2025/07/25 by Chong Xu, Ning Lin · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Environmental Science · Engineering · #Disaster Management and Resilience #Flood Risk Assessment and Management #Infrastructure Resilience and Vulnerability Analysis
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s44304-025-00130-2
openalex publication_date 2025/07/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/13
In the context of an increasingly interconnected and rapidly evolving global society in the 21 st century, natural hazards have become one of the most significant and uncontrollable variables affecting the safety and sustainable development of the shared future of humankind 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 . As a concentrated manifestation of the internal instability of natural systems and the disturbances caused by human activities, natural hazards not only result in massive loss of life and property, but also profoundly disrupt social stability, economic operations, ecological balance, and even the geopolitical landscape. They have become a major source of systemic global risk. In recent years, the global climate system has experienced persistent volatility, with extreme weather events increasing markedly in both frequency and intensity. Natural hazards have exhibited a trend toward greater diversity, higher frequency, enhanced intensity, and increased spatiotemporal overlap 5 . These developments have led to the emergence of complex disaster chains and compound hazard systems, with earthquakes, tropical cyclones, torrential rains, and droughts as core components. The spatiotemporal coupling among disasters is intensifying, while interactions among different spheres of the Earth system are becoming increasingly complex. Cascading disasters that span hazard types, regions, and spatial scales now occur with greater frequency, posing escalating challenges to the resilience of social governance frameworks, resource allocation systems, and critical infrastructure networks. For example, on 8 February 2025, a catastrophic high-mountain landslide occurred in Junlian County, Sichuan Province, China, forming a 1.2 km long debris accumulation body and resulting in 10 fatalities, 19 missing persons, and the burial of 10 houses (Fig. 1 ). This tragedy exemplifies the increasing frequency of high-casualty geological disasters triggered by extreme rainfall and complex geological conditions, underscoring the urgent need for integrated risk governance and enhanced societal resilience. Fig. 1 On-site photograph of the 8 February 2025 Junlian landslide in Sichuan Province, China, showing large-scale debris accumulation and damaged residential areas. Full size image