1. Home
  2. Knowledge Base

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.

Cargo ship crossing the Panama Cannal
Research briefs

Drought behind Panama Canal’s 2023 shipping disruption ‘unlikely’ without El Niño

A lengthy drought that caused widespread disruption to commercial ships passing through the Panama Canal in 2023 would have been “unlikely” without the influence of El Niño, according to a rapid attribution study.
Carbon Brief
An African man biking through flooded streets.
Update

Kenya’s devastating floods expose decades of poor urban planning and bad land management

Floods in Kenya killed at least 169 people between March and April 2024. The most catastrophic of these deaths occurred after a flash flood swept through a rural village killing 42 people.
Conversation Media Group, the
An Indian girl wearing a hat to protect her from the sun and the heat with a bottle of water in her hands.
Research briefs

In South Asia, heat stress kills without a heatwave

A new study shows that even on days where there is no official heatwave warning, the threat from heat remains. The authors showed the association of a newly formulated India heat index (IHI) with daily all-cause mortality in the three cities.
Dialogue Earth
People crossing road with umbrella in rain at Matunga in Mumbai Maharashtra India
Research briefs

Shifting winter storms bring more flooding to india

Western disturbances are hanging out over India for longer, adversely affecting water security in the country.
Eos - AGU
A women farmer in Zimbabwe walking along her field checking the crops
Update

El Niño and La Niña: four crucial steps to build climate resilience

At UNGA-ECOSOC event, FAO Deputy Director-General emphasizes the key role of effective anticipatory action in protecting and equipping communities ahead of shocks.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - Headquarters
Areal view of the sand mountains in Southern Tunisia close to the Sahara desert. Some trees are growing between the sand dunes.
Update

Saudi Arabia and UNEP launch World Environment Day campaigns to combat desertification and restore degraded lands

World Environment Day (WED) 2024 host, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Nations Environment Programme, (UNEP) have launched campaigns to combat desertification, restore land and build drought resilience ahead of global WED celebrations.
United Nations Environment Programme
AI for DRR
Update

An AI dataset carves new paths to tornado detection

TorNet, a public artificial intelligence dataset, could help models reveal when and why tornadoes form, improving forecasters' ability to issue warnings.
MIT Press, the
sunset at a drought stricken and arid landscape with shrubs
Research briefs

When extreme drought becomes commonplace

As drought becomes a more regular occurrence, a new study looks at the U.S. Drought Monitor, the nation’s preeminent drought classifier, to see how it has reflected climate change since 2000.
Eos - AGU
A cooling center sign in Vancouver, Canada amidst a heatwave
Update

‘Silent killer’: Canadian cities scramble to prevent heat-related deaths

Proactive measures to protect people well before a heat wave are important because illness and death from heat are largely preventable. Caroline Metz is leading the development of a new heat resilience tool to help municipalities address their heat risk.
The Energy Mix
A swollen river in Asayita, Ethiopia due to heavy rainfall
Update

Widespread parts of Asia and Africa reel under extreme weather

Extreme rainfall and floods have claimed many lives and caused economic and agricultural losses in East Africa and parts of the Arabian peninsular. Intense heat has gripped large parts of Asia, disrupting daily life and posing a serious health threat.
World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
Bookshelves in a library.
The DRR Knowledge Base
Explore the latest on disaster risk and resilience from around the world: news, research, policies and publications.

Subscribe to alerts

Get updates in your inbox

Contribute your content

The Knowledge Base is a collaborative effort of the DRR community, updated and reviewed daily by PreventionWeb editors.

Upload your content for review

Is this page useful?

Yes No
Report an issue on this page

Thank you. If you have 2 minutes, we would benefit from additional feedback (link opens in a new window).