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.

An elderly vendor in Bangkok, Thailand takes a nap

Research briefs

9 August 2022

Risk of death rises as climate change causes nighttime temperatures to climb

Excessively hot nights caused by climate change are predicted to increase the mortality rate around the world by up to 60% by century's end, according to a new international study featuring research from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Turkana women from Kenya look at images and video

Update

8 August 2022

Kenyan youth help climate-hit communities prepare for disaster

Young volunteers in the east African nation are spreading the word about extreme weather such as drought as climate change worsens.

Thomson Reuters Foundation, trust.org

The walls of Bagerhat's sixty dome mosque are smudged white by the saline air

Update

8 August 2022

Rising salinity threatens ‘the wealth of the world’ in Bangladesh

Archaeological sites such as those in the Mosque City of Bagerhat on the coast of the country are particularly vulnerable to climate change.

The Third Pole

This image shows dead trees that were destroyed by a forest fire and are now covered with frost and rain.

Update

4 August 2022

NASA data on plant ‘sweating’ could help predict wildfire severity

A new study uses data from the ECOSTRESS instrument aboard the space station to better understand why some parts of a wildfire burn more intensely than others.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Satellite view of the wildfires in a field

Research briefs

27 July 2022

Machine learning model uses social media for more accurate wildfire monitoring

Scientists have developed a new machine learning model that uses social media data to predict and monitor wildfires more accurately in real-time.

Imperial College London

A sandstorm cloud approaches the city of Khartoum in Sudan

Research briefs

4 August 2022

The global map of aridity

Aridity conditions have now been mapped for the whole globe with a very high spatial resolution. This is a knowledge tool and database that helps detailed description and informed decisions to allow better land-use planning.

Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici

A man in a reflective vest takes a break amidst hot weather

Update

4 August 2022

Business can no longer ignore extreme heat events – it’s becoming a danger to the bottom line

Businesses will need to better manage extreme heat risk. But are investors sufficiently informed on the economic toll caused by the increasing frequency of extreme weather?

Conversation Media Group, the

Update

4 August 2022

Mapped: How climate change affects extreme weather around the world 2022

In the early 2000s, a new field of climate-science research emerged that began to explore the human fingerprint on extreme weather, such as floods, heatwaves, droughts and storms.

Carbon Brief

Moroccan farmer overlooking his heard of sheep on his fields.

Update

4 August 2022

Cascading’ climate risks in the Middle East and North Africa

Climate risks need to be understood in terms of their interaction with social, political and environmental vulnerabilities on the ground.

China Dialogue

Documents and publications

4 August 2022

The challenge of unprecedented floods and droughts in risk management

This research shows that risk management generally reduces the impacts of floods and droughts but faces difficulties in reducing the impacts of unprecedented events of a magnitude not previously experienced.