Scientific challenges of research on natural hazards and disaster risk

Abstract

As a discipline, the science of natural hazards and disaster risk aims to explain the spatial-temporal pattern, process and mechanism, emergency response and risk mitigation of natural hazards, which requires a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach. With the support of Natural Science Finance of China (NSFC) and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in-depth research and systematic analysis on natural hazards and disaster risk were conducted. In this paper, the state of the art in research on natural hazards is summarized from seven aspects: formation process, mechanism and dynamic of natural hazards, disaster risk assessment, forecast, monitoring and early warning, disaster mitigation, emergency treatment and rescue, risk management and post-disaster reconstruction. The trends within the natural hazards and disaster risk as a discipline were identified, along with existing shortcomings and significant gaps that need to be addressed. This paper highlighted: 1) the scientific challenges including the frontier scientific issues and technological gaps on natural hazards and disaster risk discipline from 2025 to 2035 in China, and 2) the proposal to develop a systemic and holistic natural hazards and disaster risk discipline.

Keywords

Natural hazards / Disaster risk / Discipline / Progress / Challenge / Development goals

Conflict of Competing Interest

The authors declared that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. QYZDY-SSW-DQC006), the Major Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41790432), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. L1924041) and Research Project on the Discipline Development Strategy of Academic Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grand No. XK2019DXC006). Many thanks to the workgroup of natural hazards and disaster risk discipline. Colleagues from Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment of CAS, Chang'an University, Beijing Normal University, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) are highly appreciated.

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