Abstract. Risk management is used in societies to mitigate the potentially dramatic effects of natural hazards. Local authorities and managers use different indicators in elaborating rescue and urbanism plans, which are not always efficient in reducing impact in the time of the crisis. This highlights society’s vulnerability in the particular context of global environmental and climate changes. This interdisciplinary research aimed at identifying reliable risk indicators and societal responses regarding natural hazards and climate change impacts, to provide a governance framework for disaster risk reduction. Different societies face diverse risks and do not necessarily have the same level of local awareness confronting them. Two sites were thus selected from the Mediterranean basin, one from the South coast (North Morocco), other from the North coast (the Italian island of Sardinia). North Morocco, the region of multi-risks, is characterized by high demographic and economic pressures; West Sardinia counts for remarkable biodiversity of wetlands and is characterized by high environmental and agricultural pressures, which in both cases intensify the vulnerability of the coastal areas. Testing for the local population’s preparedness for future financial protection showed the importance of risk awareness sessions as an indicator of risk management. The significance of risk awareness sessions is demonstrated in a quantitative part of the study with the local population, and their importance is also discussed with other stakeholders in North Morocco in a qualitative part of the study. Based on these findings, further ideas on a new series of less descriptive, more dynamic, and more user-friendly indicators are suggested. How can risk sessions be a dynamic indicator of a resilient society? The obtained results could serve in future governance frameworks for the mitigation of natural hazards in the Mediterranean region and wider. Finally, the urgent need for continuous work to overcome the communication gap between the scientific community, risk administrators, civil society and the general population is encouraged.

Abstract. In order to mitigate the potentially dramatic effects of natural hazards, risk management measures are critical. However, the lack of interdisciplinary indicators and adaptable governance frameworks highlights society's vulnerability in the particular context of global environmental and climate change. This interdisciplinary research aimed at identifying reliable risk indicators and societal responses regarding natural hazards and climate change impacts to provide a governance framework for disaster risk reduction. Different societies face diverse risks and do not necessarily have the same level of local awareness of these risk. To explore the diversity of risks, two sites were selected from the Mediterranean basin, one chosen from the south coast (north Morocco) and the other from the north coast (the Italian island of Sardinia). North Morocco, a region of multi-risks, is characterised by high demographic and economic pressures; west Sardinia has remarkable biodiversity of wetlands and is characterised by high environmental and agricultural pressures, which in both cases intensify the vulnerability of the coastal areas. Testing for the local population's preparedness for future financial protection allowed for discussing the importance of risk awareness sessions or activities as an indicator of risk management. The significance of risk awareness sessions is shown in a quantitative part of the study, and its importance is also discussed with local stakeholders in north Morocco in a qualitative part of the study. It is shown that, although risk awareness sessions are recognised as important in risk management, they are not necessarily implemented. Based on these findings, further ideas on a new series of less descriptive, more dynamic and more user-friendly indicators are suggested. How can risk sessions be a dynamic indicator of a resilient society? The obtained results could serve in future governance frameworks for the mitigation of natural hazards in the Mediterranean region and more widely. Finally, the urgent need for continuous work to overcome the communication gap between the scientific community, risk administrators, civil society and the general population is emphasised.

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In intraplate tectonic regions characterized by moderate seismic activity, the recognition of active zones of deformation has long been a challenging task (e.g., Landgraf et al., 2017). Like Northern Africa, such regions are generally characterized by low hazard but high risk due to the concentrations highly vulnerable population and/or infrastructures (Moreno et al., 2004). Moreover, when low strain rates are combined with meteorological and anthropogenic overprints, the geomorphic signatures associated with active faults fade away as fault slip rates decrease. Consequently, diagnostic criteria established in areas of high strain rates may not be effectively applied. Furthermore, low-levels of seismic strain induce low displacement rates, which may be distributed over numerous fault segments rather than localized on a single fault. At the regional scale, such a distribution of the tectonic deformation can also obscure the seismogenic potential of any given single structure, as, for example, the La Rouvière Fault reactivation during the 2019 M w 4.9 Le Teil Earthquake (Ritz et al., 2020), in southeastern France, which was previously considered as inactive (Jomard et al., 2017).Part of the peri-Mediterranean Alpine chain surrounding the Alboran Sea, the Rif Mountain belt in Morocco is an area of moderate tectonic activity. Located within the diffuse convergence zone between the Nubia Abstract Located at the southern boundary of the Alpine chain in Morocco, the deformation front of the Southern Rif Mountains is a region of moderate tectonic activity, which makes it a good natural laboratory to understand whether, and how, low compressional strains are located on specific structures. Along the ≈80 km-long left-lateral, transpressive and reverse fault zone that runs at the toe of the Pre-Rif Ridges, an analysis of high-resolution digital topography provides new geomorphic lines of evidence supporting Quaternary activity along, 20 km-long fault segments. The fault zone can be divided into the Meknès and the Fès segments, which are constrained at depth by reactivated, NE-trending basement faults, delimitating paleo-grabens associated with the Late Triassic-Jurassic opening of the Atlantic Ocean. For selected sites, we used in situ-produced 36 Cl, 10 Be, and 26 Al and high-resolution topography to infer the timing of abandonment of fluvial markers, which suggest incision rates on the order of 0.6-2 mm/yr. Given their lengths, scaling laws suggest that the identified fault segments should root at about 7-12 kmdepth, possibly reactivating former basement normal faults and making them potential seismogenic sources capable of generating M w 6+ earthquakes, with return times of the order of several hundreds of years. Our new morphochronological data set confirms that the Southern Rif deformation front is a key structure that may have accommodated most of the lateral extrusion of the Rif between the Nubia and Iberia tectonic plates.Plain Language Summary In Morocco, the population may suffer from the dramatic consequences of ...

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Coastal zones occupy a prominent position in the sustainable management perspective of Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (TTA) region because they accommodate a majority of the region’s population and contribute to the economic wellbeing of local communities. High demographic and economic pressures associated to climatic and environmental factors increase and intensify the vulnerability of these coastal areas. The latter are severely affected by climate change implications in the course of time, which lead to damage and loss in coastal low-lying zones. In practice, the risks related to climate change, as coastal risks, are frequently addressed, and assessing coastal risk in the context of climate change is a research priority. The aim of this work is to evaluate the flooding risk of TTA coasts, taking into account the inundation level related to the conditions of extreme wave (return period of 100-year) and extreme sea level rise. We firstly defined the coastal hazard zone that corresponds to the maximum inundation level of 13 m for the whole area. We then applied a Coastal Risk Index application at the Local Scale (CRI-LS) methodology to calculate forcing, vulnerability, exposure and risk indices using nineteen physical, environmental and socioeconomical variables. Findings show that coastal hazard zone of Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region is extremely exposed to coastal forcing. More than 50% of the hazard zones indicates highly vulnerable zones and highest exposure is generally focused on the most populated urban zones. In the light of this, the coastal risk mapping shows hotspot zones in terms of climate change-related coastal risks located at Tangier Bay, south of Tangier city, Fnideq and Martil coasts, Tetouan city and north of Ksar El Kbir city. This paper corresponds to a useful support that can help policy-makers in decision-making to quietly follow coastal planning and management processes and participate in preserving coastal areas for future generations, which support the sustainable development goals of Agenda 2030 started by the United Nations with the goal of eradicating all kinds of poverty.