Precipitation is a fundamental component of the Earth’s hydrological cycle. Therefore, monitoring precipitation is paramount, as accurate information is needed to prevent natural hydrological disasters, such as floods and droughts. However, measuring precipitation using rain gauges is complicated due to their sparse spatial distribution. Satellite precipitation products (SPPs) are an alternative source of rainfall data. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of PERSIANN-CCS and PDIR-Now SPPs over the Tulijá River Basin (Chiapas, Mexico) using scatter plots, categorical statistics, descriptive statistics, and decomposing total bias. Additionally, bias correction was performed using the quantile mapping (QM) method. QM is a technique used to improve the fit of SPPs with respect to rainfall observations through a transfer function, aiming to reduce systematic errors in SPPs. The results indicate that the PDIR-Now product tends to overestimate rainfall to a large extent, thus showing better performance in detecting rain events. Meanwhile, PERSIANN-CCS underestimates precipitation to a lesser extent. The findings of this study demonstrate that correcting the bias of SPPs improves estimations of rainfall records, thereby reducing the percentage bias and root mean square error.

The aim of this study was to identify and characterize the actors involved in river restoration in Romania by untangling the complex networks that they are part of. Actors were considered nodes in a social network, tied by a common action or project. The nodes were characterized through the centrality metrics of a network. The network of actors in river restoration in Romania has a low density and high average path length and diameter for such a spare network, which suggests that knowledge transfer and collaboration are difficult. In the context of a highly centralized water governance system in Romania, the National Authority for Water exerts power and influence in river restoration as well. It has numerous partners, both disconnected and well connected in the network, therefore, it tends to be connected to everybody, as well as gets and diffuses knowledge. Yet, other actors are willing to get involved in river restoration in Romania. NGOs and research organizations have a central position in the network and play various roles (e.g., unconcerned influencers, gate-keepers, pulse-takers). As a recommendation for governing river restoration in Romania, we urge the creation of a national programme focused on river restoration, where the call for projects would be coordinated by the National Authority for Water and open to its territorial subordinates in agreement with stakeholders from various sectors and domains.

During the last decades, the compound effect of natural hazards such as landslides, floods/flash floods, and earthquakes highlighted a priority field of scientific research (multi-hazard risk), derived from the close connection with their increasingly accentuated impacts on society and the environment. The amplification of consequences as a result of complex interaction mechanisms leads to increased exposure and prolonged recovery time for affected communities, thereby reducing overall resilience. The very recent development of new theoretical-methodological concepts, such as Virtual Reality (VR) offers enhanced opportunities to explore evolutionary processes of landforms and resulting landscapes, enabling the discovery, calibration, and validation of advanced solutions for risk perception, understanding, awareness, communication, and management. In this context, and in response to the challenges of the contemporary period, marked by rapid environmental changes, a new VR platform started to be developed within the SPEER-A (Interreg) project, focusing on the Vrancea seismic region, the most important intermediate-depth seismic source of Europe, an area intensely affected by earthquakes, landslides, and flash floods. The objectives of the VR-GeoLab are: i) to create a VR-based transdisciplinary solution (following a co-creation, co-design, and co-dissemination approach) of real-time interaction of scientific research products with other stakeholders involved in the management of multi-hazard scenarios, which ii) integrates the results of scientific research into a modern, enhanced reality and collaborative knowledge and relational framework, and iii) increase the societal resilience by improving the spatio-temporal perception of the multi-hazard environments through immersive, virtual representations of hazards’ interaction, conditioning factors, exposure, and vulnerability. In this way, VR-GeoLab provides an innovative platform for promoting scientific resultsto a wide range of stakeholders, in a multi-dimensional integrated, interactive, immersive and collaborative way, thus contributing with consistent added value not only for educational promotion and capacity building, but also for opening new research horizons through the integration of advanced digital interaction tools in future applications of international research and educational projects. Acknowledgements: this work is supported by the Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme under grant agreement no. BSB01197 - Strengthening and Promoting Earthquake Emergency Response and Rescue Capacity in the BSB Area (SPEER-A).

The key to an efficient basin management, taking into account both the liquid (river water runoff and its quality) and the solid (sediment sources and delivery) components lies in the way we approach the complex problem of sediment-generating areas in a river basin. This complexity is manifested both through the primary geomorphological processes that contribute to the mobilization of significant amounts of alluvia from the slopes and along the river valleys, and the various environmental and anthropogenic factors that act as restrictors or catalysts of sediment transfer.In the present study, we aim to analyze the various categories of anthropogenic factors, operating at different spatial scales (local or at subcatchment/river sector level), which contribute, together with the intrinsic geomorphological potential, to the sediment supply or, conversely, to the inhibition of erosion, transport and accumulation processes.Tracking sediment mobilization, transfer, intermediate storage and final delivery in a lithologically and geomorphologically complex environment, such as the Jiu River Basin (10,070 km2), located in SW Romania, is a difficult task which can become even more challenging when we factor in the contribution of some additional elements of an anthropic nature. In our study area, represented by a Carpathian and Danubian river basin, some of the most significant issues impacting the research include, on the one hand, the existence of reservoirs and dams, the strengthening of anti-flood embankments or the presence of water diversions, to cite only hydrotechnical interventions, or the impact of coal mining on landforms, slope processes and sediment sources, on the other hand.  All these factors can act locally or regionally and they can surpass the influence exerted by the natural factors, thus being responsible for the reduction, storage, or, on the contrary, for the acceleration of specific hydro-sedimentary fluxes on certain paths.In order to connect these two categories of potential factors regulating sediment generation and transfer, the methodological approach consists in evaluating the internal – geomorphic upstream-downstream connectivity in relation/contrast with the disruptive anthropogenic factors. The proposed workflow can be divided in two steps: 1) the identification of the upstream sediment generating areas which are most connected to the downstream delivery/ storage/ accumulation areas (river network and river mouth) by applying the connectivity index (IC) proposed by Cavalli et al. (2013); and 2) the evaluation of potential hotspot areas exhibiting the highest degree of connectivity, as seen through the lens of the additional coupling or decoupling effects induced by the anthropic activities specific to the Jiu river basin: hydraulic structures and coal mining.Outcome discussions will focus on mapping problematic sediment production, storage and transfer sectors, as evidenced by the impact of hydrotechnical works and artificial landforms from coal mining on the connectivity potential of the Jiu river basin.