Research briefs

The impact of climate change on psychological health is an emerging concern among mental health professionals, disaster response officials, educators, and faith leaders. With “Climate trauma” occurring when either acute or long-term climate impacts cause loss of life or property, studies suggest methods of dealing with stresses of climate change.

A study finds industrial activity has the potential to induce extremely large and damaging events because small earthquakes can trigger larger ones. The same study shows mining-related activity accounts for the largest number of induced-earthquakes. Hundreds of deaths have occurred in coal and mineral mines over the last few decades as a result of earthquakes.

The Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN) Country Index ranks countries on vulnerability to extreme climate events, measuring common factors of successful adaptability to climate change. The latest data released this week shows governance is a major factor for countries improving preparedness for climate change.

A study sets out the first reliable estimates of volcanic eruption frequency. The study involved comparing records of volcanic ash fallout during last 1000 years and using electron microscopy and chemical analysis to pinpoint at which point volcanic ash clouds had spread across northern Europe.

Scientists at the University of Southampton have found that the majority of instances of coastal flooding around the United Kingdom in the last 100 years have been due to moderate storm events combined with high spring tides, rather than extreme storms.

Including Syrian refugees in Turkey’s earthquake risk assessments could boost the death toll from a major earthquake in the country’s most populated districts along the Syria-Turkey border by up to 20 percent. The research highlights the importance of including physical, political, cultural and socio-economic factors in natural hazard risk assessments.

A year after Storm Desmond struck the UK and at a time when the UK's Committee on Climate Change has called for urgent action to address the risks to the UK from climate change, a group of world-leading geomorphologists explain how their discipline can help policymakers and practitioners develop more effective storm and flood-damage limitation and mitigation strategies.

ClimateWise, a global network of 29 insurance industry organizations which is convened by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, has warned of the urgent need to address the growing $100 billion annual climate risk 'protection gap' in two new reports; Investing for Resilience and the ClimateWise Principles Independent Review 2016.