The HKH Snow Update 2025 highlights a significant decline in seasonal snow across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, with snow persistence 23.6% below normal — the lowest in 23 years. This trend, now in its third consecutive year, threatens water security for nearly two billion people. All twelve major river …
The clustering of severe European windstorms on annual timescales has substantial impacts on the (re-)insurance industry. Our knowledge of the risk is limited by large uncertainties in estimates of clustering from typical historical storm data sets covering the past few decades. Eight storm data sets are gathered for analysis in …
Over the past two centuries, effective building and land use regulation have dramatically reduced incidences of urban conflagration and epidemic disease. In the developed world, such regulation has resulted in successful risk reduction and hazard response adaptation. However, disaster risk reduction strategies for low- and middle-income countries have largely ignored …
Order of the Supreme Court of India in the matter of Gaurav Kumar Bansal Vs Union of India & Others dated 05/04/2016 regarding minimum standards of relief for victims of disaster. The petitioner submitted before the Apex Court that as per Section 11 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, a …
Given the increasing impacts of flooding in Jakarta, methods for assessing current and future flood risk are required. In this paper, we use the Damagescanner-Jakarta risk model to project changes in future river flood risk under scenarios of climate change, land subsidence, and land use change. Damagescanner-Jakarta is a simple …
When an earthquake strikes literally every second counts. That was the case 5 years ago when a magnitude 9 quake unleashed a massive tsunami that devastated Japan. A seismological network kicked into action issuing early warnings, but the massive waves still killed nearly 16,000 people and caused an estimated $300 …
The City Government of Addis Ababa and Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will enable them to work together on earthquake risk assessment in the city. During the signing of the MoU, Addis Ababa City Municipality General Manager Haile Fesseha said establishing an …
The Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities released ‘The Economic Cost Of The Social Impact Of Natural Disasters’. This report looks at the costs and long-term social impacts of natural disasters in Australia and finds the social costs of natural disasters in 2015 were at least equal …
This paper highlights a number of ways in which disaster risk management financing and governance can be used to advance sustainable development and, likewise, in which development actions can be used to strengthen disaster resilience. These include: integration of disaster risk in the design of development policies, strategies, land use …
This study investigates the issues related to underestimation of the earthquake source parameters in the context of tsunami early warning and tsunami risk assessment. The magnitude of a very large event may be underestimated significantly during the early stage of the disaster, resulting in the issuance of incorrect tsunami warnings. …
Serious epidemics after the December 2015 floods in Chennai were averted by prompt preventive action initiated by the government which was supported by NGOs and citizen groups. This article highlights areas for improvement and initiates a dialogue around the theme of disaster preparedness and better coordinated relief efforts.
Large magnitude earthquakes in urban environments continue to kill and injure tens to hundreds of thousands of people, inflicting lasting societal and economic disasters. Earthquake early warning (EEW) provides seconds to minutes of warning, allowing people to move to safe zones and automated slowdown and shutdown of transit and other …
A research geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey looks at a series of images that illustrate the seismic waves of an earthquake. The understanding of seismic waves is key for building an earthquake early warning system. One of the most frightening things about earthquakes is that we never know …
The Union home ministry's disaster management experts have warned of a bigger catastrophe, earthquakes with a magnitude of 8.2 or greater on the Richter scale which may hit the already ruptured Himalayan region. They say quakes with higher intensity than the one that struck Manipur on Monday are likely to …
This document provides an insight on the incidences of past disasters, and administrative, demographic, socio-economic and infra-structure perspectives of the Uttarkashi district, in Uttarakhand, India for assessing the vulnerability and capacity of the district in disaster risk reduction. It discusses the causes and consequences of the recent events (flashfloods and …
Public Accounts Committee (2015-16) present this Twenty Fifth Report (Sixteenth Lok Sabha) on 'Disaster Preparedness in India' based on C&AG; Report No. 3 of 2013 (Performance Audit), Union Government related to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The above-mentioned Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India was laid on …
Handbook on Law and Disaster Risk Reduction (the Handbook) has been developed in support of the Checklist on Law and Disaster Risk Reduction (the Checklist), a tool to assess whether and to what extent the existing legal framework of a country is meeting its full potential in supporting DRR. The …
With the projected changes in climate, population and socioeconomic activity located in flood-prone areas, the global assessment of the flood risk is essential to inform climate change policy and disaster risk management. Whilst global flood risk models exist for this purpose, the accuracy of their results is greatly limited by …
The correct location of earthquake emergency shelters and their allocation to residents can effectively reduce the number of casualties by providing safe havens and efficient evacuation routes during the chaotic period of the unfolding disaster. However, diverse and strict constraints and the discrete feasible domain of the required models make …
This report provides evidence for three types of benefits – or dividends of resilience – that DRM investments can yield: Avoiding losses when disasters strike; Stimulating economic activity thanks to reduced disaster risk; and Development co-benefits, or uses, of a specific DRM investment. While the first dividend is the most …
SRINAGAR: The lack of disaster preparedness in valley increases its risk of vulnerability manifold towards damage during the natural calamities. Though Kashmir valley has always been declared as highly prone to earthquakes yet the absence of proper disaster management adds to the risk of damage and destruction. Before the deadly …
