Special issue  

Extreme hydrometeorological and geomorphological events account for 45 % of the fatalities and 79 % of the economic losses caused by natural hazards. Exacerbated by high seismic activity, rugged terrain such as the Himalayan landscape is particularly susceptible to generating these events, which often transform into cascading hazards where an initial event causes a downstream chain reaction (Shugar et al., 2021). These hazards interfere with increasing population pressure and expansion of settlements along rivers and new infrastructure developments such as roads and hydropower projects. Rising temperatures and changes in weather patterns in the wake of global warming likely elevate risks from hazards such as landslides, glacial lake outburst floods, riverine, and flash floods (Kraaijenbrink et al., 2017). The complexity of these hazards and their underlying processes demand scientific efforts and approaches from multiple disciplines.

The proposed special issue aims to compile recent research that estimates and predicts natural hazards and risks in the Himalayan region. We encourage research submissions that report hydro-geophysical modelling, innovative data-analysis approaches, remote sensing, and risk assessment. Multi- and transdisciplinary approaches are particularly welcome. Interdisciplinary and international collaborative efforts enhance scientific discovery, and multidisciplinary research is limited despite the clear benefits. With the envisaged special issue, we further aim to amalgamate expertise, methods, and data of several research articles to advance the understanding of the impacts and changes in the extremely high mountain landscape. Our goal is to attract articles from hydro-geophysical modelling, innovative data approaches, remote-sensing-based observations, and risk/vulnerability assessment.