Latest news on Disaster Risk Reduction

By Denis McClean

GENEVA, 29 August 2016 - China National Radio today said it would launch a new service for its 700 million listeners which will focus on disaster risk reduction. 

The station's President, Mr. Yan Xiaoming, met today with UNISDR Director, Ms. Kirsi Madi, to discuss mutual collaboration in the build up to International Day for Disaster…

This year's floods in India not only have the imprint of gross and near-criminal mismanagement, but also mark the beginning of the world risked because of climate change. In this climate-risked world, it is not only critical to get development right, this should also be done at a scale and speed never seen before.

This paper charts the institutions and actors in the climate change adaptation (CCA) space in rural and urban semi-arid India and finds that development and adaptation span a continuum in policy and practice. The publication interrogates policies, programmes and projects in India.The authors recommend the following: The adaptation community...

This report highlight insights, opportunities and challenges that may help policymakers and practitioners carry out more inclusive, gender-responsive adaptation planning for rural communities. It also contributes toward expanding the understanding of gender and community-based adaptation (CBA) based on the project's on-the-ground experience...

This paper examines the role of outbreak information sources through four domains: knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and stigma related to the 2014 Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak. Given the ongoing and unpredictable threat to human health posed by recent emerging infectious diseases (EID), the appearance and exportation of future novel pathogens...

Italy presents a fairly unique challenge for earthquake engineers: how do you make historic, medieval towns and villages safer without knocking it all down? A strict building code is clearly a good place to start, but Italy already has one of the most stringent in the world. So why did so many die in Wednesday's earthquake, and why will people continue...

Disaster prevention and mitigation have not kept pace with technology as is evident in the devastation left behind by the recent temblor in Italy. TRT World looks at capacity gaps in prediction tools, early warning systems and infrastructure. Until better prediction and measurement methods are used, building smarter infrastructure seems to be the only...

The straight water mark line running across homes, businesses and vehicles across south Louisiana from the recent flood tells federal planners a lot about the past and future of flood risk management. U.S. Geological Survey staff members from around the country were in Louisiana finding, measuring and documenting the water marks that will feed into...

This working paper draws from ASSAR’s (Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions) first phase (Regional Diagnostic Study) which took stock of the current state of knowledge on the climatic and non-climatic risks in our research sites. This paper focuses on India to interrogate the overlaps and divergences between...

This paper demonstrates the harmful effects that social expectations of masculinity can have on coping mechanisms and decision-making. Expectations based on gender have broad implications for families and communities and for the ways in which emergency management personnel and procedures operate.The findings conclude that constructed ideals of masculinity,...