News & Comment

Floods are intensifying globally, primarily due to climate change, with devastating impacts on lives and economies. Recent flash floods in Bangladesh, Central, and Western Europe highlight the ineffectiveness of current resilience strategies (e.g., drainage improvements) in mitigating extreme weather impacts. This commentary highlights the urgent need to shift focus towards flood risk reduction amid evolving flood hazard regimes while strengthening resilience through preparedness (e.g., dynamic warning systems) and adaptation strategies.

The Mw 7.1 Dingri, China earthquake, which occurred on January 7, 2025, is the largest normal faulting event in the central and western regions of the Tibetan Plateau since the 2008 Yutian, China earthquake. Focal mechanism solutions indicate that the earthquake predominantly exhibits normal faulting characteristics and is believed to have ruptured the Dengme Co fault, a branch of the NS-trending normal fault system along the western boundary of the Dingjie-Shenzha rift. Remote sensing data and field observations reveal that the surface rupture zone extends between 25 km and 32 km, with a maximum vertical offset of approximately 3 m and slight left-lateral strike-slip displacement. The maximum intensity in the epicentral area reached IX on the Chinese Seismic Intensity Scale. The relatively severe earthquake damage is primarily attributed to building collapses caused by strong ground shaking, which resulted from the earthquake’s large magnitude and shallow focal depth. Additionally, towns and villages near active faults are situated on weak lacustrine strata, further exacerbating the impact. Therefore, it is recommended that authorities at all levels in China enhance efforts to map active faults and identify unfavorable geological conditions to mitigate similar earthquake disasters on the Tibetan Plateau in the future.

In Derna, Libya, a record-breaking storm and subsequent dam failures on September 10, 2023, caused over 11,000 deaths. Analyzing satellite data from 2016–2023, we found 1.8 mm/yr of differential settlement in dams contributed to their failure, and flooding damaged ~8570 buildings. We argue that the interplay of aging infrastructure, political instability, climate change, and human decisions drove this disaster, stressing the need for a holistic ‘healthcare’ management approach to prevent future catastrophes.

Indigenous peoples are widely affected by natural hazards and their history and knowledge can directly inform on past events and mitigation strategies. Here we show how effective co-creation of resources and bi-lateral knowledge exchange between natural hazard researchers and local Indigenous communities provides an effective, equitable, and sustainable way to conduct research.