Structural safety

Integrating wildfire resilience into new construction is practical and economical, according to the report’s findings.

This report assesses wildfire-resilient construction costs in Colorado, finding that adopting CWRC Class 1 or IBHS Essential standards increases costs minimally, while higher-tier pathways add moderate premiums focused on exterior components like decks.

Engineers are testing manufactured homes in extreme winds to identify affordable ways to prevent hurricane and tornado damage. Stronger anchoring systems could improve safety for millions of residents if adopted in national building standards.

As climate change increases flood risks across the UK, water management must shift towards a catchment-scale approach to address emerging challenges.

This study aims to develop a risk-based model for assessing fire hazards in highway bridges, intended as a practical decision-support tool for infrastructure managers to identify critical scenarios and prioritise mitigation strategies.

Seaside communities along the east coast of England have lost at least 183 homes to coastal erosion and landslides over the past 16 years, figures obtained by the Guardian reveal.

Free climate-readiness audits are helping religious organizations identify ways to buttress their buildings for extreme heat, flooding, and other dangers.

Marking the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, the UN chief stressed that “as climate and disaster risks multiply, building safer dwellings is the shared responsibility of governments, developers, engineers and communities”.

For scientists, central question is not whether earthquakes will return to Kashmir. Geological history makes that virtually inevitable. Question is whether the region’s infrastructure, institutions, and communities will be better prepared when they do.

A hybrid neural network reproduces pushover analysis in about 70 milliseconds, opening the way to city-scale seismic risk mapping.

This paper reviews 130 studies on climate risks and real-estate valuation, finding evidence concentrated on flood-related physical risks, US housing markets and single-family housing, while highlighting research gaps on transition and compound risks.

This study provides the first global, country-level picture of future housing construction demand and its associated costs and identifies where the needs for resilient construction are most urgent.

Analysis of more than 36,000 buildings affected by the January Victorian bushfires shows why broad hazard assessments alone cannot reveal the vulnerability of individual properties.

Subsidised power is tackling energy poverty and health risks for some of northern Mexico’s most vulnerable city dwellers.

Amid surging demand for flood defense solutions, the company secured the No. 63 spot overall in the United States, while placing No. 2 nationwide among manufacturing companies and No. 8 among all Florida-based businesses.

This report compiles global best practices on industrial hazard mitigation and management, drawing lessons from major incidents, safety frameworks and international experience to strengthen risk-informed governance, preparedness, resilience and safety.

Contemporary transportation infrastructure is not designed for the extreme levels of heat as the frequency and severity of high temperatures increases. Those in charge must respond to increased stress on infrastructure systems, with mitigation techniques

Launching this fall, the Southwest Florida Accelerator will focus on climate resilience and sustainability.

This document showcases how Concern Worldwide is working with Malawi’s Department of Housing to increase community awareness on flood-resilience infrastructure and training local artisanal builders to improve and construct stronger houses.

New York City is investing US$95 million in a Cloudburst project in Homecrest, Brooklyn, using porous pavement and underground storage to reduce flooding, improve water quality, and strengthen resilience to intense rainfall driven by climate change.

Morocco’s Integrated Disaster Risk Management and Resilience Program shifted the country from disaster response to risk prevention, financing >300 resilience projects, protecting millions of people and strengthening disaster risk financing by 2025.

In this study, the authors focused on shrines in Nagoya located in areas with high flood-exposure potential to explore the traditional flood-resilience strategies of shrine spaces established over several centuries.

A major climate adaptation programme is helping Egypt strengthen coastal resilience in the Nile Delta through nature-based coastal protection, climate-informed planning, coastal monitoring systems and integrated coastal zone management.

The IDB is advancing regenerative roads in Latin America and the Caribbean by integrating nature-based solutions to reduce risks and costs due to poor logistics performance, growing exposure to natural hazards, and accelerating loss of natural capital.

Team from Kyoto University and Kobe University developed a method to identify wind damage and assess mitigation benefits using high-resolution drone and satellite imagery. Homes with blue tarps after a hurricane were used as a proxy for wind damage.

Europe’s high population density and ageing buildings make it vulnerable to earthquakes. From Naples to Bucharest, from Lorca to Athens, the continent sits on active fault lines and tells the story of decades of delayed action.

This study aims to identify shelter management challenges, existing practices, and resident-driven recommendations in four unions of Sarankhola, southwest Bangladesh, while also developing a perceived cyclone risk map.

The approach is like a Costco for heat pumps, and it’s helping make home installations more accessible as heat waves worsen.

This issue brings together field experiences, policy perspectives, community voices, and practical lessons on how infrastructure can better protect people from rising extreme heat.

An independent evaluation has found the $741 million Queensland Resilient Homes Fund (RHF) improved flood resilience and supported recovery for thousands of homeowners across 39 local government areas following the 2021–2022 Southern Queensland floods.

In a summer of wildfires severe enough to trigger Spain’s first-ever national emergency for a forest fire, a historic stone structure called the Nevera de Castro stands in a landscape burned bare in the Castellón region

A growing wildfire threat and rising home insurance costs are driving many homeowners to make their homes more wildfire resistant. Many upgrades also provide lasting benefits beyond lower wildfire losses that can offset the initial investment over time.

While there are many safety concerns after a wildfire, three deserve particular attention: chemicals in surviving buildings, the safety of drinking water and whether burned lots are ready for rebuilding.

When an earthquake shakes a building, many small cracks should form at the base of a steel-reinforced wall to distribute stress. But research finds Colombian building walls are so thin that even with adequate steel reinforcement, they can still fail.

As the majority of Tuvalu’s population applies to relocate to Australia, a haunting question is being confronted: what happens to a country if the people have to leave?

A paper published in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences in April 2026 uses the 2025 California wildfires as a starting point to discuss broader systemic failures in disaster risk reduction (DRR).

A model developed by Washington State University researchers could someday help communities determine how best to motivate homeowners to prepare their properties for possible wildfires.

Effective wildfire mitigation requires coordinated action across homes, communities, and landscapes, with community-scale action playing a leading role in reducing overall risk.

Facing severe geological disasters, China is expanding risk management from individual hazard points to entire zones and deploying advanced technologies to minimize casualties and property losses.

In anticipation of future flooding, Australia could combine traditional structural and flood mitigation measures, such as dams and levees, with nature-inspired designs.

A government program elevates some Louisiana homes at no cost, but skepticism and unanswered questions are slowing participation.

A new paint job on your house could be an opportunity to make your home look – and feel – a little cooler.

A 2019 Australian bushfire provided a rare opportunity to scientists by creating an effect analogous to what could be achieved through the geoengineering technique known as marine cloud brightening.

Simply improving building codes will not achieve effective outcomes again earthquakes without robust enforcement and adherence to retrofitting regulations says this author.