News and announcements

An 'Android-based data entry application has been developed to help conduct socio-economic and vulnerability assessment', said the Director-General of the Provincial DMA - who emphasized 'local people were usually aware of vulnerable spots and they could be a good source of information about risky areas'...

'Current warnings often come through village loudspeakers when the water is almost reaching the doorstep. Particularly for people with disabilities, this is far too late,' said Mai Thi Dung, Malteser International disability and disaster risk reduction project manager in Danang...

'In a system where drama, urgency and clear need so often justify requests for funding, it is no surprise that the qualified predictions from early warning systems fail to have the same impact,' writes Save the Children's media manager for humanitarian emergencies...

CDKN reports that government and business must put weather-related disaster risk management at the heart of economic and fiscal planning...

Record insurance losses from catastrophic disasters, a continued rise in global food prices and urbanization outpacing the ability of cities to provide proper sanitation and infrastructure prove that now is the time for the public and private sectors to tackle these challenges together...

The Conference on 'Disaster Risk Preparedness and Management in Cultural Heritage Sites' scheduled at the World Heritage site of Berat in Albania will show local stakeholders how an integrated approach is necessary for a good management of World Heritage sites, including the too often neglected risk dimension...

After heat waves, fires and floods, 'all of these events have highlighted the need for us all to have a heightened sense of our environment, and the necessity of having good plans in place for when risks arise,' said Rosemary Hogan, the general manager of client services for the Royal District Nursing Service...

'We need to be fully aware that forecasting is a difficult task to implement, before working out ways to make effective use of what little information we have,' said Hiroshi Niino, of the University of Tokyo's Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute...