How does a flood become a disaster?
What are the causes, patterns and effects of disastrous river flood? An international group of researchers led by GFZ hydrologist Bruno Merz has investigated this question in a review article published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth and Environm.....»»
Was it a flash flood or not? Categorizing disaster types in historical records
One of the important applications of climate knowledge is in the area of disasters. Being able to predict the scale of a potential disaster and the risks a disaster could impose on a community in the future is valuable and crucial information for not.....»»
Chinese Airliner Crashes With 132 Aboard in Country"s South
A China Eastern Boeing 737-800 with 132 people on board crashed in a remote mountainous area of southern China on Monday, officials said, setting off a forest fire visible from space in the country's worst air disaster in nearly a decade. From a repo.....»»
Greenhouse study confirms flood-tolerant varieties of soy
If you've ever looked at food labels in your local grocery store, you've probably seen soy listed as an ingredient. Even though soy is widespread in our foods, that doesn't make the production of soy any easier for growers. One challenge facing soy g.....»»
Study finds that natural disasters can increase discrimination, including towards women
China's Yellow River has a long and tumultuous history of flooding, and has been the cause of the some of the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded. Before the introduction of dams and other modern disaster management methods, floods would not on.....»»
Powerful quake rattles Japan, tsunami advisory issued
A powerful 7.3-magnitude quake jolted eastern Japan on Wednesday night, rattling the capital Tokyo and prompting a tsunami advisory for parts of the northeast coast near the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster......»»
As sea levels rise, coastal megacities will need more than flood barriers
Many of the world's poorest people live in regions most susceptible to flooding. In northeast India, some residents have been forced to rebuild their homes at least eight times in the past decade. In Africa, the continent's largest city, Lagos in Nig.....»»
A perspective on post-disaster and conflict-induced displacement
A collaborative research project led by the University of Huddersfield's Global Disaster Resilience Center and titled "REGARD (REbuildinG AfteR Displacement)," set out to investigate the role of built environment in the context of displacement. Now,.....»»
Miami Beach"s latest road-raising squabble: Who gets swamped by the flood waters?
Before Miami Beach became the first U.S. city to dramatically elevate streets before sea levels rise, hairstylist Gustavo Briand was used to flooding......»»
Why Ukraine war misinformation is so hard to police
Russia's invasion of Ukraine is unfolding online like no war in history, providing a real-time stream of information on social platforms like Twitter, Facebook and TikTok. But with that unique view into the conflict comes a flood of misinformation th.....»»
The Situation at Chernobyl Is Deteriorating
The defunct site of the infamous 1986 meltdown has lost power two weeks after it was seized by Russian forces. Experts fear another nuclear disaster looms......»»
Study proposes to involve high school students in mapping natural disaster hazards and impact prevention
Several natural disasters have afflicted various parts of Brazil since 2022 began, from deadly flooding and mudslides due to abnormally heavy rain in the states of Minas Gerais, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, to severe drought in Rio Grande do.....»»
Research suggests the strength of democracy in times of crisis
Democracy is often messy, filled with competing voices, political arguments and bureaucratic redundancies. But when it comes to immediate disaster response, it's a clear winner over autocratic systems......»»
Preparing for when lightning strikes the same place twice, then strikes again
Disasters such as hurricanes, wildfires, floods, tornadoes, and droughts are not only increasing in intensity and frequency, they are also striking the same place multiple times. Yet to date, disaster research largely focuses on individual events, an.....»»
"The sad reality is many don"t survive": How floods affect wildlife, and how you can help them
For over two decades, bull sharks have called a Brisbane golf course home after, it's believed, a flood washed them into the course's lake in 1996. Now, after severe floods connected their landlocked home back to the river system, these sharks have g.....»»
Australia flood toll rises to 20 as thousands evacuate Sydney
The death toll from week-long floods battering Australia's east coast rose to 20 on Tuesday, after the bodies of a man and a woman were discovered in floodwaters in Sydney......»»
Chinese phonemakers hope to hike sales with multiple 5G models
China-based smartphone brands are expected to flood non-Chinese handset markets with entry-level to mid-range 5G models in 2022 in hopes to improve their sales amid weakening smartphone demand in China, according to sources from the IC design industr.....»»
Flood-ravaged eastern Australia braces for more wild weather
Australian towns devastated by deadly flooding over the past week prepared for further intense weather Sunday, with expected downpours halting volunteer recovery and clean-up efforts......»»
Flood preparation could have been better if the impacts of weather forecasts were clearly communicated
The extreme rain and flooding bombarding Australia's east coast has inflicted a heavy toll on lives and livelihoods. This, however, could've been minimized if weather warning systems had been clearly translated into on-the-ground, local impacts for c.....»»
Why water inundates a home during one flood but spares it the next
As the floodwaters rose in Southeast Queensland last week, my phone buzzed with texts from friends. We compared this event with the last catastrophic flood of 2011 and tried to calculate whether our homes would be affected this time. I live in Ipswic.....»»
The physics of fire ant rafts could help engineers design swarming robots
Noah rode out his flood in an ark. Winnie-the-Pooh had an upside-down umbrella. Fire ants (Solenopsis invicta), meanwhile, form floating rafts made up of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of individual insects......»»