Advanced GIScience in Hydro-Geological Hazards Applications, Modelling and Management

In recent decades, natural hazards have increasingly threatened lives, livelihoods, and economies, with annual losses totalling billions of dollars globally. According to the Insurance Information Institute (III) and the Zebra, USA, natural disaster losses reached $74.4 billion in 2020, and an average of 6,800 natural disasters occur each year, claiming around 1.35 million lives. Hydrological and geological hazards, in particular, have significant societal and environmental impacts, making them critical areas of research. Understanding and mitigating these hazards is vital for developing legal mechanisms related to environmental restoration, societal improvements, and sustainable development.

Modern technologies and earth observation data play a crucial role in disaster monitoring, prediction, modelling, and management. Recent advancements in geoinformation science have introduced multi-source data for natural hazards research. In addition, cutting-edge methods such as machine learning, deep learning, and big data science offer powerful tools for in-depth studies of natural hazards through remote sensing and geoinformatics. This book, Advanced GIScience in Hydro-Geological Hazards, presents up-to-date contributions on applying advanced GIScience to research various hydro-geological hazards, including floods, landslides, tropical cyclones, soil erosion, coastal erosion, riverbank erosion, coastal area vulnerability, drought, wetlands shrinking etc. It also explores multi-hazard studies using SAR, GNSS, and other innovative methods. The chapters focus on integrating artificial intelligence, machine learning techniques, and remote sensing to enhance preparedness, response, and resilience against these hazards. Targeting a broad audience of academics, scientists, students, environmentalists, government agencies, disaster planners, and GIS experts, this book aims to showcase the latest advancements in GIScience for assessing and managing hydro-geological hazards. It offers strategies for disaster risk reduction and capacity building, providing readers with the knowledge needed to address pressing environmental challenges.

GIScience and Earth observation Technology in Hydro-Geological hazard Analysis-An Overview.- Application of Advanced Geoinformation Science-A Disaster Risk Reduction Perspective.- New Paradigms of Decision Support Systems through Applications Leveraging Earth Observations and Machine Learning Approaches.- Soil erosion susceptibility modelling using machine learning in Guwahati urban watershed.- Flood vulnerability assessment in Jamuna (Brahmaputra) river basin, Bangladesh using remote sensing data, frequency ratio and machine learning based geospatial approach towards management strategies.- Introducing Autoencoder-Convolutional neural network for landslide susceptibility modelling in Kalimpong hill.- Artificial Neural Networks for combined forecasting of Tropical Cyclone track and intensity in the Bay of Bengal.- Geospatial approach to assess possible impact of groundwater abstraction in Bharatpur metropolitan city, Nepal.- Application of aerial photographs to monitor the dynamicsof fluvial tidal island and coastal erosion hazard in the Sundarbans delta plain of Bangladesh.- RS and GIS modelling for disaster management: Opportunities and challenges-A case study from Kerala, India.- Coastal Area Vulnerability to Cyclone Hazard-A Geoinformation and IPCC approach based study.- Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Drought in Bangladesh Using Novel China Z Index.- Livelihood vulnerability modelling with deep learning in erosion and flooding induced river islands in Ganga River corridor.- Assessment of soil erosion and landslide hazards in Rohingya refugee areas of Bangladesh: An integrated remote sensing and field observation approach.- Geospatial Analysis of River Bank Erosion-Accretion and Land Use Change of Teesta River, Bangladesh using Fuzzy ARTMAP Neural Network.- Landslides Vulnerability Assessment using Fuzzy logic based Spatial Multi-criteria Evaluation (Fuzzy-SMCE)-A Case Study from Hill Tract Districts, Bangladesh.- Impact of wetland transformation on fishing community in floodplain of Tangan River.- Multi-hazard risk assessment using Geo-statistical and Machine Learning Algorithm.- GNSS remote sensing in disaster management.- Land subsidence estimation using SAR time series data.

Dr. Md. Rejaur Rahman is a distinguished Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at the esteemed University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. His academic journey is marked by notable achievements, including his Ph.D. in Information Engineering of Resources and Environment from the prestigious College of Resources and Environment at Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, China. Additionally, he holds a Master of Technology (M.Tech) in Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) from the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP) in India, an institution affiliated to the United Nations. Dr. Rahman worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Science Malaysia (Universiti Sains Malaysia, USM). He received several scholarships to pursue his higher studies, including the CSSTEAP-UN scholarship, the China Government scholarship, and the TWAS (Italy-Malaysia) scholarship. He has also been awarded the Fulbright Visiting Research Fellowship for 2024-2025 at Ohio State University, USA. Besides, he served as the Associate Sub-Project Manager of the Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP), a collaboration between the Government of Bangladesh and the World Bank, from 2012 to 2013. Dr Rahman enriched his research experience as a Research Fellow in the project focusing on GIS application in Coastal Area Planning and Management at the Department of Environmental Science, University Putra Malaysia (UPM), Malaysia, from September 2000 to February 2001. He has served as the Chairman of the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies and later as the Dean of the Faculty of Geo-Sciences at the University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. His research interests encompass a wide array of crucial areas including the application of Remote Sensing, GIS, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in monitoring, modeling, and managing natural disasters such as floods, soil erosion, droughts, river bank erosion and landslides. He has also made significant contributions to understanding climate change issues, land use/land cover change analysis, modeling, and planning, as well as cropland monitoring and planning. Dr. Rahman's scholarly contributions are extensive, with over 45 reviewed research papers published in esteemed international and national refereed journals covering various aspects of remote sensing and GIS applications, image processing, natural disaster monitoring and modeling, climate variability and change, and land use/land cover mapping, monitoring, and planning. His work has been featured in prominent publications such as The Egyptian Journal of Remote Sensing and Space Science, Geo-Spatial Information Science, Journal of Spatial Science, International Journal of Geoinformatics, Climate Dynamics, Ecological Modelling, Theoretical and Applied Climatology, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Environmental Earth Sciences, Earth Science Informatics, Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing, and Modeling Earth Systems and Environment. Additionally, he has authored numerous book chapters published by Springer-Nature. Dr. Rahman's expertise is recognized globally, as evidenced by his participation in numerous national and international seminars and workshops, where he has presented several research papers. Furthermore, he has undertaken advanced/specialized training courses on Remote Sensing and GIS across several countries including India, China, Jordan, Egypt, Sweden, Russia, Iran, South Korea, Turkey, and the Netherlands. Beyond his research endeavors, Dr. Rahman has also contributed to the academic community as a Reviewer/Editor for various journals published by Springer, Elsevier, Taylor and Francis, MDPI, and Frontiers, reflecting his commitment to advancing scientific knowledge in his academic and research field.

Dr. Atiqur Rahman is a Professor of Geography at Dept. of Geography, Faculty of Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia. He is alumnus of prestigious Aligarh Muslim University (AM) Aligarh. He completed B. Sc. (Hons.), M Sc., M Phil and Ph. D. from AMU. His research interest is urban environmental management, water resources, physical Geography, digital image processing and use of remote sensing satellite data, GIS and GPS. He was Post-Doctoral Fellow (PDF) at UFZ-Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany (1999). He was Co-PI of Indo-Germany DST-DAAD major project. He is the recipient of prestigious Young Scientist Project Grant Award (2001-2004) from Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India. He worked as one a member of Scientific Research Team of NASA funded UEM project on Urban Ecology and Sustainability (2004-2007). He is the Co-PI Indo-Canadian major research projects on Economic Transformation and Childhood Obesity funded by ICMR (India) and CHI (Canada) 2010-2015. He was Co-PI of a major research project