From 4 to 8 May 2026, members of the STORIES project from LMU Munich—Prof. Dr. Liang Emlyn Yang, Dr. Ylenia Casali, Ms. Mei Ai, Ms. Siying Chen, Ms. Anqi Zhu, Mr. Wenhan Feng, Mr. Thanh Phuoc Ho, and Mr. Hao Su actively participated in the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly in Vienna, Austria. As one of the world’s leading gatherings for geoscientists, the EGU General Assembly provided an important platform for exchanging research on climate resilience and related fields.


On 4 May, Emlyn and Anqi participated in the 2nd Risk-KAN Symposium at IIASA. Emlyn was invited to join a panel discussion with researchers in risk science, where he exchanged views on key challenges related to the concept and assessment of resilience.

On 5 May, the session “Investigating Systemic Resilience to Multi-Hazards: Mechanisms, Methods, and Strategies” was convened by Emlyn Yang, together with co-convenors Anqi Zhu, Reinhard Mechler, Stefan Hochrainer-Stigler, and Michael Szoenyi. The full-day session featured oral and poster presentations and brought together scholars from China, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, and other countries. Participants discussed recent advances in resilience concepts, methodological innovation, and multi-hazard risk


In this session, Mr. Thanh Phuoc Ho presented a framework for “modeling multi-actor flood resilience strategies in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta”. By using Agent-based Modeling, Mr. Thanh developed a framework with Cho Moi District, An Giang Province, in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta as the study area. In this model, Mr. Thanh presented preliminary results demonstrating the effectiveness of implementing different measures to enhance flood resilience over the long term.

Mr. Hao Su also presented a framework for “assessing the social resilience impacts of Nature-based Solutions under multi-hazard contexts”. By integrating evidence synthesis, field visit insights, and scenario-based modelling, he developed a framework using the Vietnamese Mekong Delta as the study area. The framework linked different Nature-based Solution strategies with multiple dimensions of social resilience under compound flood hazards. Preliminary results demonstrated how different adaptation scenarios may influence long-term resilience, adaptive capacity, and community responses in delta regions.


On 6 May, The session “Historical Perspectives on Climate Resilience and Cultural Pyroscapes” was convened by Ylenia Casali together with co-convenors Siying Chen, Mei Ai, Emlyn Yang, Michela Mariani, Ramya Bala Prabhakaran, and Haidee Cadd. Bringing together researchers from diverse disciplines, the session explored historical responses to climate-related hazards, environmental change, and fire-prone landscapes. Discussions covered cultural pyroscapes, Indigenous knowledge, adaptive strategies, and human–environment interactions, highlighting the value of historical perspectives for contemporary climate resilience and adaptation research.


During this session, Wenhan Feng, Mei Ai, Thanh Phuoc Ho, Siying Chen, and Ylenia Casali showcased their research projects through poster presentations.

  • Wenhan Feng presented his poster titled Modelling Local Governance Structure and Flood Resilience in the 1870 Yangtze River Flood.
  • Mei Ai presented research proposing the pilot construction of a long-term, regional-scale, event-based historical flood resilience dataset for the Tea-Horse Road Area in Southwest China. Based on historical documents and archival sources, the project aims to support long-term resilience research and the study of human–environment interactions.


  • Thanh Phuoc Ho presented the research study “Flood Risk and Social Resilience Evolution in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta in Documented History.” By collecting and analyzing various types of historical documents, Mr. Thanh conducted a systematic review of how communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta have evolved in enhancing flood resilience over more than 800 years, across multiple dynasties and historically transformative periods.


  • Siying Chen presented a poster entitled “Long-term Dynamics of Flood Impacts in Sichuan, China (1644–1911) Underscore a Holistic Approach to Flood Risk Management.” Here, Siying shared her recent research on the long-term dynamics of flood risk, and discussed how historical evidence can provide insights for contemporary flood risk management. Exchanging ideas with scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds, she also received constructive feedback, and develop new perspectives for her ongoing research.


  • Ylenia Casali also presented a poster titled “A Framework to Analyze the Evolution of Urban Systems for Resilience Assessment”, which proposed a methodological framework to investigate how urban systems evolve over time and how these changes influence resilience and vulnerabilities across European cities.

On 7 May, Anqi delivered a PICO presentation titled “An Agent-Based Model for Simulating Flood Governance and Community Resilience” in the session “How to Build Resilience? Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches to Understanding and Enhancing Regional Resilience to Better Withstand Climate Impacts,” convened by Marianne Bügelmayer-Blaschek, Andrea Hochebner, Venera Pavone, and Tanja Tötzer. During the session, Anqi exchanged with researchers working on agent-based modeling and community resilience assessment, established new academic contacts, and discussed opportunities for future collaboration.