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.

Documents and publications

15 August 2023

Women’s resilience: How laws and policies promote gender equality in climate change, environment, and disaster risk management in Asia and the Pacific

This brief outlines how gender-responsive laws and policies can help women in Asia and the Pacific become more resilient to climate change and disasters—if they are matched by steps to tackle the underlying causes of vulnerability.

Photograph of a mobile phone with cyclone moving towards the coast shown. The background is yellow with warning sign.

Update

14 August 2023

Africa: Investment in ‘hydromet systems’ would provide a nine-to-one ROI in saved lives and assets

Investment in ‘hydromet systems’ using technologies from AI to SMS would provide a nine-to-one ROI in saved lives and assets across African nations.

University of Cambridge

Research briefs

14 August 2023

Extreme bushfires pose serious threat to global climate

As the world faces more extreme bushfires there are serious concerns these fires will exacerbate the global effects of climate change.

University of New South Wales

A Black adult man has a headache. He sits and holds his hands on his head in a dark room.

Update

14 August 2023

Why older people are some of those worst affected by climate change

While we are all affected to some extent by extreme weather, it is older adults, especially older women and those with disabilities, who tend to be the most vulnerable. Who struggles most is partly determined by age but also pre-existing health conditions

Conversation Media Group, the

A Red Pin on Timor-Leste of the World Map

Update

11 August 2023

An early warning system for disasters takes shape in Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste has a rich ecosystem of marine biodiversity coral reefs and mangroves. But this island nation in South East Asia is also one of the most vulnerable to extreme weather and slow-onset climatic events, like sea level rise.

United Nations Environment Programme

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