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.

Residents of Dhaka, Bangladesh, wait to collect water from a water supply (2017)

Update

5 October 2021

Wake up to the looming water crisis, report warns

Improved water management, monitoring and early warnings needed in face of growing water-related hazards and stress

World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

Update

4 October 2021

Scientists sound the alarm over drought in East Africa: what must happen next

Every few years a weather cycle that brings debilitating drought and hunger to East Africa threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya.

Conversation Media Group, the

Vietnamese woman wear glasses, face mask, coat, gloves to sun protection, ride motorbike under high temperature in Ho Chi Mihn City, Vietnam (2019)

Research briefs

4 October 2021

In cities, dangerous heat exposure has tripled since the 1980s, with the poor most at risk

Researchers reveal the growing threat extreme heat poses to urban populations.

Conversation Media Group, the

Update

1 October 2021

IAEA collaborating on notification system to protect nuclear installations from natural hazards

To assist nuclear installations handling nuclear material in the response to adverse external events, the IAEA is developing a system that will alert the Agency of such events that could potentially affect nuclear sites.

International Atomic Energy Agency

Traditional houses by the river in Manaus, Brasil.

Research briefs

1 October 2021

In Brazilian Amazon, savannization and climate change will expose 12 million to lethal heat stress

Large-scale deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, combined with climate change, will increase the number of people in northern Brazil who are exposed to extreme heat.

PhysOrg, Omicron Technology Ltd

Research briefs

30 September 2021

Rapidly warming Arctic could cause spread of nuclear waste, undiscovered viruses and dangerous chemicals, new report finds

A report published recently noted that the permanently frozen land thawing in the Arctic at increasing rates due to global warming could potentially release radioactive waste from Cold War-era weapons production and damage from mining.

Aberystwyth University

Garment workers wearing face masks walking on the street as they go home during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in Dhaka, Bangladesh (2020)

Update

2 October 2021

For Bangladesh's climate migrants, pandemic job cuts fuel 'multiple crises'

Emergency guidelines are needed on helping climate migrants in Bangladesh, as well as a budget to create jobs for them.

Thomson Reuters Foundation, trust.org

Documents and publications

1 October 2021

Hazard Information Profiles (HIPs)

This report is a Supplement to the UNDRR-ISC Hazard Definition and Classification Review: Technical report released in July 2020.

Community members discuss what it means to make their homes more resilient to extreme weather and climate change.

Update

29 September 2021

NOAA awards $900,000 to advance community resilience through education

The new projects will build the foundation for resilient communities through education in rural Montana and southcentral Alaska.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Update

30 September 2021

As heat waves intensify, tens of thousands of US classrooms will be too hot for students to learn in

As heat waves become more common and more intense, more than 13,700 schools will need to install air conditioning, and another 13,500 will need to upgrade their existing systems by 2025.

Conversation Media Group, the