A statistical method is tentatively utilized to study distribution properties of aftershocks of the Wenchuan sequence in the view of energy release. The results show that the events in the Wenchuan sequence are not independent but have mutual attraction, their spatio–temporal distribution tends to be nonrandom but definite and deterministic, and imply it is possible for energy release to be predicted, although we cannot accurately predict the occurrence time and locations of the imminent event.

The work addresses the need for reliable precipitation forecasts in hyper-arid environments through state-of-the-art hydro-meteorological modeling. Accounting for land–atmosphere interactions in the applied model is shown to improve the accuracy of precipitation output. The chain of events controlling the soil moisture–precipitation feedback are diagnosed and verified by in situ observations and satellite data.

Community resilience is an important policy and research concept. However, lack of an operational measurement framework exists due to difficulties in systematically integrating socioeconomic and techno-ecological factors. A conceptual and mathematical model was developed and a fuzzy logic equivalent of the model implemented to generate a resilience index for three communities in the US. This model offers a viable approach for measuring community flood resilience despite data limitations.

Climate adaptation of deltas is a hot topic given their high population density in many countries. We quantified trade-offs between hydraulics, potential biodiversity, implementation costs, and the number of land owners involved, using a newly developed tool called RiverScape. With our approach, we move towards finding integrated solutions at the scale of a large river in a delta to support the negotiations among stakeholders in the decision-making process.

Drought is a major driver of vegetation activity in Spain. Here we used a high-resolution remote-sensing dataset spanning the period from 1981 to 2015 to assess the sensitivity of 23 vegetation types to drought across Spain. Results demonstrate that vegetation activity is controlled largely by the interannual variability of drought. Nevertheless, there are some considerable spatio-temporal variations, which can be linked to differences in land cover and aridity conditions.

Drought events are of great importance in most Mediterranean climate regions, and the impacts caused on rainfed crops are particularly evident. In this study the impacts of drought on two representative rainfed crops in Spain (wheat and barley) are assessed by testing various worldwide drought indices and two datasets at different spatial resolution.

We constructed an intensity–duration thresholding technique required to develop an early-warning system for the Faifa Mountains in Saudi Arabia. The study uses radar imagery, satellite-derived rainfall data, archival imagery, and limited field data. The study presents a significant development in the application of radar for hydrogeological and geomorphological studies as it provides better resilience towards nonoptical conditions.

Hazard maps provide information about the probability of given areas of being affected by hazards. So far studies combining hazard mapping with accessibility to services are few. In this study, we propose two new metrics defining the importance of each road segment in the accessibility of services, taking into account the probability of being affected by a hazard. These metrics may help support discussions about the development of new infrastructure or road segments and evacuation procedures.

The use of numerical simulations to study tsunami-induced sediment transport was rare in Indonesia until the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. This study aims to couple two hydrodynamic numerical models in order to reproduce tsunami-induced sediment deposits, i.e., their locations and thicknesses. Numerical simulations were performed using the Cornell Multi-grid Coupled Tsunami (COMCOT) model and Delft3D. Lhoong, in the Aceh Besar District, Indonesia, was selected as the study site for this research.

A tsunami can be destructive when it inundates the coastal areas. In recent years, the positive role of coral reefs in mitigating tsunami waves has aroused the attention of scholars. We therefore investigate the tsunami wave interaction with a reef profile via a sophisticated numerical model. We find that the low-lying coastal areas, fringed by coral reefs with milder back-reef beaches and smaller lagoons, are less susceptible to coastal inundation during a tsunami event.

This work provides a simple and fast approach to improve tsunami warning systems in the near field. A color-coded warning map is produced almost instantaneously after the seismic information is received. Time is crucial in the near-field case; for instance, the tsunami waves generated in the Chilean trench arrive at the coastline in around 10–15 min. Seismic information takes 3–5 min to be ready; thus we produce a first warning map 6 min after the earthquake origin time.