Early warning is essential for protecting people and mitigating damage in case of flood events. To gain more knowledge, surveys were taken after the 2002 and the 2013 floods in Germany. Results show that early warning and preparedness improved substantially. However, there is still room for further improvement, which needs to be triggered mainly by effective risk and emergency communication.

This paper presents a model to develop multipurpose complete event scenarios, which address all the needs that arise after a disaster. In detail, such scenarios (i) are multisectoral, (ii) address the spatial scales relevant for the event at stake, (iii) consider the temporal evolution of damage and (iv) allow damage mechanisms to be understood. The model allows flood mitigation strategies to be optimized, as proved by its use in a case study.

An historical database of about 500 flash floods occurred in the Campania region (southern Italy) from 1540 to 2015 is presented. Most of the collected events have a medium-to-high temporal accuracy, meaning that day, month and year of occurrence are known. The repetitiveness of the events highlighted that among the 86 municipalities hit, 16 recorded more than 10 events. About 18% of the events in the database caused at least one victim. This study is the first step to perform a hazard analysis.

We measured particulate levels at distances ranging from 50 m to 20 km from two prescribed fires and compared the values to those predicted from an atmospheric dispersion model. The model performed well during the day but not for areas close to the fire (under 1 km), which experienced high pollution peaks and did not predict night-time pollution in one of the fires over an area of 120 000 ha caused by a temperature inversion.

Devastating floods are a rare and unique phenomenon that prompts an in-depth hydrological analysis. The paper addresses the May 2014 flooding of the Bosna River. In May 2014, flooding occurred as a consequence of precipitation that continuously fell for several days over the Sava River and its lower reach tributaries in the territories of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. The precipitation in some places exceeded a 5000-year return period and discharges a 100-year return period.

We present a disaster forensics methodology: the post-event review capability (PERC), which responds to a need for learning about the successes and failures in disaster risk management (DRM) and resilience, uncovers the underlying drivers of increasing risk and makes actionable recommendations. We analyse seven PERC reports and find that across the globe policy makers and practitioners in DRM face strikingly similar challenges. These lessons highlight the importance of integrated risk reduction.

In June 2013, widespread flooding and consequent damage and losses occurred in central Europe, especially in Germany. The paper explores what data are available to investigate the adverse impacts of the event, what kind of information can be retrieved from these data, and how good data and information fulfil requirements that were recently proposed for disaster reporting on the European and international level, e.g. by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030.

This study develops a novel methodology to assess flood risk to people by integrating people’s vulnerability and ability to cushion hazards through coping and adapting. The model is used to estimate the effect of improving an existing early warning system. The proposed approach extends traditional risk assessments beyond material damages, complements quantitative and semi-quantitative data with subjective and local knowledge, and improves the use of commonly available information.

We present a survey on subjective heat stress experienced by 323 residents of Karlsruhe, Germany, during heat waves in summer 2013. The results show that subjective heat stress permeates daily life, and measures to cope with heat are performed within the scope of action in daily life. Various individual, social, and environmental factors influence the individual heat stress level. For societal adaptation, further research is necessary on how daily life enables or limits coping with heat.

The research presented in this manuscript introduces the theory and methods from the hazard function analysis literature to address the probabilistic analysis of natural hazards whose magnitudes show evidence of increasing over time. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first research article to apply the extremely well-developed field of hazard function theory to the problem of nonstationary natural hazards.

In this study, TEC and positional variations have been examined seperately regarding the earthquake, which occurred in the Aegean Sea. Then The correlation of the said ionospheric variation with the positional variation has been investigated; it can be said definitely that it is a seismic origin anomaly; it is believed that upper air, geophysical, and geological data are required.

During and shortly after a disaster, data about the hazard and its consequences are scarce and not readily available. This research proposes a methodology that leverages social media content to support rapid inundation mapping, including inundation extent and water depth in the case of floods. The case study of the June 2013 flood in the city of Dresden shows that social media may help to bridge the information gap when traditional data sources are lacking or are sparse.