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.

Research briefs

22 January 2024

Satellite data assimilation improves forecasts of severe weather

The researchers reported that adding microwave data collected by low-Earth-orbiting satellites to existing computer weather forecast models produced more accurate forecasts of surface gusts in a case study of the 2020 Midwest Derecho.

American Geophysical Union

Research briefs

20 March 2024

Detecting storms thanks to GPS

ETH researchers led by Professor Benedikt Soja, have succeeded in detecting heavy precipitation events directly with GPS data. The results of their study could significantly improve meteorological monitoring and forecasting.

ETH Zurich

Documents and publications

21 March 2024

Resilience Rating System: A methodology for building and tracking resilience to climate change - Synthesizing key lessons from IDA19 Piloting

The RRS evaluates and rates investment projects from C to A+, based on their resilience attributes in two complementary dimensions.

Research briefs

19 March 2024

The heat index — how hot it feels — is rising faster than temperature

A 3 F rise in temperature due to global warming may seem endurable, but it can actually feel like 10 F.

University of California, Berkeley

Update

20 March 2024

Integrating anticipatory action into contingency plans: lessons from Somaliland

The process of integrating anticipatory action into contingency plans has many challenges, yet it holds immense promise for enhancing humanitarian preparedness.

Anticipation Hub

Research briefs

20 March 2024

Frequency of heat days systematically underestimated in many studies

Scientists at the University of Vienna have uncovered an error in an established calculation method, leading to a systematic underestimation in the frequency of heat days.

University of Vienna

Research briefs

19 March 2024

Where and how sea-level rise threatens coastal areas and communities

To better understand how sea-level rise threatens coastal areas, scientists propose a new indicator to estimate the risk of coastal flooding under climate change.

Eos - AGU

Update

19 March 2024

Climate change indicators reached record levels in 2023: WMO

The state of the climate in 2023 gave ominous new significance to the phrase “off the charts.”

World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

Update

19 March 2024

Heat stress causes lower fertility, productivity and reduced cognitive capacity: Project HeatSafe

The findings from the Project HeatSafe, the first large-scale study in Singapore investigating the impact of rising heat levels, give a multi-faceted perspective of how heat stress, will lead to detrimental impacts and consequences on the individual.

National University of Singapore

Update

12 March 2024

The power of youth: In Vanuatu, young volunteers keep the water flowing

The main cause of the flooding is the improper disposal of rubbish. People do not throw their rubbish in the right place and it’s their carelessness that is blocking the drainage and causing the flooding

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)

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