Preparedness

A survey of 1,207 households across three severely affected districts (Buner, Shangla, and Swat) revealed that 85 percent of families received no warning before the flood waters arrived. For those that did, half had less than thirty minutes to act.

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.

In Marigot, two spring-fed water systems faced the same storm. One continued delivering water while the other failed completely, showing how early investment in source protection and disaster risk reduction can strengthen resilience.

This study applies regional scoping framework, a risk-to-action chain that follows risk as it moves through a system from information, to decisions, to finance, to action, to impact.

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.

An evaluation of more than two decades of World Bank Group support for epidemic preparedness, highlighting achievements, gaps, and opportunities to strengthen global health security.

This study assesses preparedness, response and recovery following Cyclone Ana in Zimbabwe. It finds gaps in preparedness, warning communication and coordination, and calls for community-centred DRM, stronger capacity, financing and contingency planning.

Virtual simulations spotlight the role human behavior plays in earthquake safety. UC Berkeley researchers are studying what happens in those critical moments and how fear and risk perception influence people’s actions.

The new results suggest that, particularly for the UK and Ireland, storms with unusual origins may deserve a place in assessments of future wind and rainfall risk—even if they remain far less common than the storms Europe experiences every winter.

Despite decades of warnings, neighborhoods in Reno and Spokane have sprawled ever closer to a hotter, drier wilderness. And in the summer, months of low humidity and hot weather prime the landscape to burn.

The catastrophic flood in Nepal and Tibet is a devastating reminder that disasters rarely occur in isolation.

This executive advisory from UNDRR CCRO Network outlines how businesses can prepare for a strengthening El Niño, highlighting risks to supply chains, operations and finances, and recommending practical resilience and preparedness measures.

Climate change has amplified Europe’s heatwaves and increased the severity of the 2026 drought . With these effects expected to intensify, Europe can learn a lot from African leaders – and share resources and knowledge in turn. They have been here before.

The El Niño Climate Impact Outlook: Mozambique examines the expected evolution of El Niño during the second half of 2026 and its potential impacts across the country.

This outlook examines the expected evolution of El Niño during the second half of 2026 in Philippines and its potential impacts across the country.

The El Niño climate impact outlook Somalia examines the evolving El Niño conditions and the potential implications for the October–December 2026 Deyr season.

The ENSO Outlook, developed by IWMI, Sri Lanka, a first-of-its-kind ENSO Digital Public Infrastructure, is designed to turn El Niño and La Niña climate signals into timely, actionable measures, focusing on farm-level preparedness and response to shocks.

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.

A strengthening El Niño could become one of the strongest on record, threatening food security for millions through 2027. WFP is scaling anticipatory action to reduce hunger risks from droughts, floods and climate-related shocks.

This report reviews India's growing heat risk, the evolution of Heat Action Plans, financing mechanisms, and emerging governance approaches to strengthen climate resilience and public health protection.

The University of Cumbria is leading an international partnership behind the launch of Apada Sahayak, a new bilingual app designed to help communities across the Himalayan region strengthen their preparedness for natural hazards and disasters.

Climate change arrived this summer for the beloved TV characters and landscapes of Sesame Street, in a special episode where Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and friends have to get ready for extreme weather.

Developed by NORCAP and iMMAP, the study applies a "risk-to-action chain" framework to identify recurring structural bottlenecks that prevent risk information from translating into effective decisions, financing, interventions and measurable outcomes.

A recent WMO project mission to Djibouti highlighted tangible progress from CREWS Djibouti in advancing people-centered early warning systems and set priorities for the next phase of implementation with national partners.

The National Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction (2025–2030) and Short and Medium Term Action Plan provides a comprehensive, forward-looking framework to strengthen Nigeria’s resilience to disasters.

This Disaster Management Reference Handbook offers Palau’s disaster management (DM) partners a resource for understanding both the potential for disasters in the country and the network of people and institutions ready to respond.

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).

This is a global review of Heat Action Plans (HAPs) highlights challenges in measuring implementation and effectiveness, introducing the HAPIE Tool to help cities evaluate and strengthen heat resilience efforts.

Through an Early Action Protocol funded by the IFRC, the Colombian Red Cross is implementing anticipatory measures in the departments of Tolima and Cesar before the drought reaches its critical point.

This report gives emergency managers a picture of the artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled product landscape and the conditions that will shape how those products can support EM.

Wildfire evacuations are often more complex than they seem. Experience from Spokane shows that evacuation drills help residents prepare, improve traffic management and warning systems, and can save lives when fast-moving fires threaten communities.

Places with established preparedness programs experience fewer accidental ignitions, detect fires earlier, and evacuate people effectively. UK therefore needs to complement future national wildfire service with a comprehensive community-based program.

After two anticipatory action plans for drought were activated in Zimbabwe, partners are now supporting those most at risk before the worst impacts of this hazard are felt.

This summer, Canada is once again on fire. Thousands have been evacuated. Smoke drifting south is exacerbating tensions between Canada and the U.S. government. And things are likely to get worse.

Disaster communications experts discuss how maintaining reliable communications for first responders is essential during emergencies, and how every disaster demands flexibility, coordination and close partnerships to keep response efforts connected.

High temperatures cause dehydration and fatigue and impair attention, judgment, balance and reaction time. Research shows that heat increases injuries seemingly unrelated to temperature. patterns consistent with diminished cognition and attention.

It’s important to recognize that many schools are underprepared to carry out their days in extreme heat, without the physical infrastructure or planning to keep students and educators comfortable and safe in the classroom or outside on school grounds.

When two major wildfires burned through the Sierra Nevada in 2020 and 2021, they took thousands of giant sequoia trees with them. Without prescribed burns, thousands more would have died, according to a new study from the University of California, Davis.

With approaching and nearly half a million people still live on the risky hilly terrain of the southeastern part of the country. It is a crucial time to update disaster preparedness and contingency policies with the core ideas of anticipatory action.