Daniel Germain

Université du Québec à Montréal | UQAM · Department of Geography

A strong correlation between the effect of climate change and the increase in flooding frequency and magnitude has been reported in Canada. Consequently, there is a crucial need to examine the effects of future climate change scenarios on flooding conditions. The main objective of this research is to better understand the destructive effects of flo...

In Canada, hydroclimatic hazards represent more than 90% of the country’s natural hazards. In New Brunswick (NB), the risk of flooding has been extensively studied, particularly along the Saint John River, where damage is significant and frequent (Duhamel et al., 2022; Fortin et al., 2021). However, drought risk is rare and understudied in this pro...

The highly fissile lithology of the rockwalls and the diversity of mass‐wasting processes provide a specific character to the active talus slopes of the Northern Gaspé Peninsula since deglaciation. At a regional scale, the geology of the rockwalls, the patterns and modalities of deglaciation and the evolution towards a cold temperate morphoclimatic...

Coordination and cooperation between public and private actors and the population, as well as the articulation of different geographical scales in the elaboration of territorial strategies, have become essential elements in the prevention of natural risks. From this perspective, it is appropriate to look at the territorial governance of the Quebec...

This paper explores the risk approach, considering both the physical and human dimensions of the phenomenon in order to produce a more realistic and spatial analysis of risk. Exposure and vulnerability were combined and evaluated multidimensionally, considering individual, socio-economic, and structural (building-related) aspects. These risk factor...

Nowadays, droughts have been disastrous effects worldwide including in some provinces of Canada. New Brunswick (NB), as one of the Maritime and Atlantic Canadian provinces, periodically facing severe drought and dry conditions due to long-term precipitation deficits, dry summer months and climate change effects. In this research, in order to unders...

In eastern Canada, the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet over the last ~12,000 years, corresponding to the present interglacial period known as the Holocene, has distributed immense quantities of surficial sediments over the entire territory with great variation over time and space. Today, these legacies represent an abundant source of fine and c...

This paper explores the snow-avalanche regime based on tree-ring reconstructions and their triggering weather conditions with classification tree algorithms. The results show a significant increased frequency of avalanche events on Zăvoaie NE slope for the second half of the 20th century by comparison to the Scărița SW slope. The classification tre...

Resilience has become a cornerstone for risk management and disaster reduction. However, it has evolved extensively both etymologically and conceptually in time and across scientific disciplines. The concept has been (re)shaped by the evolution of research and practice efforts. Considered the opposite of vulnerability for a long time, resilience wa...

The Appalachian Mountains of Eastern Canada are prone to several mass-wasting processes related to the geology and the nearby presence of large water bodies that influence the climate. Superimposed on this rugged terrain is the impacts of ongoing climate change, which may increase the magnitude, frequency, and duration of an array of hillslope phen...

In the tropical environment such as Brazil, the frequency of rainfall-induced landslides is particularly high because of the rugged terrain, heavy rainfall, increasing urbanization, and the orographic effect of mountain ranges. Since such landslides repeatedly interfere with human activities and infrastructures, improved knowledge related to spatia...

Global warming is causing glaciers in the Caucasus Mountains and around the world to lose mass at an accelerated pace. As a result of this rapid retreat, significant parts of the glacierized surface area can be covered with debris deposits, often making them indistinguishable from the surrounding land surface by optical remote-sensing systems. Here...

The TUKISIK (Tukisigasuaqatigit: Understanding together) is a scientific program, ongoing since 2014, concerning human-environment interactions, reinforcing links between scientists and several communities.

Snow avalanches are a common phenomenon in Parâng Mountains (Southern Carpathians, Romania) perturbing tourism activities and associated infrastructures, damaging forests, and causing fatalities. Its past history is an es­sential information to gather while assessing the hazard zonation areas. Usually, in Romania snow–avalanche activ­ity occurring...

Over the last decades, animal activity has been explored and reported as a potential source of natural hazards, such as the destruction of a beaver dam potentially triggering a flash flood downriver. However, the sediment source or sediment budget related to animal activity has received very little attention from geoscientists to date. The main goa...

The Mazeri Valley in the southern Caucasus Mountains, Georgia, is characterized by a highly dynamic landscape with several active mass-wasting processes. The spatial and temporal dynamics of these geomorphic processes have, over time, resulted in the formation of large cones and fans. In this context, the coupling between the hillslope and the chan...

L'état du Paraná (Brésil), la province du Nouveau-Brunswick (Canada) et la France de l'Ouest sont trois régions touchées, de manière récurrente, par des inondations dont la durée et l'ampleur, dans le temps et l’espace, influencent directement la gravité des dommages socioéconomiques. L’objectif principal de cette étude vise donc à dresser un bilan...

Since the end of the Little Ice Age (LIA) glacial advance, mountain glaciers of temperate zone have experienced an accelerated retreat accompanied by an increased production, transport and accumulation of glacial sediments. In these deglacierized areas, the development of a chronology for sediment deposition in the glacier forefronts remains challe...

The province of New Brunswick, located in eastern Canada, is very affected by the floods. Although less documented than the hazard, the human dimension of the risk, especially the notion of vulnerability is important for the adaptation of populations. This article provides an overview of the main concepts related to vulnerability and presents their...

The potential zoogeomorphological impacts of burrowing animals, via soil excavation and spatial redistribution, creation of landforms, and bioturbation are now well established. Here, we present the first zoogeomorphological study conducted in the Făgăraș massif, Southern Carpathians (Romanian Carpathians), and consider the impact of Chionomys niva...

Statistical relationships between weather conditions and the release of snow avalanches in the low-elevation coastal valleys of the northern Gaspé Peninsula are still poorly validated. As such, we explored climate–avalanche relationships through classification tree algorithms applied to tree-ring reconstructions of avalanche events. In order to ass...

This book documents the geology, climate, and biodiversity of the mountain landscapes of eastern North America, including the major alpine ecosystems in New England, New York, Québec, Newfoundland, and Labrador.

The main goal of this study was to quantify landscape changes and fragmentation in the Nera Gorges-Beuşniţa National Park and its vicinity, using CORINE land cover data (1990 – 2012 period) and to emphasise the importance of protected area status for the reduction of the fragmentation process and the loss of the benefits rendered by ecosystems. Lan...

The main goal of this study was to quantify landscape changes and fragmentation in the Nera Gorges-Beuşniţa National Park and its vicinity, using CORINE land cover data (1990 - 2012 period) and to emphasise the importance of protected area status for the reduction of the fragmentation process and the loss of the benefits rendered by ecosystems. Lan...

This report is about disaster risks reduction and recommendations within the Canadian context in line with the UNISDR-Sendai framework.

Snow avalanches are a major natural hazard for road users and infrastructure in northern Gaspésie. Over the past 11 years, the occurrence of nearly 500 snow avalanches on the two major roads servicing the area was reported. No management program is currently operational. In this study, we analyze the weather patterns promoting snow avalanche initia...

Key Messages Extreme weather events observed since the mid‐20 th century have had major impacts on coastal regions in northeastern New Brunswick. Joint use of data from newspaper archives and meteorological stations make it possible to better quantify the number, frequency, and impacts of major extreme events. Results could inform and help land‐use...

The relationships between the synoptic climatology, large-scale teleconnections and the regional avalanche activity index (RAAI) inferred from tree-rings were evaluated for the Presidential Range in the White Mountains (New Hampshire, USA). During the period 1936–2012, 18 years of regional avalanche activity were compared with the winter-scale prev...

Diachronic analysis with a GIS-based classification of land-use changes based on aerial photographs, orthophotos, topographic maps, geotechnical reports, urban plans, and using landscape metrics has permitted insight into the driving forces responsible for landscape fragmentation in the Mont Saint-Hilaire (MSH) Biosphere Reserve over the period 195...

This paper investigates the application of the peaks-over-threshold method in combination with fitting of the generalized Pareto distribution for estimating the frequency of high-magnitude geomorphic events, on the basis of tree-ring data. In particular, attention is focused on extreme value distribution of tree-ring responses and in the minimum th...

Amplified climate change and ecological sensitivity of polar and cold climate environments are key global environment issues. Understanding how projected climate change will alter surface environments in these regions is only possible when present day source-to-sink fluxes can be quantified. The book provides the first global synthesis and integrat...

Mid-altitude, mid-latitude mountains are complex environments due to their Pleistocene glacial heritage, the importance of geomorphic processes on the steep slopes, and the climatic conditions which are often close to periglacial. These factors, along with the fragmentation of the alpine habitats, enhance the topographic and floristic diversity of...

While dendrogeomorphology has been recognized as a useful tool to identify past avalanche activity, there is only a handful of papers that focus on the assessment of weather or climatic triggers of tree-ring reconstructed avalanche events. This paper compares the potential of logistic regression and classification tree algorithms to highlight weath...

In the northern environments of Quebec (eastern Canada), snow avalanche hazards have been ignored for a long time because no major incident was recorded before the tragedies of Blanc-Sablon (Lower North Shore of the St. Lawrence River) in 1995 and Kangiqsualujjuaq (Nunavik) in 1999. To enhance risk reduction at these sites, this research on process...

The database of the Québec Ministry of Transport allowed us to analyze the occurrence of ice-block falls and snow avalanches for the past decades along national road 132. The results show that ice structure collapse may be categorized into three distinct phases by using daily temperatures (minimum, maximum, and average) and the cumulative degree da...

Dendrogeomorphology has been recognized as a useful tool to reconstruct past snow avalanche chronologies, especially in remote areas where archives are non-existent. In recent years, there have been a multiplicity of snow avalanche studies based on tree-ring analysis. Yet, the dendrogeomorphic procedure applied to snow avalanches still lacks consen...

In this preliminary study, seven climatic indices were calculated from the total amounts of precipitation for seven weather stations located in Gaspé Peninsula between 1974 and 2013. Are there any trends in these indices and can these indices be linked to the occurrence of debris flows? Between 1979-2009, seven debris flow events were observed. Our...

Un suivi des processus géomorphologiques en activité dans le nord de la Gaspésie depuis 1979 couplé à des analyses morphométriques et à l’analyse statistique des données de précipitations colligées par les stations d’Environnement Canada ont permis de mieux cerner les conditions climato-édaphiques propices au déclenchement des coulées de débris, de...

La tempête post-tropicale Arthur a débuté sous la forme d’une dépression au-dessus de l’océan Atlantique au large de la Caroline du Sud le 30 juin 2014. Le 3 juillet, Arthur a touché la côte de la Caroline du Nord sous la forme d’un ouragan de catégorie 2. Par la suite, le système a perdu de son intensité en remontant vers les provinces maritimes d...

This paper assesses the interrelationship between tourism and natural hazards, on geological and geomorphological hazards in Bâlea glacial area (glacial cirque and valley), located in the Făgăraş massif - Southern Carpathians (Romanian Carpathians). With the adhesion of Romania to the European Union (EU) in 2007, tourism development of the Romanian...

This study documents the spatiotemporal variations in the frequency and magnitude of ice jams in the Mistassini River and applies that information to the identification of the hydro-climatic threshold conditions associated with major events. Ice jams cause severe upheavals in water flow, which result in flooding upstream of the ice jam front, and t...

The assessment of the dominant flow type on alluvial fans usually refers to two categories: debris-flow fans (i.e., sediment gravity flows) and fluvial fans (i.e., fluid gravity flows). Here we report the results of combined morphometric, stratigraphic and sedimentological approaches which suggest that hyperconcentrated flows, a transitional proces...

Subaerial sediment-water flows on hillslopes have received growing attention from the scientific community in recent years. Interest in this type of geomorphic process is twofold: they constitute a major risk factor and they have generally been poorly defined in the past. Major classification schemes are considered here, with a particular interest...

Dans le contexte de la périurbanisation récente et actuelle qui sévit en périphérie de l’agglomération urbaine de Montréal (Québec, Canada), le développement accéléré de la ville de Saint-Amable a entraîné la construction de quartiers résidentiels sur des sols argileux à faible capacité portante. Les dommages sont nombreux et coûteux et ce, autant...

Only a few studies until now have dealt with physical aspects of winter, specifically weather-related hazards such as ice storms, snowstorms and related snow loads in urban areas, and snow avalanches. However, every winter a great deal of human activity in northern cities is affected by winter conditions, particularly in the province of Quebec, Can...

L’analyse croisée des enquêtes des coroners, des articles de journaux et des compilations déjà publiées a permis de retracer 43 avalanches de neige mortelles au Québec depuis 1825. Le bilan provisoire s’élève à 73 morts et à plus de 50 blessés. Soixante pour cent des victimes avaient moins de 20 ans. Plus de la moitié des victimes (38 morts en 12 a...

Les avalanches de neige représentent un risque naturel important dans la péninsule gaspésienne. Chaque année, des dizaines d‟avalanches s‟abattent sur les routes du littoral nord-gaspésien. L‟objectif principal de cette étude est d‟identifier les principaux facteurs de déclenchement des avalanches dans les corridors routiers du nord de la Gaspésie...

Although frequencies of avalanches are much higher in the Canadian Cordillera, archival research, coroner’s investigations and newspaper searches revealed the occurrence of many snow avalanche events in eastern Canada (Liverman et al. 2001; Hétu and Brown 2006; Hétu et al. 2008), highlighting the great destructive capacity of snow wasting even on s...

Because snow avalanches occur at altitudes close to the 0°C isotherm in mountain environments, they should respond quickly to climatic variations. This study provides tree-ring-based high-magnitude avalanche chronologies for 12 subalpine avalanche paths in the Chic-Choc Range of Québec (eastern Canada). For the period covered by the chronologies, i...

GERMAIN, D.; LAVOIE, M., and FILION, L., 2009. Cliff-top Eolian sedimentation reflecting Mid-to Late-Holocene environmental changes at Anticosti Island, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Eastern Canada. Journal of Coastal Research, 25(2), 324–335. West Palm Beach (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The study site (Cape Sandtop) consists of a 15 m high marine terrace ex...

In mountainous areas, ecological disturbances causing forest fragmentation may influence the pattern and regime of snow avalanches. In the northern Gaspé Peninsula (Quebec), at two sites located on treed slopes of a south–north oriented valley, tree removal by fire and logging operations was the precursor factor for avalanche activity. Years of hig...

Snow avalanches affect recreation, transportation, resource industries and property. During the 1990s an average of 12.5 persons per year were killed in avalanches in Canada. The snow avalanche hazard has affected people and facilities in B.C, Alberta, Yukon, NWT, Nunavut, Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland. Avalanche risk may be voluntary, for examp...

Résumé À l’extrémité sud-est de l’île d’Anticosti, des dépôts éoliens de textures très variables recouvrent presque entièrement le sommet d’une terrasse marine surplombant la mer à 15 m d’altitude. La falaise côtière au cap Sandtop est soumise à l’érosion éolienne, laquelle est favorisée par la nature sédimentaire du substratum rocheux et l’exposit...

Cuvinte cheie: Masivul Chic-Chocs (Canada), Masivul Făgăraş (Carpaţii Meridionali), avalanşe de zăpadă Rezumat: avalanşele de zăpadă reprezintă o realitate incontestabilă atât în Masivul Chic-Chocs (Canada) cât şi în Masivul Făgăraş (Carpaţii Merid ionali), atât din punct de vedere geomorfologic cât şi din punct de vedere al riscului. Studiul de fa...