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.

Update

23 April 2024

Quakes do not kill people, bad buildings do

Across the Asia Pacific, region infrastructure and homes are rising up in seismically sensitive areas with governments seemingly reluctant to enforce safety codes for fear of slowing down development activity.

Science and Development Network

Research briefs

23 April 2024

How saving island life can sink the island

Researchers in North Carolina have created a coastal evolution model to analyze how coastal management activities on barrier islands, meant to adapt to sea-level rise, interact with natural processes that would otherwise keep barrier islands above water.

Duke University

Documents and publications

25 April 2024

Scaling up anticipatory actions for food security: Anticipatory action year in focus 2023

This report provides an overview of WFP's progress in scaling up its Anticipatory Action (AA) operations, from covering 3.2 million people in 28 countries in 2022 to 4.1 million people in 36 countries in 2023.

Research briefs

23 April 2024

West Antarctica’s ice sheet was smaller thousands of years ago – here’s why this matters today

A key uncertainty in how much and how fast the seas will rise lies in whether currently “stable” parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet can become “unstable”. One such region is West Antarctica’s Siple Coast.

Conversation Media Group, the

A woman being wheeled in a wheelchair at the 7th Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, 27 May 2022, Bali, Indonesia

Research briefs

24 April 2024

Marginalized communities develop 'disaster subculture' when living through extreme climate events, study finds

Locations around the globe are experiencing climate disasters on a regular basis. But some of the most marginalized populations experience disasters so often it has come to be normalized.

University of Kansas

The ruined remains of a building after an earthquake

Research briefs

19 April 2024

Scientists trigger mini-earthquakes in the lab

By studying a miniature version of the ground in the lab, scientists at the UvA Institute of Physics have demonstrated how earthquakes and landslides can be triggered by a small external shock wave.

The University of Amsterdam

Repairs to an active landslide on U.S. Route 101 in 2021

Research briefs

23 April 2024

A million years without a megaslide

A new study goes deep into the Gulf of Alaska to examine the sixth-largest underwater landslide and investigate why a similar event hasn’t happened since.

Eos - AGU

Documents and publications

22 April 2024

European state of the climate 2023

The report provides descriptions and analysis of climate conditions and variations from across the Earth system, key events and their impacts, and a discussion of climate policy and action with a focus on human health.

Documents and publications

22 April 2024

Gendered impacts of heat waves and drought in Asia and the Pacific: A review in the context of el niño

This policy brief examines the impacts of heat waves and drought on women’s food security, economic productivity, and care work, and highlights the alarming occurrence of gender-based and sexual violence during climate-induced challenges.

Documents and publications

19 April 2024

2024 - Supercharging social protection systems with anticipatory cash: Case study on Fiji’s Anticipatory Action Framework

This case study provides a technical overview of the collaborative process through which the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Fijian Government set up innovative structures to provide cash assistance ahead of anticipated cyclones.