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Disaster risk solutions

Scalable and replicable success stories to prevent disasters.

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A catalogue of evidence-based practices to reduce disaster risk.

Concrete innovations, inventions, and strategies are reducing the impacts of disasters worldwide. These practical success stories and proven strategies address various aspects of disaster risk.

The documented successes, measurable achievements, avoided disasters, and tangible outcomes serve as lessons for those planning actions to enhance resilience, reduce vulnerability, and protect communities from the adverse effects of disasters.

The stories you will find below encompass a wide range of practical DRR measures, including early warning systems, community-based initiatives, green and grey infrastructure improvements, policy implementations, and innovative technologies that have been applied and proven effective in real-world scenarios.

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Airplane view Chari river Chad
Update
When the waters rise: how the city of N’Djamena, Chad, prepared for floods and averted disaster

PILIER launched a $13 million flood preparedness and response plan in early 2024 to protect N’Djamena during a high-risk rainy season.

World Bank, the
Case study
Pakistan
Earthquake-resisting building in Pakistan
This case study highlights that the post-1935 earthquake buildings performed well in Pakistan during the 1955 earthquake.
  • Disasters avoided
Case study
United States of America
Nebraska Arbor Day 2024 tornado
This case study explains how the work of the National Weather Service (NWS) Omaha-Valley office was instrumental in reducing the negative human health impacts of the Arbor Day tornado outbreak.
  • Disasters avoided
Case study
Africa
Drought, but not famine: 1991-1993
This case study highlights how the Southern Africa drought response of 1992-1993 demonstrated how coordinated and timely action was effectively able to avert disastrous famine consequences – even at regional scale.
  • Disasters avoided
Fatigued female worker sits against shipping container, wiping sweat from her forehead while holding a water bottle and hard hat.
Research briefs
Heat prevention plans help save lives

Heat prevention plans across Europe are already saving thousands of lives during extreme heat, leading to a reduction of about 25% in excess deaths attributable to extreme heat.

Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC)
Case study
Honduras
Trees4heatresilience: evaluating tree canopy coverage to reduce air conditioning demand in Honduran urban neighborhoods 
This research examines the neighborhood-level relationship between urban tree canopy coverage and air conditioning (A/C) usage in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, a rapidly growing city with high heat exposure.
  • Global Disaster Preparedness Center (GDPC)
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Coloured houses on a windy day
Disaster risk reduction and disaster risk management
The policy objective of anticipating and reducing risk is called disaster risk reduction (DRR). Disaster risk management (DRM) can be thought of as the implementation of DRR, since it describes the actions that aim to achieve the objective of reducing risk.

Featured stories

Houses that can float could protect vulnerable people from flooding

This concept retrofits houses with flotation devices and tethers them to poles - allowing the house to rise with floodwaters and descend to their foundations when the flood subsides.

Can wildfire prevention offer sustainable business opportunities?

Because of climate change, wildfires are becoming more intense and frequent. Prevention measures often come with a hefty price tag. Across Europe, fire-smart solutions make wildfire prevention more sustainable, by offering ecological, economic and social benefits.

Rain-related early warning in Japan

“The risk is imminent” translates as KiKIKURU in Japanese. It’s the name of an innovative early warning system for rain-related hazards in Japan. KIKIKURU was developed by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). The system provides real-time hazard updates using a high spatial resolution of 1 km.

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Developing local-level solutions

Is your city resilient? Does its resilience help its citizens to prosper and flourish? Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) is a unique cross-stakeholder initiative for improving local resilience. See how cities around the world build their capacities to tackle disasters.

MCR2030 is a place where cities can find guidance and support to enhance understanding on risk reduction and resilience, to improve strategic planning to reduce risk and build resilience, and to take actions and progress along the resilience roadmap.

See below news from cities that have taken the leap to reduce disaster risk.

Join MCR2030