Bernhard Garn Co-Edits New Springer Volume on Hybrid Threats and Disaster Dynamics
We are pleased to announce the publication of Dynamics of Disasters: Hybrid Threats, a new volume in the Springer Optimization and Its Applications series. The book was published in Spring 2026 and is co-edited by Dimitris E. Simos, Panos M. Pardalos, Ilias S. Kotsireas, Bernhard Garn, senior researcher at SBA Research and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Salzburg and Stefan Wolfgang Pickl.
© Niklas Schnaubelt
The volume brings together papers from DOD 2024 – the seventh edition of the Dynamics of Disasters conference series – held in Vienna in July 2024 alongside the 19th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES 2024). The workshop united researchers from diverse disciplines to address a field of growing urgency: disasters arise when natural or man-made hazards exceed our capacity to manage them, with consequences ranging from loss of life to infrastructure collapse. As the COVID-19 pandemic starkly illustrated, both preparedness and response frameworks frequently fall short of the challenges they face.
DOD 2024 expanded the series’ scope by placing hybrid threats at the centre of the programme, reflecting the increasingly blurred boundary between cyber and physical domains and the novel risks this convergence produces. The 11 chapters in this volume are organised thematically across three areas: hybrid threats, natural hazards and methodological approaches, and societal dimensions of man-made and technological disasters.
The volume reflects years of sustained research in this area, rooted in the international Dynamics of Disasters workshop series, which Bernhard Garn has helped shape as Programme Co-Chair. Addressing researchers, practitioners, and policymakers alike, the book provides insights into the multifaceted nature of modern disasters and serves as a resource for those involved in disaster management and risk assessment.
About the serie
The volume appears in the Springer Optimization and Its Applications series, one of the leading publication series in applied mathematics and computer science. The series publishes research monographs, contributed volumes, and handbooks focused on the theory, methods, and applications of optimisation – covering a broad spectrum from nonlinear, combinatorial, stochastic, and multi-objective optimisation through to optimal control and Bayesian methods. Recent additions to the series portfolio reflect the growing convergence of optimisation with machine learning, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing, underlining its relevance to some of the most active research frontiers of our time.
Links
Dynamics of Disasters: Hybrid Threats
DAMAST – SBA Research Group