Why the Tonga tsunami arrived much earlier and much larger than expected
The tsunami recorded at distant locations from the Tonga volcanic explosion arrived much earlier and was much larger than expected from an earthquake-generated tsunami. This event caused great difficulty in issuing timely and accurate tsunami warnings for the following three reasons described in the article.

Volunteered rapid disaster monitoring and mapping (VoRDM)
The Kingdom of Tonga and its people are reeling from the violent January 15 eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano and the ensuing tsunami. CODATA TG FAIR Data for DRR, China GEO Aerospace Information Research Institute in the Chinese Academy of Sciences (AIR) and Tonkin + Taylors  Disaster Risk Resilience team is working hard to map the devastation accurately and smoothly the way for more efficient humanitarian efforts and recovery.

Long-term planning crucial to Tonga’s recovery
As recovery efforts began in Tonga, after the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano eruption and the tsunami that followed, the first priority will be to provide immediate relief to communities to save lives and respond to urgent needs. However, successful recovery must also incorporate long-term strategies of building back better and establishing resilience, mitigation, risk reduction and preparedness initiatives.

2021 floods: UN researchers aim to better prepare for climate risks
In July 2021, several European countries, including Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, were affected by catastrophic floods, causing deaths and widespread damage. According to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), such extreme weather events are expected to increase frequency and severity in the coming decades.

A framework for global science in support of risk-informed sustainable development and planetary health
This document takes stock of recent developments in disaster risk science. It provides a compelling set of directions for research and scientific collaboration for a more holistic and collaborative approach to understanding and managing risks. It challenges silos in science and in society and the notion that social, ecological, economic and technological systems can be understood in isolation from one another and advocates for an increased focus on people.

Tsunami risk communication and management: Contemporary gaps and challenges
Very large tsunamis are associated with low probabilities of occurrence. In many parts of the world, these events have usually occurred in a distant time in the past. As a result, there is a low-risk perception and a lack of collective memories, making tsunami risk communication challenging and complex. Furthermore, immense challenges lie ahead as population and risk exposure increase in coastal areas.

UK climate change risk assessment 2022
As required by the Climate Change Act 2008, the UK government has undertaken the third five-year assessment of the risks of climate change in the UK. The risk assessment considers sixty-one UK-wide climate risks and opportunities cutting across multiple sectors of the economy. It prioritises eight risk areas for action, discussed in the document.

Creating resilient futures: Integrating disaster risk reduction, sustainable development goals and climate change adaptation agendas
This book examines a coherence building opportunity between Climate Change Adaptation, the Sustainable Development Goals and Disaster Risk Reduction agendas. Considers opportunities to address global challenges in the context of developing resilience as an integrated development continuum instead of through independent and siloed agendas.

City Resilience Program: Supporting cities in building resilience
This Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) webinar session aims to provide in-depth information to help cities, local authorities, and their partners better understand what the City Resilience Program is and how to access its support. It will include information on the type of support provided, the eligibility criteria and the relevant application process.

CREWS workshop on people-centred early warning systems operational procedures
CREWS invite participants to register interest in participating in a 2-hour workshop (in French and English) to discuss CREWS People-Centered Early Warning Systems (EWS) Operational Procedures. The workshop is an opportunity for people with experience of people-centred EWS and design, implementation and monitoring of CREWS projects to share experiences and contribute to finalising.

Pre-Conference Workshops – African kick-off conference for the UN decade of ocean science for sustainable development
The Conference will provide a forum to take stock of the state of ocean science and technology in the region, to deliberate on how ocean science in Africa should be supported and focused on achieving the societal outcomes required by the Decade, and also seek the interest and commitment of the ocean science community to engage in a number of research directions that are essential for sustainable ocean management.

SHEAR Common Ground: Science for humanitarian emergencies and resilience
It is our great pleasure to invite you to join us on February 11th at our SHEAR finale event, in which we will be celebrating our achievements, finding common ground and charting the way forward. We are excited to share and discuss pressing humanitarian-science questions and the outcomes of the SHEAR programme through a high-energy and interactive virtual event.

Artificial intelligence for natural disaster management
This Webinar will explore the main barriers to adopting these disruptive technologies in disaster management and examine the integrated approaches related to machine learning, big data analytics, and AI for supporting the detection, forecasting, and communication of natural hazards disasters.  In this context, the Webinar will provide an overview of how AI can be leveraged to enhance modelling across spatiotemporal scales and facilitate effective communication in the event of a natural disaster. 

World Bank: Disaster risk insurance: 5 insights from the Philippines
With disasters a growing threat, insurance for countries trying to manage climate and disaster risk is becoming increasingly critical. While insight on what works – and what doesn’t – to build resilience is still limited, the experience of the Philippines shows how countries can improve their protection to disasters by working with international insurance markets.

Science supporting policy in disaster risk management: providing the data and knowledge for transitioning to a climate-proof resilient society
The representatives of the EC’s Joint Research Centre recently discussed the INFORM risk assessment, an evidence-based methodology to support decision-making on humanitarian crises and disasters, extended recently to the regions of Caucasus and Central Asia and South Eastern Europe

Kiribati: Fishing for food and resilience
Located in the centre of the Pacific, the Republic of Kiribati is known for being one of the world’s smallest and most remote island nations. In fact, it is remarkably large: 33 atoll islands spread across an ocean territory of more than 3.5 million square kilometers. The vast waters – one of the world’s biggest Exclusive Economic Zones – constitute some of the richest and most diverse ecosystems on Earth, supporting hundreds of species as well as the livelihoods, health, culture, and way of life of local people. However, in the global narratives about climate change, island nations such as Kiribati have been seen as ‘poster children’ for the risks of a warming planet.

The need for medium-range forecasting in early warning systems to improve risk outcomes
High-impact weather events – floods, storms, cyclones – threaten human life and property, as well as affecting the economy and inflicting significant societal hazards. Being able to predict these events accurately, and with sufficient lead times, enables people to prepare for them. It is also more cost-effective: a dollar invested in disaster preparedness – which reduces people’s vulnerability to the impacts – can prevent six dollars’ worth of disaster-related economic losses.

One billion children at ‘extremely high risk’ of climate impacts
Young people living in the Central African Republic, Chad, Nigeria, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau are the most at risk of the impacts of climate change, threatening their health, education, and protection, and exposing them to deadly diseases, according to a UNICEF report launched today. ‘The Climate Crisis Is a Child Rights Crisis: Introducing the Children’s Climate Risk Index’ is the first comprehensive analysis of climate risk from a child’s perspective. It ranks countries based on children’s exposure to climate and environmental shocks, such as cyclones and heatwaves, as well as their vulnerability to those shocks, based on their access to essential services.

Post-disaster needs assessments guidelines: Volume B – Environment
The main objective of PDNA–Environment is to prepare a recovery strategy that guides the restoration of environment and natural resources damaged due to a disaster. This should also enable environmentally friendly rebuilding in all sectors. The recovery plan also supports the restoration of environment and natural resources as a disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategy.

Words into Action: Nature-based solutions for disaster risk reduction
This guide aims to give practical, how-to-do information on setting up and implementing nature-based solutions (NbS), especially for disaster risk reduction (DRR), but also for climate change adaptation (CCA). It is designed to help implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (hereafter referred to as the Sendai Framework). The Sendai Framework recognizes that environmental degradation can cause hazards and that disasters also have an impact on the environment.

From protection to prevention: The role of cooperative and mutual insurance in DRR
This report, prepared by the ICMIF-UNDRR collaboration, presents seven mechanisms gleaned from case studies compiled across the cooperative and mutual insurance sector and from a literature review on the role of insurance in supporting disaster risk reduction and resilience. It focuses on preventing new risks and reducing existing risk is more urgent than ever because disasters can erase development gains and hinder progress, often for years to come, such as in the case of floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, pandemics or major technological disasters.

UNDRR Briefing Package for UN Resident Coordinators and UN Country Teams
This briefing package sets out how UNDRR can better support UNRCs and UNCTs to deliver sustainable development benefits at a country level from a DRR angle. The options proposed here can be adjusted to meet the needs of the regional UN development system architecture. This package includes an information checklist, support tools and information that UNDRR has developed to support national governments and UN partners to reduce risks and losses as guided by the Sendai Framework.

 Can ecosystems protect populations? New evidence published
While it is generally assumed that ecosystems, such as mangroves, coral reefs or sand dunes, play an important role in reducing risks from hazard events, there are few comprehensive studies that gather scientific evidence on the services these ecosystems provide, and the functions they fulfil for disaster risk reduction.

Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Resilience: Linking Science, Tech, Policy and Practice
Objectives of the webinar include discussing the current state of nature-based solutions that are undertaken globally and identifying success stories and how this can be replicated to scale for impact.

Workshop Announcement and Call for Applications: Enlargement and Integration – Digital Transformation, Data and AI in the Western Balkans
The workshop “Digital Transformation, Data and AI in the Western Balkans” aims to investigate how digital technologies, data and AI influence changes in our societies. Europe’s ambition is to become the world-leading region for developing and deploying cutting edge, ethical and secure AI, as well as to promote a human-centric approach in the global context.

9th Global Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Humanitarian Action – Virtual Edition: 7th – 9th December 2021
Join us for a series of panel discussions, thematic presentations and interactive events that will bring together practitioners, scientists and government representatives from around the world to explore how anticipatory action can address the compounding and intertwined effects of the climate crisis, rising conflicts and economic shocks on the world’s most vulnerable people.

International Science Council – Health Inequalities: New Methods, Better Insights?
At this conference of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the final report of the ALLEA/FEAM Health Inequalities project will be presented to a wider audience. The technical contents of this report, ‘Health inequalities: new methods, better insights?’, have already been discussed extensively at a series of well-attended workshops. This conference aims to provide a forum for discussing the implications of the report for research and policy. How can new research methods help us to better understand health inequalities, and how can better science help policymakers to reduce health inequalities more effectively?

#AGU21: Science is Society
The AGU Fall Meeting is the primary gathering for Earth and space scientists, students, and those in affiliated fields to share scientific findings and identify innovative solutions. With in-person and worldwide online participation, attendees will have numerous opportunities to network with government regulators, scientific visionaries, and industry thought-leaders. Join our diverse community in New Orleans and Online Everywhere 13 – 17 December 2021.

20th Swiss Climate Summer School 2022 – Extreme weather and climate
Swiss Climate Research, the network of leading Swiss institutions in climate research and education, invites young scientists (PhD students and postdocs) to join high-profile climate researchers in a scenic Swiss Alpine setting for keynote lectures, workshops and poster sessions on the occasion of the 20th Swiss Climate Summer School 2022.