Topical Collection on "The Nexus between Resilience and Sustainability of Interconnected Critical Entities in the View of Climate Change" of Prevention and Treatment of Natural Disasters(PTND)-Scilight

A topical collection of Prevention and Treatment of Natural Disasters (PTND) (E-ISSN: 2753-7544).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 August 2024

Climate change and extreme events can affect the design, lifespan, serviceability or even destroy interconnected critical entities, such as energy, transportation, telecommunications, buildings, marine and water management facilities. Critical Entities that provide essential services for the maintenance of vital societal functions or economic activities should be provided in an unobstructed manner. In addition, these are inherently interconnected and interdependent systems, and thus, their failure frequently leads to cascading effects.

This topical collection aims for contributions relating to all aspects of critical entities and climate change, such as: (a) climate risk assessment of current and dynamically evolving hazards, (b) vulnerabilities, impacts, and potential cascading effects assessment, also accounting for societal disruption, (c) design and financing sustainable and resilient critical entities, (d) integration of strategies for climate change mitigation and long-term adaptation options, and (e) innovative software solutions with high-end visualization.

This topical collection introduces the most recent advances and emerging innovations on addressing potential risks from climate change and future extreme events pertaining to the financing, design, building, and operation of interconnected critical entities. Such knowledge can act as a viable pathway for making resilient and sustainable critical entities in view of climate change. Real-world applications and case studies demonstrating tangible results and stakeholder engagement are particularly welcome.

Please visit the Submissions Guidelines page before submitting a manuscript. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Manuscripts should be submitted online through the online manuscript submission and editorial system. Additionally, please include a cover letter specifying that the manuscript is intended for the Topical Collection "The Nexus between Resilience and Sustainability of Interconnected Critical Entities in the View of Climate Change" when submitting it online. Manuscripts can be submitted until the submission deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal and will be listed together on the Topical Collection website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract can be sent to the Editorial Office ptnd@ukscip.com for announcement on this website.

The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 600 USD. Authors who are unable to cover this cost or those who are invited to submit papers may be eligible for discounts or waivers.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process.

1: Title: Designing Post-Fire Flood Protection Techniques for a Real Event in Central Greece

Abstract: Climate change-induced wildfires are increasingly prevalent, particularly during summer periods, with evident consequences in multiple regions worldwide. Among the consequences, there are heightened flood risks in affected areas due to extreme storm events, as wildfires alter the hydrological responses of catchments. The Mediterranean, a climate change hotspot, is particularly susceptible to these threats; however, effective flood risk management in these burnt regions remains inadequately explored. In response, we develop an integrated framework to accurately represent a post-fire flash-flood event in a Mediterranean catchment, in Greece. This framework combines meteorological, hydrological, hydraulic-hydrodynamic models, and remote sensing techniques. Moreover, we present a brief review of the most common Post-fire Flood Protection treatments (PFPs), to identify the most suitable for the examined case study. We spatially assess these PFPs, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and provide detailed estimations of their expected costs. The flood damage direct costs were also estimated by a semi-automated AI-based approach. Subsequently, these costs were commented in comparison to PFPs cost, underscoring the economic implications of such protection measures. By filling critical knowledge gaps, our study offers insights into the dynamics of post-fire flood events and provides policymakers with valuable insights for timely risk mitigation amidst escalating fire-related disasters.

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Article Designing Post-Fire Flood Protection Techniques for a Real Event in Central Greece

by Angelos Alamanos, George Papaioannou, George Varlas, Vassiliki Markogianni, Angelos Plataniotis, Anastasios Papadopoulos, Elias Dimitriou, Phoebe Koundouri, 4 September 2024

Wildfires pose a growing global danger for ecosystems and human activities. The degraded ecosystem functions of burnt sites, include, among others, shifts in hydrological processes, land cover, vegetation, and soil erosion, that make them more vulnerable to flood and extreme sediment transport risks. Several post-fire erosion and flood protection treatments (PFPs) have been developed to avoid and mitigate such consequences and risks. The Mediterranean region faces severe climate change challenges that are projected to escalate the wildfire and post-fire flood risks. However, there is limited research on the dynamics of post-fire flood risks and their mitigation through the design of the appropriate PFPs. This paper aims to cover this gap by simulating a real post-fire flash-flood event in Central Greece, and design the PFPs for this case study, considering their suitability and costs. An integrated framework was used to represent the flood under the baseline scenario: the storm conditions that caused the flood were simulated using the atmospheric model WRF-ARW; the burn extent, severity, and the flood extent were retrieved through remote sensing analyses; and a HEC-RAS hydraulic-hydrodynamic model was developed to simulate the flood event, applying the rain-on-grid technique. Several PFPs were assessed, and certain channel- and barrier-based PFPs were selected as the most suitable for the study area. The recommended PFPs were spatially represented within a geographic information system (GIS). Moreover, we present a detailed analysis of their expected costs. This study provides an interdisciplinary and transferable framework for understanding and enhancing the flood resilience of burnt sites.