The rock avalanche that destroyed the village of Xinmo in Sichuan, China, on June 24th, 2017, brought the issue of landslide risk and disaster chain management in highly seismic regions back into the spotlight. The long-term post-seismic behaviour of mountain slopes is complex and hardly predictable. Nevertheless, the integrated use of field monitoring, remote sensing and real-time predictive modelling can help to set-up effective early warning systems, provide timely alarms, optimize rescue operations and perform secondary hazard assessments.

Asia and the Pacific is the region most affected by natural disasters which hit hardest at the poorest countries and communities.

In many coastal communities, the risks driven by storm surges are motivating substantial investments in flood risk management. The design of adaptive risk management strategies, however, hinges on the ability to detect future changes in storm surge statistics. Previous studies have used observations to identify changes in past storm surge statistics. Here, we focus on the simple and decision-relevant question: How fast can we learn from past and potential future storm surge observations about changes in future statistics?

This study of humanitarian preparedness measures focuses on the 2015–2016 El Niño event in five countries: Zambia, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Malawi. Chapters 2–6 of this study detail country-level measures to prepare for potential El Niño related impacts.

In 2016 the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) commissioned the development of guidelines on national disaster risk assessment (NDRA) as part of a series of thematic guidelines under its “Words into Action” initiative to support national implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.

Debris flows are one of the natural disasters that frequently occur in mountain areas, usually accompanied by serious loss of lives and properties. One of the most used approaches to mitigate the risk associated to debris flows is the implementation of early warning systems based on well calibrated rainfall thresholds. However, many mountainous areas have little data regarding rainfall and hazards, especially in debris flow forming regions.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - More than 6,000 people have been moved to emergency shelters on Vanuatu’s northern island Ambae in the South Pacific as a volcano threatens to erupt, officials said on Tuesday.

Karangasem, INDONESIA (Reuters) - Fears that a volcano could erupt imminently on the holiday island of Bali prompted several countries to issue travel warnings, while Indonesian authorities raced t

The purpose of this National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF) is to: Guide government and other implementing stakeholders in prioritising the implementation of post-disaster needs assessment (PDNA) findings and guide recovery investment and resource allocations across short-term humanitarian needs and medium- to long-term reconstruction; Help

This policy brief concludes that, from the climate science perspective, results show the 2016-17 drought is less severe than the 2010-11 drought in Lamu, while in Marsabit they are comparable. In general, the return time of the event over the regions analysed was low, meaning that this kind of drought is a relatively common event.

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