Natural hazard

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]

IoT and Natural Hazards: the latest updates

Paulo Hader November 14, 2022

Photo credit: Image by Anthony Beure from Pixabay (Pixabay licence)

In my blog post last year, I talked about the escalation of extreme events in Brazil, and one of the main questions was whether the scientific community would need new methods and technologies to deal with extreme events aggravated by climate change. This year, during one of the Innovations (WG05) working group meetings of the International Network on Landslide Early Warning Systems (LandAware), I ...[Read More]

Fire impacts on Earth across space and time: a discussion-driven conference

Alicja Bonk and Judith Kirschner July 11, 2022

Boreal forest fire in Canada (Photo credit: Stefan Doerr, distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Earth is the only known planet with fire activity – everywhere else, there is not enough oxygen for this process to occur. Since fire appeared on Earth many millions of years ago, it has played a key role in the development of plant adaptation and the distribution of ecosystems. However, the natural occurrence of fire changed with the onset of human evolution. The purposeful use of fire for ...[Read More]

Repression Without Resistance: Answering Natural Hazards Related Disasters

Joana Parente June 27, 2022

Extreme weather events

Answering disasters triggered by natural hazards is a profoundly political process; who can tell us about this is Isabelle Desportes with her study cases of Ethiopia (the 2016 drought), Myanmar (cyclone Komen in 2015) and Zimbabwe (the 2016/2019 drought). Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Dr Isabelle Desportes, a researcher who approaches disaster risk governance from the angle of politic ...[Read More]