Science and Development Network

This podcast considers how architecture and financial risk management figure in climate adaptation. Professor Bauman explains how architects will play an important role. Then Rowan Douglas, Willis Research Network chairman, comments on the world’s largest collaboration between public science and the finance sector...

'Rebuilding the areas damaged by Haiyan is about ‘building back better’, and this must start with assessing both the past and future risks that threaten these areas,' says Rosa Perez, senior research fellow at the Manila Observatory, an affiliated research institution of the Ateneo de Manila University...

'Although the institutionalisation of disaster risk reduction has been high on the agenda of many African countries, there are still inadequate budgetary commitments for the integration of disaster risk reduction measures in typical government line functions and ministries,' Animesh Kumar, UNISDR Africa programme officer tells SciDev.Net. Kumar highlights some successes such as early warning and DRR curricula, while calling for improved action post-2015...

Technology not only helps nations deal with disasters, but it also makes them more vulnerable to their impacts, according to the UN Special Representative to the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, reports SciDevNet. Ms Wahlström told a meeting in London last week that a better recognition of this vulnerability is likely to be one of three top agenda items in the next international framework on disaster risk reduction...

Saurabh Dani, senior disaster risk management specialist with the World Bank in India, says that the app addresses the first stage of disaster warning — broadcasting. The second stage requires an advisory on whether local people should stay put, or leave...

There are internationally accepted guidelines that help humanitarian organisations think through the process of building new housing for disaster victims, among other things: the Hyogo Framework and the Sphere standards, for instance. These frameworks include advice on how and where to rebuild people’s homes and make them safe from future threats...

The conference, among others, agreed to establish an international mechanism to provide the most-vulnerable populations with better protection against the loss and damage caused by extreme weather events and the slow onset events such as rising sea levels, with detailed work on the so-called Warsaw mechanism expected to start next year, reports SciDevNet...

Most people in Asia are experiencing the impact of climate change and are keen on changing their lifestyles, the 'Climate Asia' study, published by BBC Media Action says. Survey respondents from seven Asian countries — Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan and Vietnam — say they are feeling the impacts of climate change...