Matthieu Kervyn

Improving understanding and awareness of natural disaster risks remains a key objective of disaster risk reduction (DRR), particularly in contexts where risk knowledge is limited, unevenly distributed, and where crises reinforce existing vulnerabilities. Innovative approaches to risk education and communication are therefore crucial, not only to engage communities, but also to ensure resilience in conflict-affected contexts.In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), highly interactive educational games—Hazagora (a board game for secondary school students) and Chukuwa (a card game for primary school children)—have been developed and tested as tools for disaster risk awareness. These games aim to facilitate experiential learning, stimulate discussion on DRR strategies, and foster the dissemination of risk knowledge beyond the classroom, particularly through children acting as drivers of communication to their families and friends. This approach lies at the interface between science, policy, and practice, and involves teachers, scientists, and civil protection practitioners.However, the implementation of these tools has been significantly affected by a deterioration of the security context in the region, limiting field activities and long-term institutional anchoring. This situation has provided an opportunity for critical thinking about the robustness, adaptability, and communication potential of game-based DRR education in fragile contexts. Drawing on several years of interrupted experimentation and implementation, this contribution focuses on the lessons learned regarding contextualization, stakeholder engagement, and integration of such tools into educational systems, with a view to achieving sustainability of these initiatives.Our research highlights how educational games can serve not only as learning tools, but also enable flexible communication that takes into account uncertainty, institutional constraints, and evolving local realities. These insights inform ongoing discussions on adapting games to new contexts – and, consequently, strengthening their sustainability – thus offering broader perspectives for innovative risk education and communication strategies in crisis-prone environments.

Road networks represent critical interfaces where human systems and geomorphic processes interact. In regions with steep landscapes, roads are commonly associated with an increased incidence of landslides. Yet, despite their socio-economic significance, systematic information on the frequency, type, and spatial distribution of road-related landslides remains largely absent. This data gap limits the ability of local authorities to allocate resources effectively, operationalize mitigation efforts, and conduct risk-sensitive infrastructure planning. In this study, we propose an innovative operational citizen-based method that aims to inventory with great detail how road construction, drainage modification, and associated terrain disturbance influence landscape morphology and its related hazards. Focusing on the highlands of Southwestern Uganda, a densely populated tropical region highly exposed to geo-hydrological hazards. We first conducted a detailed systematic baseline survey between November 2025 and January 2026 for road sections of 250-300 m along 254 km of roads of various types across different natural and human-influenced settings. From a total of 937 road section observations, preliminary results reveal various conditions dominated by road cut failure/soil/rock deposit from uphill (22%), active erosion (19%), fresh road cuts (19%), blocked roadside ditches, stone/soil extraction and quarrying of the road cut (7%). To have a detailed systematic temporal and spatial information of these roads conditions, we have established, together with local stakeholders, a network of 15 trained motorcycle-based citizen scientists who, for the next three years, will (i) generate a temporal inventory through systematic bi-monthly monitoring of the roads, and (ii) also report on landslide event occurrences along the road networks. Processes including road cut failures, surface sedimentation, drainage obstructions, pavement cracking, and proximal landslides, are being inventoried. We present here the first results of this operational participatory monitoring framework for understanding a human-influenced hazard in a data-scarce mountainous environment context.

Fine volcanic ash can have an adverse health impact. It is readily produced during explosive eruptions but also can be generated in large quantities by secondary processes. We evaluated the production and resuspension of sub-10 μm volcanic particulate matter (PM ₁₀ ) by road traffic as these processes may generate an increased respiratory exposure hazard. We conducted experiments on the slopes of Etna volcano, where we drove with a small SUV-type car over an area of road artificially covered with tephra and investigated the resulting grain size distribution (GSD) and concentration of PM ₁₀ in the air as a function of (1) the number of car passages, (2) the starting thickness of the tephra deposit, and (3) vehicle speed. Our data show that increasing the number of car passages, deposit thickness, and vehicle speed rapidly induces a decrease in the GSD of tephra deposits and results in increased airborne PM ₁₀ . We show that vehicles will cause comminution (i.e., reduction to a smaller average particle size) and resuspension of basaltic ash, so local communities can expect that, after an eruption, concentrations of PM ₁₀ may increase with time and affect exposures close to roads.

Like many areas along the border of the main Ethiopian Rift, the Shafe catchment is severely affected by gully erosion. Many earlier studies hypothesized that this can lead to important crop yield losses and, by extent, other socio-economic impacts. Nonetheless, as in other regions, these effects remain poorly quantified and understood. This research aims to quantify and understand these impacts, a critical step for designing effective and targeted mitigation measures. Given the challenges of accurately quantifying these impacts, a multi-method approach was employed. Household interviews were conducted with 171 randomly selected farmers, each having at least one gully-affected plot, to gather insights on perceived impacts, the allocation of uncropped buffer zones near gullies, and crop desiccation effects. Drone mapping of 85 gully-affected plots was carried out to quantify land losses due to gullies. Daily soil moisture measurements were recorded at varying distances from the gully edge (1m, 5m, 10m, 20m, 25m, and 40m). To quantify crop yield reduction, sorghum, wheat, and haricot bean samples were collected from gully-affected plots over two different seasons, with grain and biomass yields measured. Composite soil samples were also collected and analyzed to determine whether crop yield differences may be linked to soil nutrient contents. The preliminary results indicate that farmers experience direct losses of cropland, reduced crop yields due to a combination of factors, and the need for buffers around gullies as the most significant impacts of gully erosion. Soil moisture analysis indicate significant variations across depth and distance from the gully, with relatively higher moisture levels recorded at 40 m compared to closer distances, highlighting reduced moisture availability near the gully. Such variation in soil moisture corresponds to the observed crop yield trends, which increase with distance from the gully. Among the crop samples collected, sorghum showed the highest sensitivity to desiccation (from 0.1 kg/m² at 1 m to 0.47 kg/m² at 40 m). These preliminary results underline the significant impacts that gully erosion can have but also enhance our understanding for the development of more feasible, site-specific mitigation strategies.