Climate Change

The 2023 Carnival disaster in São Paulo: an all time record for rainfall in Brazil

Paulo Hader May 22, 2023

Photo credit: Image by Mati Mango from Pexels (Pexels licence)

In February 2023, Brazil experienced its largest rainfall event on record, which devastated the northern coast of the state of São Paulo. This event caused landslides, floods, and numerous fatalities, making it even more tragic than previous disasters in the region, which already have been elaborated on in another blog post. The situation highlights the urgent need for effective emergency manageme ...[Read More]

Unravelling the Complex Drivers of Wildfires in the Era of Climate Change

Joana Parente and Marj Tonini February 27, 2023

Photo credit: Tasnim News Agency (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License)

In the last decades, the strength of climate change has been evident across the globe in many weather and climate extremes occurrences, including heatwaves and droughts. Those events are involved in all fire stages and influence all aspects of the fire regime [1]. Climate change is driving unprecedented wildfire in the Mediterranean region The Mediterranean region is a climate change hots ...[Read More]

Discovering the CoastSnap project – Interview with Dr Mitchell Harley

Paulo Hader and Vale Cigala February 13, 2023

CoastSnap is a global citizen science project aiming at monitoring the changes in our coastlines due to processes such as storms, rising sea levels, and human activities using smartphones. We will discover more about this promising project by chatting today with Dr Mitchell Harley, founder of the CoastSnap program. Mitchell is a Researcher and Senior Lecturer in the School of Civil and Environment ...[Read More]

Reducing housing vulnerability to natural hazards – Interview with Dr Eefje Hendriks

Vale Cigala December 19, 2022

Community in the Philippines rebuild above the sea showing hazard vulnerability and dependency on fishery as a livelihood. (Photo credit: Dr Hendriks, with permission)

The impact of natural hazards on vulnerable communities can be devastating, causing fatalities, damaging houses and livelihoods, and pushing people into poverty. These disasters make them even more vulnerable. A growing line of research identifies actions and tools to reduce vulnerability and make communities more resilient. An interesting and crucial part of this research investigates the role of ...[Read More]