Ramesh Singh, Ph.D., Professor of Earth System Science and Remote Sensing and chief editor of the Journal of  Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, was very happy to see the first issue of the Journal published recently.  He received a dozen copies of the new journal, published by Taylor and Francis, UK, and was honored to formally present a copy to Chapman Chancellor Daniele Struppa last Friday.

The seeds of the new journal were planted when Dr.  Singh was invited to give a lecture on natural hazards during the International Geological Congress held during August 2008, where he met the managing director of Taylor and Francis, UK.  After an encouraging discussion on natural hazards, Dr. Singh made a proposal to the managing Board of the Taylor and Francis, UK to start a new journal, which he felt was especially timely because the frequency of natural hazards has increased and satellites are now able to provide continuous information around the globe.

After a number of iterations, the managing board approved the journal in September 2009.  The Editorial Board of the journal consists of 19 members representing:

  • Space Agencies,  NASA, ESA, JAXA, Canada Center for Remote Sensing
  • World Meteorological Organization
  • United Nations Environmental Program
  • Meteorological organizations
  • NOAA
  • British Geological Survey
  • And  members representing academic institutions from various countries.

Taylor and Francis will publish four issues per year. Dr. Singh’s plan is to publish articles related to natural hazards so that the readership can glean the fullest scientific and technical information about the hazards.

Dr. Singh is Vice-Chair of the Georisk Commission of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, which is a body of the International Council of Scientific Union (ICSU) set up to review all aspects of natural hazards globally.  He is also one of the members of the AGU Focus Group on Natural Hazards.

“The Journal will publish articles on observations, analysis and simulations, multi-hazard risk assessment, multi-vulnerability risk assessment, risk quantification and the economic aspects of hazards,” said Dr. Singh.  “The Journal is timely and will assist readers in considering all the aspects of natural hazards, especially when the global population is facing  what seems like continual occurrences of numerous natural hazards associated with land, ocean and atmosphere, one after the other.”