Please find below links to some aspects of disaster resilience that were in the news recently…
Recent emergencies/disasters
Heavy rains from Hurricane “Tammy” to impact Windward and Leeward Islands https://watchers.news/2023/10/21/heavy-rains-from-hurricane-tammy-to-impact-windward-and-leeward-islands-today-extend-to-virgin-islands-and-puerto-rico-by-sunday/
Tropical Cyclone “Tej” to rapidly intensify as it heads toward the Yemen – Oman border region https://watchers.news/2023/10/21/tropical-cyclone-tej-to-rapidly-intensify-as-it-heads-toward-the-yemen-oman-border-region/
Emergency warnings issued for fast-moving fires in southern Queensland https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-23/emergency-warnings-issued-for-southern-qld-bushfires/103010840
Tropical Cyclone “Lola” intensifies as it approaches Vanuatu, poses threat to southern New Caledonia https://watchers.news/2023/10/23/tropical-cyclone-lola-intensifies-as-it-approaches-vanuatu-poses-threat-to-southern-new-caledonia/
UK – Over 1,000 Homes Damaged, Hundreds Evacuated as Storm Babet Triggers Major Floods https://floodlist.com/europe/floods-england-scotland-storm-babet-october-2023
Tropical Cyclone “Hamoon” makes landfall in Bangladesh https://watchers.news/2023/10/24/tropical-cyclone-hamoon-makes-landfall-in-bangladesh/
Red Alert in Vanuatu, Lola becomes southern hemisphere’s earliest Category 5 tropical cyclone on record https://watchers.news/2023/10/24/red-alert-in-vanuatu-lola-becomes-southern-hemispheres-earliest-category-5-tropical-cyclone-on-record/
Extremely dangerous Category 5 Hurricane “Otis” makes unexpected landfall near Acapulco, Mexico https://watchers.news/2023/10/25/extremely-dangerous-category-5-hurricane-otis-makes-unexpected-landfall-near-acapulco-mexico/
Storm Bernard impacts Morocco, adds to Spain’s abnormal weather patterns after record rainfall from Storm Aline https://watchers.news/2023/10/25/storm-bernard-impacts-morocco-adds-to-spains-abnormal-weather-patterns-after-record-rainfall-from-storm-aline/
Yemen – Thousands Displaced by Floods After Cyclone Tej Dumps 400mm of Rain https://floodlist.com/asia/yemen-floods-cyclone-tej-october-2023
Central Australian fires burn across twice the size of Tasmania https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/pm/central-australian-fires-burn-across-twice-the-size-of-tasmania-/103028462
Dozens killed by ‘disastrous’ Hurricane Otis in Mexico https://thewest.com.au/news/weather/dozens-killed-by-disastrous-hurricane-otis-in-mexico-c-12341330
Volcanic activity worldwide 25 Oct 2023: Klyuchevskoy volcano, Popocatépetl, Semeru, Ibu, Dukono https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcano-activity/news/224419/Volcanic-activity-worldwide-25-Oct-2023-Klyuchevskoy-volcano-Popocatepetl-Semeru-Ibu-Dukono-R.html
Crews, residents battle to contain Qld fires after lives and homes lost https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/crews-residents-battle-to-contain-qld-fires-after-lives-and-homes-lost-20231026-p5effd.html
Extreme Weather and Climate Change
Surging renewable energy sees record supply to Australia’s electricity grid https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/23/surging-renewable-energy-sees-record-supply-to-australias-electricity-grid
Renewables are on the rise in the United States https://environmentamerica.org/articles/renewables-are-on-the-rise-in-the-united-states/
Climate scientist rings alarm bells on the state of our planet — and the political obstacles preventing action https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/books/2023/10/21/a-dangerous-path
Half of the world is past a peak in fossil power https://ember-climate.org/insights/research/half-of-the-world-has-passed-peak-fossil-power/
Urgent action needed to address climate change threats to coastal areas https://www.uea.ac.uk/about/news/article/urgent-action-needed-to-address-climate-change-threats-to-coastal-areas
Could the UK’s tides help wean us off fossil fuels? https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67170625
World Rapidly Approaching Peak Fossil Fuels, Analysts Say https://e360.yale.edu/digest/peak-fossil-fuels-peak-emissions
Unavoidable future increase in West Antarctic ice-shelf melting over the twenty-first century https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01818-x
State of the climate: Global temperatures throughout mid-2023 shatter records https://www.carbonbrief.org/state-of-the-climate-global-temperatures-throughout-mid-2023-shatter-records/
Championing nature and Indigenous wisdom: Latin American and Caribbean Climate Week sets the stage for COP28 https://climatechampions.unfccc.int/lac-sets-the-stage-for-cop28/
Drought turns Amazonian capital into climate dystopia https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/18/drought-amazon-capital-climate-manaus-forest-fires-air-quality-rivers
Unavoidable future increase in West Antarctic ice-shelf melting over the twenty-first century https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01818-x
A locally time-invariant metric for climate model ensemble predictions of extreme risk https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/environmental-data-science/article/locally-timeinvariant-metric-for-climate-model-ensemble-predictions-of-extreme-risk/F26C359A109C3A738DC50AA08E8CFEBA
Climate catastrophe in Sikkim Himalaya: Twin track resilience strategy https://www.unescap.org/blog/climate-catastrophe-sikkim-himalayas-twin-track-resilience-strategy
Clean energy is officially ‘unstoppable’ now https://www.theverge.com/23930058/forecast-clean-renewable-unstoppable-international-energy-agency
The 2023 state of the climate report: Entering uncharted territory https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biad080/7319571
Earth’s ‘vital signs’ worse than at any time in human history, scientists warn https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/24/earth-vital-signs-human-history-scientists-sustainable-future
Valleys in Antarctica haven’t seen sunlight for over 14 million years, but that may change https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/life/science/environment/2023/10/25/antarctica-retreat
Beyond The Hockey Stick: What We’re Missing When We Talk About Climate Change https://time.com/6328017/climate-change-hockey-stick/
An ancient river landscape preserved beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-42152-2
Himalayan communities are under siege from landslides – and climate change is worsening the crisis https://theconversation.com/himalayan-communities-are-under-siege-from-landslides-and-climate-change-is-worsening-the-crisis-215202
Heatwaves, droughts, other extreme weather events increasingly influencing adaptation policies https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/newsroom/news/heatwaves-droughts-other-extreme
Global energy-related CO2 emissions could peak as soon as this year – and by 2025 at the latest https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-global-co2-emissions-could-peak-as-soon-as-2023-iea-data-reveals/
How the Greenland ice sheet fared in 2023 https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-the-greenland-ice-sheet-fared-in-2023/
Hallucinatory world: Governments blind as multiple catastrophes besiege human civilisation https://johnmenadue.com/hallucinatory-world-governments-blind-as-multiple-catastrophes-besiege-human-civilisation/
What Does ‘Unavoidable’ West Antarctic Ice Shelf Melt Mean for the Bay Area? https://www.kqed.org/science/1984927/what-does-unavoidable-west-antarctic-ice-shelf-melt-mean-for-the-bay-area
Cyclones – earlier, stronger, lingering longer https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/climate/explainer-cyclones-earlier-stronger-lingering-longer/
Disaster risk reduction
Hydrological model-based streamflow reconstruction for Indian sub-continental river basins, 1951–2021https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-023-02618-w
Uncertainty Estimation and Probabilistic Prediction in Hydrology https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/51638/uncertainty-estimation-and-probabilistic-prediction-in-hydrology
Value of process understanding in the era of machine learning: A case for recession flow prediction https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022169423012921
How multiple anthropic pressures may lead to unplanned channel patterns: Insights from the evolutionary trajectory of the Po River (Italy) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0341816223006896
Water crises show need to link management of underground and surface waters in international basins, urge countries and UN https://unece.org/media/news/384423
Mass Movement Hazard and Exposure in the Himalaya https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2022EF003253
Whatever the weather, Vanuatu’s met service observers equipped to gather good data https://www.sprep.org/news/whatever-the-weather-vanuatus-met-service-observers-equipped-to-gather-good-data
Flood warnings for Africa advance with EU expertise https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/horizon-magazine/flood-warnings-africa-advance-eu-expertise
Atlantic hurricanes now twice as likely to strengthen from weak to major intensity in 24 hours, researchers suggest https://phys.org/news/2023-10-atlantic-hurricanes-weak-major-intensity.html
The dams are full for now – but Sydney will need new water supplies as rainfall becomes less reliable https://theconversation.com/the-dams-are-full-for-now-but-sydney-will-need-new-water-supplies-as-rainfall-becomes-less-reliable-214071
As the climate changes, once lower-risk houses are projected to be exposed to increasing bushfire threat https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-23/house-bushfire-resilience-star-rating-app-launched-prepare/102914534
Cloud-Optimized Geospatial Formats Guide https://guide.cloudnativegeo.org/
Finding Argoland: how a lost continent resurfaced https://www.uu.nl/en/news/finding-argoland-how-a-lost-continent-resurfaced
Deciphering Permanent Uplift Along the Pacific Coast of South America Through Signal Analysis of Various Tectonic Processes https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023TC007815
Fire Technology: Volume 59, issue 6, November 2023 https://link.springer.com/journal/10694/volumes-and-issues/59-6
Rhine flood stories: Spatio-temporal analysis of historic and projected flood genesis in the Rhine River basin https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hyp.14918
New model tackles immature faults and their widespread fractures https://temblor.net/temblor/new-model-immature-faults-fractures-15619/
The New Zealand Paleoseismic Site Database, Version 1.0 https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/srl/article-abstract/doi/10.1785/0220230150/628270/The-New-Zealand-Paleoseismic-Site-Database-Version
How to avoid dam collapse devastation and flooding https://www.brunel.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/articles/How-to-avoid-dam-collapse-devastation-and-flooding
Towards Interpretable LSTM-based Modelling of Hydrological Systems https://hess.copernicus.org/preprints/hess-2023-252/
Recent seismic activity in Australia https://www.ga.gov.au/news/seismic-activity-in-australia
Technical note: Seamless extraction and analysis of river networks in R https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/27/3733/2023/
Opportunities and limitations of the ChatGPT Advanced Data Analysis plugin for hydrological analyses https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hyp.15015
Advances and gaps in the science and practice of impact-based forecasting of droughts https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wat2.1698
Emergency management
PAHO supports countries in the Americas to prepare health systems ahead of hurricane season https://www.paho.org/en/news/9-6-2023-paho-supports-countries-americas-prepare-health-systems-ahead-hurricane-season
Firefighters having to hunt for fire hydrants during emergencies due to obstructed access https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-22/residents-urged-not-to-block-fire-hydrants-face-fine/102993950
Scotland’s agricultural sector heavily impacted by Storm Babet https://watchers.news/2023/10/23/scotlands-agricultural-sector-heavily-impacted-by-storm-babet/
A web-based analytical framework for the detection and visualization space-time clusters of COVID-19 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15230406.2023.2264749
Norway launches Wildland Fires Initiative as part of Arctic Council chairship https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2023/10/norway-launches-wildland-fires-initiative-part-arctic-council-chairship
Storm Babet caused dangerous floods as the ‘dry side’ of Scotland isn’t used to such torrential rain https://www.preventionweb.net/news/storm-babet-caused-dangerous-floods-dry-side-scotland-isnt-used-such-torrential-rain
Sutlej River floods in Pakistan worsened by catalogue of issues https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/climate/sutlej-river-floods-in-pakistan-worsened-by-catalogue-of-issues/
Greece’s climate challenges call for more European collaboration https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article/greeces-climate-challenges-call-for-more-european-collaboration
Long road ahead for Afghan earthquake survivors, especially women https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2023/10/23/afghanistan-earthquake-survivors-women-long-road-ahead
International Exercise Builds Resilience for Emergency Preparedness https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/international-exercise-builds-resilience-for-emergency-preparedness
As storms batter the Dominican Republic, its people are better prepared https://www.wfp.org/stories/storms-batter-dominican-republic-its-people-are-better-prepared
Input-Process-Output of decision-making framework during bushfire https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/resources/ajem-october-2023-input-process-output-of-decision-making-framework-during-bushfire/
Disaster Education, Communication and Engagement
Flooding Mapping Tour for school students https://programs.greenlearning.ca/course/flooding-mapping-tour
For Fijian students, annual tsunami drills are just another part of their school life https://www.abc.net.au/pacific/programs/pacific-prepared/fiji-tsunami-drill/102998036
Community monitoring of the environment is rapidly increasing https://www.unep-wcmc.org/en/news/study-praises-community-led-environmental-monitoring-efforts-and-calls-for-state-level-funding-and-protections
Learning histories, participatory methods and creative engagement for climate resilience https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305748823000877
Rhine flood stories: Spatio-temporal analysis of historic and projected flood genesis in the Rhine River basin https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hyp.14918
Method involving citizen participation found effective to address risks of environmental disaster https://phys.org/news/2023-10-method-involving-citizen-effective-environmental.html
Disaster psychology
Strategies to improve quality and usefulness of mental health outcomes in humanitarian settings https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(23)00273-0/fulltext
The beauty and wonder of the natural world is what keeps these scientists fighting to protect it https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-24/odyssey-climate-scientists-suppress-truth-or-risk-funds-careers/102968970
Residents unprepared for wildland fires, face barriers in implementing prevention measures: York U study https://www.yorku.ca/news/2023/10/23/residents-unprepared-for-wildfires-due-to-many-individual-and-social-factors/
Geopsychiatry and social psychiatry https://academic.oup.com/book/43957/chapter-abstract/369594815
Global Call to Reduce the Stigma of Mental Illness and COVID-19 Worldwide https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00332747.2022.2113317
Sociology and disasters
Career barriers and motivations for women and men in disaster risk reduction in Asia-Pacific https://www.undrr.org/publication/career-barriers-and-motivations-women-and-men-disaster-risk-reduction-asia-pacific
The importance of accounting for equity in disaster risk models https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-01039-2
More than 113 million displacements of children will occur in the next three decades, estimated the UNICEF report https://apnews.com/article/climate-change-child-displacement-extreme-weather-87e933b1ee0d81f9345daa801f311ea6
Social science to advance wildfire adaptation in the southwestern United States: a review and future research directions https://www.publish.csiro.au/WF/WF23102
The role of citizenship in geosciences https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/gmpv/2023/10/11/the-role-of-citizenship-in-geosciences-2/
Disaster Resilience News 