The paper provides new and interesting insights on risk assessments for sensitive infrastructure. While risk assessments for critical infrastructure are relatively established the authors highlight the need for similar definitions and procedures for sensitive infrastructure such as special needs education facilities. The paper makes an important contribution by both defining sensitive infrastructure and developing a risk assessment process. A case study for a special needs school affected by the 2021 floods in the Ahr valley, Germany provides interesting insights on how to apply the risk assessment method developed by the authors to inform a 'build back better' approach.

The Ahr valley flood of 2021 has been one of the most severe flooding events in Germany, with the highest death toll since the coastal storm surge event of 1962, and severe destruction across the valley associated also with extreme financial loss. Deficits in the warning procedures were re-visited after this event, and major improvements like cell broadcast warnings were introduced. The question remains open if the event could have been even more devastating under (almost) the same weather situation. The spatial shift of the rainfall fields the authors conduct is a simple but very reasonable approach as input for estimating counterfactual flooding scenarios with their numerical models. In the paper they demonstrate that the flood could have been much worse in terms of the flood peaks, inundation areas and maximum depths as well as exposed assets, given a shift of the rainfall fields of only about 20 km.

This paper shows a very useful analysis of social media activities during volcanic eruptions. The authors used social sensing of Twitter posts to track social action and reaction changes throughout the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea, Island of Hawaiʻi.

While there are many examples on vulnerability mapping for climate-related hazards in the academic literature, there is very limited evidence of those maps being used by practitioners to achieve a systematic and long-term reduction of risk and vulnerability from climate-related hazards. The authors have identified spatial planners as key players in reducing risks from climate-related hazards in urban areas and use existing spatial planning laws as the starting point to define the legal requirements vulnerability maps need to fulfill to be usable by spatial planners. This innovative approach presented for the example of spatial planning in Stuttgart, Germany demonstrates a promising way to overcome the current gap between research and practice on urban climate change adaptation.

This paper demonstrates a significant technological advance, from measurements of snow depth at a point at high temporal resolution, to mapping snow depth at the 100m scale with high temporal resolution. It has important applications in snow hydrology, snow avalanche research, and climate monitoring. The approach and design are described in detail and will be useful for other researchers looking to apply this approach. The paper is clear and well written, with important details included.

This paper presents a method for characterizing regional landslide potential, which the authors suggest as an improved basis for landslide hazard forecasting during storms. It discusses the advantage of using considering the relative soil-saturation rather than a rainfall recurrence interval to understand landsliding triggered by rainfall, focusing on data from California.

The paper explains the factors which made the Ahr flood event of 2021 the deadliest one in Germany, causing more fatalities than all flood events of the previous 40 years together. It points out that 75% of the fatalities occurred outside of the established flood hazard zones. On the basis of individual fatality reports, factors additionally to early warning and evacuation deficits are identified. A particular result is that beyond danger zones like campsites and cellars the percentage of deaths on the ground floor of buildings (37 %) or outside on the street (18 %) were particularly high. Recommendations for improving emergency management of such unprecedented floods are given.

Forest fires have become a major problem in many regions of the world, including parts of Central Europe. The modelling study addresses the different factors for Forest Fire Susceptibility (FFS), making use of high spatial resolution of input data for the state of Brandenburg, Germany. An increasing susceptibility is found under rising greenhouse gas forcing scenarios when other changes are not taken into account. Extreme weather periods are of particular relevance in this respect. However, the importance of anthropogenic and vegetation parameters for modelling FFS on a regional level can outweigh the pure climatic effects. The paper also suggests some recommendations for forest management and environmental planning for a reduction of fire risk.

The manuscript offers significant contributions that justify its consideration as a highlight paper: It presents a novel, multifaceted methodology for identifying and compiling single hazard types and multi-hazard interrelationships in data-scarce urban settings, which is applied in the context of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. The research provides a comprehensive database of 21 single hazard types and 83 multi-hazard interrelationships, contributing critical insights for disaster risk reduction (DRR) in “Global South” urban areas, with an emphasis on inclusive, people-centred approaches. By integrating stakeholder perspectives and multi-hazard scenario generation, the paper advances the development of dynamic risk scenarios, strengthening multi-hazard approaches for disaster preparedness and response.

The paper presents a methodology for spatial identification of regions exposed to multi-hazards at pan European level, thus offering a significant contribution to the knowledge gap of decision makers and stakeholders which are still lacking a place-specific information of the proneness of their region to multi-hazard events as opposed to single hazard events.

This study introduces a new approach to multi-hazard risk assessment, leveraging hypergraph theory to model interconnected risks posed by cascading natural hazards. Traditional single-hazard risk models fail to account for the complex interrelationships and compounding effects of multiple simultaneous or sequential hazards. Conceptualising and visualising risks within a hypergraph framework overcomes these limitations, enabling efficient simulation of multi-hazard interactions and their impacts on infrastructure. The authors apply their model to the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal as a case study, demonstrating its ability to simulate the primary and secondary effects of the earthquake on buildings and roads across the whole earthquake-affected area. The model predicts the overall pattern of earthquake-induced building damage and landslide impacts, albeit with a tendency towards over-prediction. Their findings underscore the potential of the hypergraph approach for multi-hazard risk assessment, offering advances in rapid computation and scenario exploration for cascading geo-hazards. This approach could provide valuable insights for disaster risk reduction and humanitarian contingency planning, where anticipation of large-scale trends is often more important than prediction of detailed impacts.

The results I find particularly relevant are: 1. While individual crops have specific drought risks, an assessment of the risks across them is a valuable approach. 2. A clear link to meteorological drought in a particular seasonal period can be identified

The manuscript addresses an important topic of the useful and correct use of flood hazard and risk assessment approaches. It could serve as a benchmark overview of best practice and thus be of enormous value for the flood hazard community and any related application out of this. The manuscript addresses the important role of stakeholder participation, objectivity, and verifiability when assessing flood hazard and risk.

The paper offers an interesting case study about Switzerland's earthquake risk. It may be of interest for nation-wide studies and public management of earthquake threats.

The paper deals with a topic that is current and of great importance to society. It reveals and illustrates the complexity of coupled human-hydrological-ecological systems and identifies starting points for improved management of droughts and associated risks.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano eruption on January 15, 2022, caused a volcano-meteorological tsunami (VMT) that was detected globally. Over 10,000 kilometres from the eruption site, the moorings of a ship in Callao, Peru, failed, releasing more than 11,000 barrels of crude oil 15 hours post-eruption. The authors explore whether the Tonga 22 event led to the mooring failure. They analysed data from tide gauges, DART buoys, and barometers in the Southern Pacific Ocean. The maximum energy of the spectra showed a 120-minute wave period off the coast of Peru, coinciding with the accident's timing. Using a Boussinesq model, which simulates the movement and impact of waves in water, the authors examined the VMT's wave propagation to the Peruvian port and assessed the impact on the mooring system. The results indicated that the 120-minute wave significantly increased mooring stresses, surpassing the Minimum Break Load (MBL). The authors conclude that the VMT's long wave period caused mooring line overstresses, leading to port accidents. This event highlights the importance of Tsunami Early Warning Systems and port authority preparedness for VMTs induced by atmospheric acoustic waves, offering new insights into the Tonga 2022 tsunami's extensive impacts.

The 2020 update of the European Seismic Hazard Model (ESHM20) is the most recent and up-to-date assessment of seismic hazard for the Euro-Mediterranean region.

The paper provides a detailed analysis of the causes and predictability of the May 2023 floods in Emiglia Romagna (Italy), which received considerable media coverage due to the extensive damage and loss of life associated.

This paper fills a knowledge gap concerning the mental health implications following devastating flood disasters. The authors use a household-level survey to investigate risk and protective factors of post-traumatic stress disorder experienced in conjunction with the major event in the Ahr Valley, Germany, in July 2021.

This is a very first manuscript focussing on the impact of the extreme precipitation event over Greece in September 2023. The analysis on the crop area and numbers of livestock exposed to flooding from the historic precipitation caused by storm Daniel in central Greece on September 3–8, 2023 should be of wider interest for the scientific community, the broader public and the media.

This manuscript is very timely and addressing a significant aspect of polar meteorology, Arctic synoptic-scale cyclones. Given the current and future development of open passages due to sea-ice loss, this study may have significant influence on upcoming needs of shipping as well as the scientific analysis of underlying physical mechanisms for future arctic cyclone development.

The paper addresses a highly relevant and topical question in flood risk management. The method and results are an innovative and interesting contribution to the field of research which merits information to the broader public and media.

The future of loss and damage from severe European winterstorms remains an open topic for research, societies and affected communities. This manuscript fills a significant gap in our current understanding of future lossess based on the lastes CMIP6 model simulations. The findings demonstrate the importance of climate model uncertainty for the CMIP6 projections of windstorms in Europe, and emphasize the increasing need for risk mitigation due to extreme weather in the future.

Winter storms in the German Bight are a significant coastal hazard in the southeastern North Sea. The authors use a model for enhanced seasonal forecasting accuracy. This enhancement focuses on storms identified by the highest wind speeds, determined using sea-level pressure data, during winter. The forecasting system, comprising 64 simulations initiated each November, aims to forecast these storms for winters spanning from 1960 to 2018. Initial forecasts for the first winter proved inaccurate. However, by concentrating on specific weather patterns in September and November linked to these storms, the authors refined their forecasting method. Selecting the most reliable simulations based on these patterns significantly improved the forecasting accuracy for winter storms, indicating enhanced predictability of major atmospheric changes. Their simulations might be applied to other similar applications.

This paper brings forward a new use for recent climate models, allowing the representation of convection at a fine spatial scale for the analysis of flash floods in a Mediterranean context. Results indicate a better performance to reproduce floods compared to the previous generation of climate models. This study is the first one that obtains future flood scenarios from the input of a hydrological model whose input is the output of Convection-Permitting regional climate Models over the Mediterranean. There are also hardly any studies on the impact of climate change on floods in the Mediterranean region, and this work provides that information, based on a rigorous hydrometeorological study.

Justification of handling editor: The paper describes a methodology for designing an early-warning for landslides based in open source low cost instruments. This will be of interest to wider audiences since it is at the interface of earth sciences, Internet of Things (IOT), wireless sensor networks, and communications.

I agree with handling editor

Droughts and associated heat waves threaten society and nature, as again demonstrated in this year's drought event in Europe. This study examines the impact of global warming on drought severity in west-central Europe by creating future analogues of present-day droughts. On the one hand, this approach allows the authors to investigate changes in droughts conditional on the present-day atmospheric circulation. On the other hand, the future drought analogues are directly linked to real-world events and their societal impact, which make the results very tangible and therewith useful for climate change communication to policy makers, decision makers as well as the broader public.

I agree with the handling editor and suggest considering it as a highlight paper.

This paper produces a map for all of Italy that classifies different regions in terms of liquefaction triggering potential according to their seismic hazard level. The map MILQ (Mappa del potenziale d’Innesco della LiQuefazione), and the associated data are freely accessible at: www.distav.unige.it/rsni/milq.php. The results can be useful to guide land-use planners in deciding whether liquefaction is a hazard that needs to be considered within the planning processes or not. Furthermore, they can serve as a guide for recommending geological and geotechnical investigations aimed at evaluating liquefaction hazards or, conversely, rule out further studies with a consequent saving in efforts and money.

This paper clearly demonstrates the value of the rescue of historical meteorological data, as they help to come to a better assessment of the characteristics of events in the past. Using such data, the study is able to give evidence for physical processes of particular relevance for the intensity of an historical hazardous event. The approach makes an assessment of such events in the context of climate change and variability possible.

This paper presents current research findings that have recently been caught up with reality. One of the case studies reported, Joshimath, experienced a large acceleration in slope deformation in January 2023 that has damaged and destroyed many homes and businesses and has created an atmosphere of uncertainty and unrest within the town. This has been covered in many international news outlets (e.g. BBC, CNN, Reuters, Le Monde), and has raised questions about development issues in at-risk areas in the Himalaya.

I agree with the handling editor and suggest considering it as a highlight paper.

Here approaches to rank precipitation events according to their hazard characteristics are presented, while their impacts depend on many other factors as well like the orography, hydrological situation, exposure and vulnerability. Determining the severity of a precipitation event is not straight forward, as it depends on both the intensity on different time scales and the spatial extent. The weather extremity index (WEI) and the cross-scale WEI (xWEI) are used to determine the extremeness of precipitation events. The devastating event in the Ahr valley in Germany in July 2021 is shown to rank No 1 or 4 for Germany, dependent on the measure used. This emphasizes that it was extreme across multiple spatial and temporal scales, and the importance of considering different scales to determine the extremeness of rainfall events.

The NHESS paper “A climate-conditioned catastrophe risk model for UK flooding” by Bates and colleagues presents and validates a new flood model for the UK that simulates pluvial, fluvial and coastal flood risks at a resolution of 20 to 25 metres. The authors then use their scheme to estimate the probability-loss distribution for UK flooding under various future climate and policy scenarios. Their paper provides the most detailed and realistic analysis to date of current and future flood risk in the UK. The key findings of their work are: (1) Previous UK flood losses based on government data and used in national climate change risk assessments are overestimated by a factor of about 3. (2) Official UK estimates lie well outside the paper's modelled loss distribution, which is plausibly centred on the observations. (3) The UK 1% annual probability flood losses were only about 6% greater in the average climate conditions of 2020 than for the period of historical river flow and rainfall observations (centred approximately on 1995). (4) Increases in risk can be kept to around ~8% if all COP26 2030 carbon emission reduction pledges and ‘net zero’ commitments are implemented in full. (5) Implementing only the COP26 pledges increases UK 1% annual probability flood losses by ~23% above recent historical values, and potentially ~37% if climate sensitivity turns out to be higher than currently thought.

This paper examines the warning deficits in conjunction with the major flooding event in Germany of summer 2021. The event caused many fatalities and enormous damage. The warning procedures proved to be insufficient, and after investigations it was decided to install a cell broadcast system in Germany, which is already in place today. The deeper investigations on the warning perceptions and the influencing factors is of major interest to readers beyond the scientific community.

I agree with the statement proposed

The topic treated in this work is potentially interesting for our community, giving the threats presented for Sub-Saharan Africa; it is also a review, so it has the capability to attract a lot of attention from the public.

I also agree with tha handling editor.

The paper addresses historical flood marks as a information source, coming to the conclusion that it is worthwhile to maintain them, and include them in scientific evaluations. The authors find, for example, plausible and historically sound reasons in changed local hydraulic conditions by flood protection walls, and effects of exceptional processes during a massive ice jam.

This paper is very relevant for science but also society: the paper presents an approach for estimating rare to very rare floods at multiple sites in a large river basin. Compared to statistical approaches based on streamflow observations, the Continuous Simulation (CS) approach has substantial advantages in that it explicitly considers important processes of flood generation such as soil moisture, snow accumulation and snowmelt, and in addition can implement lake regulation, dam operation as well as lake and floodplain retention

The paper can be considered as highlight paper