Landslides can have devastating direct and indirect consequences, including fatalities, property damage, loss of livelihoods, and the transfer of sediment across a wide range of environments, from steep mountainous terrain to gentle hillslopes. Frequently occurring within multi-hazard contexts, landslides may be preconditioned or triggered by earthquakes, intense or prolonged rainfall, wildfires, land use changes, and other human-related activities. In turn, they can give rise to secondary hazards such as flash floods or landslide dams, forming complex cascading events. Addressing landslide phenomena remains a major challenge for the geoscience community, requiring a comprehensive understanding of underlying processes and thorough assessments of hazard, vulnerability, and risk. The implications of ongoing climate change further complicate the framework. This session aims to bring together researchers working across the full spectrum of landslide science. Its scope spans from local to global scales, encompassing empirical studies of landslide process chains, advances in modeling and monitoring techniques, innovative methods in landslide susceptibility, hazard and risk assessment, state-of-the-art approaches to landslide prediction and early warning, assessments of socio-economic vulnerability, and investigations into the interactions between landslides, human activities, and other natural extremes.

The Mediterranean region is a global hotspot of weather and climate extremes, including heatwaves, droughts, extreme precipitation, windstorms, and compound hazard events. These extremes exhibit complex spatiotemporal variability driven by atmospheric circulation patterns, land–atmosphere interactions, ocean–atmosphere coupling, and regional physiographic factors. Understanding their dynamics, underlying physical mechanisms, and evolving trends is essential for improving climate predictability and resilience.

This session invites contributions focused on the spatiotemporal dynamics, attribution, and physical drivers of extreme weather events in the Mediterranean, as well as their projected evolution under future climate scenarios. Particular emphasis is placed on studies that investigate causal mechanisms, circulation regimes, feedback processes, and interactions across spatial and temporal scales. Contributions employing observational datasets, reanalysis products, process-based diagnostics, statistical methods, machine learning approaches, and climate model simulations—including high-resolution and large ensemble experiments—are strongly encouraged.

This session welcomes studies addressing both individual and compound extreme events, their physical mechanisms, attribution to anthropogenic and natural forcings, and their future evolution under different emission pathways. The session aims to improve understanding of the processes governing extremes and their implications for regional climate risks. As such, it will foster interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers working on extreme event dynamics, climate variability and change, attribution science, and future projections, contributing to advancing scientific knowledge and supporting adaptation and risk management strategies in Mediterranean environments.

Suggested Topics:

• Spatiotemporal variability and trends of extreme weather events in the Mediterranean
• Physical mechanisms driving heatwaves, droughts, and heavy precipitation.
• Role of atmospheric circulation patterns, blocking, and teleconnections
• Land–atmosphere, ocean–atmosphere, and soil moisture feedback processes
• Compound and cascading extreme events and their underlying mechanisms
• Event attribution to anthropogenic climate change and natural variability
• Detection and attribution using observational records and climate model ensembles
• High-resolution regional climate modeling and process-based diagnostics
• Machine learning and advanced statistical methods for extreme event analysis
• Future projections of extreme weather events under different climate scenarios
• Changes in frequency, intensity, duration, and spatial extent of extremes
• Uncertainty assessment in attribution and projections
• Implications for regional climate risk and adaptation planning

Session Rationale and Relevance:

The Mediterranean basin is highly vulnerable to extreme weather events that are increasing in frequency, intensity, and complexity under climate change. Recent events—including prolonged droughts, record-breaking heatwaves, destructive floods, and severe storms—highlight the need to better understand their spatiotemporal evolution, physical drivers, and attribution to anthropogenic forcing. Advancing knowledge of the mechanisms governing extreme events and improving projections of their future evolution are critical scientific priorities. Such understanding is essential for improving climate predictions, strengthening resilience, and informing evidence-based adaptation strategies in this climate-sensitive region. This session directly contributes to advancing fundamental understanding of extreme weather dynamics and climate change impacts in the Mediterranean, supporting the broader goals of Earth system science, climate attribution, and climate risk assessment.

Conveners

Ahmed Kenaey

Instituto Pirenaico de Ecologia, CSIC, Zaragoza, Spain

Juan I. López Moreno

Instituto Pirenaico de Ecologia, CSIC, Zaragoza, Spain

Sergio M. Vicente-Serrano

Instituto Pirenaico de Ecologia, CSIC, Zaragoza, Spain

Abdelazim Negm

Faculty of Engineering, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt