Monthly Archives: July 2021

Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: August 2021 Edition

Fijian Government: Ministry prepares for 2021-2021 Cyclone Season
The Ministry of Rural and Maritime Development and Disaster Management has been diligently preparing its facilities and mobilising its resources for the impending 2021-2022 Cyclone Season. Part of these preparatory works was the total renovation and improvements in the current warehousing assets and processes maintained at the Walu Bay based yard.

WMO: Water-related hazards dominate disasters in the past 50 years
Water-related hazards dominate the list of disasters in terms of both the human and economic toll over the past 50 years, according to a comprehensive analysis by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)..

Oxford researchers develop tool to predict human displacement post-disaster
An open-source software package to estimate displaced populations post-disaster has been developed, with a current focus on earthquakes and cyclones.

Planned retreat from flood-prone Westport and its stoic history
As the New Zealand Prime Minister visits Westport, the town faces the difficult decision of whether to rebuild or withdraw after the recent devastating floods. Government intervention and insurance can help if it chooses a planned retreat.  Tonkin + Taylor Natural Hazards Specialist, Nick Rogers QSO, and Sector Director for Natural Hazards Resilience, Richard Reinen-Hamill reflect on the Westport floods and planned retreat in this article with Newsroom NZ.

Catching fire: AI is helping scarce firefighters better predict blazes
With climate change driving worsening U.S. wildfires, machine learning and statistical models let firefighters map out ahead of time how and where blazes might spread.

GAR Special Report on Drought 2021
The GAR Special Report on Drought 2021 explores the systemic nature of drought and its impacts on the achievement of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the SDGs and human and ecosystems health and wellbeing.

Probabilistic tsunami hazard and exposure assessment for the Pacific Islands – Fiji
This paper presents the results of a tsunami exposure assessment of the population, assets and critical infrastructure vulnerable to tsunami inundation from Tonga-Kermadec and South New Hebrides tsunami sources.

Willingness-to-pay for hazard safety – A case study on the valuation of flood risk reduction in Germany
This paper focuses on the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for public investments in safety measures, in particular for reducing the risk of natural flood hazard. The study uses the method of contingent valuation to collect individual data from a nationwide sample of German households.

UNEP: Becoming #GenerationRestoration: ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate
This report makes the case for why nature-based solutions, such as environmental restoration in particular, is so important and outlines how the UN Decade can catalyse a movement to restore the world’s ecosystems.

UNEP – A practical guide to climate-resilient buildings & communities
This practical guide demonstrates how buildings and community spaces can be constructed to increase their resilience to climate change, especially in developing countries where structures are largely self-built. The publication provides an overview of the fundamental types of interventions at the building scale, including the use of nature-based solutions.

Asian Development Bank: Creating liveable Asian cities
This book makes the case for five priorities to create liveable and resilient cities and realize a sustainable urban future in Asia: Smart and inclusive planning; sustainable transport; sustainable energy; sustainable finance; and resilience and rejuvenation.

23-27 August – World Water Week
World Water Week is the leading conference on global water issues and in 2021 it will be held as a digital event 23-27 August. The Week attracts participants from more than 130 countries and with many different professional backgrounds. It offers an unusual mix of participants and perspectives, with sessions on a broad array of water-related topics, ranging from food security and health, to agriculture, technology, biodiversity, and the climate crisis.

2-3 September – 2021 Aotearoa SDG Summit Series
Collaborating, connecting, and working together has never been more important than right now. SDG Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals, is our collective way forward. Join us for the next part in the 2020-2021 Aotearoa/New Zealand SDG Summit Series and see how by working together, we can create the world we want, and the world that we need.

6-9 September – 1st International Forum on Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals
The 1st International Forum on Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals will be held by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China, from September 6 to 8, 2021.

1 September – Space Health and Disaster Risk Reduction symposium
This symposium is an exploration of the interrelations between space health, disaster risk reduction and other related topics. The aim is to establish a consensus on the provision of healthcare by an interdisciplinary healthcare practitioner during a deep space mission to another planetary body, and how this practice can inform remote health systems on Earth.

August 6 – CONVERGE Collecting and Sharing Perishable Data Training Module: A Demonstration Webinar
This webinar will provide a demonstration of the recently released CONVERGE Collecting and Sharing Perishable Data Training Module. This module provides an overview of what perishable data is, how to ethically collect it, and why such data is vital for advancing hazards and disaster research.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: July 2021 Edition

Robots, drones and satellites: NSW to research new bushfire fighting technology
The NSW government will push to establish the state as a world leader in bushfire research eventually marketing new technology overseas, with close to $30 million set aside for the new project in next week’s budget.

Scientists warn of a bad year for fires in Brazil’s Amazon and wetlands
Dry weather this year raises the risk of severe fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest and Pantanal wetlands, scientists say, warning that a drought could fuel destruction of biomes critical to curbing climate change.

Indian Cities Prepare for Floods with Predictive Technology
The number and intensity of floods are increasing—they can inundate neighbourhoods in Chennai in just 15 minutes. New models can pinpoint and help warn vulnerable areas hours or even days in advance.

Small Satellites to Study Big Storms – NASA Prepares for the TROPICS Mission
In 2022 NASA is launching a constellation of six small satellites (smallsats) to improve our understanding of cyclones in the tropics. With a revisit time of 30 to 60 minutes between overpasses, the TROPICS mission will provide frequent observations of tropical storms as they form and strengthen, which will increase our understanding of the physical processes within storms and improve the accuracy of storm forecasts to better protect lives and property. 

Canterbury floods: Is climate change to blame for severe weather events?
Victoria University climate change expert James Renwick says it is too early to say whether the Canterbury floods were caused by climate change, but the event is exactly what we can expect more of.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation: Understanding Framework Roadblocks
On behalf of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), Tonkin + Taylor has undertaken an extensive analysis across 10 climate-vulnerable countries to identify potential roadblocks between climate change adaptation planning and disaster risk reduction (DRR) frameworks.

UNECE: Chief Statisticians bring statistics to the forefront of climate action
The heads of national statistical offices of 59 countries and 24 international organisations are gathered this week in Geneva and around the globe for the 69th plenary session of the Conference of European Statisticians, the decision-making body for statistical matters in the UNECE region and beyond.

The UCL Warning Research Centre Opens at the IRDR 11th Annual Conference
A new research centre, the world’s only one devoted to the study of warnings, was formally launched at the UCL Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction 11th Annual Conference. The Warning Research Centre brings together global expertise to explore the role of warnings in managing vulnerabilities, hazards, risks, and disasters. The focus is to prevent adverse disaster impacts through improved warnings

GAR Special Report on Drought 2021
The GAR Special Report on Drought 2021 explores the systemic nature of drought and its impacts on the achievement of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the SDGs and human and ecosystems health and wellbeing.

​WHO: Indicator framework for the evaluation of the public health effectiveness of digital proximity tracing solutions
The overall objective of this indicator framework is to provide a set of indicators to guide national health authorities in the monitoring and evaluation of their digital proximity tracing solutions.

FAO – Indigenous Peoples’ food systems: Insights on sustainability and resilience from the front line of climate changes
This publication provides an overview of the common and unique sustainability elements of Indigenous Peoples’ food systems, in terms of natural resource management, access to the market, diet diversity, indigenous peoples’ governance systems, and links to traditional knowledge and indigenous languages.

UNEP: Becoming #GenerationRestoration: ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate
This report makes the case for why nature-based solutions, such as environmental restoration in particular, is so important and outlines how the UN Decade can catalyse a movement to restore the world’s ecosystems.

Seeking shelter: the factors that influence refuge since Cyclone Gorky in the Coastal Area of Bangladesh
This paper provides an assessment of the factors associated with evacuation to cyclone shelters in coastal areas in Bangladesh over the past 30 years. It is based on the comparative study of Cyclone Amphan (2020) and three major historical cyclones: Gorky (1991), Sidr (2007) and Aila (2009).

6 July – Foreseeable Future – Seamless Integration of data to enhance climate and disaster risk reduction
Join us in this side event (track 2, block 1) as part of UN Climate Change’s Asia Pacific Climate Week 2021 with experts from the Asian Development Bank, Green Climate Fund, UNDRR, GIZ and Tonkin + Taylor in this free webinar.

9 July – High-level dialogue on the Partnership in Action on Science, Technology and Innovation for SDGs Roadmaps
The event will discuss the path forward for the Partnership in Action, following the successful inception of the Global Pilot Programme on Science, Technology, and Innovation for the SDGs roadmaps.

11 July-14 July -The Hazards and Disaster Workforce: Preparing to Meet 21st Century Challenges
Conversations at this year’s Workshop will centre around how the workforce we have can support and build the workforce we need. How does the size and composition of the hazards and disaster workforce shape the ability to respond to and recover from extreme events?

26-28 July – 2021 Pacific Resilience Meeting
The biennial Pacific Resilience Meeting (PRM) is a key component of the Pacific Resilience Partnership (PRP) governance arrangements endorsed by the Pacific Island Forum Leaders in 2017 to support the effective implementation of the Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific: An Integrated Approach to Climate Change and Disaster (FRDP) 2017 – 2030.

26-28 July – Pre-Summit of the UN Food Systems Summit
The Pre-Summit of the UN Food Systems Summit will set the stage for the culminating global event in September by bringing together diverse actors from around the world to leverage the power of food systems to deliver progress on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).