Latest news on Disaster Risk Reduction
- A storm tides is the actual sea level as influenced by a weather disturbance. The storm tide consists of the normal astronomical tide plus the storm surge (WMO, 2017).
- Deforestation is the conversion of forest to other land use independently of whether human-induced or not (FAO, 2020).
- Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Cholera remains a global threat to public health (WHO, 2019).
- A subtropical storm is a subtropical cyclone in which the maximum sustained surface wind speed (using the U.S. 1-minute average) is 34 kt (39 mph or 63 km/hr) or more (NOAA, 2019).
- Landfilling is the final placement of waste into or onto the land in a controlled way. The definition covers both landfilling at internal sites (i.e., where a generator of waste is carrying out its own waste disposal at the place of generation) and at external sites (United Nations, 2016).
- Hail is precipitation in the form of particles of ice (hailstones). These can be either transparent, or partly or completely opaque. They are usually spheroidal, conical or irregular in form, and generally 5−50 mm in diameter. The particles may fall from a cloud either separately or agglomerated in irregular lumps (WMO, 2017).
- Animal disease is an impairment of the normal state of an animal that interrupts or modifies its vital function. Infectious diseases of livestock and wildlife are a major threat to global animal health and welfare and their effective control is crucial for agronomic health, for safeguarding and securing national and international food supplies and for alleviating rural poverty in developing…
- Icing refers to any deposit or coating of ice on an object caused by the impact of liquid hydrometeors, usually supercooled (WMO, 1992).
- A lava flow or lava dome is a body of lava that forms during an eruption, or main eruptive episode. Lava flows are outpourings of fluid, relatively low-viscosity molten rock, whereas a lava dome is a pile of relatively viscous lava that cannot flow far from the vent (Calder et al., 2015; Kilburn, 2015).
- Cadmium is a toxic heavy metal which is widely distributed in the Earth’s crust (soil and rocks), air and water; however, human activity has greatly increased levels in environmental media relevant to population exposure. Human exposure to cadmium represents a major public health concern as it has been associated with a range of acute and long-term adverse health effects and diseases (WHO, 2019).