What's New in Knowledge | October 2024
It’s a bumper month for knowledge, starting with the release of the UN Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR 2024, which looks at present and future trends, showing how forensic analysis can enable more targeted and effective risk reduction). It’s an important development as we look at how we produce the Major Incidents Report and lessons processes more generally. While on the topic of the Major Incidents Report, this year’s report has been released, focusing on 30 incidents of note across the country, and delving into 5 of them with case studies.
The legendary US disaster researcher Dennis Mileti is honoured by the Disaster Research Center at Boulder Colorado with this collection focusing on warnings and alerts.
In understanding consequences and recovery, Fire to Flourish have released an independent review of the Cobargo Community Bushfire Fund. The UNSW’s How We Survive initiative has released their first edition of the Disaster Recovery Almanac, which poses the simplest of questions to 12 people: ‘What do you think is the most pressing issue in disaster recovery that we need to be paying attention to?’ You can also watch the proceedings of their launch and find out who gets the last spot on the DRR lifeboat.
One session from the second Building Wellbeing into Policy and Action Symposium focussed on wellbeing and disasters. Extreme weather is impacting crop production globally, which will have cost implications for consumers (they had me focussed when they mentioned coffee). This research from the University of Florida details the billion dollar costs globally of extreme weather, heatwave, and drought.
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry has released its final, Phase 2 report into the Grenfell Tower fire in the UK. This research looks at 5 health priorities that emerged from Cyclone Gabrielle in New Zealand. This paper examines flood related mortality in Europe in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals frameworks. This report from the Asian Development Bank focuses on the educational and employment outcomes from storms in India. The ANU held a roundtable on costs and financing for disasters. This is an excellent consensus study from the National Academies on compounding disasters in the Gulf communities in the US, focusing on impacts, findings and lessons learned (and lost).
Looking at knowledge, this is a list of disaster journals that has been curated by Vicente Sandoval. While on journals, it’s always exciting to welcome a new open access, peer reviewed journal like the Journal of Disaster Studies, hosted by Penn State University in the US. UNDRR is seeking feedback by 4 November 2024 on a new Words Into Action Guide examining the input of science and knowledge into policy. The State Review Team at Emergency Management Victoria have released their quarterly newsletter.
When thinking about systemic risk, The Accelerator for Systemic Risk Assessment has released a report ‘Facing Global Risks with Honest Hope,’ that looks at how to develop capacities to understand and address systemic risk. The Lancet Planetary Health-Earth Commission have published research that identifies safe, and just, boundaries for systems to enable sustainable living in a rapidly changing world.
This is a broad ranging article on ecosystems and tipping points for collapse. This article calls for a shift to rooftop solar to both reduce emissions, but also build disaster resilience. The UN Environment Program through an alliance of investors in net zero infrastructure, have released a call to action on systemic climate risks. This blog post unpacks cascading and compounding disasters, and how to focus on community resilience. What are polycrises you might ask? This report might help answer that question.
If we use the sustainable development goals to frame what is at risk from disaster impacts, then this oped from the World Economic Forum calls for renewed leadership in meeting them. This article focuses on water supply and how cities run dry.
In Disaster Risk Reduction, The ACT Government have released their ACT Disaster Resilience Strategy 2024-2030, setting out a whole of society approach to achieving disaster resilience in the ACT. Community Connectors for Resilience hosted an excellent panel discussion on why disasters are not natural. This paper focusses on using lived experience research to inform the development of scenarios for disaster risk reduction. Energy Ready is a toolkit that helps communities develop energy resilience.
We missed this excellent report from Committee for Sydney earlier in the year on the importance of nature positive policies. G20 have released a policy brief on using participatory approaches to building urban climate resilience and water security. This is a Canadian toolkit focused on neighbours helping neighbours to prepare. The Global Disaster Preparedness Center has released its Enhanced Vulnerability Capacity Assessment Platform providing step by step guidance on how to conduct participatory community risk assessments.
This research calls for a participatory approach to disaster risk reduction as it is applied to disaster related internal displacement. This is an excellent podcast from the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation which features the brilliant Melanie Bloor from Resilient Uki on the recipe for good community preparedness. This is a collection of guidance documents, training courses, and resources on comprehensive climate and disaster risk. This research examines flood frequency, the loss of personal control, and household adaptation.
Focussing on First Nations knowledge, this is an interesting Conversation article on spirituality and languages and how climate change is described. Indigenous knowledge and livelihoods are threatened by climate change in central America.
For children and young people, this paper from UNSW examines risk reduction among mobile young people in regional Australia. This report outlines strategies to focus upon climate education for young people. Research indicates that bushfire smoke has an impact on youth mental health. This is a child friendly guide for an evacuation kit. Migration and children in the context of climate change is the focus of this report. This article focuses on how stories can help young people manage climate change. This paper examines the parenting experience of parents of children with autism exposed to earthquakes.
Recognising inequity, this article examines the root causes of the impacts of the Grenfell Tower, notable structural racism and inequality. This paper examines methods of evacuations from aged care facilities. This article is a reminder to keep older people in the conversation about climate change. The rights of older people in the context of climate change is also the focus of this report.
This research contributes to the knowledge that intimate partner violence increases in the 2 years in the aftermath of disaster. This policy brief makes recommendations on how to leverage gendered caregiving for disaster preparedness, response and recovery. This is a cartoon based, illustrated approach to gender, equity and justice in climate change adaptation. This report from ROADMAP2 is a reminder of the importance of including people more at risk in planning for disaster risk management.
This WEF article focuses on gender disparities in disaster management in Japan. Human trafficking post disaster is a topic that is not given a lot of air time, until now. This paper examines men’s experiences in the Türkiye earthquake, whereas this website focuses on the broader topic of cities and gender.
Looking at weather matters and climate change, this report finds that half of Australia’s 178 top tourist destinations are at risk from climate change induced impacts. This one also looks at the wildlife and tourism impacts of climate change in the Serengeti in Africa, while this looks at tourism in Greece. This piece calls for the synchronisation of reporting on climate change between the IPCC and the Paris Agreement. This article highlights how far there is to go with the Second global stocktake on climate adaptation financing. This webinar from First Street with the Congressional Budget Office investigates flood and climate risk in the US.
The WMO Air Quality and Climate Bulletin includes a special focus on bushfires. It also looks at global and regional concentrations of particulate matter pollution and its harmful effects on crops in 2023. With one eye on the approaching summer, this article examines the causes of the hottest summer (to date). The Canadian Climate Institute now has an online tool that tracks the cost of weather events that have been attributed to climate change. This article flips our common conception of tipping points on its head, with a focus on positive tipping points.
There’s been quite a focus on different hazards, with this article looking into Hurricane Helene in the US. This research looks into crowd shockwaves. This article outlines a cinematic approach to firefighting through iFire. The fires in California are receiving significant research attention, this paper looks at the health impact of repeated fire and smoke exposure, and this examines the issue of erosion post fire. This one also highlights the impact of wildfire smoke and the racial disparities of its impact.
This paper examines evacuation decisions of tourists during fires. As an infrequent blogger, I know the importance of highlighting the great amount of excellent written words about different topics. This one from Hamish Clarke on the Future of Fire is a beauty. Traditional infrastructure design often makes flooding worse, according to this article. This article examines various operational earthquake prediction models. FRRR’s Tacking Tough Times Together program, which supported rural communities through drought, has just released its impact report and a range of supporting resources. This article reminds us of the threat from slow moving landslides.
Focussing on extreme heat, this research on Victorian households attitudes to extreme heat found many people still consider it to be something they just need to get through. This research looks into the impact of heat on human mobility patterns. This is a very interesting attempt to visualise extreme heat. Older women are physiologically more vulnerable to heat than older men. Extreme heat affects bees’ sense of smell, affecting their ability to feed and pollinate.
In health, this paper examines the well-being and ill-being aspects of volunteering in disasters for young people. This paper looks into supply chain issues for health care facilities and disasters. This report examines the development of health adaptation plans for climate change. This is a reminder of the health impacts of disaster when power and water supplies are cut. This article looks at the physiological changes to the brain as a result of a rapidly changing climate. The IFRC Psychosocial Reference Centre has issued this guidance note on psychosocial support and mpox outbreaks. While on mpox, this piece outlines the rapid response to its emergence as a threat. This article explores which pathogen might spark the next pandemic (there will be one). Michelle Grattan turns her gaze to the pandemic in this extended Conversation piece.
Looking at governance, leadership, and capacity building, this paper calls for accountability at the executive level of organisations to help reduce avoidable disasters like the Grenfell Tower disaster. This is a fascinating article on the need for leaders to be able to build and communicate multiple narratives in dealing with crisis and uncertainty. This article outlines how science can help decisionmakers in times of high uncertainty. This paper from the OECD examines tackling corruption and fraud during emergencies. This is an evaluation of incident management during floods in northern Germany, while this webinar from Natural Hazards Research Australia showcases research on high stress decision making.
Examining the frontiers in technology, this article explores the role of trust in using AI for disaster management. This piece from the Centre for Social Impact is a cautionary tale that mandatory guardrails recently announced do not go far enough. Disinformation is the subject of this article from RAND, which is worth us thinking about in the context of the trust we need in our messaging in risk reduction, response and recovery. This is a playbook from the University of Melbourne on managing disinformation in cities. AI and Data centres are fuelling climate change through their energy use, and this one examines the cybersecurity aspect of AI systems.
In good news, this article from the United Nations University highlights 5 ways AI can help disaster management. A SIMCITY is being built to help understand infrastructure resilience building. This is an open access book on using arts, creativity and technology for disaster preparedness. Laptop based AI are being used as a localised approach to data management. VR is used in this tool to visualise climate change impacts in California. This report details using gaming technology to integrate multi-hazard risk assessments, and NASA data into a 3D environment. This review aims to overview achievements and challenges in the use of artificial intelligence techniques to improve the prediction of extremes at the subseasonal to decadal timescale.
Back in time, this interesting article looks at how ancient techniques can be used to cool homes.
Did you know about severe weather and thunderstorm warnings? Or the 5 categories of the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale?
In good news, this is an optimistic piece on the United Nations Pact for the future and its capacity to heal a fractured world. Social profit orientation is the focus of this excellent piece, and this shows the Flood defences in Vienna work.
Sources: Prevention Web, The Conversation, UNDRR, UNEP, Nature, OECD, Global Heat Health, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Global Disaster Preparedness Centre, IFRC Psychosocial Reference Centre, Disaster Research Center, Boulder, Colorado, Linkedin, RAND Corporation, Karyn Bosomsworth, Chris Quin, Isabel Cornes
Compiled by Lexi Barrington and John Richardson