Knowledge Base highlights and editors' picks

Top stories and editors' picks from the most recent additions. Explore the whole Knowledge Base.

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.

Update

23 March 2023

A story from a football field: Building climate resilience in Viet Nam's Central Highlands and Central Coast

If you have a chance to visit the farm of Thi Dieu and Mang Min in Thuan Bac district in south Viet Nam, what you see will make you think of a football field: a hard and flat ground and little grass.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Documents and publications

23 March 2023

Falling through the gaps: how global failures to address the climate crisis are leading to increased losses and damages – Executive Summary

To better understand the realities and needs of frontline communities, this paper explored flooding impacts and risks in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Nepal. Case studies on losses and damages in these countries are summarized in this report.

Update

21 March 2023

Africa’s aquifers hold more than 20 times the water stored in the continent’s lakes, but they aren’t the answer to water scarcity

Discoveries of aquifers – underground earth formations that hold water – often create excitement around their ability to ease water scarcity in a region.

Conversation Media Group, the

Update

22 March 2023

After cyclone Freddy, how to strengthen Malawi’s disaster preparedness?

Cooperation between Malawi, China and UNDP is helping vulnerable communities take the initiative to minimise flood risks

China Dialogue

Update

21 March 2023

IPCC: ‘Severe consequences’ of further warming in disaster-hit Himalayas

Exceeding a 1.5C rise in global temperature imperils already vulnerable Hindu Kush Himalayan region, experts say after IPCC synthesis report, as UN chief demands more from G20 countries

The Third Pole

Update

21 March 2023

New research reveals how forests reduce their own bushfire risk, if they’re left alone

Fire management in Australia is approaching crisis point. Seasons such as the Black Summer three years ago showed how our best efforts in fire-fighting and prescribed burning are insignificant in the face of a changing climate.

Conversation Media Group, the

Update

21 March 2023

Glacial lakes can unleash deadly deluges. How risky are they?

Breaches in glacial lake dams threaten millions around the world, and scientists are investigating how climate change might affect that risk.

Eos - AGU

Research briefs

20 March 2023

Insecticide use against desert locust in the Horn of Africa 2019–2021 reveals a pressing need for change

In work published in Agronomy, the TMG Research gGmbH study team traced a highly destructive desert locust invasion in the Eastern Africa and Horn region between 2019-2021. Ethiopia and Kenya sprayed over a million hectares with damaging pesticides.

PhysOrg, Omicron Technology Ltd

Research briefs

21 March 2023

Climate change: farmers in Ghana can’t predict rainfall anymore, changing how they work

Climate change affects all spheres of life, particularly those aspects that depend on the environment. Farming communities are a case in point.

Conversation Media Group, the

Update

17 March 2023

Recentring nature to solve the global water crisis

Amid a worsening global water crisis, world leaders will gather at UN Headquarters in New York 22-24 March for the first UN Water Conference since 1977. During this historic moment, all eyes will focus on SDG 6 for water and sanitation.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

The DRR Knowledge Base

Explore the latest on disaster risk and resilience from around the world: news, research, policies and publications.

Subscribe to alerts

Get updates in your inbox

Contribute your content

The Knowledge Base is a collaborative effort of the DRR community, updated and reviewed daily by PreventionWeb editors.

Upload your content for review