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Explore the latest updates on global disaster risk and resilience, with news stories that cover critical developments, expert insights, and emerging trends.

Whether you're looking for breaking news from the disaster risk reduction (DRR) community or in-depth analysis of efforts to build a safer, more resilient world, this is your page. Dive into a wide range of topics, from climate change impacts to community-based initiatives, technological innovations, and global policies shaping a more resilient future, at global, national or local level.

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Climate change amplifies surface fire hazard in the tropical Andes: high-resolution FlamMap simulations in southern Ecuador thumbnail
Documents and publications

This study evaluates the sensitivity of wildfire hazard to climate change in Molleturo Parish, Azuay Province, using high-resolution (20 m) spatial simulations with the FlamMap modeling framework.

Natural Hazards (Springer)
Update

On addressing heat stress, Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Janil Puthucheary said MSE has set up a new office to spearhead the Republic’s efforts in this area.

Straits Times, the
Update

A new publication highlights how WMO’s support is helping Bangladesh, Haiti, Liberia, Mozambique and Somalia strengthen observation, forecasting and early warning capacities as part of the Early Warnings for All initiative.

World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
Update

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

Daily Star, the - Bangladesh
Research briefs

Seventy-three years after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake of 1952 in the same region, Kamchatka has reminded us that it is one of the most efficient tsunami sources in the Pacific.

PhysOrg, Omicron Technology Ltd
Update

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

Yale Climate Connections
Update

In the days and weeks after Hurricane Helene, people throughout western North Carolina and beyond found themselves thrust into new situations, forced to learn new skills to help themselves and their neighbors.

Grist Magazine
Update

Researchers have known for decades how to prevent and treat heat illness, but a patchwork of policies has left players like Matthew Mayich at risk.

Grist Magazine
Fostering micro‑disaster risk finance in emerging Asia thumbnail
Documents and publications

This policy brief explores the role of micro-disaster risk finance in helping close protection gaps and strengthen resilience across the region. Disaster-related damage in Emerging Asia reached USD 685 billion between 2010 and 2024.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Climate risk perception and coastal adaptation: A systematic review and integrative conceptual framework thumbnail
Documents and publications

This study examines climate risk perception and its influence on adaptive behaviour among coastal communities through a systematic literature review using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework.

Progress in Disaster Science (Elsevier)
Strengthening climate resilience through social protection programs thumbnail
Documents and publications

This report shows how adaptive systems that respond to climate shocks can increase resilience for women and marginalised communities.

Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Strengthening climate-sensitive health risk management across the Greater Mekong subregion thumbnail
Documents and publications

As health risks sensitive to changes in the climate rise in the Greater Mekong Subregion, this brief outlines the impact of compounding risks and shows how building capacity and reinforcing early warning protocols can strengthen regional resilience.

Asian Development Bank (ADB)
The economic case for nature-based infrastructure thumbnail
Documents and publications

This report assesses 45 nature-based infrastructure projects in 29 countries, finding a median benefit-cost ratio of 3.21 and 38% IRR, and recommends reforms to planning, finance, and policy to elevate NBI alongside traditional infrastructure options.

International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
Global flood research patterns, disparities, and risk–attention mismatches revealed by large language models thumbnail
Documents and publications

Study analyzes global flood research from 1980–2025, finding surging output since 2000 but persistent mismatches between research attention and actual flood risk, especially in Africa and South America, driven by socioeconomic factors, not risk exposure.

Big Earth Data (Taylor & Francis journal)
Update

Solok’s deadly 2026 flash flood exposed long-standing governance failures after a government complex was built in a mapped lahar hazard zone. Experts call for relocation, early warning, watershed restoration and stronger land-use planning.

Tech Times LLC
A group of people walking through floodwaters in an urban area, showcasing a natural disaster.
Update

Bangkok’s extreme flooding highlights how climate change, urbanization, land subsidence and intense rainfall are increasing flood risk, underscoring the need for resilient drainage, green infrastructure and stronger early warning systems.

Conversation Media Group, the
A health worker checks the blood pressure of a patient at the mobile clinic in Ankatafana, Madagascar
Update

Indonesia is aligning policies and strengthening intra-government coordination to address the growing health risks of climate change.

Development Asia
Droughts and firms in Tunisia thumbnail
Documents and publications

This paper draws on about two decades of firm-level records from Tunisia’s formal business registry (Répertoire National des Entreprises), linking firm locations to satellite-based precipitation measures at the delegation level.

World Bank, the
Community perception, vulnerability, and coping strategies to cyclone-induced disasters: A case study of two coastal settlements in Ganjam district of Odisha, India thumbnail
Documents and publications

This study compares household vulnerability, community perception, and coping strategies for cyclone-induced disasters in two coastal settlements in Ganjam, Odisha

International Journal of Disaster Studies and Climate Resilience (IJDSCR)
Integrating three plan evaluation approaches for coordinated heat resilience in cities across the Arizona urban corridor thumbnail
Documents and publications

This study examines how cities across the Arizona urban corridor incorporate heat resilience into their networks of plans, using an integrated assessment approach. The researchers applied three complementary plan evaluation methods.

Elsevier
Urbanization erodes heat resilience across Chinese cities thumbnail
Documents and publications

This study aims to systematically reveal the nexus among urban heat resilience, urban-scale expansion, and land-cover transformation in 70 rapidly urbanizing Chinese cities

Elsevier
Escaping the heat: urban heat resilience and public cool spaces thumbnail
Documents and publications

This paper analyses London’s Cool Spaces scheme, finding a misalignment between policy intentions and real-world use, with depoliticisation and structural vulnerabilities undermining its effectiveness as a long-term urban heat resilience strategy.

Springer Nature
Heat early warning system in Nepal: Current status and recommendations thumbnail
Documents and publications

This case study examines the current status of Nepal’s heat early warning system (HEWS), focusing on risk knowledge, monitoring, warning dissemination, and preparedness

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
 Heat early warning system in Bangladesh: Current status and recommendations thumbnail
Documents and publications

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.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
Training event
Online
The webinar offers a practical entry point for organizations and stakeholder constituencies seeking to strengthen disability inclusion in their everyday work.
How communities around the world are building resilient homes Update
How communities around the world are building resilient homes
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)
Update

Along Colombia’s San Juan River, Afro Colombian community councils documented earthquake losses house by house – but only municipal authorities can enter those households into the national register that unlocks state assistance.

The Politic
The Politic is Yale’s undergraduate journal of politics and culture. The Politic traces its roots to 1947, when a group of students started the Yale Political Journal: A Magazine of Student Opinion, or the Journal for short.
Organization type
News and Media
Update

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.

The Warn Room
A man pours water over his head to cool off on a sunny day in a leafy outdoor setting.
Update

The Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN) experts have identified ten key trends influencing heat action, driving the focus and prioritizing action for the Network and its numerous global, regional and national partners.

Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN)
The image shows a weather forecasting system that uses artificial intelligence to process data from various observation sources. 3d style
Update

Youth innovators in Bangladesh developed an AI-driven tool using a RAG framework to translate real-time weather forecasts into localized, Bangla-language, impact-based guidelines to support early action in coastal Bangladesh.

Start Network
Global systematic review of how climate change degrades the wellbeing and health of Indigenous children thumbnail
Documents and publications

This study shows global evidence on climate change’s impact on the health and wellbeing of indigenous children, highlighting five interconnected outcomes, calling for culturally grounded, geographically diverse, and child-centred climate-health research.

Globalization and Health (Springer Nature)
Las decisiones de hoy marcarán los impactos de El Niño
Update

El Niño conditions have been observed in the tropical Pacific since June 2026, with forecasts indicating further strengthening through the end of 2026 and into early 2027, potentially making it one of the most intense events in decades.

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
A serene view of Alma, Wisconsin wetlands with lush foliage and winding river.
Update

Wetlands restoration and wildfire prevention can drive down insurers’ costs and skyrocketing premiums, a new study shows.

Inside Climate News
Update

Member-to-Member support allows National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) to share expertise and institutional experience, addressing immediate technical needs while strengthening services for the long term

World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
The impact of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico’s long-term care settings thumbnail
Documents and publications

This research describes experiences of individuals working in, residing in, and providing disaster response to long-term care (LTC) settings in Puerto Rico during and after Hurricane Maria.

Journal of Applied Gerontology (Sage)
The impact of Hurricane Harvey on home health care delivery for medicare beneficiaries thumbnail
Documents and publications

This paper examines the impact of Hurricane Harvey on home health (HH) care in Texas, linking 2017-2018 patient-level Medicare HH claims with county-level data on disaster declarations from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Journal of Applied Gerontology (Sage)
Cover
Documents and publications

This editorial presents a special issue which addresses the complexity of disasters and their effects on older adults in different countries.

Journal of Applied Gerontology (Sage)
Journal of Applied Gerontology is the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society.
Organization type
Academic & Scientific
Update

Intense heatwaves from May to September, combined with a winter with little snow, led to another devastating year for the glaciers.

University of Fribourg
Update

It began as an alphabet a disaster management officer made for his toddler. Now it's in government classrooms across Maharashtra, teaching children words like evacuation and tsunami warning.

The Indian Express
Update

FOI request shows wildfire risk scheme scrapped, as survey highlights many fire services lack proper protective gear.

Guardian, the (UK)
Irrigation canals in agricultural field
Update

FAO’s benchmark measure of world food commodity prices increased in September, due mostly to transportation disruptions and weather concerns that constrained availability as well as to higher quotations for crop-based commodity groups.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Modern high-rise with vertical garden, showcasing urban sustainable design.
Kaiqi Yang
This blog suggests cross-referencing environmental evidence can support early design decisions under uncertainty. Risk-informed design under uncertainty is not about immediate conclusions, but about a more informed reasoning process behind decisions.
Aerial view shows flood-damaged areas after a massive flash flood swept through the Bhotekoshi River in Nuwakot, Nepal
Update

An ILO assessment finds the August floods disrupted work for some 21,400 people living within four kilometres of the flood footprint, with damaged trade routes carrying the shock much farther.

United Nations News Centre
Case study
Location: Belize Dominican Republic Grenada Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Case study on the development of a replicable digital monitoring and evaluation system to track post-disaster recovery across Caribbean countries.
  • Intra Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Disaster Risk Reduction Programme (DRRP)
Case study
Location: Indonesia
This case study, part of the Adaptation and Resilience Solutions in Action series, looks at two flagship instruments: the Pooling Fund Bencana (PFB), and the State Assets Insurance Program (ABMN), which now insures more than 10,000 government buildings.
  • Global Shield Financing Facility
Case study
Location: Lesotho
This case study shows how Lesotho is moving from reactive disaster response to a pre-arranged, layered financing system, anchored in its first national disaster risk financing strategy and a dedicated resilience window for MSMEs.
  • Global Shield Financing Facility
What counts? The state of evidence of outcomes of locally led adaptation  thumbnail
Documents and publications

This report responds directly to a call from financiers for better and more nuanced evidence on the outcomes of locally led adaptation.

Stockholm Environment Institute
Update

With floods and contamination overwhelming Kathmandu’s water systems, communities are restoring traditional stone spouts that once served as the valley’s primary water source.

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