Update

The new underwater laboratory has been set up in the Gulf of Cadiz by the Spanish National Research Council and is intended to detect potential tsunamis and earthquakes to warn the populations of the Spanish peninsula and North Africa...

A Regional coordinator of the Ghanian National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Joseph Blankson Nyarko, has called for a sustained educational drive to get women to contribute effectively to reduce the risk of disasters in their communities...

Policy-makers who factor the planet's multi-trillion dollar ecosystem services into their national and international investment strategies are likely to see far higher rates of return and stronger economic growth in the 21st century, says new report...

The Regional Office for Arab States of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction secretariat (UNISDR), The World Bank, The League of Arab States and the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport of the League of Arab States, are co-organizing a Regional Workshop on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction: "Challenges and Future Actions", which will take place in Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt from 21-23 November 2009.

Mr Amod Mani Dixit, Executive Director of National Society for Earthquake Technology, Nepal, has been honoured with the 'Disaster Mitigation Award – 2009' by the National Institute of Disaster Management, an undertaking of Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India...

ICSU announced that China will host the office of the new international programme IRDR at the Headquarters of the Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth in Beijing...

The World Bank and the Italian Civil Protection Department have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to join efforts towards advancing the agenda of disaster risk reduction, sustainable recovery, and reconstruction in disaster-prone developing countries...

Radio Australia interviews Samith Dharmasaroja, former Thai meteorological department director general; Dr Bhijit Rattakul, executive director, Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre as analysts paint a dire outlook for the city of 10 million...

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency has proposed an insurance scheme for damaged assets in anticipation of 'natural' disasters. 'If we can solve huge spending problems for disasters through an insurance scheme, we will try it,' said Syamsul Maarif, Chairman...

The new catastrophe bond issuance platform, Multi-Cat, is to provide governments with immediate access to liquidity to fund emergency relief operations after a 'natural' disaster, thus reducing volatility in fiscal budgets while avoiding the need to set up idle reserves...