In the 09/30/2025 edition:
Disaster Risk Reduction News September 2025 covers the latest global stories on climate resilience, floods, extreme heat, wildfires, tsunami preparedness, and new technologies driving adaptation. This edition brings research updates, field practices, and policy actions shaping the future of disaster management worldwide.
News: USF urban planning professor uses 3D scanning to assess hurricane flood risk in Tampa
By University of South Florida on Sep 29, 2025 04:35 pm
As communities in the Tampa Bay area continue to rebuild from the 2024 hurricane season, USF researchers are turning to 3D scanning technology to map flood-prone areas and strengthen future storm preparedness.
News: Can an AI-guided robot help a California city resist sea level rise and sequester carbon?
By Inside Climate News on Sep 29, 2025 04:29 pm
A San Rafael startup proposed a sci-fi solution to raise areas facing the twin threats of land subsidence and sea level rise. Some officials and experts are skeptical.
News: Harnessing trusted digital innovation for climate-resilient digital public health infrastructure: A new global goods guidebook annex
By PATH on Sep 29, 2025 04:23 pm
During Climate Week New York City, Digital Square at PATH launched the Global Goods Guidebook Climate Services for Health Annex: Harnessing Digital Solutions for Climate-resilient Communities, a resource featuring open-source digital tools.
News: Research reveals changing hail risks in a warming Europe
By Met Office on Sep 29, 2025 03:56 pm
Climate change may lead to less frequent but bigger and more devastating hail storms, new research has shown.
News: Turning mobile networks into lifelines: Early Warnings for All reaches more countries in 2025
By International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on Sep 29, 2025 03:54 pm
In 2025, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) continues to assist countries in strengthening early warning systems to ensure that no one is left unprotected when disaster strikes.
News: Accelerating solutions on early warnings and extreme heat
By World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Sep 29, 2025 03:38 pm
WMO is one of the co-sponsors of a High-Level Solutions dialogue on Early Warnings for All – with a special focus on extreme heat, bringing together ministers, mayors, philanthropic organizations, scientists and civil society.
News: New satellite-derived river slope database helps improve U.S. flood forecasts
By University of Alabama on Sep 29, 2025 03:31 pm
Every year, families across the United States rely on flood maps to make critical decisions about when to evacuate and where to go. Therefore, it is critical to ensure maps are up-to-date and free of inaccurate assumptions.
News: Unique CCNY study of extreme Indian rainfall upends conventional wisdom
By The City College of New York on Sep 29, 2025 02:18 pm
Research led by City College of New York scientist Spencer A. Hill challenges generations-old beliefs about how El Niño events influence rainfall during the Indian summer monsoon.
News: Upgrading tsunami warning systems for faster and more accurate alerts
By Temblor on Sep 29, 2025 01:24 pm
Tsunami early warning systems offer important information about impending waves. New systems can increase the timeliness and accuracy of warnings.
News: ANU scientists crack code on using nature to stop floods
By Australian National University on Sep 26, 2025 09:17 pm
Nature-based approaches to flood management are gaining attention. To help communities better understand how these approaches can help mitigate floods, experts at The Australian National University (ANU) have developed a new toolkit.
News: Call for submissions: Wicked Stars: a zin to trouble disaster studies
By Radical Interpretations of Disasters and Radical Solutions (RADIX) on Sep 26, 2025 09:13 pm
Wicked Stars offers an alternative space to researchers and whoever else feels like they need to share about their experience of harm, hardship and suffering as per the ethos of the Disaster Studies Manifesto and Accord.
News: Unmanned submersible developed to collect typhoon data and improve forecasting
By Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research (OLAR) on Sep 26, 2025 09:12 pm
A research team recently unveiled the “Blue Whale”: an 11-meter submersible unmanned vessel (SUV), enabling more effective measurement of in-situ cyclone data while eliminating risks to human life.
News: Drought and low water levels could slow global trade at the Panama Canal
By Northeastern University on Sep 26, 2025 09:11 pm
A new paper by Northeastern University professor Samuel Munoz reports that the risk of shipping disruptions will grow in a warming climate unless steps are taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or to adapt to drier conditions.
News: How salt-tolerant floodplain forests help protect against rising salinity and floods
By Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research on Sep 26, 2025 09:10 pm
In addition to Dutch dikes and dunes, coastal and riverine wetlands protect the Netherlands from flooding from the sea or rivers. These wetlands can be tidal marshes and floodplain forests.
News: Vanishing waters in a warming world
By Conversation Media Group, the on Sep 26, 2025 09:10 pm
Around the world, rivers and lakes that sustained civilisations for millennia are vanishing before our eyes. In nearly all cases, what’s going on is some combination of human and climate factors. But there is a trend.
News: Strengthening tsunami preparedness and resilience in Costa Rica
By Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO) on Sep 26, 2025 09:09 pm
Tsunami preparedness in Costa Rica has been for more than 10 years in the making, a moment to revisit the important achievements fostered by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO.
News: Why women must be involved in building flood resilience
By World Economic Forum on Sep 26, 2025 09:08 pm
Floodwaters do not fall equally on everyone. An estimated 80% of people displaced by climate change are women. These vulnerabilities are reinforced by systemic exclusion.
News: Researchers successfully test wave-rider buoy to track storm intensity
By National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Sep 26, 2025 09:04 pm
In spring 2025, an NCCOS-funded research team was awarded $7,360 to successfully install and test a wave-rider buoy that will be used to collect wave data in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. The buoy will help scientists monitor and characterize storms.
News: Call for contributions: International DRR products and services database
By United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) – Headquarters on Sep 26, 2025 02:52 pm
The UNESCO DRR Unit is developing the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) Innovation Hub – a digital platform designed to make innovative tools, products, and services visible and accessible to all stakeholders.
News: University of Waikato researcher forecasting floods with quantum precision
By University of Waikato on Sep 26, 2025 01:23 pm
University of Waikato PhD student Léa Cassé has earned international recognition for her team’s quantum computing-powered project aimed at improving insurance for communities exposed to flooding.
News: Global Center on Adaptation launches “The Heat Is On” to confront the world’s deadliest climate threat
By Global Center on Adaptation on Sep 26, 2025 10:20 am
The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) today launched The Heat Is On, a worldwide campaign to put extreme heat at the top of the climate agenda and accelerate the scale-up of solutions that save lives and protect livelihoods.
News: More than half of world’s coastal settlements retreating from rising seas, study shows
By Monash University on Sep 25, 2025 08:07 pm
Human settlements around the world are moving inland and relocating away from coastlines as sea levels rise and coastal hazards grow more severe, but an international study shows the poorest regions are being forced to stay put.
News: Scientists warn California should prepare for destructive ‘supershear’ earthquakes
By University of California, Riverside on Sep 25, 2025 07:51 pm
Researchers at the Statewide California Earthquake Center based at USC Dornsife say powerful, fast-moving quakes could strike the Golden State, urge stronger building codes and better monitoring.
News: Enhanced projection technique addresses flood warning amid climate uncertainty
By University of Tokyo 東京大学 on Sep 25, 2025 07:46 pm
The uncertainty surrounding flood risk is a major cause for concern and an obstacle to adaptation. According to researchers from Japan, their new statistical method increases the accuracy of flood risk projections across about 70% of Earth’s landmass.
News: Human activity is choking Oman’s fragile desert rivers
By Rothamsted Research on Sep 25, 2025 07:11 pm
Wadis – lifelines for biodiversity and water in some of the world’s driest landscapes – are being dangerously constricted.
News: Wildfire displacement is on the rise: 2025 sends a clear warning
By Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) on Sep 25, 2025 03:39 pm
From the United States to Korea, from Canada to Türkiye and Greece, the data is clear: wildfires are becoming more frequent, more intense, more widespread, and they are forcing more people from their homes.
News: FAO promotes innovative mechanism to tackle crises through anticipatory action
By Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on Sep 25, 2025 03:39 pm
The FAO presented its updated blueprint for The Financing for Shock-Driven Food Crisis Facility (FSFC), an innovative mechanism that promotes a new model of anticipatory action aimed at preventing food crises from escalating.
News: The Ganges River is drying faster than ever – here’s what it means for the region and the world
By Conversation Media Group, the on Sep 25, 2025 03:38 pm
The Ganges, a lifeline for hundreds of millions across South Asia, is drying at a rate scientists say is unprecedented in recorded history. Climate change, shifting monsoons, relentless extraction and damming are pushing the mighty river towards collapse.
News: Running dry – Study warns of extreme water scarcity in the coming decades
By Institute for Basic Science on Sep 25, 2025 03:33 pm
A new study reveals that Global Warming is accelerating the risk of multi-year droughts that can lead to extreme water scarcity, threatening water demands in cities, agriculture, and livelihoods worldwide, already within the coming decades.
News: Global consultation of the draft Global disaster-related statistics framework
By United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) on Sep 25, 2025 03:13 pm
On behalf of the co-chairs of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Disaster-related Statistics (IAEG-DRS), we are pleased to announce the global consultation on the draft Global Disaster-Related Statistics Framework (G-DRSF).
News: Dangerous climate change threatens Northern Australia’s big ‘food bowl’ dreams
By Conversation Media Group, the on Sep 25, 2025 01:51 pm
Big plans are afoot to turn Northern Australia into Asia’s “food bowl”, as part of broader development for the region. But any discussion about transforming Northern Australia must confront the climate hazards threatening the region’s prosperity.
News: Ireland: Study shows impact of climate change on record-breaking summer
By Met Éireann – The Irish Meteorological Service on Sep 25, 2025 01:43 pm
Night-time temperatures that made summer 2025 in Ireland the warmest on record were 40 times more likely to be due to human-caused climate change, a first-of-its-kind study from Met Éireann and Maynooth University shows.
News: Data for disaster recovery
By University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Sep 25, 2025 01:29 pm
Esha Singaraju is developing algorithms to help predict the amount of aid homeowners in North Carolina might receive following disasters.
News: Most of an earthquake’s energy is released as heat, not shaking
By Scientific American, a Division of Nature America, Inc. on Sep 25, 2025 01:18 pm
Up to 98 percent of the energy of an earthquake goes into flash heating rocks, not shaking the ground, new research shows. The finding could help yield better earthquake forecasts.
News: Appalachian communities face growing risks as extreme weather communication gaps leave residents vulnerable
By Ohio University on Sep 25, 2025 01:14 pm
This article identifies communication challenges faced by emergency management agencies in Central Appalachia as they engage communities in preparation, response, and recovery efforts for extreme weather events (EWEs).
News: Youth mental health struggles deepen two years after Maui wildfires
By ABC News on Sep 25, 2025 01:09 pm
The Hawaii Department of Education estimates more than a third of Maui students lost a family member, sustained a serious injury or had a parent lose a job after the fires.
News: Call for event submissions: International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction 2025
By United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) on Sep 25, 2025 10:21 am
Share with us your International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction 2025 event celebrations. This year’s theme: “Fund Resilience, Not Disasters.”
News: Too hot to learn: Cooling Argentina’s overheating schools
By Dialogue Earth on Sep 24, 2025 02:54 pm
Experts hope urban redesign projects can solve a climate crisis in classrooms that left 30 million students in Latin America without teaching last year.
News: People with schizophrenia were hit hard by B.C.’s deadly 2021 heat dome
By Conversation Media Group, the on Sep 24, 2025 02:50 pm
In June 2021, British Columbia experienced an extreme climate event. A closer look at the numbers revealed something even more startling: people with schizophrenia — just one per cent of the population — made up 15.7 per cent of the deaths.
News: Study estimates 2023 Canadian wildfire smoke caused 82,000 premature deaths globally
By The Canadian Press on Sep 23, 2025 05:10 pm
Smoke from record-breaking Canadian wildfires in 2023 caused an estimated 5,400 acute deaths and about 82,100 premature deaths worldwide, a new study shows.
News: The Fiji government are gathering weather information to help better predict possible future flooding events across the country
By Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Sep 23, 2025 02:27 pm
Unseasonal rain causing flooding has been experienced in most parts of Fiji in recent months, catching many off guard during what is typically the country’s dry summer period.
News: Nature-based flood adaptation in Kigali’s Mpazi sub-catchment
By Nature-based Solutions Platform (Witteveen+Bos) on Sep 23, 2025 02:00 pm
In 2021, Rwanda Young Water Professional, with support from the Rwanda National Commission for UNESCO, carried out a study to conceptualize and pre-design Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for flood adaptation.
News: Reversing Antarctic sea ice loss depends on ocean layering, study finds
By PhysOrg, Omicron Technology Ltd on Sep 23, 2025 01:26 pm
A new study tests under what conditions Antarctic sea ice decline is reversible—or whether the system may cross thresholds beyond which recovery becomes difficult or very slow.
News: Volcanic eruptions in one hemisphere linked to floods in the opposite one
By Princeton University on Sep 23, 2025 01:25 pm
Asymmetric volcanic plumes may shift equatorial weather patterns and increase tropical streamflow, according to new simulations.
News: Is flooding under climate change more predictable than we thought?
By University of Tokyo 東京大学 on Sep 23, 2025 01:25 pm
According to researchers from Japan, their new statistical method increases the accuracy of flood risk projections across about 70% of the Earth’s landmass.
News: Rivers in the sky, Arctic warming, and what this means for the Greenland Ice Sheet
By University of Connecticut on Sep 23, 2025 01:23 pm
Characterizing weather extremes from the past to add context to future impacts.
News: Heatwaves in US rivers increasing up to four times faster than air heatwaves
By Pennsylvania State University on Sep 23, 2025 01:22 pm
Analysis of data from nearly 1,500 sites in the contiguous United States between 1980 and 2022 revealed that heatwaves in rivers are accelerating faster than and lasting nearly twice as long air heatwaves.
News: 85 new subglacial lakes detected below Antarctica
By European Space Agency on Sep 23, 2025 09:49 am
Hidden beneath the biggest ice mass on Earth, hundreds of subglacial lakes form a crucial part of Antarctica’s icy structure, affecting the movement and stability of glaciers, and consequentially influencing global sea level rise.