Knowledge Base highlights and editors' picks

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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

2 April 2024

Economic enabling conditions for scaling of Nature Based Solutions

The present paper analyses scaling aspects for Nature Based solutions (NBS) focusing on the economic and social characteristics of their implementation.

Research briefs

1 April 2024

AI improves monsoon rainfall predictions

Every year, the South Asian monsoon season brings heavy rain to over a billion people in the Indian subcontinent between June and September. The rain falls in oscillations: Some weeks see 1 to 4 inches of water, while other weeks are mostly dry.

California Institute of Technology

Update

29 March 2024

Impacts of extreme weather on interior design examined in new research

ASID in collaboration with the Chemical Insights Research Institute (CIRI) of UL Research Institutes, unveiled new research today on the effects of extreme weather and climate events on the built environment and its occupants.

American Society of Interior Designers (ASID)

Research briefs

23 February 2024

Closer water monitoring needed as wildfires increase

With climate change leading to increases in the size and frequency of wildfires, UC Santa Cruz researchers warn that such disasters can change the chemistry of nearby streams that people and wildlife depend on for drinking water.

University of California, Santa Cruz

Research briefs

28 March 2024

Melting ice in the Polar North drives weather in Europe

Influxes of meltwater into the North Atlantic eventually lead to warmer and drier conditions over Europe.

Eos - AGU

Documents and publications

29 March 2024

Nature-based solutions for flood management in Asia and the Pacific

This working paper examines the policy considerations needed for the Nature-based Solutions (NbS) approach to reach it full potential in the region, including clear evidence-based guidelines to help policy makers develop disaster management plans.

Silhouette electricity pylons during sunset

Research briefs

27 March 2024

Heat, cold extremes hold untapped potential for solar and wind energy

Conditions that usually accompany the kind of intense hot and cold weather that strains power grids may also provide greater opportunities to capture solar and wind energy.

Washington State University

Wildfire in Stanislaus National Forest, California, 2013

Research briefs

27 March 2024

NASA data shows how drought changes wildfire recovery in the West

A new study using NASA satellite data reveals how drought affects the recovery of western ecosystems from fire, a result that could provide meaningful information for conservation efforts.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

A man wades through the flood in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Research briefs

28 March 2024

Researchers find the more flood driving factors there are, the more extreme a flood is

There are several factors that play an important role in the development of floods: air temperature, soil moisture, snow depth, and the daily precipitation in the days before a flood.

Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren)