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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.

Forest next to a city in Brazil
Update

El Niño and climate change impacts slam Latin America and Caribbean in 2023

The State of the Climate in Latin America report, accompanied by an interactive story map, complements the WMO State of the Global Climate flagship. It informs decisions on climate change mitigation, adaptation and risk management at regional level.
World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
A storm ocean wave crashes over the road and floods coastal houses.
Update

As climate change amplifies urban flooding, here’s how communities can become ‘sponge cities’

Across the continental U.S., intense single-day precipitation events are growing more frequent, fueled by warming air that can hold increasing levels of moisture.
Conversation Media Group, the
Man from South Korea walking through the streets waring a face mask for COVID-19 protection
Update

How to avoid the next pandemic

According to the authors, better management of three key aspects—international cooperation, isolation, and available technology—could have curtailed the COVID-19 disease outbreak in its initial stages.
Natural Hazards Center
community members in Driza, Fier begin construction on the first phase of a new sewage system.
Research briefs

Framing matters: Communicating coastal rebuilding to the public

As climate-driven flooding becomes more common, policymakers and the public are more frequently confronted with whether to rebuild in flood-prone areas and who should be responsible for the cost repairing or replacing damaged homes and infrastructure.
University of Colorado Boulder
South Sudan man sweeping dry streets
Update

South Sudan’s Central Equatoria State strengthens disasters and emergency preparedness and response capabilities

Central Equatoria State in South Sudan is pioneering an initiative to bolster its resilience against potential hazards, through the development of hazard-specific contingency plans at the county level.
World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa
Al-Khatam Desert Dubai
Update

Saudi Arabia strives to regreen deserts to tackle drought and land degradation

Faced with more severe and prolonged droughts, sandstorms and rising temperatures, finding ways to stop dry land from becoming desert, fresh water sources from evaporating, and fertile soil from turning to dust, is now crucial, say experts.
United Nations Environment Programme
Petito Moreno glacier and lake in Patagonia, Argentina
Update

Lake tsunamis pose significant threat under warming climate

Triggered by landslides into small bodies of water, most of these tsunamis have occurred in remote locations so far, but geologist Bretwood Higman of Ground Truth Alaska said it may just be a matter of time before a tsunami swamps a more populated place.
Seismological Society of America
A crowd of women gather for a border ceremony in Lahore, Pakistan
Update

Safeguarding women’s health in the face of rising temperatures

Extreme heat has disparate impacts on women's health and broader socio-economic consequences. There is an urgent need for gender-responsive adaptation strategies.
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Big wave beneath huge clouds
Update

First tsunami ready communities in the North Pacific

The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) is the first country in the North Pacific to recognize communities under the UNESCO-IOC Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization - Headquarters
Update

First-ever Bangladesh Red Crescent activation of early action protocol for heatwave

The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society has activated its early action protocol for heatwave, enabling anticipatory actions in the capital, Dhaka, before the worst impacts of the current extreme heat were likely to be felt by people at heightened risk.
Red Cross / Red Crescent Climate Centre
Bookshelves in a library.
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