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Disaster risk communication

This theme covers disaster risk communication, advocacy and awareness raising of disaster risk reduction (DRR) including through traditional and new media, as well as guidance for journalists reporting on disasters, guidance on communicating about climate change and extreme weather attribution. Raising awareness is a key disaster risk management activity.

Visit the Risk Media Hub: a toolkit for news media professionals reporting on disasters and resilience. he toolkit provides an array of resources to help journalists tell the other side of the disaster story and raise critical questions to help societies become more resilient.

Explore the Disaster Risk Communication Hub: the risk communication hub aims to support practitioners - from any sector - who are planning public risk communication strategies with the general public.

When crises strike, fear, uncertainty, and information overload make people more vulnerable to false narratives and disinformation.

Latest Disaster risk communication additions in the Knowledge Base

How to communicate and educate more effectively on natural risk issues to improve disaster risk management through serious games thumbnail
Documents and publications

This study examines how serious games can support disaster risk management education, identifying design features that improve risk communication, learning and preparedness.

University of Granada
COMMUNICATING CLIMATE RISK A TOOLKIT thumbnail
Documents and publications

The Toolkit seeks to narrow the gap between climate science and climate action by providing insights, recommendations, and practical tools to support dialogue between scientists, decision-makers, and many diverse communities.

University of Sussex
Research briefs

This primer offers actionable guidance for EU policymakers to combat climate disinformation – an issue they are increasingly confronted with and that can seriously impede their work.

New Climate Institute for Climate Policy and Global Sustainability
Update

This fact check debunks claims that High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program caused Colombia’s deadly earthquake, explaining that the disaster resulted from natural fault movement, not human activity or radio-frequency technology.

Los Angeles Times
Barriers and best practices for inclusive emergency alerts and warnings thumbnail
Documents and publications

This article reviews barriers to inclusive emergency alerts, highlighting how limited language access, inaccessible channels and mistrust can prevent people from receiving and acting on warnings.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (Elsevier)
The value of journalism: global evidence on why media matters to economies, national security and crises thumbnail
Documents and publications

The chapter 4 "National security and stability" examines how journalism can reduce the harms of disinformation, showing how trusted news, fact-checking and media freedom support public resilience, security and stability.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
A universal taxonomy for natural hazard and climate risk and resilience assessments – Infrastructure edition thumbnail
Documents and publications

A framework providing a universal taxonomy for natural hazard and climate risk and resilience assessments of infrastructure systems, defining Risk Classes, Resilience Classes and guidance for hazard, climate and infrastructure assessments.

Arup International Development
Putting people at the centre of UK climate adaptation & resilience thumbnail
Documents and publications

This report synthesises social science evidence on climate adaptation and resilience for UK policymakers, highlighting adaptation as an ongoing social process shaped by people’s lived experiences, vulnerabilities, and social context.

Government Office for Science
Advancing Capacity for Climate and Environment Social Science
A striking landscape depicting a drought-stricken lake surrounded by mountain peaks.
Update

The article explores the record-strength 2026 El Niño, its global impacts and links to climate change, while examining how terms such as “super El Niño” shape how scientists, media and the public understand extreme events.

Grist Magazine
Unpacking the practices of compound hazard communication Unpacking the practices of compound hazard communicatio thumbnail
Documents and publications

This study examines communication for compound natural hazards in Australia, showing how listening, disaster literacy and creativity can support preparedness, response and recovery

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (Elsevier)
Putting people at the centre of UK climate adaptation & resilience thumbnail
Documents and publications

This report synthesizes social science evidence on UK climate adaptation, showing how people-centered approaches can make resilience policy more effective, equitable and responsive to lived experience.

United Kingdom - government
Stakeholder perspectives on extreme hot and cold weather alerts in England and the proposed move towards an impact-based approach thumbnail
Documents and publications

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the current alerting systems for hot and cold weather used in England to notify the health and social care sector of upcoming extreme weather events.

Environmental Science and Policy (ESP)
Training event
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In person
This is a joint winter school organized and hosted by the University of Twente and of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Research briefs

This article shows that it is vital to focus on who delivers the early warning messages. Messengers commanding high levels of trust need to be actively engaged to ensure information reaches people frequently and widely.

Conversation Media Group, the
Awareness, education and communication  for compound natural hazards  thumbnail
Documents and publications

This report examines communication and engagement for compound natural hazards in Australia, highlighting the need for two-way, locally grounded approaches to strengthen preparedness and resilience.

Natural Hazards Research Australia
Update

Jeannette Sutton and Eddie Bertola break down USGS ShakeAlert, earthquake early warnings, Wireless Emergency Alerts, and the technology that can warn people before strong shaking arrives.

The Alerting Authority
Breathtaking view of Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, reflecting serene natural beauty.
Update

Recurrent floods have forced Juneau to confront a problem that communities around the world are increasingly facing: How do you prepare for a natural disaster when you know it will come back?

Grist Magazine
Meetings and conferences
Geneva
Online
The event will identify practical approaches for strengthening risk communication as part of disaster preparedness and risk governance.
Reducing communication-related vulnerability to disasters: A framework for capacity development thumbnail
Documents and publications

This paper presents a framework for disaster communication capacity development that combines audience research, engagement and scenario-based vulnerability analysis to address barriers to accessing, understanding and acting on hazard information.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (Elsevier)
Reimagining disaster risk assessment: The role of information equity in vulnerable communities thumbnail
Documents and publications

This study advances an equity-centered approach by centering informational equity as an underexamined dimension of disaster vulnerability. Findings show informational inequities emerge from systematic misalignments across the risk communication ecosystem.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (Elsevier)
Update

A stone bench and pillar on Bainbridge Island in Washington State show how sea levels could change over the coming decades.

Yale Climate Connections
The political determinants of disaster communication governance in diverse regimes: Comparative evidence from typhoon response in the Philippines and Vietnam thumbnail
Documents and publications

This article compares typhoon communication in the Philippines and Vietnam, showing how political structures, corruption, propaganda and media control shape disaster visibility, often prioritising regime preservation over public safety.

Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management (Wiley)
 Frontiers of information integrity in climate change and climate-related disasters: Information integrity interventions landscape report  thumbnail
Documents and publications

This landscape report examines how misinformation, disinformation and other forms of information pollution are affecting climate action and responses to climate-related disasters, and how different actors are responding.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Update

This article examines information control after a deadly Himalayan flood, comparing Nepal’s response to misinformation with China’s wider suppression of public scrutiny

Japan Times Ltd., the
Heat risk communication in England: Institutional practices and barriers thumbnail
Documents and publications

This paper examines institutional heat risk communication in England. Interviews with 29 practitioners revealed strong alert and coordination systems, but uneven public engagement, limited evaluation and capacity constraints that hinder effectiveness.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (Elsevier)
A boat in drought-affected lake
Research briefs

A study suggests that isotopes can provide an early warning of prolonged droughts. This study is one of the first in over 30 years to utilize isotopic techniques in Amazonian hydroclimatic research.

São Paulo Research Foundation (Agência FAPESP)
Communication-related vulnerability at the last mile: a mechanism-based framework thumbnail
Documents and publications

This paper develops a mechanism-based framework for understanding communication-related vulnerability in flood-prone communities. Survey results from Pakistan highlight trust, literacy, access and information barriers that limit effective warning response

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (Elsevier)
Update

Forecasting and early warning technology remain essential, but they have to be matched by readiness at the community level – evacuation plans, trusted communication networks, prepared local institutions and people able to act when information arrives.

The New Humanitarian
Harmful information in disasters: Risk communication for safer decisions (Guidance note) thumbnail
Documents and publications

This guidance note outlines practical approaches to strengthening information integrity within risk communication–before, during, and after disasters. Preparing for and managing information risks is an integral part of disaster risk reduction efforts.

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)
Heat risk communication by operational meteorologists in Indonesia: Current operational challenges and decision-making dilemmas in heat early warning system thumbnail
Documents and publications

A survey of 140 Indonesian operational meteorologists finds that terminology ambiguity and reliance on weather station data hinder heat warning dissemination. Past successful warnings and a liberal warning philosophy strongly influence warning decisions.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Science
Public Responses to Disaster Warnings from Government Versus AI: Evidence from Behavioral Experiments thumbnail
Documents and publications

Two behavioural experiments in China show that government-issued disaster warnings generate higher trust than AI warnings. Consistent government-AI messages increase trust and protective intentions, while conflicting warnings increase anticipated regret.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (Elsevier)
Perceived earthquake knowledge, awareness, and preparedness in aseismic risk–prone city of Bangladesh thumbnail
Documents and publications

This study investigates the complex interplay between local knowledge, awareness, perception, and preparedness among residents of Bogura City, Bangladesh, in the context of earthquake risk.

Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk (Taylor & Francis)
Risk Management Alert
Eliot Christian
Public emergency alerting has traditionally been associated with regulated communications infrastructures. Now, official emergency alerts worldwide are increasingly published in the freely available machine-readable Common Alerting Protocol format.
The Bagmati River flood in Kathmandu, 2024.
Update

There were two “systems” that warned people about the impending danger that day: one built by the state relying on sensors and SMS messages, the other relying on community-based ties. Only the second worked reliably.

Mongabay
Vernacular flood resilience: Constructive and spatial responses to hydro-climatic hazards in seven water-based settlements thumbnail
Documents and publications

This study sets out to examine how vernacular water-based settlements develop constructive and spatial responses to flood-related hazards, and what recurring combinations of responses can be identified across distinct hydro-climatic contexts.

Journal of Flood Risk Management (Wiley)
Identifying information voids during weather-related disasters: case studies from the 2024 Europe floods and Florida’s hurricane Helene thumbnail
Documents and publications

This study tests a survey tool for identifying information voids during climate emergencies, showing how gaps in information quantity, quality, source and channel can affect disaster communication.

Natural Hazards (Springer)
Update

Bosai is a Japanese concept that encompasses all stages of disaster management. In a country where natural hazards are a frequent threat, understanding bosai is one of the most practical ways for individuals to protect themselves and those around them.

Japan Times Ltd., the
Update

Social media conspiracy theorists quickly pinned the blame on an Alaskan research project, claiming the deadly wall of water and debris was a "man-made disaster." AFP has repeatedly debunked claims that the HAARP is to blame for extreme weather events.

Agence France Presse
When climate risks become evident: A natural experiment on risk perceptions in the housing market thumbnail
Documents and publications

Study uses the 2020 Gjerdrum landslide as a natural experiment to examine how climate risk salience affects housing markets. Exposed properties experienced temporary price declines of 1–1.5 per cent, while new residential development in risk zones fell.

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
Collage on the checklist concept
Landing
Improve Improve Improve Measuring the impact of your disaster risk communication is key to improving your content and its effectiveness. Top tips: Measure your impact Monitor progress against your goal and objectives (with indicators) Evaluate what works and share your learning widely First and
Collage with a woman's hand holding a light bulb. The collage is based on the study and education concept.
Landing
Risk communications should consider exactly what they aim to achieve with their communication, how it will happen, and why they think it will work.
Collage of two big arms holding a dialogue bubble
Landing
The risk communication hub aims to support practitioners - from any sector - who are planning public risk communication strategies with the general public.
Concept of colourful speech bubbles
Last updated 1 Sep 2026
Risk communication is critical to help the public understand the different types of risks they face, discuss what can be done and take action to manage those risks.
Update

Social media can quickly convey conditions in disaster-hit areas, helping people confirm others' safety, request rescues and share information such as shelter locations and needed supplies. But it can spread false information just as quickly.

Kyodo News
The Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia, seen from above
Research briefs

Machine-learning techniques could help provide more warning. By detecting subtle changes in the continuous vibrations around a volcano, they can potentially identify signs of an impending eruption hours beforehand.

Conversation Media Group, the
Update

This article explains how misinformation during volcanic eruptions can distort public understanding of risk, urging clearer language, verified images and trusted scientific sources during crises

Conversation Media Group, the
Update

This article reports public reactions to a UK emergency phone alert on wildfire risk, highlighting concerns over alert fatigue, unclear guidance and the need for effective crisis communication.

Guardian, the (UK)
Update

This article examines hosepipe bans as everyday climate adaptation measures, showing how they can make climate risks tangible while also provoking resistance if seen as unfair or poorly explained

Conversation Media Group, the
Update

Claims that a deadly quake was artificial and Hiroshima was not hit by an atomic bomb have alarmed experts tracking Japan’s online spaces

South China Morning Post
Rubble and destruction in Bhaktapur, Nepal, post-earthquake, capturing the aftermath and human resilience.
Ilan Kelman
Disasters are not natural but result from social vulnerabilities, inequality and policy choices. This blog argues that focusing on vulnerability, rather than labels such as “natural” or “hybrid” disasters, is key to reducing risk and preventing crises.