Update

The Federal Department of Town and Country Planning has commenced a new project to identify and map geo-hazards like floods, landslides and fires in all local council areas in Peninsular Malaysia....

'Developing disaster resilient communities is a key priority and this will entail working with national and international partners through ‘Disaster Risk Reduction’ initiatives across all sectors' said Bishow Parajuli, UN resident coordinator....

'This is crucial information for improving disaster preparedness', says a physicist who coordinated the implementation of the German-Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System in a report published by NatureNews....

The first Partnership Development Workshop under the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) South-South Cooperation Programme launches in India....

The World Bank today announces its first-ever weather risk management contract to help Malawi protect itself against the risk of severe drought....

'If urgent action is not taken on the disaster risk reduction front, then we’re simply going to see more tragedies in the future,' warned John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Relief Coordinator....

At a time when over 50 percent of humanity lives in urban areas, UN-Habitat’s new 'State of the World’s Cities Report 2008/9: Harmonious Cities' sets out to determine which cities are in danger and which communities might well be drowned out....

'Papua New Guinea requires an effective, integrated and people-focused early warning system. A needs analysis, with input from all stakeholders, will identify any priorities for improvement of this system.' said SOPAC's Michael Bronte Grapentin....

'We need greater investment in the development of models to aid decision-making, reduce uncertainty and augment costly monitoring programmes' said Corinne Wallace, researcher at UNU and one of the authors of a new policy brief....

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people are forced to flee their homes to escape war or natural disasters. Displaced within their own country and having lost loved ones, livelihoods and belongings, they face terrible hardships....