Losses from climate change: €145 billion in a decade
Climate change drives extreme weather and climate-related events, which in turn lead to economic losses. Such events, including heat waves, floods and storms, have caused over €145 billion in economic losses in the EU over the past decade. Furthermore, the 30-year moving average of climate-related economic losses shows a clear trend, increasing nearly 2% annually over the last decade. These are estimates by the European Environmental Agency, republished by Eurostat.

Three reasons why roads should be a critical part of climate change adaptation in Thailand
Transport has a circular relationship with climate change – it is both greatly impacted by and contributes to climate change. In Thailand, it accounts for the largest consumption of energy at 39.4 peper centoffering great potential for cutting carbon emissions.

Flood hazard and risk maps: A key instrument for flood risk management
Flood risks affect almost 2 billion people worldwide.  Climate change and unplanned urbanization will further increase these risks. The impacts on economies, communities, and people can be far-reaching In 2022, flooding in Pakistan killed more than 1700 people, affected 33 million, and caused damages and economic losses of over US$39 billion. In Nigeria and Australia were also hit by devastating flood events in the same year To better manage these risks and build more resilient communities, detailed and accurate flood hazard and flood risk maps are essential.

The Climate Crisis Disrupts the Education of 40 Million Children Every Year
Worldwide, the climate crisis is impacting the education of 40 million children every year. Globally, 222 million vulnerable girls and boys are impacted by conflict, climate-induced disasters, forced displacement and protracted crises and are needing education support according to Education Cannot Wait, the UN global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises.

Machine Learning for Disaster Risk Management
To some, artificial intelligence is a mysterious term that sparks thoughts of robots and supercomputers. But the truth is machine learning algorithms and their applications, while potentially mathematically complex, are relatively simple to understand. Here, we explain how the World Bank Group uses machine learning algorithms to collect better data, make more informed decisions, and, ultimately, save lives.

How is Vietnam’s Mekong Delta adapting to a changing climate?
In the floodplains of the upper Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam, the regular seasonal monsoon floods, lasting from late July until November, are replenishing the soil, rejuvenating the river ecosystems, and allowing farmers like Nguyen Van Khen to boost incomes through flood-based agriculture.

COP27: Team Europe steps up support for climate change adaptation and resilience in Africa under Global Gateway
During COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, the EU and the African Union announced a new Team Europe Initiative on Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience in Africa as part of the EU-Africa Global Gateway Investment Package. This Team Europe Initiative will bring together existing and new climate change adaptation programmes of over €1 billion and leverage its impact by improved coordination and a reinforced policy dialogue on adaptation between the EU and AU. This includes €60 million for loss and damage from the overall EU contribution.

Trinidad and Tobago adopts UNDRR’s new Risk Information Exchange
Days of continuous rain across the Caribbean state of Trinidad and Tobago this winter have stiffened the resolve of the country’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) to launch the new Risk Information Exchange (RiX) developed by UNDRR.

Data and digital maturity for disaster risk reduction: Informing the next generation of disaster loss and damage databases
This report documents the assessment of the status of national disaster loss databases in 13 countries and presents lessons to guide the next generation of disaster loss accounting systems (DLAS).

Natural Disasters Book 2021: An analytical overview
This book is published annually to provide statistical and analytical perspectives on disaster data. ADRC retrieves data from the Emergency Event Database (EM-DAT) to better understand the occurrence, deaths, people affected, and economic losses from disaster events.

Geoglam Crop Monitor for Early Warning Systems: December 2022
The GEOGLAM Crop Monitor for Early Warning (CM4EW) is an international and transparent multi-source, consensus assessment of the crop growing conditions, status, and agro-climatic conditions that are likely to impact global production.

The Coming Storm: Building electricity resilience to extreme weather
This report explores the power system’s resilience as a whole and promotes a proactive approach to climate change adaptation of the power sector. The way out of this major crisis requires decisive action to shift away from imported fossil fuels. Electrification, allowing us to regain our energy independence, must become the norm – and it must go with guarantees on the electricity system’s reliability.

Safeguarding Against Climate Change Impacts
This report attempts to equip urban decision-makers with evidence­based climate information tailored to their specific context, to adequately adapt to and prepare for future climate change impacts. Urban areas are prone to climate change impacts.

Review Global Climate Change Action for Fragile and Developing Countries
The acceleration of climate change is recognized to have negative impacts on development and security.1 The impacts can vary significantly depending on the sector, location, and time period under consideration

NH9.7 Indirect intangible dimensions of natural hazards 23-28 April 
Our societies continuously face risks induced by natural hazards. In today’s intricate socio-technological world, characterized by strong urbanization and technological trends, the connections and interdependencies between exposed elements are crucial. Understanding systemic damage relationships requires the assessment of indirect and intangible dimensions of risk.

USAID/BHA & WMO Workshop – Development of MHEWS Action Plan
The USAID/BHA & World Meteorological Foundation Workshop takes place in San José, Costa Rica. The four day event will cover the development of ‘The International Network for Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems action plan’. Click the title for more information via the WMO.

Achieving the Impossible
During the heroic age of polar exploration at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, both the North and South Poles were attained by expeditions mustering dozens of specialists, the latest technological advancements, and the support of nation-states and major corporations. Achieving these feats required previously unimaginable levels of perseverance and cooperation.

Analysis: Africa’s unreported extreme weather in 2022 and climate change
From deadly floods in Nigeria to devastating drought in Somalia, Africa has faced a run of severe – and sometimes unprecedented – extreme weather events since the start of 2022.

WFP launches initiative to bolster people’s resilience to food shocks in Southern Madagascar
ANTANANARIVO – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has launched the Anticipatory Action system as part of efforts to bolster smallholder farmers’ ability to withstand shocks as the country approaches the lean season with up to 1.9 million people estimated to suffer from acute hunger, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

How to co-design a flood early warning system (FEWS) for West Africa
The great West African drought that started in the 1970s was undoubtedly a turning point in the region’s environmental discourse. It is well recognised as one of the most significant climate-driven disasters in recent history. The event was the onset of an era of rainfall uncertainty and variability, driving recurring floods and droughts across the region.

Machine Learning for Disaster Risk Management
To some, artificial intelligence is a mysterious term that sparks thoughts of robots and supercomputers. But the truth is machine learning algorithms and their applications, while potentially mathematically complex, are relatively simple to understand. Here, we explain how the World Bank Group uses machine learning algorithms to collect better data, make more informed decisions, and, ultimately, save lives.

As water-related disasters mount, experts call for more warning tech
With natural disasters becoming more frequent, further development and disbursement of risk assessment tools and early warning technologies are necessary to mitigate the damage they cause, a leading Japanese researcher on disaster risk reduction has said.

Food for thought: Climate change risk and food (in)security in Tuvalu
Climate change presents a considerable threat to food security of low-lying atoll nations in the Pacific including Tuvalu. It is projected to heavily impact agricultural and fishery sectors in Tuvalu, threatening food chains and the ability of Tuvaluans to produce and access safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary and cultural needs.

Global status of multi-hazard early warning systems: Target G
This UNDRR-WMO joint report assesses the current global status of multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEWS) against Target G of the Sendai Framework, collating data officially reported by the Member States with data collected through a WMO survey.

Practical actions approach in Disseminating Localised flood early warning in Bangladesh
An effective Early Warning System ensures that accurate, reliable, actionable, and understandable information reaches those who need it in a timely manner. Practical Action takes a comprehensive and people-centered approach to ensure that timely, accurate, and understandable information reaches the most vulnerable.

ASEAN Framework on Anticipatory Action in Disaster Management
The ASEAN Framework on Anticipatory Action in Disaster Management provides guidance for defining and contextualising anticipatory action at the regional level with some considerations for its implementation by Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). This Framework outlines three building blocks of anticipatory action and proposes a Plan of Action for 2021–2025 with the primary aim to streamline anticipatory action in disaster risk management (DRM) through joint regional efforts.

Science, Technology, Innovation and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction
Science and technology have been contributing to the advancement of disaster risk reduction approaches and saving people’s lives and properties. However, its nature, role and usage have changed over time. Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) had focused on the increasing use of science and technology, not only by scientists but all different stakeholders from governments to non-government organizations and private sectors.

Good Practices for adaptation action research
For climate change adaptation to be effective, it needs to be context-specific and driven by both social and environmental considerations. Adaptation must also be based on the ever-evolving field of climate change science, and able to incorporate new research and knowledge continually throughout the adaptation process.

COP27 6-18 November 
The hosting of COP27 in the green city of Sharm El-Sheikh this year marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In the thirty years since, the world has come a long way in the fight against climate change and its negative impacts on our planet; we are now able to better understand the science behind climate change, better assess its impacts, and better develop tools to address its causes and consequences.

Australian Vocabulary Symposium 2022, running in Canberra and online (internationally) on 14-15 November, 2022.
This symposium brings together users, creators and publishers of vocabularies across multiple domains and sectors in Australia. Delegates will share current experiences and future requirements as we collectively move towards a state of FAIR vocabularies that underpin cross-domain data reuse.

World Tsunami Awareness Day 2022 in Asia-Pacific: Early Warning and Early Action Before Every Tsunami
By the year 2030, an estimated 50 percent of the world’s population will live in coastal areas exposed to flooding, storms, and tsunamis (UNESCO-IOC, 2021). Scaling up regional support to developing countries will help ensure that 100% of communities at risk of tsunami are prepared for and resilient to tsunamis by 2030.

Understanding Risk Global Forum (UR22)
The Understanding Risk Global Forum (UR22) will be a hybrid event with the main location in Florianopolis, Brazil. Satellite events are taking place in London (UK), Wellington (New Zealand) and Niamey (Niger). The location offers an exceptional opportunity for the world to learn from Brazil and vice versa and strengthen the sustainable development agenda, moving from understanding risk to action on disaster resilience

6^th DRMKC Annual Seminar
This 2-day event aims to share the achievements of the Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network (UCPKN) Science Pillar in addressing challenges such as compound, concurrent and cascade events which need to be included in risk analysis or the communication challenges in risk management, among others.

Technical Expert Forum 2022: Tracking of hazardous events and disaster losses and damages
The global community has been working on standardizing national information on losses and damages to better understand risk, and how these components change over time. Traditionally, the recording of disaster losses and damages starts at the impact level by the national disaster (risk) management offices (NDMOs) in terms of human and economic losses, often based on assessments by local authorities and humanitarian partners.

4th Workshop under the Glasgow-Sharm el-Sheikh Work Programme on the Global Goal on Adaptation
The workshop is organized pursuant to decision 7/CMA.3, by which the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) agreed on the modalities and procedures of the work programme and decided that eight workshops would be conducted during 2022 and 2023.

COP27 EU Side Event: Data and systems for understanding and acting on current and future risks
This 1-hour event organized by DRMKC will be focused on building the evidence base to inform future action on disaster risks. Together with amazing guest panellists from the Joint Research Centre, the European Central Bank, ESPON ,TECNALIA, UN OCHA and DG ECHO, we will discuss

Why climate-change ‘loss and damage’ will be a hot topic at COP27
As large parts of the planet struggle with climate-inflicted woes, from floods in Pakistan to forest fires in the United States, the thorny issue of how to address “loss and damage” driven by global warming has risen up the political agenda. Nine years ago, U.N. climate negotiators agreed to set up a formal mechanism to tackle loss and damage – but little concrete has emerged, beyond a donor-backed effort to boost insurance against weather disasters in developing countries.

What does community-led climate work look like?
On stormy days—and sunny days too—residents of Jacksonville, Florida watch water filling the streets, rising up to stop signs, and spilling onto front stoops and into parked cars. As a result, annual flooding damage currently costs homeowners and insurance companies $20 million per year nationally, with economic losses concentrated in Florida and California.

Effective Communication Of Disaster Warnings Saving Lives In Fiji
Communication is key – especially when you are in the business of saving lives. During their Ignite session on the second day of the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Brisbane, Australia, the FMS presented on disaster risk communication and effective information sharing, in order to give people a better understanding of the importance of effective communication of warnings and understanding user needs.

Beavers can help mitigate the effects of climate change. But how significant is their impact?
The beaver is a unique ecosystem engineer that can create a landscape that would otherwise not exist, thanks to the animal’s ability to build dams. As we experience more frequent heatwaves and drought, the potential role of beavers in safeguarding against these risks has captured widespread attention.

Hurricane Ian capped 2 weeks of extreme storms around the globe: Here’s what’s known about how climate change fuels tropical cyclones
When Hurricane Ian hit Florida, it was one of the United States’ most powerful hurricanes on record, and it followed a two-week string of massive, devastating storms around the world. A few days earlier in the Philippines, Typhoon Noru gave new meaning to rapid intensification when it blew up from a tropical storm with 50 mph winds to a Category 5 monster with 155 mph winds the next day. Hurricane Fiona flooded Puerto Rico, then became Canada’s most intense storm on record. Typhoon Merbok gained strength over a warm Pacific Ocean and tore up over 1,000 miles of the Alaska coast.

Life-Saving Landslide Risk Communication in Puerto Rico
Hurricane Fiona brought wind and heavy rain to Puerto Rico on September 18, triggering hundreds of new landslides. In the mountain community of Naguabo on the east side of the island, a hillside collapsed, burying homes and cars. But residents and emergency workers were able to evacuate just in time before the debris flow occurred.

How to communicate risk when it feels like no one is listening
With climate change providing uncertainty, raising the importance of risk communication is critical when mapping out effective long-term climate responses. As our understanding of natural hazards and climate risk improves, how do we enable individual decision-makers to be best informed? In this paper, challenges and opportunities were identified for harnessing risk-informed data for disaster and climate resilience.

Harnessing risk-informed data for disaster and climate resilience
Disaster and climate risks result from a complex interaction between hazard, exposure, and vulnerability in a broad context defined by socioeconomic, political, and ecological factors. To better understand the risk and manage it more effectively, we need to collect, store, analyse, and use risk-informed data. We identified challenges and opportunities for harnessing risk-informed data for disaster and climate resilience.

The 2022 Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Implementation plan
This is the latest in a series of implementation plans produced by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) programme since its inception in 1992. It provides a set of high priority actions which if undertaken will improve global observations of the climate system and our understanding of how it is changing.

2021 Progress report on the implementation of the UN plan of action on disaster risk reduction for resilience
This 2021 UN Plan of Action Progress Report presents the summary of progress with regard to the three Commitments of the UN Plan of Action, based on the Results Framework, as reported by UN organizations for the year 2021.

Extreme Weather and social connectedness community study- helping communities prepare for extreme weather events
This research project investigates and develops interventions to bolster social connectedness in Boston-area communities most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. It aims to address questions including: How “socially-connected” do people feel within these vulnerable communities? What factors or mechanisms serve to strengthen (or weaken) social connectedness?

Strengthening Risk Analysis for Humanitarian Planning
This guidance details a step-by-step approach tailored to the Humanitarian Programme Cycle and development agenda to ensure it is based on comprehensive and robust forward thinking. It is aimed especially at facilitators involved in strategic planning, to prepare and facilitate joint analysis workshops taking place during the development of Humanitarian Needs Overviews using the Joint Intersectoral Analysis Framework (JIAF).

FAIR Convergence Symposium, 24 – 26 October in Leiden and Online: Programme and Registration
The 2nd FAIR Convergence Symposium is organised by CODATA and GO FAIR on 24 – 26 October 2022 in Leiden, The Netherlands, as part of the Week Focused on FAIR.  This years’ edition will concentrate on smaller, high-priority, strategic and working meetings to encourage convergence on and implementation of FAIR. The meetings are being organised as hybrid events, allowing for both in-person and online participation.

International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction – 13 October  
The primary goal of disaster risk reduction is prevention. But when that is not possible, then it is important to minimize the harm to people, assets and livelihoods through early warning systems.

Data Interoperability in China: practice and challenges (A GOSC DataIO Webinar) – 10 October 2022
The Chinese Academy of Sciences, the highest academic institution of natural sciences in China, started the exploration of sharing of scientific data in 1986, and continues to this day.

Short Course on Making Cities Resilient- 25 – 26 October 2022
Presented by Dr Jorge Diaz, this workshop will consider new insights from lessons learnt in the aftermath of disasters and its relation to building resilience (2000-2020). Case-Studies include; Chile, Peru, Mexico, Haiti, and Japan. Dr. Diaz has been involved in most of these events during the response, recovery, mitigation and preparedness stages.

First European conference on community disaster preparedness- 27 October
European Investment Bank Institute (EIB), in collaboration with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, Luxembourg.

Scientists exposed plants to a yearlong drought. The result is worrying for climate change
Global experiment found ability of grasses and shrubs to store carbon suffered. Europe and many other parts of the world are currently grappling with extreme drought—and that could be bad news for efforts to curb climate change, concludes a new global study of how shrubs and grasses respond to parched conditions.

Extreme weather in China highlights climate change impacts and need for early warnings
Extreme weather – record-breaking heatwaves, severe drought, and deadly rainfall – have battered China since June. The summer of extremes – in China as in Europe – has underlined the importance of the WMO community’s commitment to Early Warning and Early Action and reinforced the need for the ongoing campaign to provide Early Warnings for All in the next five years.

Predicting—and preparing for—the worst
Climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and intense. So improving local risk prediction—and studying how extreme weather could affect renewable energy systems—will be critical to building resilience into vulnerable communities and the growing green energy sector.

Climate risk assessment needs urgent improvement
Existing constraints in current climate risk assessments make them inappropriate to effectively assess the true exposure of society and businesses to climate-related risk. Using the key constraints to guide a conceptual framework, we identify four cross-cutting and inter-related critical paths for improvement.

Future of Rail | How rail industry is fighting back against extreme weather events
Increased frequency of extreme weather events is taking its toll on rail infrastructure but the industry is collaborating with academia to strengthen assets against future conditions. Britain’s rail infrastructure is put under intense pressure every day as it carries millions of people to and from their destinations. It is built to last, but some of it has been in place for decades – if not longer – and is reaching the end of its life.

Saving lives with FAIR data: evidence based public policies and the impact of data in disaster and climate change risk management
Informed decision-making and coordinated action for effective disaster and climate change risk reduction require timely and reliable data and information. Technological advances enable us to better understand nature and society. However, despite these advances, challenges remain for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) data for decision-making. The COVID-19 pandemic is a good example of how data FAIRness saved lives. It is necessary to identify what challenges the government, non-governmental organisations, and policy users face in FAIRness of data.

An Analysis of Barriers to the Implementation of an ISO Certified Quality Management System for National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in the Anglophone Caribbean
Aeronautical Meteorological Offices under National Meteorological and Hydrological Service provide critical meteorological, hydrological, ocean and climatological information that sustain air navigation safety, efficiency, and regularity

Navigating the landscape of support for the process to formulate and implement national adaptation plans
This publication provides an overview of the landscape of support available for adaptation and of the targeted programmes and initiatives that have been set up to facilitate the formulation and implementation of national adaptation plans (NAP).

Harnessing Nationally determined contributions to tackle loss and damage in least developed countries
This paper analyses how least developed countries (LDC) are currently reporting loss and damage in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and National Adaptation Plans, identifies gaps or issues in coverage, and suggests a framework for addressing these gaps.

Understanding the flood resilience of rural communities in Mangatarem, Pangasinan
This document presents the work of community flood resilience program of the Philippine Red Cross and IFRC that is implemented as part of the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance. It introduces the Alliance’s unique resilience measurement approach – the Flood Resilience Measurement for Communities (FRMC) – and presents the key results and key insights gained from the FRMC implementation in the program communities in Mangatarem, Pangasinan.

Womens Resilience in Fiji: how laws and policies promote gender equality in climate change and disaster risk management
This report aims to conduct a gender analysis of the national legal and policy frameworks of Fiji to explore how much gender considerations are integrated in its climate change and disaster risk management (CCDRM) laws, policies, and plans and how they contribute to strengthening women’s resilience in the country

Multilateral development bank support for disaster resilient infrastructure system
This publication explores how multilateral development banks (MDBs) can help improve the resilience of infrastructure given increasing climate and disaster risks. It highlights opportunities in three areas: risk-informed planning, financing assistance, and knowledge building through regional and global networks

Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction 19 – 22 September 
With the Asia-Pacific experiencing a growth in the frequency and intensity of disasters, investment in reducing our risk to disasters is vital to saving lives and livelihoods, minimising economic loss and ensuring no one is left behind.The 2022 Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction presents an opportunity for delegates from across the Asia Pacific to showcase and share experiences, action and innovation to help build a resilient future for the region..

Southern Africa Ministerial Meeting on Integrated Early Warning and Early Action System Initiative, 5 – 9 September 
The aim of the Conference is to converge on the priority requirements for the Southern African region to further accelerate the implementation of Sendai Target G, to substantially increase the availability of and access to early warnings.

IDRiM 2022 – 12th Conference of the International Society for Integrated Disaster Risk Management 21 September, 09:00 AM (CET) 
Critical steps for research and practice in disaster risk management in the age of climate change and COVID-19 pandemics

IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition 11-15 September 2022 
All of us in IWA are relieved and thrilled that the countdown to the World Water Congress and Exhibition in Copenhagen has re-started. The Nordic region is a world-leading hub for technology and innovation, making it the ideal location for the Congress; a space to inspire change, stimulate innovative research and share best practices for a water-wise world.