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.

Children's shadow in front of a wildfire

Update

12 August 2023

After Maui fires, human health risks linger in the air, water and even surviving buildings

When fires spread through communities, as we’ve seen more often in recent years, they burn structures that contain treated wood, plastics, paints and hazardous household wastes. All of these items release toxic gases and particles.

Conversation Media Group, the

Documents and publications

11 August 2023

Harbingers of decades of unnatural disasters

This compilation of severe weather-related hazards and the most severe related disasters in those two years reveals that ultimately, all the listed disasters resulted from existing vulnerabilities and compounding stresses on social systems.

Broken green umbrella lying on the street with hail.

Update

10 August 2023

Movie-inspired technology successfully collects hail data from eye of the storm

Western researchers use tiny sensors to understand conditions for hailstone growth

Western University of Health Sciences

Hand stopping wooden blocks from falling on a house

Update

10 August 2023

From ‘no-go’ to ‘must have’: where next for premium support?

Insurance enables countries to understand risks better, manage them, and build financial protection before a disaster hits. In the past decade, development donors and international organisations have created a wide range of products and risk pools.

Centre for Disaster Protection

Smoke from Canadian wildfires is spreading south throughout the Northeast causing unhealthy air quality issues in New York.

Update

9 August 2023

AI can help forecast air quality, but freak events like 2023’s summer of wildfire smoke require traditional methods too

Wildfire smoke from Canada’s extreme fire season has left a lot of people thinking about air quality and wondering what to expect in the days ahead.

Conversation Media Group, the

Update

9 August 2023

Deadly wildfires burn across Maui – it’s a reminder of the growing risk to communities that once seemed safe

Most fires in the U.S. are suppressed before they have a chance to threaten communities but the winds were too strong to send helicopters into the sky to help contain Maui’s fires on the first day leaving firefighters to battle the blazes from the ground.

Conversation Media Group, the

Research briefs

8 August 2023

Understanding an extreme weather event with science and local knowledge

Researchers in Mexico integrate science and community knowledge to assess the ecological and social impact of an extreme frost.

Eos - AGU

Eruption of Mount Etna volcano, 16 February 2020

Update

8 August 2023

How climate change might trigger more earthquakes and volcanic eruptions

Earth’s climate is changing rapidly. In some areas, escalating temperatures are increasing the frequency and likelihood of wildfires and drought. In others, they are making downpours and storms more intense or accelerating the pace of glacial melting.

Conversation Media Group, the