention and mitigation, due to their social-economic prominence and imperativeness. Timing is now perfect after ~4 decades of advancing the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of such natural hazards, through the advancement in remote sensing, as well as in situ field measurements and verifications, numerical modeling (including the full spectrum of theoretical, empirical and full 3D mechanics modeling), and advances in data sciences.

Seemingly disparate natural hazards, such as extended droughts and earthquakes, extreme precipitation caused debris flows and flash floods, and groundwater/soil moisture overexploitation are indeed closely linked natural hazards that can be tackled using a unified technique.

1.Seemingly disparate natural disasters are closely linked through hydrological cycles;

In mountainous regions, due to the unique geological and topographical conditions, natural hazards tend to be related to extreme precipitation. In contrast, droughts and dust storms tend to relate to plains. Enhanced hydrological cycle under a warming climate is the cause.

2.Seemingly disparate natural hazards are linked through the involved material rheology.

3.Triggering mechanisms for general circulation blocking are the key elements in understanding the precipitation anomalies in the future.

4.Combining AI and NWP Forecasting to Predict Extreme Weather.

Current available observations should be scrutinized, as they are the ‘facts’ to validate models that reflecting our present knowledge base. The multi-disciplinary collection should be addressed by the collective wisdom of the editors and paper authors.

Manuscripts focusing on, but not limited to, the following topics are particularly welcome:

• Enhanced hydrological cycle under a warming climate;

• Granular material generation and accumulation;

• Triggering mechanisms for general circulation blocking and understanding precipitation anomalies;

• Changes in physical parameters of earth atmosphere related to extreme precipitation;

• Climate warming enhancement of natural hazards;

• Land surface and hydrological processes on slopes;

• Remote sensing observations and natural hazards;

• Advance postprocessing and data science.