Climate change: IPCC report warns of ‘irreversible’ impacts of global warming
Many of the impacts of global warming are now simply “irreversible” according to the UN’s latest assessment. But the authors of a new report say that there is still a brief window of time to avoid the very worst. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that humans and nature are being pushed beyond their abilities to adapt.

Strengthening emergency communications for complex, cascading and compounding events – lessons learned from the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption and tsunami in Tonga
While research communities are trying to better understand complex, compounding and cascading disasters, 2022 has just provided a ‘textbook’ example in Tonga. Tropical Cyclone Cody, the COVID-19 pandemic threat, and the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano – followed by a tsunami and more than 70 earthquakes (magnitudes 4.4-5.0) between 14 January and 04 February 2022 – devastated the emergency management system in Tonga.

CREWS commits additional funding to strengthen Early Warning Systems in the Caribbean
Different and multiple hazards, such as severe weather conditions inland and at sea, droughts, hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes, pose a serious threat to the Caribbean –  one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world. The development of Early Warning Systems has been identified by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the Paris Agreement as a key pathway to prevent disasters and reduce the negative impacts of multiple hazards.

Limiting the damage: UN helps policymakers tackle climate change
As extreme weather events become commonplace, threatening communities and economies across the world, the UN is helping policymakers and leaders by projecting the impact of future climate hazards, and recommending the best, most cost-effective ways to adapt.

INFORM Risk Management Tool
INFORM is the first global, objective and transparent tool for understanding the risk of humanitarian crises. When all those involved in crisis prevention, preparedness and response use a shared risk assessment, they can work more effectively. That is why INFORM is open-source. INFORM has been developed in response to recommendations by numerous organisations to improve the common evidence basis for risk analysis, as well as the actual demands of INFORM partner organisations.

Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
The Working Group II contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report assesses the impacts of climate change, looking at ecosystems, biodiversity, and human communities at global and regional levels. It also reviews vulnerabilities and the capacities and limits of the natural world and human societies to adapt to climate change. To read the summaries or the full report click the link.

Understanding hazards: Probabilistic cyclone modelling for disaster risk to the Eastern Coast in Bangladesh
Cyclones and associated wind and water hazards result in the most significant fatalities. In addition, coastal inundations due to cyclonic storm surges are an increasing threat to the lives and livelihoods of people in low-lying, highly populated coastal areas. This paper develops a synthetic cyclone modelling (Category 4) to understand the probable maximum impacts of a tropical cyclone and its cascading and compounding hazards in the Cox’s Bazar area in Bangladesh.

Scoping paper – Strategic crisis management in the EU – June 2021
This scoping paper sets out the key recommendations by the European Commission’s Group of Chief Scientific Advisors on how to enhance crisis preparedness, more integrated and timely response capacity, and resilient recovery for the EU are expected within the second quarter of this year.

European Environmental Agency Europe’s changing climate hazards – an index-based interactive EEA report
Climate change is happening, and we need to get ready for more intense heatwaves, floods and storms, wildfires and water scarcity. Different climate-related hazards affect regions, sectors of the economy and members of society in different ways. Decision-makers need the best data and information to help them understand the imperatives and make the necessary preparations. “Europe’s changing climate hazards – an interactive index-based EEA report”, brings it all together with an overview of past and projected changes in Europe’s most important climate hazards.

A Deep-Learning Method for the Prediction of Socio-Economic Indicators from Street-View Imagery Using a Case Study from Brazil
Socioeconomic indicators are essential to help design and monitor the impact of public policies on society. Over recent years other ways of collecting data and producing indicators have been explored, in particular using the new surveillance capabilities that remote observations can provide. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the assessment of socioeconomic indicators using street-view imagery, through a case study conducted in a region of Brazil, the Vale do Ribeira, one of the poorest semi-rural regions in Brazil.

Beyond Barriers: Solomon Islands Case Study
This case study explores the Solomon Islands’ progress in the integration of disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA), identifying key themes and opportunities for stakeholders to advance approaches that reduce risk and enhance resilience in communities

A crowdsourced global data set for validating built-up surface layers
Several global high-resolution built-up surface products have emerged over the last five years, taking full advantage of open sources of satellite data such as Landsat and Sentinel. However, these data sets require validation that is independent of the producers of these products. To fill this gap, we designed a validation sample set of 50 K locations using a stratified sampling approach independent of any existing global built-up surface products.

Domino Effect: Cascading disasters and lessons from the Tonga eruption and tsunami
Tonkin + Taylor in partnership with Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR), Committee on Data (CODATA) of the International Science Council (ISC) brings together experts to share: A forensic assessment of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption and tsunami in Tonga, A cascading and compounding hazard assessment, Volcanic eruption and tsunami scenarios, Lessons learned and ways forward. Follow the link to sign up for this webinar.

28 Feb – 11 March -1st WWRP/SERA Weather and Society Conference 2022 (Online)
Extreme hydrometeorological events are affecting societies, economies and environments as never before in human history. Governments, science agencies, the humanitarian sector, emergency managers and decision-makers face an unprecedented challenge to reduce the risks to citizens and society. The Societal and Economics Research Application (SERA) Working Group of the WMO World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) invites the weather community to actively participate in the first Weather and Society Conference organised by this Programme.

Global Sustainability – Sustainable Education in the Digital Age
Prof. Stephen Yang will address that in the digital age when developing technology, we also need to reflect on the impact of ethics and social changes on education. Prof. Hiroaki Ogata will address that the Japanese government expects to launch 15 “International Leading Research Projects” in 2023, each with a total funding cap of 500 million yen over seven years, to support international joint research. Prof. Owen Lu will address that by applying ESG analytics technology to essay grading. Including how to use natural language processing technology to analyze corporate sustainability reports and media news?

Launch of Women’s Leadership in Disaster Risk Reduction
Women, girls, boys, men, and people of diverse gender identities have distinct vulnerabilities in each context that shape the way that they experience and recover from disaster impacts. Effective disaster risk reduction requires meaningful and diverse participation, engagement, and leadership, through an inclusive and accessible, all-of-society approach.

Flood forecasting for anticipatory action: applying flood models in humanitarian contexts
Flood forecasts can provide critical information to help people get ahead of rising water levels before a crisis unfolds. The speakers will explore examples of flood models, the spatial and temporal scale at which these models can provide risk information, how probabilistic models are interpreted, the uncertainties of these models, and where floods models have been used to inform anticipatory action.

Current approaches and GIS methods to support anticipatory humanitarian action
Geospatial data, GIS and remote sensing are of increasing importance in the humanitarian context and are currently experiencing increased use in the field of anticipatory humanitarian action. In this advanced course, you have the opportunity to explore the application areas of geodata in humanitarian contexts.