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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.

A man looks out on a flooded alley in Chinatown on Nov 22, 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand. The Thai capital is experiencing its worst flooding in decades with much of the city inundated.
Update

Rapid urban growth in flood zones: Global trends in exposure since 1985

Intensifying natural hazards due to climate change are forcing countries to step up action in adapting to climate risks. In response to rising losses and damages, countries are committing to comprehensive adaptation and resilience strategies.
World Bank, the
A woman carrying a child through the heated streets.
Update

Climate Change made devastating early heat in India and Pakistan 30 times more likely

Since the beginning of March, India and Pakistan and large parts of South Asia experienced prolonged heat, that at the time of writing, May 2022, still hasn’t subsided.
World Weather Attribution
Aerial view of a delta in Amelland, NL
Research briefs

Four ways to save deltas from sea level rise

River deltas are drowning in the face of rapidly rising sea-levels. To keep up, delta land needs to be raised with sand and mud from rivers. But the supply from rivers is decreasing, and doesn’t make it to deltas anymore, causing flooding and land loss.
Deltares
Row of floating houses in the Netherlands
Update

UN-Habitat and partners unveil OCEANIX Busan, the world’s first prototype floating city

OCEANIX today unveiled the design of the world’s first prototype sustainable floating city. OCEANIX Busan aims to provide breakthrough technology for coastal cities facing severe land shortages that are compounded by climatic threats.
United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) - Headquarters
A young boy walking across a refugee camp in Syria.
Research briefs

Harnessing anticipatory action to avoid or reduce disaster displacement

Recent years have seen a surge in people being displaced by disasters – often within their own countries. In 2020 alone, weather- and climate-related events led to more than 30 million people worldwide being displaced within their country.
Anticipation Hub
An older woman from Bangladesh in Cox Bazar looking into the camera.
Update

Women in rural Bangladesh pay more for rising cost of climate disasters

Poor households headed by women spend a higher share of their budgets on protecting their families from worsening floods, storms and other impacts of global warming
Thomson Reuters Foundation, trust.org
GRID 2022
Update

All-time high of nearly 60 million people internally displaced worldwide

The number of people living in internal displacement around the world reached a record 59.1 million at the end of 2021, up from 55 million a year earlier.
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)
Sightseers and locals in the rain on Sat morning Oct 12, Typhoon Hagibis due to hit hard later in the day.
Update

Climate change added $4bn to damage of Japan’s Typhoon Hagibis

New study calculates how much of the damage of individual extreme weather events can be attributed to human-caused climate change.
Imperial College London
AN African woman wearing a face mask to protect her from COVID-19. She is walking across a market.
Press release

COVID-19 sparked new thinking on risks, UN report finds

As world leaders are traveling to Bali to meet at the Global Platform for DRR 2022 and discuss how to better prevent and reduce current and future risks, the UNU-EHS and UNDRR have launched the new report “Rethinking Risks in Times of COVID-19.”
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)
Field of dead corals, due to warming oceans
Update

Four key climate change indicators break records in 2021

Four key climate change indicators – greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, ocean heat and ocean acidification – set new records in 2021. This is yet another clear sign that human activities are causing planetary scale changes.
World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
illustration
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