Knowledge Base highlights and editors' picks

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Every week the PreventionWeb team of editors selects the latest news and research, reports and publications on disaster risk reduction – here is their selection of the latest must-read content.

Lots of people and boats and the school at the village of Boca De Valeria on the Amazon River, Amazonas State, Brazil.

Research briefs

12 June 2023

Experiment in Brazil identifies flood-prone areas of cities

Scientists in Brazil have combined models that predict urban expansion and land-use changes with hydrodynamic models to create a methodology capable of supplying geographical information that identifies flood-prone areas vulnerable to heavy rainfall.

PhysOrg, Omicron Technology Ltd

Update

12 June 2023

Sat Vu's revolutionary "HOTSAT-1" set to launch, unleashing unprecedented thermal monitoring capabilities

Sat Vu, the trailblazing climate tech company, announces the highly anticipated launch of its groundbreaking thermal imaging satellite: "HOTSAT-1."

SatVu

Research briefs

12 June 2023

Railways could be a key 'utility player' for backup power

Berkeley Lab researchers demonstrate trains can cost-effectively dispatch grid-scale batteries in emergencies

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Houses with wildfire smoke in the background

Update

9 June 2023

Poor air quality isn’t the only way wildfires affect cities

The catastrophic effects of the wildfires in Quebec make it clear that a forest’s impact — or the impact of its destruction — expands far beyond the forest itself.

World Resources Institute

Flood in a mountain produced by a glacial lake outburst

Research briefs

9 June 2023

Glacier recession in the Himalayas increases threat of catastrophic outburst floods, says new study

In a groundbreaking research effort, scientists from IIT Jammu have shed light on the growing concern of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) in the Himalayas.

Indian Institute of Technology Jammu (IIT)

Update

9 June 2023

El Niño is back – that’s good news or bad news, depending on where you live

El Niño is officially here, and while it’s still weak right now, federal forecasters expect this global disrupter of worldwide weather patterns to gradually strengthen.

Conversation Media Group, the

Documents and publications

10 June 2023

Missing Voices Approach manual

This Missing Voices Approach manual provides guidance on how to implement the Approach to capture first-person perspectives of marginalized people to inform disaster risk management.

Update

8 June 2023

An El Niño looms over Australia’s stressed electricity system – and we must plan for the worst

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology has declared a 70% chance of an El Niño developing this year. It’s bad timing for the electricity sector, and means Australians may face supply disruptions and more volatile energy prices.

Conversation Media Group, the

People boating on lakes harvest water lilies, the people of this region used water lilies do as a vegetable dish

Update

5 June 2023

Integrating gender and social inclusion in nature-based solutions: a way forward

The World Bank, with support from the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) has launched a new guidance note that provides entry points for gender and social inclusion in NBS in urban, coastal, and forest and farmland settings.

World Bank, the

Turkish schoolgirls in uniform walking in a street

Update

7 June 2023

How safer and more resilient schools withstood the earthquakes in Türkiye

Since 2017, 57 schools have been built by the Turkish Ministry of National Education to be safer and more resilient to disaster, with support from the World Bank, GFDRR and the EU.

World Bank, the