Disaster risk communication library

The study looks into the existing gaps in the newsrooms of the selected editions of the Hindi-language newspapers reporting on the issues of climate change.

Households absorb much of the cost of disasters: Post-Disaster Needs Assessments from 20 countries in Asia and the Pacific put about 40 per cent of impacts in social and productive sectors. ESCAP sets out three government interventions.

Third season of Counter Crisis bridges the distance people closest to a disaster and decision makers about the money to respond. In each episode, the policymakers and the people living with their decisions are in the same conversation for the first time.

A survey by IRES for the Romanian insurers’ association UNSAR finds that 88 per cent of Romanians say they know how to react in an earthquake, but only 44 per cent have agreed a family plan and 40 per cent keep a first-aid kit.

The Indonesian government is working with Japan to broadcast earthquake early warnings through mosque loudspeakers, with trials planned in Jakarta and other regions by 2030 before nationwide rollout.

The Government of Lao PDR, supported by the United Nations, NGOs and CSOs, launch an inclusive risk communication initiative and a video competition on the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction to improve early warnings.

This study examines how Canadian emergency management organizations conceptualize and implement accessible risk communication

The application, named “Abhawa”, is designed to provide the public with easier access to official weather information and forecasts.

Inspired by the Menominee Tribe and Reservation in Wisconsin, the game tasks players with responding to floods, fires, droughts, and other extreme weather events.

This case study examines the current status of Bangladesh’s heat early warning system, outlining how heat risk is understood, monitored, and communicated, and how warnings prompt actions across institutions.

Research on post-alert messaging finds that after a false alert people need two things: assurance the threat is over, and a plain statement that they are safe. Attribution comes later.

This study examines household earthquake risk awareness and preparedness in Ghana’s Greater Accra Metropolitan Area, revealing high awareness but low preparedness. Education and prior tremor experience significantly predict readiness.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.