Hazomes: Earth’s natural multi-hazard terrestrial disturbance regimes

Chahan M. Kropf , Sarah Hülsen, Zélie Stalhandske, Stijn Hantson, Philip J. Ward, Marthe Wens, Nadav Peleg, David N. Bresch, Carmen B. Steinmann

Ecosystems and societies have evolved together and are shaped by local natural hazard regimes. We introduce hazomes, an Earth classification based on multi‑hazard disturbance patterns. By combining open‑source intensity and return period data for eight hazard types, we identify thousands of distinct terrestrial disturbance regimes. Hazomes aims to deepen insight into ecosystem and societal resilience, enabling research on how ecological and human systems have evolved under specific hazard regimes and how they may be threatened by climate change. Using two complexity‑diversity metrics, we demonstrate that hazomes provide insights beyond climate zones or biomes. Moreover, we show how distant cities can belong to the same hazome, serving as hazard disturbance analogues for shared adaptation strategies. This approach complements existing multi‑hazard assessments by shifting the focus from individual events to disturbance regimes, better reflecting long-term societal adaptation and ecosystem resilience.