Extreme events

HydroTalks: Heidi Kreibich about Floods, Human-water Feedbacks, and the IAHS Scientific Decade Panta Rhei

Christina Orieschnig, Melissa Reidy and Archita Bhattacharyya January 22, 2026

For this month’s episode of HydroTalks, we’re thrilled to welcome Heidi Kreibich. She is head of the Section Hydrology at GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences and senior lecturer at the Geography Department of Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin. Heidi is also president of the Natural Hazards division of the EGU and president of the International Commission on Human-Water Feedbacks in the IAHS. In add ...[Read More]

“What if …?” – Creativity in flood risk management using counterfactual scenarios

Paul Voit November 3, 2025

Floods are among the most devastating natural hazards, claiming lives and damaging infrastructure. The question of how we can be prepared for these extreme events quickly reaches an almost philosophical level: First of all, what is an extreme event? Second, how can we know what the future will bring? For the last century hydrologists have relied on statistical concepts, which are based on observ ...[Read More]

The Blatten landslide in Switzerland

Christophe Lambiel June 11, 2025

View on the Blatten landslide from downstream, with the Lonza river finding its way through the landslide; (03 June 2025), credit: Christophe Lambiel

In the morning of May 28, 2025, the picturesque Swiss alpine village of Blatten sat quiet and serene in the Lötschen Valley. Exceptionally quiet, in fact, as the village was evacuated on May 19th after a local Natural Hazards expert spotted a worrisome change in a local mountain looming about the village, the Kleines Nesthorn: it was collapsing faster. The Kleines Nesthorn is a 3,341-meter peak wi ...[Read More]