News and announcements

According to new research, large scale investment in coastal protection is cost-efficient for 90 percent of today’s global floodplain population. This conclusion was reached after an analysis of 125 combinations of sea-level rise, socio-economic development and intergenerational climate change cost sharing scenarios had been considered.

Disaster resettlement is a reasonable strategy for achieving the government’s zero-casualty goal, however, future debates merit more thorough consideration of the balance between displacement and risk reduction. Further, government, NGO, and private sector partners may minimize displacement by expanding rent-to-own and perpetual or time-bounded lease arrangements.

The Kyrgyz Republic is one of the most seismically active countries in Central Asia, and constantly at risk of earthquakes and other disasters. As such, with help from WHO and the GFDRR, the government has implemented a new project to improve the safety of educational facilities by modernizing infrastructure and implementing specific retrofitting programs.

The death toll in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria was higher than officials thought because of the government's classification system. In Puerto Rico, deaths are recorded using international classifications, which do not capture all of the indirect circumstances triggered by the hurricane and may have caused death.

The Strauss Center has released the Complex Emergencies Dashboard, an online mapping platform, to allow key actors to visualize CEPSA datasets on climate vulnerability, conflict, disaster preparation, and international climate and disaster aid, among others. This tool allows policymakers to analyze large volumes of data to explore how insecurities converge in Asia.

With hurricane season approaching, one solution to dealing with risks involves incorporating disaster risk management principles into development planning by identifying the countries’ disaster risk, working to reduce this risk, actively preparing for disasters, implementing disaster risk financing mechanisms, and reconstructing in resilient ways.

In commemoration of this year’s Children’s Day celebration and to further its efforts to ensure that children become a part of the fight against perennial flooding in Ibadan, the Ibadan Urban Flood Management Project (IUFMP) created a forum for over a thousand children to come together and unite against the menace of flooding.

With the beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season, residents in coastal areas are once again being urged to have a plan ready if they have to evacuate. While 2017's Hurricane Irma caused seven million residents to leave their homes and seek shelter, nearly half of those who fled were from areas where evacuations had not been ordered.