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.

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Panoramic view of Hoover Dam and Mike O'Callaghan - Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge between Arizona and Nevada over Colorado River, USA

Research briefs

10 March 2022

Human actions accelerate climate-driven floods and droughts

Human-managed streams in Canada and the U.S. found to have significantly different flow patterns compared to streams in natural watersheds

University of Waterloo

Documents and publications

10 March 2022

CRED Crunch, Issue no. 65, March 2022: Technological disasters: trends & transport accidents

This newsletter looks at patterns of technological disaster over the last 20 years. As well as disasters related to natural hazards, EM-DAT reports on technological disasters, which are categorized into industrial, transport, and miscellaneous accidents.

Documents and publications

10 March 2022

Briefing note on systemic risk

This Briefing Note provides a review of systemic risk science and practice , and identifies opportunities for research, policy and practice from the perspective of climate, environmental and disaster risk science and management.

United States National flags ant headstones in National cemetery

Research briefs

8 March 2022

Hurricanes and other tropical cyclones linked to rise in U.S. deaths from several major causes

Landmark study in Jama reveals potential hidden deadly cost of climate-related disasters to injuries, infectious and parasitic diseases, respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and neuropsychiatric disorders.

Mailman School of Public Health (Columbia University)

EU Program Coordinator Piush Kayastha's visit to Pratibaddha project areas.

Update

8 March 2022

Role of women in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change in Nepal

For many local authorities, Women in DRR is synonymous with allocating budget for relief and response activities for women. However, some projects have shifted the paradigm: women in DRR are not limited to being passive survivors but active change-makers.

People in Need

Woman, displaced from war in Yemen, collecting fire wood

Update

8 March 2022

Five examples of gender-sensitive solutions to displacement linked with climate change

IDMC, with support from the Robert Bosch Foundation, is documenting successful practices to address displacement in the context of climate change. On International Women’s Day, the focus lies on interventions tackling the issue in a gender-sensitive way.

Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)

Micro Grid Power Plant in Austin, Texas (USA)

Update

9 March 2022

Floods left thousands without power. Microgrids could help communities weather the next disaster

Microgrids are groups of homes and businesses that use, generate, and share electricity. When the main grid begins to fail, they can disconnect from the main grid and continue to operate in a so-called “islanding” mode.

Conversation Media Group, the

State Emergency Service (SES) respond to a flooding event in residential street in Killarney Valley, Australia (2021)

Update

8 March 2022

The floods have killed at least 21 Australians. Adapting to a harsher climate is now a life-or-death matter

The devastating floods in Queensland and New South Wales highlight, yet again, Australia’s failure to plan for disasters. As we’re seeing now in heartbreaking detail, everyday Australians bear the enormous cost of this inaction.

Conversation Media Group, the

Cover of the publication: woman standing a field, holding a watering can

Documents and publications

9 March 2022

Gender & risk finance - How climate risk insurance can turn four women’s lives around - 2022

This publication showcases four women in Malawi, Guatemala, Madagascar and Nicaragua who thanks to risk finance were able to overcome climate shock, build resilience, and help their families and communities.

Farmers working on a foggy field in northern Bangladesh

Update

7 March 2022

Anticipatory action for cold waves in Bangladesh

Cold waves are an overlooked disaster, with few humanitarian agencies acting to tackle these impacts. Consultations indicated that much more could be done to reduce the vulnerability of those most at risk – including acting ahead of a forecast cold wave.

Anticipation Hub