Geohazards and Risks Studied from Earth Observations

The Sentinel missions of the COPERNICUS Programme of the European Union, as well as other Earth Observation missions, provide new opportunities for systematic monitoring of natural and man-made hazards and disasters that can highly impact human societies.

Teodolina Lopez is a research engineer at IRT Saint-Exupéry – Fondation STAE. She received the Ph.D. degree in planetary science from the University Toulouse III in 2011. After different post-doctoral positions in France, she held an Earth Science post-doctoral position, from 2016 to 2019, at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern, Switzerland. Her research focuses on the characterisation in (semi-) arid regions of the groundwater flow and transfers and their interaction with the atmosphere. This approach relies on the synergy between Earth Observation dataset (mostly thermal infrared and gravity) with in situ measurements (geophysical, geochemical and geology) and simulations.
Anny Cazenave is director for Earth sciences at the International Space Science Institute, Bern, Switzerland and emeritus scientist at the ‘Laboratoire d’Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiale’, Toulouse, France. Her research deals with the applications of space techniques to geosciences (geodesy, solid Earth geophysics, sea level change and climatic causes, land hydrology from space).
Mioara Mandea is currently the Programme Manager for Solid Earth at the Directorate for Innovation, Applications and Science at Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales in Paris (French Space Agency). Over recent decades, she has been involved in many activities of the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (both Secretary General and President), European Geosciences Union (General Secretary and Chair of Outreach Committee), American Geophysical Union (Chair of Education Award Committee), International Space Science Institute (Chair of Science Committee), Commission for the Geological Map of the World (President of the Sub-commission of Geophysical maps), to name the most important. Mioara Mandea has published more than 250 papers (publications in ISI journals, further journals, books and chapters in books, proceedings and reports), and has been involved in organising many workshops and conferences. She has also led several multi-partner research projects or work packages within projects at different national and EU levels. She has tutored PhD students from many countries around the world. She is a member of the Editorial Board of Surveys in Geophysics (from 2009) and of Solid Earth (from 2010) and co-Editor of several books (Springer, CUP). She has acted as reviewer for more than 120 manuscripts submitted to a broad range of journals and as referee for projects submitted to the ERC and to the National Science Foundations of France, Romania, Norway, Switzerland, Lithuania, Russia, USA and Portugal.Mioara Mandea is a member of the Academy of Romanian Scientists, Academia Europea, Académie Royale de Belgique, and the Russian Academy of Science. She received the International Award of AGU, the Petrus Peregrinus medal of EGU, the prestigious French “Ordre National de Mérite”, and Citoyenne d’Honneur de Comanesti (ville natale en Roumanie).

Jérôme Benveniste received his PhD in Oceanography from Space from the University of Toulouse, France, in 1989. After a Post-Doc in space data assimilation in ocean models at MIT, Boston, USA, he moved to the European Space Agency. He has been at the ESA Earth Observation data centre near Rome since 1992, where he is in charge of the ERS-1, ERS-2, ENVISAT, CryoSat,  Sentinel-3 and Sentinel-6 radar altimetry data exploitation. He interacts with ESA Principal Investigators, organises scientific symposia, and regularly launches Research and Development projects, including GOCE data exploitation. He was recognised as senior advisor at ESA in 2008. He is co-Editor of a Springer book on Coastal Zone Radar Altimetry, published in 2011 and on Inland Water Altimetry, to be published in 2021. He is Editor of a peer-reviewed Scientific Journal andGuest-Editor of five Journal Special Issues. Jérôme Benveniste launched and monitors the Climate Change Initiative Sea Level Project (2009-) and its current sequel focused on the Coastal Zone, as well as other projects on Sea Level Budget Closure, Runoff, River Discharge, Ocean Heat Content, Easter Boundary Upwelling Systems and Coastal Hazards.