Environmental disasters, particularly earthquakes and floods, present immense challenges to humanity, demanding effective assessment and comprehensive management strategies. Given the increasing frequency and intensity of such events, their devastating impact on lives, the environment, and infrastructure calls for innovative approaches. Earthquakes can devastate entire urban areas within seconds, while flood events can also have long-term effects on the environment and livelihoods. Conventional disaster management methodologies often result in inefficient use of resources and suboptimal decision-making due to inadequate, near real-time, and cost-effective damage assessment capabilities. To address this critical gap, this paper introduces PostDisaster, an innovative platform designed to enhance disaster management and assessment and strengthen the resilience of the affected regions through the deployment of Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR), AI-supported satellite analysis, and drone-based tools. To overcome current technological limitations, the PostDisaster system provides decision-makers with tools for action planning and detailed damage analysis, delivering critical data at varying levels of detail. An AI-supported satellite image analysis tool delivers an immediate, macroscopic overview of the disaster’s scope. To obtain a more accurate overview of the situation, a drone-based tool generates a highly detailed 3D reconstruction of the affected area. which can be viewed in VR to enable decision-makers remote assessment of the situation and planning of measures. Finally, an on-site MR application allows users to walk through damaged infrastructure, mark damages and reconstruct the infrastructure. The reconstructed infrastructure with the marked damages can be subsequently viewed as digital representation in VR, ensuring comprehensive traceability of decisions for e.g., mission evaluations, debriefings or insurance assessments. This paper describes the current state of the PostDisaster system and the outcomes of the requirements analysis phase.
Underground engineering is increasingly exposed to complex geological conditions, intensive urban constraints, and long service periods. Disasters rarely arise from a single defective component; they usually develop through interactions among geological uncertainty, excavation disturbance, groundwater migration, support response, construction organization, and delayed deterioration. This paper presents a critical review of the mechanisms, monitoring methods, and prevention strategies associated with major underground-engineering hazards, including collapse, water and mud inrush, squeezing deformation, rockburst, ground settlement, harmful-gas and fire events, and structural deterioration. A source–pathway–response framework is used to explain how local damage evolves into system-level failure and cascading consequences. Analytical, numerical, physical-model, field-monitoring, and data-driven approaches are compared with respect to applicability, interpretability, and uncertainty. The review shows that conventional single-index warning and static safety assessment are inadequate for rapidly changing ground conditions. More reliable practice requires multi-source geological prediction, continuous deformation and seepage sensing, physics-informed data fusion, and decision thresholds linked directly to construction actions. An integrated closed-loop framework is therefore proposed that connects investigation, scenario analysis, monitoring, diagnosis, adaptive control, emergency response, and post-event model updating. The principal research needs are uncertainty-aware prediction, transferable warning models, coupled multi-hazard simulation, resilient support systems, and life-cycle digital twins. The review provides a structured basis for transforming underground disaster control from isolated hazard treatment to adaptive, risk-informed, and resilience-oriented management.
Lin Gao, Ji-Won Jin· Academic Journal of Applied...· 0 citations
Tsunamis, though infrequent, pose catastrophic threats to coastal communities and infrastructure, underscoring the urgent need for effective mitigation strategies. This review provides a comprehensive evaluation of current engineered countermeasures, specifically seawalls, breakwaters, and water-filled canals, by synthesizing findings from post-tsunami field surveys. Evidence from major events, such as the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami, indicates that well-designed structural measures can substantially reduce tsunami wave energy and delay inland inundation, thereby improving the resilience of coastal infrastructure. However, their effectiveness depends heavily on proper geometric configuration, construction quality, regular maintenance, and integration with non-structural measures such as evacuation planning. Recent experimental and numerical investigations have also highlighted the potential of innovative countermeasures, in attenuating bore forces and protecting critical infrastructure. Despite advancements, significant knowledge gaps remain, particularly concerning the long-term reliability, cost-effectiveness, and adaptability of these systems under diverse tsunami conditions. This critical review aims to identify these gaps and outline key priorities for future research and development. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of structural tsunami mitigation and support the advancement of integrated, resilient strategies for reducing disaster risk in tsunami-prone regions worldwide.
Reza Arefi, Ioan Nistor, A. Mohammadian· Fluids· 1 citation
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) has emerged as a critical global priority in response to the increasing frequency, intensity, and complexity of natural and human-induced disasters. Climate change, rapid urbanization, environmental degradation, and socio-economic inequalities have significantly amplified disaster risks, particularly in developing and vulnerable regions. This paper presents a comprehensive multidisciplinary analysis of disaster risk reduction strategies by integrating perspectives from engineering, environmental science, social sciences, economics, public policy, and information technology. The study emphasizes that effective DRR cannot be achieved through single-discipline interventions but requires a holistic framework that combines structural and non-structural measures, community participation, governance mechanisms, and technological innovation. The paper systematically reviews existing DRR frameworks and international agreements, including the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, highlighting their strengths and limitations. A detailed literature survey examines recent research on hazard assessment, vulnerability analysis, resilience building, early warning systems, and post-disaster recovery. The proposed methodology adopts a systems-based approach, integrating qualitative and quantitative methods such as risk modeling, stakeholder analysis, and multi-criteria decision-making. Key performance indicators are used to evaluate the effectiveness of DRR strategies across different hazard contexts. Results indicate that multidisciplinary DRR strategies significantly enhance preparedness, reduce disaster losses, and improve recovery outcomes when compared to sector-specific approaches. The discussion underscores the importance of adaptive governance, data-driven decision-making, and inclusive community engagement. The paper concludes by proposing a scalable and adaptable DRR framework suitable for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers, contributing to sustainable development and resilience-building efforts worldwide.
Rajesh Sharma· International Journal of Eme...· 0 citations
Floods are among the most destructive natural hazards, threatening lives, infrastructure, and economies. The Kanhan
River in Maharashtra, a tributary of the Wainganga, experiences recurrent flooding due to monsoonal rains, unregulated
floodplain development, and land-use changes. This study conducts a flood risk assessment using Geographic Information
Systems (QGIS) and the Hydrologic Engineering Center’s River Analysis System (HEC-RAS). High-resolution DEMs, LULC
data, rainfall records, and river cross-sections were processed in QGIS to generate inputs for hydraulic modeling. HEC-RAS
simulated unsteady flows for multiple return periods, with outputs integrated into QGIS for floodplain mapping. The combined
approach enabled spatial visualization of inundation extents, depths, and velocities, highlighting vulnerable zones. The resulting
hydraulic model has 0.4036% error which provide actionable insights for disaster management, including early warning
systems, embankment reinforcement, and land-use regulation. This integrated framework demonstrates the value of geospatial
and hydraulic tools in enhancing resilience and guiding flood mitigation strategies in data-scarce regions.
Vaibhavi D. Kharbade, Dr.Sameer Koranne· International Journal for Re...· 0 citations
Dams play a vital role in supporting agricultural productivity, water supply and flood control in Indonesia. However, their structural failure poses serious threats to human safety and regional development. This study integrates hydrological and hydraulic modelling as part of a comprehensive disaster risk mitigation strategy, focusing on the Keureuto Dam in North Aceh, Indonesia. The dam, a 74-m-high earthfill structure with a total storage capacity of 215.94 million m3, presents significant downstream flood risk in the event of structural collapse disaster risk mitigation. Using the HEC-RAS 5.0.7 model, a dam breach scenario was simulated under overtopping conditions based on Froehlich’s empirical equations. The simulation results revealed a maximum flood depth of 19.577 m, a peak flow velocity of 1.387 m/s and an inundation area of approximately 49.91 km2 affecting 84 villages across four sub-districts.
Contribution: Beyond quantifying flood characteristics, this study emphasises a decision-support tool for disaster preparedness, enabling hazard mapping, evacuation planning and the development of early warning systems.
Wesli Wesli, Fadhliani Fadhliani, Nanda S. Ersa· Jàmbá : Journal of Disaster...· 0 citations
ABSTRACT Floods are a recurring and highly damaging disaster in India. This paper begins with a brief review on meteorological and hydrological processes relevant from a flooding perspective in India. Subsequently, flood damage data pertaining to area and population impacted and damage to crops, houses, humans, and public utilities for the past about 70 years published by the Government of India have been analyzed to determine the overall and recent trends. In recent times, the area and population impacted by floods are showing a declining trend, but damage values for houses, public utilities, and total damages are seen to be mounting. Also, small cities are new areas of flood vulnerability. Among other steps, flood management efforts should focus on further curtailing human deaths by reducing exposure, early warnings/forecasts and timely evacuation to safer areas. For exposure reduction, experience of other countries can be gainfully employed, e.g. the ‘Room for the River’ approach implemented in the Netherlands. It would also be helpful to develop a disaster database comprising time series and spatial data of relevant variables by collating efforts of related organizations. Considering the current water development scenarios and future projections of causative variables, it would be necessary to follow climate‑resilient development (CRD) pathways.
S. Jain· ISH Journal of Hydraulic Eng...· 0 citations