Category Archives: DRR and Open DATA newsletter

Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: March 2024 Edition

How air pollution delayed a surge in extreme rain
Aerosol pollutants have masked the effects of global warming. Without them, the U.S. is about to get a lot wetter.

Navigating Troubled Waters
Since November 2023, escalating attacks on ships in the Red Sea have been compounding disruptions in the Black Sea caused by the war in Ukraine, and in the Panama Canal due to climate-induced droughts. The drop in monthly transits underscores the magnitude of overlapping shipping disruptions.

Building communities that are resilient to disaster risks and climate change effects
To build resilience amongst the plantation community, in June 2023, UNICEF engaged with 130 children living in the tea estates in Sri Lanka to teach them about climate change, the changing weather patterns, and how they can minimize their risks.

FAO proposes five key actions to address climate-conflict nexus
At the United Nations Security Council, Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol urges game-changing solutions to break the vicious loop between climate crisis, conflict and hunger.

NASA Launches New Climate Mission to Study Ocean, Atmosphere
NASA’s satellite mission to study ocean health, air quality, and the effects of a changing climate for the benefit of humanity launched successfully into orbit at 1:33 a.m. EST Thursday.

Critical transitions in the Amazon forest system
The possibility that the Amazon forest system could soon reach a tipping point, inducing large-scale collapse, has raised global concern. For 65 million years, Amazonian forests remained relatively resilient to climatic variability.  Now, the region is increasingly exposed to unprecedented stress from warming temperatures, extreme droughts, deforestation and fires.

Detecting atmospheric rivers with satellite observations
Combining this approximated 3-D data with the moisture observed by satellite, scientists created—for the first time—a method to detect atmospheric rivers(AR) via satellite observations. Using this newly developed method, scientists produced the first satellite-based near-global AR dataset.

Century of Reforestation Reduced Anthropogenic Warming in the Eastern United States
Restoring and preserving the world’s forests are promising natural pathways to mitigate some aspects of climate change. In addition to regulating atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, forests modify surface and near-surface air temperatures through biophysical processes.

Groundbreaking new data can help us better understand glaciers
This innovative dataset, featured in the Earth System Science Data journal, offers an important tool to better understand the mechanisms behind glacier calving, or the breakup of icebergs, which can help to enhance our understanding of the climatic drivers behind glacier loss in Svalbard and the Arctic.

Protecting science in times of crisis
This comprehensive paper by the Centre for Science Futures, the ISC’s think tank, addresses the urgent need for a new approach to safeguard science and its practitioners during global crises.

ARISE Japan Public Symposium 2024: Successes and challenges in DRR innovation—including early findings from the Noto Peninsula Earthquake
UNDRR’s private sector group ARISE has always recommended an attitude of constant innovation, taking into account the rapid changes in society, proactively adopting the latest technologies, preparing from new perspectives, in disaster risk reduction actions towards resilience.

Measuring Vulnerability to Disasters: Presenting the Risk Data Hub Vulnerability Dashboard
In the latest lunchtime webinar of the Mission Adaptation Series, attendees will hear an overview of the main functions of the Risk Data Hub Vulnerability Dashboard, including the indicators selected to measure the different dimensions of vulnerability and their evolution over time.

Transforming Adaptation: Harnessing the power of GCF for climate financing
Presented by Bapon Shm Fakhruddin, Water and Climate Leadership, Green Climate Fund on the 7th March at 1:30pm UTC

Free training on climate change, migration, and health in Latin America and the Caribbean
The webinar series “Climate Change, Migration and Health in Latin America and the Caribbean” is scheduled from March 5, 2024 to November 5, 2024. The sessions will be held every two months in Spanish and English, with interpretation.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: February 2024 Edition

Climate change and atmospheric dynamics unveil future weather extremes
From late June to mid-July of 2021, the Pacific Northwest was scorched under an unprecedented heat dome, shattering temperature records and igniting a wave of concern over climate extremes. As cities like Portland and Seattle, known for their mild summers, grappled with triple-digit heat, scientists delved into the whys and hows of this meteorological anomaly.

1 billion people left dangerously exposed to heat stress by gaps in
climate monitoring

Our new research shows poor weather station coverage across the tropics leads to underestimates of heat stress in cities. Concentrated across tropical Asia and Africa, informal settlements, commonly known as “slums”, are on the front line of climate exposure. The shortfalls in climate monitoring leave these communities dangerously vulnerable to rising humid heat. With few options to adapt, millions could be forced to seek refuge away from the hottest parts of the tropics.

After the earthquakes: Experts discuss building codes in Türkiye and the U.S.
On Feb. 6, 2023, two major earthquakes, with magnitudes of 7.8 and 7.5, occurred nine hours apart in the southern region of Türkiye. We sat down with two experts, Mustafa Erdik, Professor of Civil Engineering, and Evan Reis, Executive Director and co-founder of the U.S. Resiliency Council, to explore lessons that architects, engineers and policymakers in Türkiye and the U.S. may learn from this catastrophe.

Uncounted costs – Data gaps hide the true human impacts of disasters in 2023
Munich Re – the world’s largest reinsurer – has released its global disaster loss calculation for 2023, coming in at a total of US $250 billion. This roughly equals the entire GDP of New Zealand or Portugal. It is also slightly lower than the previous estimate for 2022, which originally came in at US $270 billion.

Alpine glaciers will lose at least a third of their volume by 2050,
whatever happens

By 2050, we will have lost at least 34% of the volume of ice in the European Alps, even if global warming were stopped. This is the prediction of a new computer model developed by scientists from the Faculty of Geosciences and Environment at the University of Lausanne (UNIL), in collaboration with the University of Zürich, ETHZ and the University of Grenoble. In this scenario, developed using machine-learning algorithms and climate data, warming is stopped in 2022, but glaciers continue to suffer losses due to inertia in the climate system.

Community-led disaster management: Soulinh’s path to resilience
Having recognized that locust infestations, droughts, and animal epidemics posed significant threats to their livelihoods, the Soulinh villagers identified proactive measures, including preparedness and response activities, in the village disaster risk management plan to cope with the potential impact.

Technical guidance on application of climate information for comprehensive
risk management

These guidelines and tools provide the necessary know-how to develop and strengthen a policy basis for DRR and risk-informed development. This guidance concludes that information on climatic averages and statistics of variability for future periods are important for strategic decisions and those involving long-term commitments.

A giant fund for climate disasters will soon open. Who should be paid first?
More than three billion people stand to benefit from a historic climate loss-and-damage fund. But spending it involves agonizing choices about who has
suffered most.

Manual for climate change adaptation measures for transport infrastructure in Central Asia with a focus on Uzbekistan
This manual provides an overview of climate-driven stressors relevant to transport infrastructure in Central Asia and explores adaptation strategies. Over the next few decades, the effects of climate change will likely exert considerable pressure on the transport infrastructure of Central Asia. In response, policymakers and the engineering community needs to implement resilient yet sustainable designs and construction solutions.

Fiscal risks of climate change: Sources and practical solutions
The fiscal risks of climate change facing countries in Asia and the Pacific are immense. This governance brief explores ways that climate change poses risks to public finances and several practical solutions to mitigate these risks.

Advancing disaster risk communications
Effective communication of disaster threats to decision-makers and at-risk communities is a growing challenge in a people-centred approach to disaster risk reduction. Traditional communication approaches tend to involve either top-down risk management practices or bottom-up community health and education practices. However, the strategic intent of communications should be guided by a ‘theory of change’ that delivers clear and coherent DRR goals.

The global risks report 2024: 19th edition
The Global Risks Report explores some of the most severe risks we may face over the next decade, against a backdrop of rapid technological change, economic uncertainty, a warming planet and conflict. As cooperation comes under pressure, weakened economies and societies may only require the smallest shock to edge past the tipping point of resilience.

International Conference: Big Data for Disaster Response and Management in Asia and the Pacific (15 – 17 Feb)
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS) in partnership with the APRU Multi-Hazards Program will organize the conference in Sendai, Japan on February 15–17, 2024.

Global Summit for Disaster Risk Reduction (20 – 22 Feb)
The Global Summit for Disaster Risk Reduction will take place in Nairobi, Kenya on 20-22 February 2024. Hosted by GNDR, the international event will bring together sector leaders and innovators, predominantly from the Global South, who work in disaster risk reduction and resilience building.

VizAfrica Conference Coming Soon, (5-7 Feb)
The VizAfrica 2024 Conference will take place from 5th -7th February 2024 at the African Institute for Capacity Development (AICAD) located at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Juja town in Kenya.

Global high-level technical meeting on noncommunicable diseases in humanitarian settings: building resilient health systems,leaving no-one
behind (27 – 29 Feb)

The Global high-level technical meeting, hosted by the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark and co-organized by the World Health Organization and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will take place 27–29 February, 2024 in Copenhagen.

Building Resilient Societies: Insights from Post-Disaster Recovery in Asia and
the Pacific (16 Feb)

The book launch event will commence with opening remarks from ADBI Dean Tetsushi Sonobe and a keynote speech from Muralee Thummarukudy, Director of the Coordination Office of the G20 Initiative on Land, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), focusing on disaster resilience. The discussions will continue with explanations from the book’s editors and a Q&A session with some of the chapters’ authors.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: December 2023 Edition

The costs of shifting scenarios: Why the IPCC should maintain consistent vocabulary in climate assessments 
In this insightful article, Bapon Fakhruddin, esteemed hydro-meteorologist, and climate risk assessor, along with Jana Sillmann, distinguished geo-ecologist, warn about the negative impacts of the changing IPCC scenario terminology. Beyond transition costs, the terminology changes also harm the application of such scenarios in policy settings.

COP28 Water Pavilion launches official website, a hub for global
water solutions 

The COP28 Water for Climate Pavilion has unveiled its official website, providing a digital platform to showcase innovative solutions and facilitate international collaboration on water-related issues.

Community resilience is now at the center of modern model building
code development
 

The Building Seismic Safety Council’s Functional Recovery Planning Committee has published a report detailing the recommended scope, organization, and deliverables for developing functional recovery code provisions within the 2026 National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) Recommended Seismic Provisions for New Buildings and Other Structures.

Climate actions centered on Indigenous knowledge can improve resilience 
Climate change in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific Islands worsens inequities and threatens unique island ecosystems. These are among the findings of the U.S. National Climate Assessment, released by the Biden Administration. The assessment concluded that adaptation actions centered on local and Indigenous knowledge can improve the resilience of Pacific Island communities.

Satellite data can help limit the dangers of windblown dust 
Dust storms present a growing threat to the health and safety of U.S. populations. A new model, powered by NASA and NOAA satellite data, provides important early warnings.

Floods pose significant risk to education and healthcare in Cambodia 
Seasonal flooding is the most common and frequent disaster in Cambodia. Major flooding events occur every five years and can be particularly devastating. In 2011, a flood affected more than 1,700,000 people, killed 250 people, and left 50,000 families homeless.  The impact of flooding on education and healthcare facilities is often overlooked, but these events can have severe long-term consequences on human capital and productivity.

How a small African island is fighting climate change impacts 
We had the privilege of talking with Bartolomeu Nascimento, a weathered 60-year-old fisher from Santa Catarina, a community in the western part of São Tomé Island. Through his tales, we saw the profound impact that climate change has had upon him and his coastal community.

The state of pre-arranged financing for disasters 2023 
This data-led report collates the best available data to start to assess and monitor annually the state of pre-arranged financing supported with international development financing in low-and middle-income countries.

Climate Change Roadmap Towards a Net-Zero and Resilient Future:
2023 Update
 

The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has released a 2023 update of its climate change roadmap, “Towards a Net Zero and Resilient Future.” The roadmap outlines the Australian insurance industry’s commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2030 for operations and 2050 across the entire value chain.

Tourism Sector Disaster Recovery Framework Guide 
The main purpose of the ‘Tourism Sector Disaster Recovery Framework (DRF) Guide’ is to assist national and local governments, relevant private sector partners, intergovernmental organizations and implementing partners in developing a sectoral DRF, comprising effective and efficient recovery programs for the sector. It is to be read in conjunction with the DRF guide.

Resilient Cities Index 2023 
The Resilient Cities Index was developed by Economist Impact and supported by Tokio Marine Group. To help policymakers and stakeholders understand risk and design effective policies for urban resilience, Economist Impact developed a benchmark of 25 cities.

Understanding the compound risk of heat, humidity and air pollution on  
human health: A scoping review 

This scoping review searched five online databases – four for peer-reviewed literature (Medline, Excerpta Medica dataBASE (EMBASE), Scopus and Global Index Medicus (GIM)) as well as one grey literature site (ReliefWeb) – using prearranged keywords combining compound exposures of air pollution, extreme heat, humidity and a
health outcome.

Contingency planning process to enhance resilience against sand and dust storms in agriculture in the Islamic Republic of Iran 
This report outlines the conceptual framework for sand and dust storms (SDS) hazard risk and vulnerability assessment and mapping in agriculture and provides the elements as part of SDS contingency planning process in agriculture in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

COP28 (30 Nov- 12 Dec)
As the climate crisis worsens around the world, COP28 must be a decisive moment to act on climate commitments and limit global warming to 1.5°C.

Accelerating climate-resilient water management approaches through the circular economy (8 Dec)
This session will discuss the importance of climate resilient water management in the context of investing in circular economy to achieve sustainable water management for municipal, industrial, and agricultural users and the natural environment.

EFDRR Roadmap Action-Oriented Dialogue: Reducing Risk Together – Community Engagement in DRR (13 – 15 Dec)
This Action Oriented Dialogue (AOD) for accelerating the implementation of the regional EFDRR Roadmap 2021-2030 and Sendai Framework will focus on “Reducing Risk Together”, bringing together a diversity of stakeholders to improve resilience.

REGIONS2030 Final Event: Monitoring the SDGs in the EU Regions (5 Dec)
The REGIONS2030 project is a collaborative effort between the European Parliament, the European Commission and 10 pilot regions to co-design and develop an indicator set for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at regional
level in Europe.

Multisector Dynamics: Extreme Weather, Compound Hazards, and Impacts
on Society (14 Dec)

Extreme weather events, including droughts, wildfires, heatwaves, floods, and cyclones, can have significant and diverse impacts on society and the environment. These impacts include economic losses, infrastructure damage, health issues, and loss of ecosystem services.

World Climate Summit – The Investment COP 2023, hosted by the World Climate Foundation (7 – 8 Dec)
As the largest C-level B2B convening alongside COP, World Climate Summit facilitates the exchange of best practices and innovations across vital sectors crucial to decarbonisation efforts in the areas of energy, transport, buildings, industry, finance and nature.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: November 2023 Edition

How Changes in the Arctic Shape Global Weather Patterns
Weather instabilities in the Arctic and changes in air temperature in distant regions such as California and Southwest China are linked, an international team of researchers reveals. Their study has been published in Nature Communications. The scientists also demonstrate that increased day-to-day irregularities in Arctic Sea ice cover are caused by the Arctic’s rapid sea ice decline.

Scientists find Two Ways that Hurricanes Rapidly Intensify
Forecasters have struggled for many years to understand why a seemingly commonplace tropical depression or tropical storm sometimes blows up into a major hurricane, packing catastrophic winds and driving a potentially deadly surge of water towards shore.

Mystery of Volcanic Tsunami Solved After 373 Years
26 October 2023/Kiel, Germany. The explosion of the underwater volcano Kolumbo in the Aegean Sea in 1650 triggered a destructive tsunami that was described by historical eye witnesses. A group of researchers led by Dr Jens Karstens from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel has now surveyed Kolumbo’s underwater crater with modern imaging technology and reconstructed the historical events.

Interconnected Disaster Risks 2023
The 2023 Interconnected Disaster Risks report analyses six interconnected risk tipping points, selected for their representation of large global issues, which are changing lives across the world.

Anticipatory action (AA): Best practices and Guiding Principles for Financial Protocols of AA funds
This report examines the financial protocols of five multilateral and non-governmental AA financing mechanisms (AA funds) that finance anticipatory interventions, and it collates best practices to develop financial protocols governing the deployment of AA funds once plans are activated.

The Future of Asian and Pacific Cities 2023: Crisis Resilient Urban Futures
The Future of Asian & Pacific Cities Report 2023 entitled, Crisis Resilient Urban Futures, is a comprehensive analysis and assessment of sustainable urban development in the Asia and Pacific region at a time of great disruption and uncertainty resulting from multiple interlinked global crises in a post-pandemic era.

Climate Change and Disability Inclusion in Uzbekistan
Within the nascent field of climate change and disability studies, this report represents one of the first fieldwork-based accounts of how climate change presents heightened risks to persons with disabilities in a developing country context. The impacts of climate change will be unevenly felt within and across countries partly due to social and economic inequalities

Methodologies for assessing adaptation needs and their
application – Technical paper

In this technical paper, the Adaptation Committee provides information on methodologies for assessing adaptation needs and their application, drawing on the inventory available on the adaptation knowledge portal of methodologies for assessing adaptation needs related to action, finance, capacity building, and technological support in the context of national adaptation planning and implementation, as well as on submissions from Parties and observer organizations on developing and applying methodologies for assessing such needs.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: October 2023 Edition

Running Dry Racing Against Time to Secure Our Water Future
Reviewing our progress in 2023, we need to catch up to our 2030 targets, particularly in water resources management. Despite challenges, the 2023 UN Water Conference and World Water Week have made strides towards a water-secure world. However, achieving these targets will require $114 billion per year in capital expenditure. It’s time for bold commitments, innovative solutions, and global collaboration!

At Climate Ambition Summit, UN Agencies and IFRC kickstart Major Initiative Towards Realizing Early Warnings for All by 2027
An initial injection of US$1.3 million from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) will be used to kick-start a much larger initiative aimed at delivering $157 million from the GCF and partner governments to move towards universal early warning for all.

How Nature-Based Solutions Can Build Urban Resilience: Four Lessons from SEI’s Work in South Asian Cities 
Nature-based solutions can help address environmental challenges in cities but community involvement and engagement is crucial to utilize local knowledge and create sustainable solutions. Here we provide four lessons based on SEI’s collaboration at the ground level to show how NbS can be made to work to address environmental challenges in cities.

Drones and Planes: Unprecedented Imagery Resolution Supports Disaster Assessment
The first use cases of drones and airplanes to collect high-resolution imagery helped the EU respond to emergencies and track disaster recovery with unparalleled accuracy. The potential to support disaster management looks promising.

Effective Visual Communication of Climate Change 
Boulder, Colo., USA: The consequences of a warming climate frequently dominated the news this summer, from devastating wildfires and floods to deadly heat waves across the globe. Reducing harm from climate change is a challenging endeavour, and it requires comprehensive public education. Thus, the question arises: How can climate change science be made most accessible to the general population, as well as decision-makers and educators?

The Threat of Wildfires is Rising. So are New Artificial Intelligence Solutions to Fight Them 
Wildfires fueled by climate change have ravaged communities from Maui to the Mediterranean this summer, killing many people, exhausting firefighters and fueling demand for new solutions. Enter artificial intelligence. Firefighters and startups are using AI-enabled cameras to scan the horizon for signs of smoke. A German company is building a constellation of satellites to detect fires from space.

“From satellites to sandbags”: Putting Water at the Heart of Climate Action. 
As proved so tragically in Libya last week, while water holds the key to life, all too often it kills.
Whether – like in Derna – it’s too much water leading to floods, or too little water causing droughts, or polluted water resulting in health risks, addressing the dangers that water poses can save lives. As climate change intensifies these threats, there is an urgent need for action.

The Environmental Dimensions of Libya’s Flood Disaster 
The catastrophic flooding in eastern Libya is a human and environmental disaster that has claimed thousands of lives. In this report we examine the main environmental considerations in the short and long-term, both to help inform the humanitarian response and later recovery. We also reflect on how years of conflict and insecurity in Libya contributed to the disaster.

The Ocean as a Solution to Climate Change: Updated Opportunities for Action
Analysis finds that full implementation of ocean-based climate solutions that are ready for action now could reduce the “emissions gap” by up to 35 percent on a 1.5°C pathway in 2050.

Resilience Evidence Forum 2023: Synthesis report
This Synthesis Report presents the findings and insights from the Resilience Evidence Forum that took place in June 2023. The report underscores the pressing need to build upon our progress, recognise the various forms of evidence—be it scientific, local knowledge, indigenous knowledge, or conveyed through storytelling—and elevate resilience as a collective, paramount objective.

Intangible Cultural Heritage within the Laws and Policies of South Pacific Small Island States in the climate crisis
Intangible Cultural Heritage within the Laws and Policies of South Pacific Small Island States in the Climate Crisis: Towards a More Resilient and Inclusive Approach’ is the first Special Edition of the Periscope Paper Series, an Occasional Analysis Paper/Brief series of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung’s (Foundation) Regional Programme Australia and the Pacific. This edition deals with the protection of intangible cultural heritage in Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

World Risk Report 2023: Focus: Diversity
The WorldRiskReport (WRR) 2023 examines the complex interrelationship between crises, marginalized groups, and the diverse structure of societies. Diversity plays a significant role in how disaster risk is distributed within a society. While it is true that disasters, extreme natural events, and crisis affect everyone in the immediate surroundings, the impact of the negative consequences tends to be more severe for marginalized groups such as people read as female, persons with disabilities, or members of the queer community.

Integrating Resilience into Municipal Infrastructure Delivery in Kenya
This Resilient Urban Infrastructure Guidelines forms one of a suite of reports developed by AECOM for the World Bank Group under the ‘Enhancement of Resilient Urban Planning and Infrastructure Investments in Urban Areas in Kenya’ assignment and constitutes Deliverable 2. This guidance note is based on a diagnostic assessment (Urban Resilient Infrastructure Assessment Report) of municipal infrastructure investments under the Kenya Urban Support Program (KUSP) 2018 – 2023.

Impacts of Medicanes on Geomorphology and Infrastructure in the Eastern Mediterranean
This study developed a systematic record of the direct impacts of Medicane Ianos on the Ionian Islands, in Greece, as a characteristic case study illustrating the potential effects of such an extreme event on a developed Mediterranean coastal area. Despite being relatively rare, Mediterranean tropical-like cyclones, also known as Medicanes, induce significant impacts on coastal Mediterranean areas.

Beyond the Horizon: Projecting Bhutan’s Water Future in a Changing Climate
Data can be a tricky beast. It can either illuminate our path or leave us groping in the dark. We decided to tackle this head-on. We harnessed the power of the latest climate change scenarios, leveraged satellite-driven rainfall data to train our historical database, and employed the basin-wide hydrological model (ArcSWAT) to evaluate future water availability across various basins.

Cities by Citizens Event 2
The objective of the Cities by Citizens initiative is achieving cities which are proactively planned to meet the needs of all through inclusive, meaningful and effective public participation in the planning process, as well as informed and transparent political decision-making on strategy and developments in urban areas.

International Data Week 2023: A Festival of Data, 23–26 October 2023, Salzburg, Austria
International Data Week brings together a global community of data scientists and data stewards; researchers from all domains; data, interoperability, and informatics experts from all fields; industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and policymakers.

Integrating Disaster Risk Data in Policy: CEMS’ Annual Conference 2023
Join us on Disaster Risk Reduction Day (13 October 2023) to learn about Copernicus and the Joint Research Centre’s (JRC) work on crisis management and the risks and opportunities of the future.

Training on Enhancing Inclusive Local Disaster Risk Reduction Strategies Using Disability Inclusion Scorecard Annex
This courses objective is to raise awareness on the inclusion of persons with disabilities in disaster risk management and Introduce the Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities – Annex for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities and its application for enhancing sub-national disaster risk reduction planning and implementation.

COSMOS 2024 Call for Contributions – Deadline Extended to 13 October
We invite the statistical and metadata communities to submit contributions for the first Conference On Smart Metadata for Official Statistics 2024 (COSMOS 2024), to be held on 11-12 April 2024 in Paris, France.

Webinar: Driving Measurable Change: Leveraging UN SDGs for Impact Investing
As the world reaches the midway point in its journey towards achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, reinvigorating progress and aligning efforts across various sectors has never been more pressing.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: September 2023 Edition

Channeling a safer future: How Georgia is engineering a climate-resilient future, safe from floods 
The unprecedented scale of the 2015 floods served as a wake-up call to the authorities and communities alike, prompting a re-evaluation of flood preparedness and the need for greater measures to mitigate future disasters – particularly in the context of more frequent extreme weather driven by climate change.

Monitoring Coastal Erosion in Africa using Earth Observation Data
The Digital Earth Africa #Coastline monitoring service empowers users to unlock sustainable coastal zone management through understanding patterns from the past.

Artificial Glacier Helps Mountain Village in Kyrgyzstan Meet Water Needs 
In southern Kyrgyzstan agriculture is the main source of income and food. To increase the communities’ resilience to weather anomalies, experts from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) proposed the construction of an artificial glacier in the region as part of the “Shared prosperity through cooperation in border regions of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan” project.

New Test Chamber Created to Find Better Ways to Keep People Cool 
A shipping container that can test passive cooling systems could help researchers and builders find carbon-free ways to keep people cool in extreme temperatures. Washington State University researchers created the 60-square-foot chamber to test passive systems that use wind towers along with water evaporation instead of electricity to cool spaces.

Global Heating Likely to Hit World Food Supply Before 1.5C, Says UN Expert 
The world is likely to face major disruption to food supplies well before temperatures rise by the 1.5C target, the president of the UN’s desertification conference has warned, as the impacts of the climate crisis combine with water scarcity and poor farming practices to threaten global agriculture.

Investing in Resilience: Innovative Finance for Drought Preparedness 
The policy brief demonstrates that enhancing resilience is one of the most cost-effective actions countries can take, and is typically far less expensive than interventions focused on responding to, and recovering from, the impacts of droughts, but innovative financing mechanisms are essential to fund the necessary long-term investments.

Leveraging Blockchain Technology for Crisis Management 
In the aftermath of climactic disasters, questions can often be raised that scrutinize the response from government authorities in aiding those affected. Taken from their research presented in Public Administration Review, Wendy D Chen and Ilia Murtazashvili explore the role of blockchains in disaster management. The authors argue that blockchains provide mechanisms of transparency and security that can enable governments to respond more effectively to disasters.

Comparison and Analysis of national Climate Change Adaptation Policies in the Nordic Region 
This report presents the findings from a comparative study of climate change adaptation policy in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Based on a comparative analysis of the policy landscape, including legislative frameworks, policy instruments, and financing mechanisms, the report identifies best practices and main challenges as well as key factors influencing the progress of national adaptation.

Machine Learning-enabled Regional Multi-hazards Risk Assessment Considering Social Vulnerability 
This study proposes a multi-hazards risk assessment method which considers social vulnerability into the analyzing and utilize machine learning-enabled models. The regional multi-hazards risk assessment poses difficulties due to data access challenges, and the potential interactions between multi-hazards and social vulnerability.

Weathering the Storm: Insurance in a changing climate 
This report explores the role of the insurance market in responding to these complex issues. It is informed by a nationwide survey of people that have home insurance, as well as interviews with homeowners and people who rent in communities affected by extreme weather events.

Climate Ambition Summit 
To accelerate action by governments, business, finance, local authorities and civil society, and hear from “first movers and doers,” the United Nations Secretary-General is convening a Climate Ambition Summit at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 20 September 2023.

3rd International Forum on Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals (FBAS) 
Thursday 7 September 2023; 13:30 to 15:00 CST (UTC +8, Beijing time) a CODATA+ Session on ‘Data and AI Policy for the Responsible Governance of Big Data During Crisis Situations for Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals’ as part of The 3rd International Forum on Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals (FBAS 2023). Here is a registration link for online participation.

Introduction to the Scorecard Action Guide: Prioritization of DRR Actions
This webinar session aims to introduce the Scorecard Action Guide and present a methodology for cities to frame and prioritise their programmes of action using data from the Scorecard assessment.

GCF Private Investment for Climate Conference 2023 
Wednesday, 27 September 2023, 13:00 to 15:00 UTC; 15:00 to 17:00 CEST (Brussels time): A Research Data Alliance’s (RDA) 10th Anniversary Webinar organized by the AIDV-WG + GOSC and CODATA IDPC on ‘The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Building Responsible Open Science Infrastructures’. Here is a registration link for online participation.

CODATA Connect Webinar - Data Stewardship, What’s in it for me?
This webinar will cover the practical aspects of data stewardship: what do people mean by it, why it is important (= the selfish benefits of good data stewardship), and, crucially, where and how to look for help. The session will be interactive, with plenty of time for questions and discussion.18 September:

UNDRR GETI, UNITAR & WHO E-learning Course] Resilience of Local Governments
In line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, SDG 11.B and SDG 3.D, this e-Learning Course aims to contribute to strengthening the capacity of local government officials for risk reduction and resilience planning inclusive of health threats management.

International Conference on Science and Technology for Sustainability 2023 – Transforming Society to Become Resilient and Sustainable beyond Catastrophic Disasters 
The Science Council of Japan, the Japan Hub of Disaster Resilience Partners (JHoP) and the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED) invite you to the “International Conference on Science and Technology for Sustainability 2023 – Transforming Society to Become Resilient and Sustainable beyond Catastrophic Disasters”.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: August 2023 Edition

Why climate action is critical to reducing poverty and what it means for policy trade-offs
Lifting people out of poverty requires helping households acquire and use capital and ensuring that they earn a good return from it. Poor households often rely on livelihoods that rely on natural capital, such as farming, pastoralism, or fishing. Climate change and the increase in temperature, rainfall extremes, and storms will have a big impact on the ability of poor people to earn income.

GCF’s 2024-2027 Strategic Plan sets out greater ambitions and results for critical global climate action 
The 2024-2027 Strategic Plan of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) was successfully adopted at the 36th meeting of the GCF Board on 10 July. As GCF nears the end of its first programming period, 2020-2023 (GCF-1), and is undergoing replenishment for its next programming period (GCF-2), the Strategic Plan reflects the urgency of the climate crisis and the organisation’s growth and maturation in becoming even more transformative and accessible.

Five tips for Inclusive disaster-risk management planning
The recent floodings in Malawi and Pakistan, earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, and Typhoon Mocha in Myanmar are painful reminders of nature’s wrath. By including women, persons with disabilities, the elderly, Indigenous Peoples, and other marginalized groups as active participants in building resilience to climate change and natural hazards, we tap into their unique, often overlooked knowledge, fostering resilience.

Cooling the heat: can India lead the world in green cooling innovation?
In recent months, India has broken several temperature records, recording its hottest February in 120 years. Heatwaves have devastating impacts on the health, economy, and environment of the nation, causing deaths, illnesses, crop failures, power outages, and water shortages. They also worsen air pollution, a major public health crisis in India.

A community-driven flood resilience information platform for Nicaragua
IIASA researchers and colleagues from Plan International are using modern digital tools to enhance community-driven flood resilience in rural flood-prone communities in Nicaragua. Communities in flood-prone regions worldwide are increasingly being impacted by the effects of flooding. Floods affect more people globally than any other natural hazard and cause some of the largest economic, social, and humanitarian losses.

Bringing a gender perspective to disaster risk finance can save lives
and support recovery

Global studies have shown that disasters – in general – often affect women harder than men. Even after years of significant economic and social progress, women face barriers in many areas. And when a natural disaster strikes, women tend to face life-threatening challenges, which could hamper both their economic and physical survival.

Surviving the aftermath of heavy snowfall in Merak, Bhutan: A story of tackling Loss and Damage
In Merak, Bhutan, we meet Ms. Pema Wangmo, who, with the help of her community, worked to restore greenhouses destroyed by climate change-induced snowfall. This is the fifth of the “Voices from the Frontline (Phase III)” stories by GRP and ICCCAD, supported by Irish Aid.

RISK Award 2023: Best project proposals “Climate resilience and early warning” 
The RISK Awards contribute to the target of disaster risk reduction and resilience building through early warning systems (EWS) as an essential strategic asset. The 2023 award focuses on early warning, particularly in building resilience to
climatic risks.

Solving climate displacement through proactive land policy 
This report speaks to three key areas: accessibility and policy as the root cause, the need for proactive planning to start now, and the fact that protecting house, land, and property rights must be at the core of climate policy responses.

Heat early warning systems roundtable 
This report contains insights, recommendations, and best practices emerging from the discussion, highlighting the importance of collective action to protect vulnerable populations from the impacts of heat waves. Extreme heat and heat waves, exacerbated by climate change, pose significant threats to public health, and effective early warnings are crucial for mitigating these risks.

Climate and equity: a framework to guide policy action 
This brief highlights that reducing the impact of climate change on poor and vulnerable households is essential to hastening poverty reduction. In thinking about policies that do this, this brief finds it helpful to apply the same hazard, exposure, and vulnerability framework often used to understand the physical impacts of climate change and add the non-climate benefits and costs to households that these policies can also bring.

State of the Climate in Latin America and the Caribbean 2022 
The State of the Climate in Latin America and the Caribbean 2022 report shows how climate change is triggering a vicious cycle of events with spiraling impacts on countries and local communities. Explaining how prolonged drought led to a drop in hydroelectricity production in large parts of South America, prompting an upsurge in demand for fossil fuels in a region with major untapped potential for renewable energy.

The 3rd International Forum on Low-Carbon Cities 
The 3rd International Forum on Low-Carbon Cities will be jointly organized by ESCAP East and North-East Asia Office and Incheon Metropolitan City on 29 August 2023 during the Korea Global Adaptation Week, in collaboration with Green Climate Fund, Incheon Carbon Neutrality Center, ICLEI, innovative Green Development Program, CityNet, Climate Change Center and Local Government Association for Climate and Energy Transition.

Sixth meeting of the Pacific Meteorological Council hosted by the Government of Fiji 
The Government of Fiji, through the Fiji Meteorological Service is the host of the sixth Meeting of the Pacific Meteorological Council (PMC-6) in Denarau, Nadi from 14-16 August 2023. The meeting will discuss, promote and explore opportunities to strengthen weather, climate, water, ocean and related development services in the context of sustainable development.

Korea Global Adaptation Week 2023
The Korea Global Adaptation Week (KGAW) 2023 will be one of the spotlight adaptation events of the year. It will be a platform to showcase and promote actions and practices to adapt to the impacts of climate change by accelerating the formulation and implementation of countries’ National Adaptation Plans and by providing adaptation practitioners with foresight thinking for resilience building.

CODATA Connect Webinar, An Ecosystem Perspective on the Ethics of AI and Emerging Digital Technologies
Smart information systems (SIS) are systems that incorporate artificial intelligence techniques, in particular machine learning and big data analytics. These raise significant hopes, for example, to better understand and cure diseases, but also to revolutionise transport, optimise business processes, or reduce carbon emissions.

JRC Summer School on the evaluation of air, soil and water pollution in support to the European Green Deal: a holistic approach
The JRC is pleased to announce the Summer School on the evaluation of air, soil and water pollution in support of the European Green Deal: a holistic approach organised by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in partnership with Novi Sad University.

Australian Disaster Resilience Conference 2023 
It has never been more important to reduce disaster risk and build resilience. We must reimagine the future to create the change we need. Our partnerships, programs, actions, and ideas all play an essential part in creating and safeguarding the world we want to live in now and the world we want to pass on to future generations.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: July 2023 Edition

New comprehensive toolkit to support countries after natural disasters 
World Bank Group announces comprehensive toolkit to support countries after natural disasters. The World Bank Group today announced a suite of new and expanded actions to help countries respond quickly and effectively to an ever-growing onslaught of crises.

Government of Barbados forms a coalition to develop resilient infrastructure
The Government of Barbados forms a coalition of multilateral banks and organizations to develop resilient infrastructure and to drive new social and nature capital investments, building on its Resilience and Sustainability Facility at the IMF

Integrating gender and social inclusion in nature-based solutions: a way forward
Vietnam, with its vast coastline of over 3,000 kilometres, is not only home to prosperous fisheries and socio-economic activities but also bears the brunt of rising sea levels, flooding, and storms. Women and vulnerable groups are especially susceptible to the negative impacts of disasters and face a continuing income gap. To address both challenges, the World Bank is working with the Vietnamese government to implement a project to enhance coastal resilience through nature-based solutions (NBS).

‘Drought is on the verge of becoming the next pandemic’
Little old England manages to encompass many global water problems – scarcity, over abstraction, pollution, underinvestment, government and regulatory failings, environmental degradation and corporate misconduct – all within the confines of one small country in the far west of Europe.

Embracing nature’s resilience: Combating desertification in Central Asia with Nature-Based Solutions
Drylands in Central Asia are among the most rapidly degrading and climate-vulnerable areas worldwide. Desertification caused by climate change and human activities has led to land degradation, soil erosion, and loss of vegetation and biodiversity that is costing Central Asia over 5% of regional GDP.

Seven ways to reform the global financial system for climate and sustainable development goals
Next week’s high-level summit in Paris for a New Global Financing Pact seeks to find ways to reform the global financial system to simultaneously address climate change, biodiversity and sustainable development challenges worldwide. This is an opportunity to act on the Bridgetown Initiative, which calls for a remake of the global financial architecture to tackle these issues. What changes are needed? A team of SEI researchers offers seven ideas.

Common threads: what we can learn from analyzing multiple disasters
Examining why some natural hazards develop into disasters can reveal resilience-building opportunities with the potential to protect communities from future catastrophe. Just as important as disaster analysis itself is the process of identifying key learnings that can be applied in other contexts, in the pursuit of a more resilient world.

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst: South Asia’s fiscal needs in the era of climate shocks
South Asian countries have come out of the pandemic with eroded fiscal space and record public debt.  Global financial tightening is putting additional pressure on government budgets. At the same time, the region’s vulnerability to climate risks—with more than 800 million people currently living in communities that are projected to become climate hotspots—demands substantial resources to prepare for future disasters and build climate resilience.

Struggling with the rain: Weather variability and food insecurity forecasting in Mauritania
This paper incorporates microeconomic estimates of the effect of the rainy season quality on food consumption into a catastrophe risk modeling approach to develop a novel framework for early forecasting of food insecurity at sub-national levels. Weather-related shocks and climate variability contribute to hampering progress toward poverty reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Building resilience through livelihoods and economic recovery
This guidance note presents UNDP’s updated approach to livelihoods and economic recovery programming in Fragile and Post-Crisis/Transition Settings (FACTS). Over the years, UNDP has contributed to strengthening the livelihoods of millions of people affected by conflict and natural disasters, as well as catalyze structural transformation towards more inclusive and greener economies.

CREWS 2022 Annual Report
The CREWS 2022 Annual Report maps and illustrates how the Climate Risk Early Warning System (CREWS) initiative is making the world safer with early warning. It captures progress against key programme indicators since the initiative’s first projects.

Climate Finance Shadow Report 2023: Assessing the delivery of the $100 billion commitment

This Briefing Paper notes that in 2009, high-income countries committed in the Copenhagen Accords to mobilize US$100 billion a year by 2020 in climate finance for low- and middle-income countries. This year’s report finds that high-income countries have not only failed to deliver on their commitment, but also – as in previous years – generous accounting practices have allowed them to overstate the level of support they have actually provided.

Caribbean regional workshop on integrated disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation planning 
The workshop seeks to enhance the capacities of Caribbean countries in developing and implementing integrated plans, and to support regional efforts in streamlining climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) measures in light of past and projected climate change impacts.

Eighth session of the Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction
The eighth session of the Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction will be held from 25 to 27 July 2023 As a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction is the intergovernmental legislative forum on disaster risk reduction.

HLPF Side Event: Infrastructure Resilience – safeguarding gains in sustainable development 
The 2023 High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development will be held on 10-19 July 2022 under the theme of “Accelerating the recovery from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at all levels”.

2023 RISK Award Online Ceremony “Climate resilience and early warning”
Disaster risk reduction saves lives, protects people from injury and prevents damage. The RISK Award contributes to this goal by recognizing the efforts of practitioners globally in making communities safer and more resilient.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: June 2023 Edition

Climate and disaster risk screening – A building block for Paris Alignment
Climate change-induced disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity and pose a growing threat to development, with communities and infrastructure increasingly vulnerable. Risk screening is a key step in the process of adapting to climate change and building resilience to shocks.

Making history: Eighteen countries align to partner with the private sector for improved disaster management in Asia and the Pacific
The private sector, as a first responder and development actor, is critical to bridge the divide between humanitarian and development approaches in the context of disaster management. A key takeaway of the regional workshop for Asia and the Pacific organized by the Connecting Business initiative (CBi), a joint programme supported by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Beyond climate mitigation: the Pakistan floods showed there’s no turning back
33 million people were affected by the devastating floods in Pakistan in 2022, but this was just one of many recent climate tragedies. Pakistan is the eighth most vulnerable country to climate change in the world. Yet, while the country remains one of the most vulnerable, its impact on global emissions accounts for less than 1%.

How these 7 cities are tackling heatwaves with innovative solutions
Heatwaves are making cities some of the hottest places to be. City infrastructure – like roads and buildings – absorbs heat and then releases it back into the city. Almost 90 cities issued heat alerts in the extreme weather over the summer of 2022, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. But cities are learning to tackle extreme heat – sometimes with ingenious solutions.

Asia and the Pacific unprepared to face climate-induced catastrophes, warns new UN study
Findings in the Race to Net Zero: Accelerating Climate Action in Asia and the Pacific report reveal that countries in the region lack the sizeable financial means to support adaptation and mitigation efforts and the data necessary to inform climate action.

How climate scenarios can help investors build portfolio resilience
As long-term investors, we recognize the material impact of climate change on investment portfolios. Yet, the process of determining the right strategy to increase portfolio resilience to climate change is not straightforward. Uncertainty over how climate risks evolve and their implications for macroeconomic and market conditions complicate the picture.

WorldFAIR Project (D7.1) Population Health Data Implementation Guide
This implementation guide describes the way all aspects of the data are made available for use, both within and from outside the INSPIRE Network community, using standard metadata to describe the data. This is an exploration of how generic standards can be used to express the agreed community metadata set.

WorldFAIR Project (D8.1) Urban Health Data – Guidelines and Recommendations
This report provides a summary of actions and findings of the Urban Health Mapping and Assessment (Task 8.1) for WorldFAIR Work Package 08.

WorldFAIR Project (D9.1) Data standard for sharing ecological and environmental monitoring data documented for community review
This report describes the types of data used for disaster risk reduction (DRR) and provides two country case studies, for Fiji and Sudan, with an in-depth look at the DRR datasets and associated metadata used by each country.

WorldFAIR Project (D12.1) Disaster Risk Reduction Case study
This report describes the types of data used for disaster risk reduction (DRR) and provides two country case studies, for Fiji and Sudan, with an in-depth look at the DRR datasets and associated metadata used by each country.

WorldFAIR Project (D13.2) Cultural Heritage Image Sharing Recommendations
Deliverable 13.2 aims to build on our understanding of what it means to support FAIR in the sharing of image data derived from GLAM collections. This report looks at previous efforts by the sector towards FAIR alignment and presents 5 recommendations designed to be implemented and tested at the DRI that are also broadly applicable to the work of the GLAMs.

Adapting industry to withstand rising temperatures and future heatwaves
In this report, the IMechE considers the challenges of adapting industry to future climate change-induced heat-related impacts. It explores the effects on industry and its workforce of increases in ambient temperatures and more frequent, severe, prolonged heatwaves and how engineers should respond.

Thriving: Making cities green, resilient, and inclusive in a changing climate
This report examines the two-way relationship between cities and climate change, concluding that cities also hold one of the keys to solving the climate crisis. With data from more than 10,000 cities, the report offers insight into how to help cities become greener, more resilient, and more inclusive – in other words, on how to help their cities thrive – in a changing climate.

Making adaptation work: Addressing the compounding impacts of climate change, environmental degradation and conflict in the Near and Middle East
A new ICRC/Norwegian Red Cross policy brief “Making Adaptation Work” presents how the humanitarian consequences of environmental degradation and climate change are aggravated by armed conflict in the Near and Middle East, and which adaptation approaches are emerging to face the compounding impact using examples from Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Gendered impacts of climate change: Evidence from weather shocks
This paper reviews the economic literature linking weather shocks (such as floods, droughts, and extreme temperatures, among others) and a large range of outcomes. The biggest gendered impacts are due to existing gaps and social responses to shocks.

Adapting coastal cities and territories to sea level rise in Mediterranean region challenges and best practices
The report provides an overview of the main obstacles that coastal managers from the Mediterranean region face in adapting their cities. Accordingly, it addresses the issues of how to design sustainable adaptation strategies through a coordinated approach at the regional and local levels; how to articulate measures over time, particularly in the context of the transformation of key sectors such as tourism.

Pacific Islands Pacific observatory, climate monitoring: Climate database in the Pacific
The Global Operations Support Team (GOST) has developed tools to process a curated set of medium resolution climate datasets (5 to 10 km), producing monthly and daily raster files (geotiffs) for each climate indicator. Climate data is a critical resource to help development actors prepare for and address the challenges of a changing environment.

Bonn Climate Change Conference – June 2023 
Bonn, Germany (1 June 2023): Governments must use the Bonn Climate Change Conference to drive forward steps to phase out all fossil fuels, and demonstrate a step-change in ambition, finance and implementation of actions that can tackle the climate crisis, according to WWF.

2023 Expert Forum for Producers and Users of Disaster-related Statistics 
The 2023 Forum is being organized third year in a row, following successful forums organized in 2021 and 2022 hosted by ECE and ESCWA respectively.

[UNDRR GETI – ARISE] Understanding Sendai Framework on DRR: An Option to Reduce Cost 
The four-part webinar-workshop series organized through a Tripartite Collaboration with Japan, India, and the Phillippines aims to help network members gain a deeper understanding of SFDRR’s goals and by showcasing the value of its programs and initiatives in reducing business operational costs and disaster-related losses and damages.

Social Media for Disaster Risk Management: Researchers meet Practitioners 
On the 7th and 8th of June, between 15:00-18:00CET each day, we will go for a deep dive into the exciting world of crisis informatics with our 3rd  workshop “Social Media for Disaster Risk Management” Researchers meet Practitioners”. We’ll explore the transformative potential of user-generated data, and how it’s actively shaping real-world crisis response strategies.

Events on Disaster Risk Management (europa.eu)
A list of upcoming Disaster Risk Management events to look out for.

International Symposium on Transportation Data & Modelling (ISTDM2023) 
ISTDM 2023 offers scientists a forum to discuss processes and challenges to properly model and manage future transport systems. It also provides opportunities to meet policy makers and help them shape future legislations in the transport field.​​​​​​​

 

Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: March 2023 Edition

National Mapping Efforts Support Government at All Levels
Efforts to map data at a national level can help state and local government agencies better serve constituents — especially where health and safety are concerned. One such effort is a place-based tool from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), known as the Environmental Justice Index (EJI), which went live in August of 2022.

XDI releases world-first comparison of every state’s physical climate risk 
The engine rooms of the global economy are among states and provinces most at risk from climate change and extreme weather according to a new ranking of the physical climate risk of every state, province and territory in the world released by XDI (The Cross Dependency Initiative) – a world leader in physical climate risk analysis.

Weather tracker: world braces for sudden stratospheric warming event
There has been keen interest over recent weeks in the much-anticipated sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event, which only began this week but is now well under way. The SSW phenomenon is linked to the polar vortex, an area of low pressure across the North Pole that forms within the stratosphere during autumn, as temperatures plummet in the absence of solar radiation.

Why did a Turkish City withstand the quake when others crumbled?
Erzin survived last week’s 7.8-magnitude quake with no casualties and little damage. The mayor credited his enforcement of building standards, but scientists say it is more likely about geology.

Words Matter: Stop Using the Phrase ‘Natural Disasters’
A holistic disaster risk management approach starts with a change in the way we refer to disasters. The phrase ‘natural disaster’ is used in the news, in social media, and in everyday conversations to describe extreme events like hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, or volcanoes. But the term is problematic – if not harmful.

 WorldFAIR Project (D13.1) Cultural Heritage Mapping Report: Practices and policies supporting Cultural Heritage image sharing platforms 
The WorldFAIR Project’s Cultural Heritage Work Package (WP13) outlines current practices guiding online digital image sharing by institutions charged with providing care and access to cultural memory, in order to identify how these practices may be adapted to promote and support the FAIR Principles for data sharing.

Sustainable Urbanisation to Enhance Climate Resilience
With the increasing urgency of the climate crisis, it is important to ensure our country is adequately equipped to handle its impacts. This is especially true for the urban lens, which ongoing climate change policy cannot afford to ignore, given that Malaysia is increasingly urbanised. Building resilient cities — cities that can absorb, recover and prepare for climate-related shocks and promote sustainable development — is vital towards creating a climate resilient Malaysia.

Climate Resilience – What can we learn from Pastoral Systems in Africa’s Drylands?
This policy brief aims to draw attention to the lessons pastoral systems offer in the face of climate change. Exploring the key factors enabling and hampering the resilience of pastoral systems to climate change, it shows how the challenge of sustainable and resilient food systems could be tackled under increasingly unpredictable climate conditions.

Building disaster resilience: a study of disaster events and financial lending stream
This report highlights the urgent need to rewire the current financial systems towards (a) de-risking current investments (b) integrating risk reduction into credit allocation and (c) redirecting financial flows towards risk reduction. The report opens with case studies on eight disaster events over the past decade that explore in detail the financial and economic costs of these events.

A data-driven approach to rapidly estimate recovery potential to go beyond building damage after disasters.
This study shifts attention beyond estimating building damage as the main source of information after an earthquake by introducing an approach to rapidly identify the obstacles that lead to the lack of household recovery progress. Following a disaster, crucial decisions about recovery resources often prioritize immediate damage, partly due to a lack of detailed information on who will struggle to recover in the long term.

UN 2023 Water Conference
The UN 2023 Water Conference – formally known as the United Nations Conference on the Midterm Comprehensive Review of the Implementation of the Objectives of the International Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development”, 2018-2028 – will take place at UN Headquarters in New York, 22-24 March 2023, co-hosted by Tajikistan and the Netherlands.

Midterm review of the UN’s disaster prevention framework (2015-2030) 
A midterm review of the UN’s disaster prevention framework by the International Science Council will be launched on 1 March 2023. The report has been produced by the ISC as part of an official midterm review by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) of the Sendai Framework, which sets out to reduce the human, economic and social cost of disasters.

From Sendai to Doha – Reducing Risk for a Resilient, Productive and Sustainable Future in All LDCs
This event seeks to showcase some of the offers of support from the United Nations system and its partners to address the particular challenges and bottlenecks faced by Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in their implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction with a view to accelerating implementation of the Doha Programme of Action.

Workshop: Systematically identifying, assessing and recommending actions for strengthening community resilience across multiple communities and countries
This session aims to build understanding of factors affecting public health system resilience across multiple communities and countries to COVID-19 pandemic and other emergencies.