Please find below a list of links to some aspects of disaster resilience that were in the news recently…
Recent emergencies/disasters
Cyclone Batsirai: Whole villages swept away in Madagascar https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-60264389
‘Horrendous’ bushfires hit WA’s Wheatbelt in devastating weekend https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-07/bushfires-hit-wa-wheatbelt-in-devastating-weekend/100809216
South Africa – 3 Missing, Dozens Evacuated After Floods in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal https://floodlist.com/africa/south-africa-floods-gauteng-kwazulunatal-february-2022
United Nations says 13 million face hunger as Horn of Africa drought worsens https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-08/un-says-13-million-face-hunger-as-horn-of-africa-drought/100814832
Colombia – Heavy Rains Trigger Deadly Mudslide in Risaralda https://floodlist.com/america/colombia-floods-mudslide-risaralda-february-2022
Daily Noon Briefing Highlights: Horn of Africa, Ethiopia, Madagascar https://www.unocha.org/story/daily-noon-briefing-highlights-horn-africa-ethiopia-madagascar
Tropical Cyclone Dovi causes major flooding in Vanuatu https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/461257/tropical-cyclone-dovi-causes-major-flooding-in-vanuatu
Volcanic activity worldwide 9 Feb 2022: Semeru volcano, Reventador, Nyamuragira, Sangay https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcano-activity/news/172384/Volcanic-activity-worldwide-9-Feb-2022-Semeru-volcano-Reventador-Nyamuragira-Sangay-Nevados-de-.html
Extreme Weather and Climate Change
US household air conditioning use could exceed electric capacity in next decade due to climate change https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220204093124.htm
Are winters losing their chill in the Kansas City region as the climate changes? https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article257768288.html
Robust but weak winter atmospheric circulation response to future Arctic sea ice loss https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28283-y
Ice velocity and thickness of the world’s glaciers https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-021-00885-z
Glaciers of the world mapping https://ige-vis.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/glaciers/index.html
Lessons from New York: What makes a community turn against climate adaptation? https://grist.org/climate/lessons-from-new-york-what-makes-a-community-turn-against-climate-adaptation/
Non-state climate change action: Hope for just response to climate change? https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901122000375?dgcid=author
Arctic Sea Ice extent is the highest since 2009, now above 14 million square kilometers. On the other side of the pond, Antarctic Sea Ice at an all-time low https://www.severe-weather.eu/global-weather/arctic-sea-ice-extent-highest-since-2009-antarctic-sea-ice-all-time-low-january-rrc/
The Roles of Celebrities in Public Disputes: Climate Change and the Great Barrier Reef https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12800
How Climate Change Could Impact Your Skin https://www.gearpatrol.com/style/grooming/a38953432/climate-change-skincare/
The world is on fire and our leaders are failing, poll finds https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/08/citizens-politicians-combat-climate-change-00004590
Making Indian cities climate and water resilient https://watersciencepolicy.com/article/making-indian-cities-climate-and-water-resilient-d22349e15819
CO₂ emissions dataset: Our sources and methods https://ourworldindata.org/co2-dataset-sources
Assessing extremes in hydroclimatology: A review on probabilistic methods https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022169421013524?via%3Dihub
Increasing Heat-Stress Inequality in a Warming Climate https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021EF002488
Disaster risk reduction
Failure to prevent pandemics at source is ‘greatest folly’, say scientists https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/04/failure-to-prevent-pandemics-at-source-is-greatest-folly-say-scientists
Daylighting Rivers and Streams http://nrcsolutions.org/daylighting-rivers/
Future hurricanes likely to pose much greater flood risk to U.S. East and Gulf coasts https://engineering.princeton.edu/news/2022/02/03/future-hurricanes-likely-pose-much-greater-flood-risk-u-s-east-and-gulf-coasts
Five Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Flood Risk (Part One) https://www.rms.com/blog/2022/02/01/five-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-flood-risk-part-one
Five Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Flood Risk (Part Two) https://www.rms.com/blog/2022/02/01/five-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-flood-risk-part-two
How countries can better cope with flood risk https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/how-countries-can-better-cope-flood-risk
Deforestation Is Flooding West African Coasts https://eos.org/articles/deforestation-is-flooding-west-african-coasts
Volcanoes, plague, famine, endless winter: Historians and scientists recall 536, the ‘worst year to be alive’ https://phys.org/news/2022-02-volcanoes-plague-famine-endless-winter.html
Researchers identify ‘double-hazard’ zones for wildfire in the West https://earth.stanford.edu/news/researchers-identify-double-hazard-zones-wildfire-west#gs.oflj37
NRDC Pushes FEMA for Climate-Smart Flood Maps and Standards https://www.nrdc.org/experts/joel-scata/nrdc-pushes-fema-climate-smart-flood-maps-and-standards
Flood Risk-Related Research Trends in Latin America and the Caribbeanhttps://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/14/1/10
Google Maps to fix directions after years of trapped travellers around Burketown https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-08/google-maps-to-fix-routes-trapped-travellers-queensland/100805884
What determines variation in remotely sensed fire severity? Consideration of remote sensing limitations and confounding factors https://www.publish.csiro.au/WF/justaccepted/WF21131
The role of the scientist in a post-truth world https://thebulletin.org/2022/02/the-role-of-the-scientist-in-a-post-truth-world/
JBA launches flood model for more effective risk pricing https://member.fintech.global/2022/02/07/jba-launches-flood-model-for-more-effective-risk-pricing/
Atlas provides districts maps on hazard events and vulnerability for all the calendar months and at annual scale in India https://imdpune.gov.in/hazardatlas/index.html
Storm Ana’s devastation in southern Africa highlights need for early warnings https://www.climatechangenews.com/2022/02/01/storm-anas-devastation-southern-africa-highlights-need-early-warnings/
US flood risk is about to explode — but not for the reasons you think https://grist.org/extreme-weather/flood-risk-growth-development/
Impacts of space weather https://thesciencebehindit.org/how-does-space-weather-affect-us-here-on-earth/
Earthquake early warning system could save lives in southern Europe https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2022/feb/earthquake-early-warning-system-could-save-lives-southern-europe
Why the Tongan eruption will go down in the history of volcanology https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00394-y
Rethinking resilience and development: A coevolutionary perspective https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13280-020-01485-8
The Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science https://www.canadawildfire.org/
The benefits of strengthening buildings against earthquakes https://www.bnhcrc.com.au/hazardnotes/112
Emergency management
How accurate are weather forecaster’s predictions, really, and how do they come up with them? https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/climate/weather-forecasting-less-accurate/
The future of the pandemic is looking clearer as we learn more about infection https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/02/07/1057245449/the-future-of-the-pandemic-is-looking-clearer-as-we-learn-more-about-infection
Using drone technology in Africa’s devasting cyclones https://www.fairplanet.org/story/drone-technology-saves-thousands-from-devastating-cyclones/
Practice Makes Preparedness: NASA Participates in North Carolina Hurricane Exercise https://climate.nasa.gov/news/3144/practice-makes-preparedness-nasa-participates-in-north-carolina-hurricane-exercise/
Drawing disaster-preparedness lessons from Tonga’s volcano https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/drawing-disaster-preparedness-lessons-tongas-volcano
Increasing Public Criticism, Confusion Over COVID-19 Response in U.S. https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/02/09/increasing-public-criticism-confusion-over-covid-19-response-in-u-s/
Wildfire smoke increases inflammation, lung disease risk https://health.ucdavis.edu/news/headlines/wildfire-smoke-increases-inflammation-lung-disease-risk/2022/02
Covid rules are to be axed in England, but is pandemic’s end really in sight? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/09/covid-rules-axed-england-is-pandemic-end-really-in-sight
Evacuation Planning Handbook review update https://www.aidr.org.au/news/evacuation-planning-handbook-review-update/
The INFORM Severity Index is a regularly updated, and easily interpreted model for measuring the severity of humanitarian crisis globally https://www.acaps.org/methodology/severity
Disaster education, communications and engagement
2022 Great Washington ShakeOut https://www.shakeout.org/washington/
Professionalization of community engagement in flood risk management: Insights from four European countries https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212420922000309?via%3Dihub
Exploring Soils: A Living Treasure https://www.access-ed.ngo/exploring-soils-a-living-treasure
15 things not to do when using a rapid antigen test, from storing in the freezer to sampling snot https://theconversation.com/15-things-not-to-do-when-using-a-rapid-antigen-test-from-storing-in-the-freezer-to-sampling-snot-176364
The Invention of Disaster: Power and Knowledge in Discourses on Hazard and Vulnerability https://www.routledge.com/The-Invention-of-Disaster-Power-and-Knowledge-in-Discourses-on-Hazard-and/Gaillard/p/book/9781138805620
2022 Australia Digital report https://wearesocial.com/au/blog/2022/02/digital-2022-australia-online-like-never-before/
Naming Competition: National Large Air Tanker https://schools.aidr.org.au/national-lat-naming-competition/
Psychology and disasters
The Well-Being of Secondary School Principals One Year into the COVID-19 Pandemic https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA827-6.html
Virtual reality experiment shows most people living in high-risk fire zones are “woefully unprepared” https://www.unisa.edu.au/media-centre/Releases/2021/virtual-reality-experiment-shows-most-people-living-in-high-risk-fire-zones-are-woefully-unprepared/
‘Harrowing’: trauma caused by Morwell coalmine fire set high school students back 18 months https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/feb/03/harrowing-trauma-caused-by-morwell-coalmine-fire-set-high-school-students-back-18-months
Sociology and disasters
The U.S. Equity-First Vaccination Initiative https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1627-1.html
Unequal Impact: Putting Justice at the Heart of the Climate Fight https://e360.yale.edu/features/unequal-impact-putting-justice-at-the-heart-of-the-climate-fight
Fleeing the unsustainable city: soft policy and the dual effect of social capital in hurricane evacuation https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-022-01098-y
Social protection to ensure those most affected by climate change can strengthen their resilience capacity and avoid the worst impacts of disasters https://www.preventionweb.net/publication/early-action-and-climate-crisis-could-social-protection-be-game-changer
Poorer populations may be hit with a one-two punch of more heat waves from climate change due to their location and an inability to keep up with it as a result of lack of heat adaptations like air conditioning https://news.agu.org/press-release/poorest-people-bear-growing-burden-of-heat-waves-as-temperatures-rise/
Disaster Resilience News 