flooding

GeoTalk: Meet Elisa Nobile, Flood Loss & Damage researcher, & Natural Hazards Early Career Representative!

Simon Clark August 20, 2026

Elisa Nobile

Hello Elisa! Thank you for agreeing to this GeoTalk interview. Could you briefly introduce yourself and your background to our readers? Hello, and thank you for having me. My name is Elisa Nobile and I recently completed my PhD at IUSS Pavia, in Italy. My background is in engineering for the mitigation of risk from natural hazards, and during my studies I quickly became interested in the impacts o ...[Read More]

Thirty years after Biescas: Rethinking alluvial fan flooding and infrastructure failure

Asmae Ourkiya August 7, 2026

Aftermath of the 1999 Carbadella flooding. Source: NHESS journal.

Thirty years ago, in August 1996, a catastrophic flash flood swept through the Las Nieves campsite on the alluvial fan of the Barranco de Aras near Biescas in the Central Pyrenees of Aragón, Spain. The tragedy claimed 87 lives and injured over 180 people. This makes it one of the most severe weather-related disasters in modern European history. In the decades following the disaster, geoscientists ...[Read More]

Open flood modelling: Real time inundation and human displacement forecasting is now possible!

Asmae Ourkiya September 27, 2024

Flash flood in Oman. Heavy rains cut roads crossing wadis. Photo taken by Anita di Chiara

Floods are powerful natural events that can wreak havoc on communities and ecosystems. Every year, millions of people are affected by floods, leading to loss of life, damage to homes, and disruption of daily life. This blog post explores a new method for quickly mapping flood zones and predicting their impacts. To help communities and decision-makers better prepare, the authors of a recent publica ...[Read More]

How Ancient Egyptian Decline Synced With Hydrological Change….And How They Survived

Simon Clark June 10, 2022

Fields of the Nile River. Credit: Katja Bigge via Imaggeo

Cairo’s survival was, is, and will be dependent on the flow of the Nile. Since the city was founded in 10th century CE the Nile’s scouring waters have left behind untouched ground onto which the city has spilled and grown. Modern Cairo’s youngest districts are closest to the Nile, founded on earth which was underwater centuries before. It is the river’s changing nature that made the Nile Val ...[Read More]