Today in disaster resilience (2 February 2024)

Please find below links to some aspects of disaster resilience that were in the news recently…

Recent emergencies/disasters

Colombia declares a disaster because of wildfires and asks for international help https://apnews.com/article/colombia-wildfires-el-nino-rain-97822859911613e3d8cd353924e96d12

Category 2 Tropical Cyclone “Kirrily” makes landfall between Townsville and Ingham, Queensland https://watchers.news/2024/01/26/category-2-tropical-cyclone-kirrily-makes-landfall-between-townsville-and-ingham-queensland/

Tropical Storm “Candice” forms just north of Mauritius, bringing very heavy rainfall https://watchers.news/2024/01/24/tropical-storm-candice-forms-just-north-of-mauritius-bringing-very-heavy-rainfall/

Climate Change is Increasing Lightning Deaths in Bangladesh https://climateadaptationplatform.com/climate-change-is-increasing-lightning-deaths-in-bangladesh/

Flood in the Marshall Islands https://disasterscharter.org/web/guest/activations/-/article/flood-flash-in-marshall-islands-activation-858-

Another cyclone threat looms as flood clean-up begins in Queensland https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/2024/02/01/another-cyclone-threat-looms-queensland

Volcanic activity worldwide 30 Jan 2024: Santiaguito volcano, Fuego, Popocatépetl, Merapi, Semeru https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcano-activity/news/232828/Volcanic-activity-worldwide-30-Jan-2024-Santiaguito-volcano-Fuego-Popocatepetl-Merapi-Semeru-.html

Extreme Weather and Climate Change

Do we want a wind farm outside our window? What Australians think about the net zero transition https://theconversation.com/do-we-want-a-wind-farm-outside-our-window-what-australians-think-about-the-net-zero-transition-214712

India’s Clean Energy Sector is Booming https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Renewable-Energy/Indias-Clean-Energy-Sector-is-Booming.html

Financial Armageddon a risk as climate disasters leave insurers on the ropes https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/finance/consumer/2024/01/27/natural-disasters-australia-risk

Climate change, not El Niño, main driver of exceptional drought in highly vulnerable Amazon River Basin https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-change-not-el-nino-main-driver-of-exceptional-drought-in-highly-vulnerable-amazon-river-basin/

New series of educational videos on climate change and health from the ENBEL project https://www.enbel-project.eu/news-page/educational-videos

Natural Hydrogen: A Potential Clean Energy Source Beneath Our Feet https://e360.yale.edu/features/natural-geologic-hydrogen-climate-change

Marshall Brain: How overheating in the Arctic Circle will cause the collapse of civilization https://wraltechwire.com/2024/01/26/marshall-brain-how-overheating-in-the-arctic-circle-will-cause-the-collapse-of-civilization/

Why summers are getting more humid and how that can be dangerous https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-27/why-summers-are-getting-more-humid/103390388

To avoid the worst of climate change we have to change how we travel https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/life/2024/01/29/air-travel-climate-net-zero

How YouTube is profiting from a new kind of climate change denial https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/life/tech/2024/01/29/youtube-climate-denial

Renewable projects are getting built faster – but there’s even more need for speed https://theconversation.com/renewable-projects-are-getting-built-faster-but-theres-even-more-need-for-speed-221874

Move to sustainable food systems could bring $10tn benefits a year, study finds https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/29/sustainable-food-production-economic-benefits-study

Australia’s black summer bushfires ripped billions from the tourism industry. Is global warming making the cost of natural disasters worse? https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/31/black-summer-bushfires-australia-tourism-industry-impact

The highest temperature ever recorded in Europe https://watchers.news/2024/01/30/the-highest-temperature-ever-recorded-in-europe/

Quantifying the Impact of Climate Change on Human Health https://www.weforum.org/publications/quantifying-the-impact-of-climate-change-on-human-health/

Already stretched hospitals take on more ambulance call-outs in heatwaves, new Griffith University research finds https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-30/qld-heatwave-death-ambulance-natural-disasters-hot-weather-humid/103400540

Perth heatwave continues as temperatures forecast to hit 45C in Midland, Ellenbrook on Thursday https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-31/perth-swelters-through-summer-heatwave-/103410824

The Weather of Hell: Experience of Italian Red Cross During 2023 Heat waves https://preparecenter.org/story/the-weather-of-hell-experience-of-italian-red-cross-during-2023-heatwaves/

Scotland’s Renewable Output More Than 100 Percent of Demand https://e360.yale.edu/digest/scotland-renewable-energy-100-percent

Climate change can put the planet’s largest reserves of drinking water at risk https://phys.org/news/2024-01-climate-planet-largest-reserves.html

10,000 people a year could die as a result of heatwaves, MPs warn https://news.sky.com/story/10-000-people-a-year-could-die-as-a-result-of-heatwaves-mps-warn-13060463

Saskatchewan shatters January temperature record with 21.1 °C (70 °F) in Maple Creek, Canada https://watchers.news/2024/01/31/saskatchewan-shatters-january-temperature-record-with-21-1-c-70-f-in-maple-creek-canada/

Texas just broke a record for how much power it got from the sun https://www.kut.org/energy-environment/2024-01-29/texas-just-broke-a-record-for-how-much-power-it-got-from-the-sun

Disaster risk reduction

A call for consistency and integration in global surface water estimates https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad1722

‘We can’t engineer our way out of this’: how to protect flood-hit Severn Valley https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/27/we-cant-engineer-our-way-out-of-this-how-to-protect-flood-hit-severn-valley

Improved estimation of extreme floods with data pooling and mixed probability distribution https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022169424000271

Research proposes a self-powered movable seawall for tsunami protection and emergency power generation https://techxplore.com/news/2024-01-powered-movable-seawall-tsunami-emergency.html

Coming soon! A new disaster losses and damages tracking system https://www.undrr.org/disaster-losses-and-damages-tracking-system

Homes with more modern roofs were able to avoid significant damage from Hurricane Ian, compared with those with older roofs https://insuranceindustryblog.iii.org/fema-highlights-roleof-modern-roofsin-preventinghurricane-damage/

PyOcto: A high-throughput seismic phase associator https://seismica.library.mcgill.ca/article/view/1130

Quantifying cascading uncertainty in compound flood modeling with linked process-based and machine learning models https://hess.copernicus.org/preprints/hess-2024-9/

Effects of tropical cyclones on catchment sediment delivery to coastal ecosystems https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0341816224000031

Digital training tackles future threats in Tuvalu https://tcap.tv/news/2023/10/4/tuvalu-doubles-down-on-climate-action-celebrating-45-years-of-independence-rfy3w

Emergency Management

Plagues that shook the Roman Empire linked to cold, dry periods https://www.newscientist.com/article/2414350-plagues-that-shook-the-roman-empire-linked-to-cold-dry-periods/

Inclusive emergency management in Romania https://www.gfdrr.org/en/feature-story/enabling-inclusive-emergency-preparedness-and-response-romania

Will 2024 Atlantic hurricane season be active? One early forecast says yes https://www.foxweather.com/weather-news/early-2024-atlantic-hurricane-season-forecast

Developing and Validating a Disaster Food Security Scale https://disasterhealth.umbc.edu/current-research/

Big Storms Are Coming, But Feared Widespread Disaster Isn’t Looming https://voiceofsandiego.org/2024/01/29/big-storms-are-coming-but-feared-widespread-disaster-isnt-looming/

Disaster Education, Communication and Engagement

Disaster risk and resilience in the news, and news from the disaster risk reduction (DRR) community and beyond https://www.preventionweb.net/community/community-announcement

Disaster communications can be more effective when using different messaging strategies https://theconversation.com/disaster-communications-can-be-more-effective-when-using-different-messaging-strategies-215978

Think Globally, Act Locally? Evaluating Boston Climate Projects’ Community Engagement https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10745-023-00473-2

Science and risk communication at active volcanoes in Guatemala: living with the beast https://www.rgs.org/events/upcoming-events/science-and-risk-communication-at-active-volcanoes-in-guatemala-living-with-the-beast

What role can ‘public switching’ play in researching public perceptions of controversial issues? https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13645579.2024.2303033

Disaster psychology

Copenhagen, Climate Science and the Emotional Geographies of Climate Change https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00049181003742286

You Are Stronger Than You Think https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/a-well-lived-life/202303/you-are-stronger-than-you-think

COVID-19 stress, marital conflict, social capital, and parenting of preschoolers https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/fare.13000

Update on COVID-19 and How It Changes the Brain https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-my-brain-works/202401/update-on-covid-19-and-changes-in-the-brain

Anxiety often lingers after an environmental disaster. A new tool could help measure it https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-31/victoria-epa-melb-industrial-pollution-fire-flood-mental-health/103402774

Sociology and disasters

Community Resilience and Disaster Preparedness: A Social Analysis of Vulnerability and Coping Mechanisms in Indonesian Villages https://amrsjournals.com/index.php/jamrsss/article/view/466

Disability, displacement and disaster resilience: Ensuring the rights of persons with disabilities in situations of forced displacement and statelessness https://www.preventionweb.net/publication/disability-displacement-and-disaster-resilience-ensuring-rights-persons-disabilities

How can donors help ensure that disaster recovery efforts are equitable, inclusive and address the underlying causes of vulnerability and injustice? https://givingcompass.org/partners/disaster-relief-recovery/equitable-disaster-recovery-means-trust-and-autonomy

Published by

NeilDufty

I am a Principal at Water Technology Pty Ltd, an Australian-based coastal, environment and natural hazards company - see https://www.watertech.com.au/. I specialise in the community aspects of disaster risk reduction and emergency management. Samples of my research and projects can be accessed at https://works.bepress.com/neil_dufty/ Check out my latest book 'Disaster Education, Communication and Engagement' at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119569796/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i6 I am also a published fiction writer specialising in short stories and poems - see https://neilduftyfiction.com/

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