New Approaches to Risk Management

Values-Based Emergency Management (VBEM)

• An Idyll on the Shores of a Toxic Lake (NY Times, March 29, 2024)
• The Boomers Who Tried Moving to Florida and Ended Up in Appalachia (The Wall Street Journal, March 13, 2024)
• Study reveals a dangerous trend that could be putting homeowners in harm’s way: ‘Near-Term Concerns tend to Trump Any…Risks’ (TCD, November 21, 2023): This article suggests that certain places are inherently more ‘disaster prone’. The reality, however, is that no place is more prone to disasters, rather it is exposure that is the factor. It is how human populations have adapted to those hazards that determines how likely or unlikely it is that a disaster will manifest.
• In Weston, locals decide between preserving downtown and preventing future flood damage (Vermont Public, November 15, 2023)
• Why can’t we just quit cows? (Grist, November 1, 2023): “Wouldn’t it be easier to ditch milk, cheese and beef for plant-based alternatives? Why fight nature when there’s an easier solution, at least from a scientific perspective?” This article highlights the complexity of values-based decisions societies make in exchange for exposure to hazard risk.
• An inclusive typology of the many values of nature (Nature, n/d)
• Values-Based Impact Assessment & Emergency Management (NZAIA, n/d)
• Values-Based Emergency Management Will Make Communities More Resilient (Medium, February 17, 2021) “To create resilient communities, we need to adapt our outdated emergency management models including through application of principles and techniques typically found in the private sector. Unlike successful businesses, which empower every employee to assume a shared stake in managing the company’s risks, communities can be paternalistic in their approach and focus on a narrow slice of the larger risk portfolio.“
• Why do we need a new view to understand the systemic nature of risk? (UNDRR, April 8, 2020). “The era of hazard-by-hazard risk reduction is over. We need to reflect the systemic nature of risk in how we deal with it. We need to improve our understanding of anthropogenic systems in nature. We must identify precursor signals and correlations to better prepare, anticipate and adapt.”

New Approaches to Response

• Anticipatory Action
  • Anticipation Hub
  • Anticipatory Trigger Database
  • Every day counts: evaluating the benefits of early action during a crisis (Centre For Disaster Protection, May 9, 2023)

Environmental Justice, Social Justice, Gender, and Equity

• Keeping it Fair: How to Account for Inequity in Climate and Disaster Risk Analyses (Asian Development Bank, April 5, 2024)
• As heat becomes a national threat, who will be protected? (Grist, March 13, 2024)
• The Texas Panhandle Wildfires and Four Keys for Equitable Recovery (Urban Institute, March 6, 2024)
• Climate change disproportionately affects women who run farms and rural households in poor countries, UN warns (Fortune, March 5, 2024)
• Tornadoes, wildfires and other disasters tell a story of vulnerability and recovery in America (The Conversation, March 4, 2024)
• Study: Climate migration will leave the elderly behind (Popular Science, January 12, 2024)
• U. S. Disasters Disparately Impact Low Income Homeowners and Renters (Seattle Medium, November 30, 2023)
• Black communities in Southeastern states are more likely to be exposed to extreme weather events than overall population (CNN, December 1, 2023)
• Promoting Equitable Wildfire Recovery in Lahaina: Four Lessons for Local Leaders, from Colorado’s Marshall Fire (Urban Institute, November 29, 2023)
• Extreme Heat Pushes More Farmworkers to Harvest at Night, Creating New Risks (Inside Climate News, October 31, 2023)
• Afghanistan earthquake: ‘Women were prisoners in their homes and now they’re dead’ (Sky News, October 28, 2023)
• More than 3,000 dead in Afghanistan earthquakes — 90 per cent were women and children ‘imprisoned’ in their homes (Ricochet, October 26, 2023)
• ‘Only the rich can bear this heat’: how Dhaka is battling extreme weather (The Guardian, October 3, 2023)
• How does climate change threaten your neighborhood? A new map has the details. (Grist, October 2, 2023): This article describes and links to a resilience index based on many equity-driven indicators. Exposure alone does not drive resilience – rather, it is the combination of exposure and coping capacities (which are primarily a factor of equity).
• Racial disparities are working against disaster recovery for people of color. Climate change could make it worse (CNN, April 17, 2023)
• The Supreme Court wrestles with questions over the Navajo Nation’s water rights (NPR, March 20, 2023)
• How Indiana’s flood map went from acclaimed to attacked (E&E News, February 16, 2023)
• Expert Monica Sanders Analyzes Disproportionate Impact Of Natural Disasters On BIPOC Communities (Forbes, October 25, 2022)
• Report: Extreme heat will hit urban poor the hardest, worsening inequality (Grist, October 13, 2022)
• The country trailblazing the fight against disasters (BBC, July 19, 2022): “Bangladesh has a world-leading system to protect people from disasters, including through an army of female volunteers to better support women. What can other countries learn from it?”
• Emergency preparedness requires gender-aware responses to reduce burdens of care, violence and economic insecurity on women: UN Women and UNDP report (UNDP, June 23, 2022)
• Women-owned Businesses More Adversely Impacted By Pandemic (Route Fifty, April 14, 2022)
• More Than 90 Agencies Release Their First-Ever Equity Plans (Government Executive, April 14, 2022): “This follows an executive order President Biden issued on day one of his administration, which directed agencies to conduct equity assessments of their top three to five high-impact services for Americans to determine where there were  systematic barriers. These findings helped agencies develop their plans.”
• Why we must build climate resilience with women in Africa (World Economic Forum, April 6, 2022): “Women and girls are often disproportionately affected by climate-related disasters, particularly in Africa where many play significant roles in subsistence agriculture.”
• ‘Tenants have no choice’: Racism in urban planning fuels high rate of Black fire deaths (NBC News, January 12, 2022): “The deadly fires in the Bronx, New York and Philadelphia follow a historical pattern that sees Black people dying in accidents at alarming rates.”
• When Air Pollution Is Overlooked, People Get Hurt—Typically People of Color (Mother Jones, January 19, 2022): “Some researchers suggest that state regulators may have an incentive to keep the limited supply of monitors away from pollution hotspots.”
• Why FEMA denies aid to Black families that have lived for generations in the Deep South (Washington Post, July 11, 2021)
• How Indigenous leaders are pushing to vaccinate their hard-hit communities (National Geographic, July 7, 2021): ” Indigenous Americans face higher mortality rates from COVID-19. How have tribal communities responded to vaccination efforts? “
• ‘Patterns of Discrimination’: How Redlining Fueled the Heat Wave (Atmos Earth, July 5, 2021): “Research is slowly uncovering all the ways redlining continues to leave its mark today. The Frontline dives into the inequities in who is harmed first and worst during events like last week’s historic heat wave.”
• The hidden toll of July Fourth fireworks (National Geographic, July 2, 2021): “Using crowdsourced data from home air quality monitors, scientists found that vulnerable people and communities of color are disproportionately exposed to air pollution from firework celebrations.”
• Dispossessed, Again: Climate Change Hits Native Americans Especially Hard (June 27, 2021): “From Alaska to Florida, Native Americans are facing severe climate challenges, the newest threat in a history marked by centuries of distress and dislocation. While other communities struggle on a warming planet, Native tribes are experiencing an environmental peril exacerbated by policies — first imposed by white settlers and later the United States government — that forced them onto the country’s least desirable lands.”
• Why Does Disaster Aid Often Favor White People? (The New York Times, June 7, 2021): “The federal government often gives less help to Black disaster survivors than their white neighbors. That’s a challenge for President Biden, who has vowed to fight both inequality and climate change.”
• People of color are far more likely to live in extreme urban heat zones. This campaign will map the inequality. (June 2, 2021): “Extreme heat waves are more lethal than any other weather-related disaster in America, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A campaign this summer led by NOAA in cities across 11 states will map the disproportionate stress that heat places on poorer neighborhoods and suggest ideas to alleviate that.”
• Climate Change and Your Rights: How It Impacts You (Voices of Youth): This page, developed with United Nations support, helps to explain several concepts that are central to Environmental Justice, namely that “Climate change disproportionately affects people that already experience discrimination, inequalities and marginalization” and that “Factors like gender, race, ethnicity, geographic location, socioeconomic status and more must be considered to ensure the realization of the rights for all.”
• How Climate Change Worsens Poverty and Inequality (IADB Blog, April 30, 2021): “Over the coming decades, climate change and natural disasters have the potential to undo much of the progress made in lifting households out of poverty over prior decades. By one estimate, climate change could push 100 million people across the globe into poverty within the next 10 years. By the end of the century, the ratio of GDP per capita between the richest and poor countries in Latin America and the Caribbean is also expected to dramatically increase as a result of climate change and accompanying natural disasters.”
• Hardship binds flood survivors: ‘All we have is each other’ (April 27, 2021): “Micro-level advocacy, like that provided via the Anthropocene Alliance, is helping chronically flooded communities and neighborhoods — urban and rural — raise their profiles among often distracted national policymakers and influencers. Many can’t muster the financial or political clout on their own to make their voices heard in city halls, state capitols or federal agencies.”
• Inside FEMA, a Reckoning on Race and Flooded Mansions (E&E News, March 15, 2021): The US Federal Emergency Management Agency examines its practices to see how inequities are influencing the delivery of emergency management support before, during, and after disasters in the United States.
• Equity and Social Justice Applied to Emergency Management (Emergency Management Magazine, March 21, 2019): This is an older resource but provides a great overview of the equity and justice issues as they relate to emergency management.

Emerging Technology

• How scientists are using artificial intelligence to predict wildfires (Space.Com, February 6, 2024)
• A Tour of the World’s Largest Earthquake Simulator (Laughing Squid, December 26, 2023)
• Bacterial ‘blood’ could heal cracks in concrete (Popular Science, December 8, 2023)
• Guatemala’s first 3D-printed tiny home is 527 square feet and was designed to resist earthquakes — take a look inside (Insider, November 2, 2023)
• This company has 3D-printed a house that can withstand a 9.0 magnitude earthquake (October 25, 2023)
• How Do We Know El Niño Is Coming? NASA Satellites Are Tracking It (Inverse, October 19, 2023)
• The big idea: can we predict the climate of the future? (The Guardian, October 2, 2023): “We’re pouring money into computer models – but could they lead us astray?”
• How satellites are helping rescue teams in Turkey and Syria (Your Weather UK, February 15, 2023)
• Drone Mapping in Mozambique Helps Find Flood Victims, with AI Assistance (ESRI, November 10, 2022)
• It’s not just floods and fires: This AI forecasts how climate change will impact your city (Fast Company, September 13, 2022)
• The State of Commercial Earth Observation: 2022 Edition (TerraWatch Space insights, August 28, 2022)
• Secretary Antony J. Blinken at the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence’s (NSCAI) Global Emerging Technology Summit (US Department of State, July 13, 2021)
• AI bolsters human-centric disaster risk reduction (ITU, July 7, 2021): “The impact of disasters stemming from natural hazards could worsen in the years ahead, with more frequent, intense events devastating people’s lives and livelihoods. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been widely touted as a tool for countries to manage and respond to their growing disaster risks. “
• New NASA Earth System Observatory to Help Address, Mitigate Climate Change (NASA, May 24, 2021): “NASA will design a new set of Earth-focused missions to provide key information to guide efforts related to climate change, disaster mitigation, fighting forest fires, and improving real-time agricultural processes. With the Earth System Observatory, each satellite will be uniquely designed to complement the others, working in tandem to create a 3D, holistic view of Earth, from bedrock to atmosphere.”
• Facebook Mobility Data: This page details the movement of Facebook users in a number of countries where such data is obtainable. During disasters, mobility data can help to support decisionmaking.
• China city deploys drones to keep people inside (Tribute India, June 13, 2021): “A fleet of 60 drones has been deployed in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou to keep people indoors and remind those going out to wear masks.”
• Aerial Laser Imaging for Better Natural Disaster Preparation and Response (UT News, April 12, 2021): “After Hurricane Harvey in 2017, NSO researchers worked around the clock to rapidly acquire lidar data and imagery. The team flew the aircraft during the day and handed the acquired data over for processing that night, making critical information available to emergency responders by the very next day.”
• As Locusts Swarmed East Africa, This Tech Helped Squash Them (New York Times, 4/8/2021): A combined use of citizen science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, is helping disaster managers to track and respond to locust swarms in Africa.
• Can AI and connected tech foster better disaster decision-making? (GCN, October 30, 2020): “Although smart technologies — like streetlights that monitor traffic flow or sensors that transmit real-time data about rising water levels — provide emergency managers with situational awareness, the increasing amount of data is becoming unmanageable without some AI assistance.”

Gender

• Is disaster risk reduction (wo)men’s work? (UN Women, November 13, 2021): “Highlighting the missing voices of women in developing and implementing legal frameworks for disaster risk reduction”

Balancing the Benefits and Costs of Disaster Risk Management

• Preserving Cultural Value in Resilience (Shoreline Risk Blog, November 1, 2022): “Whatever the intervention, it needs to preserve value – in this case the ability to practice a cultural tradition.”
• Cities Battle Another Long-Lasting COVID Reminder: PPE Litter (Route Fifty, April 15, 2021): Discarded face masks, plastic gloves and other personal protective equipment (PPE) are washing up on beaches and increasingly being found in waterways across the United States, raising concern among scientists about the effects of the litter on the environment.

Disaster Management Challenges: Rule of Law

• ‘Mafias’ and ‘militias’ have brought Lebanon to its knees, activists say (CNN, May 28, 2021): “Lebanon’s problems are complex, but the root cause, critics say, is simple — corruption. In the aftermath of the port blast, Hassan Diab — now caretaker Prime Minister until a new cabinet is formed — lambasted the country’s political elite for fostering “an apparatus of corruption bigger than the state.””

Resilience Concept

• Not economical to defend all of Wales from flooding, report finds (Sky News, January 16, 2024)
• Babcock Ranch: Florida’s first hurricane-proof town (BBC, September 4, 2023)
• Why we all need to think like Floridians now (Washington Post, September 5, 2023)
• ICMIF launches new Resiliency Benchmark (ICMIF, October 28, 2022): “ICMIF launched the ICMIF Resiliency Benchmark which builds on the work set out from the Federation’s partnership with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) to embed disaster risk reduction (DRR) in mutual and cooperative insurance.”
• Dubai named world’s most resilient city by United Nations (The National News, September 23, 2021): “Dubai was ranked first globally for its resilience and recognised as a role model for sustainability by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.”
• Small towns need big focus on resilience (UNSW Newsroom, August 11, 2021): ““This requires genuine engagement with people and listening to identify areas of need, and trusting local knowledge and experience to understand how we can further reduce risks,” says Prof. Sanderson.”

Disaster Fatigue

• Frequent natural disasters straining a weary public (Spectrum Local News, September 18, 2023)

Climate Refugees and Other International Implications of Climate Change

• The Flooding Will Come “No Matter What”+ (ProPublica, April 11, 2024): “The complex, contradictory and heartbreaking process of American climate migration is underway.”
• Most of This Island Disappeared in Just a Decade (The Atlantic, March 24, 2024)
• Beijing’s top spy agency cracks down on illegal foreign weather stations amid push to stop data leaving China (SCMP, October 31, 2023)
• The Era of Climate Migration Is Here, Leaders of Vulnerable Nations Say (Inside Climate News, September 21, 2023)
• Climate Crisis Is on Track to Push One-Third of Humanity Out of Its Most Livable Environment (Pro Publica, June 6, 2023)
• Governments urged to confront effects of climate crisis on migrants (The Guardian, January 10, 2023)
• New Article Explores Climate-Related Disasters and Mobility Data (Direct Relief, January 9, 2023)
• Extreme weather is now shaping international law (Axios, January 1, 2023)
• Rising sea levels threaten Marshall Islands’ status as a nation, World Bank report warns (The Guardian, October 16, 2021): “Projected sea level rise would mean 40% of the buildings in the Marshall Islands’ capital of Majuro would be permanently flooded and entire islands would disappear, potentially costing the Pacific country its status as a nation, according to a devastating new report from the World Bank.”
• Where America’s Climate Migrants Will Go As Sea Level Rises (Bloomberg, February 3, 2020)
• A Word of Caution on Climate Change and “Refugees” (New Security Beat, July 2007): This is an old piece but it is included because it presents ideas on how the term might be interpreted in different contexts.

Indigenous / Traditional Knowledge

• Research Into Surging Glaciers can Reduce Flood Risk in Pakistan (Prevention Web, July 23, 2022): “‘What we also found out,’ Judic says, ‘is that intangible assets such the community spirit and religion are very strong. Things such as the call the prayer enables the community to come together irrespective of their age or sex and they can respond quite effectively to disasters.’ The community also have a history lighting small fires on mountainsides to work as beacons and warn villagers of imminent floods.”
• An Apache Tribe’s Innovative COVID-19 Contact Tracing Model Saved Lives. It Could Work Elsewhere Too. (Time, November 12, 2021)

Political Implications

• Morocco’s reluctance to accept quake aid baffles foreign governments (Washington Post, September 11, 2023)

Disasters in the Cinema / Arts

• IFFI: International Cinema Looks to Nature in Environmental Crisis Anthology ‘Interactions’ (Variety, November 26, 2022)

Interesting Issues

• Taiwan condemns ‘shameless’ China’s thanks for global sympathy on quake (Reuters, April 4, 2024)
• Easier Said Than Done: Tips for Community Relocation Amid a Changing Climate (Route Fifty, January 19, 2024)
• FEMA chief “very concerned” about disinformation from U.S. adversaries after disasters (Axios, December 4, 2023)
• When Facts Don’t Matter: The Climate Case (Forbes, October 18, 2023)
• Conspiracy theories about FEMA’s Oct. 4 emergency alert test spread online (Associated Press, September 25, 2023)