The DOI matches its Crossref record; 95 of the 95 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Defining Extreme Events: A Cross‐Disciplinary Review
Open accessAbstract
Extreme events are of interest worldwide given their potential for substantial impacts on social, ecological, and technical systems. Many climate‐related extreme events are increasing in frequency and/or magnitude due to anthropogenic climate change, and there is increased potential for impacts due to the location of urbanization and the expansion of urban centers and infrastructures. Many disciplines are engaged in research and management of these events. However, a lack of coherence exists in what constitutes and defines an extreme event across these fields, which impedes our ability to holistically understand and manage these events. Here, we review 10 years of academic literature and use text analysis to elucidate how six major disciplines—climatology, earth sciences, ecology, engineering, hydrology, and social sciences—define and communicate extreme events. Our results highlight critical disciplinary differences in the language used to communicate extreme events. Additionally, we found a wide range in definitions and thresholds, with more than half of examined papers not providing an explicit definition, and disagreement over whether impacts are included in the definition. We urge distinction between extreme events and their impacts, so that we can better assess when responses to extreme events have actually enhanced resilience. Additionally, we suggest that all researchers and managers of extreme events be more explicit in their definition of such events as well as be more cognizant of how they are communicating extreme events. We believe clearer and more consistent definitions and communication can support transdisciplinary understanding and management of extreme events.
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Cites
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Cited by
Sustainability and resilience for transformation in the urban century
Elmqvist, T., Andersson, E., Frantzeskaki, N., McPhearson, T., Olsson, P., Gaffney, O., Takeuchi, K., & Folke, C. (2019) · Nature Sustainability · doi:10.1038/s41893-019-0250-1 · Cited by 1,181
Self-citationCompound droughts and hot extremes: Characteristics, drivers, changes, and impacts
Hao, Z., Hao, F., Xia, Y., Feng, S., Sun, C., Zhang, X., Fu, Y., Hao, Y., Zhang, Y., & Meng, Y. (2022) · Earth-Science Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104241 · Cited by 313
Lafferty, D. C., & Sriver, R. L. (2023) · npj Climate and Atmospheric Science · doi:10.1038/s41612-023-00486-0 · Cited by 139
Balch, J. K., Iglesias, V., Braswell, A. E., Rossi, M. W., Joseph, M. B., Mahood, A. L., Shrum, T. R., White, C. T., Scholl, V. M., McGuire, B., et al. (2020) · Earth's Future · doi:10.1029/2019ef001319 · Cited by 71
Metadata
- Authors
- McPhillips, L. E., Chang, H., Chester, M. V., Depietri, Y., Friedman, E., Grimm, N. B., Kominoski, J. S., McPhearson, T., Méndez‐Lázaro, P., Rosi, E. J., & Shafiei Shiva, J.
- Venue
- Earth's Future
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 2018-03
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 441-455
- ISSN
- 2328-4277 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2792365086
- Cited by
- 317
- References
- 95
- FWCI
- 12.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
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- McPhillips, L. E., Chang, H., Chester, M. V., Depietri, Y., Friedman, E., Grimm, N. B., Kominoski, J. S., McPhearson, T., Méndez‐Lázaro, P., Rosi, E. J., & Shafiei Shiva, J. (2018). Defining Extreme Events: A Cross‐Disciplinary Review. Earth's Future. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017ef000686
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
