Wow!: Japanese smart city offers residents quake, privacy protection
RINA CHANDRAN, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on a new technological push to safeguard residents in Aizuwakamatsu city…
Pakistan project wins award for shielding villages from natural disasters
Thomson Reuters Foundation A project that combines satellite images, mapping technologies and the local knowledge of villagers to help build climate-proof settlements in disaster-prone areas of Pakistan won an international award last week. More than one million people have benefited from the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH) Pakistan project, which was a gold prize […]
Good vibrations? COVID quiet time soothes Earth’s seismic shakes
London, UKReuters COVID-19 lockdowns worldwide led to the longest and most pronounced reduction in human-linked seismic vibrations ever recorded, sharpening scientists’ ability to hear earth’s natural signals and detect earthquakes, a study found on Thursday. Vibrations travel through the earth like waves, creating seismic noise from earthquakes, volcanoes, wind and rivers as well as human […]
60 million people affected by “extreme weather” in 2018, says UN
Extreme weather affected almost 60 million people in 2018, according to the UN, with at least 10,000 lives lost to disasters in the past year. Figures cited by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction show that floods killed some 2,859 people in 2018 and affected more than 35 million people, including more than 23 […]
INDONESIAN EARTHQUAKES: “CHILD FRIENDLY SPACES” BRINGING A DEGREE OF NORMALCY AMID DEVASTATION
CHRIS OLVER, a World Vision Australia videographer, is in Indonesia to document the devastation caused in West Sumatra province on 30th September and 1st October, 2009. Here, on the second day of his visit (7th October), he writes of what he found…
UN group demands better rescue efforts
BosNewsLife.com United Nations delegates are demanding better coordination between UN rescue teams and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) during natural disasters such as the recent earthquake in Indonesia. The appeal came at a regional conference in Budapest, Hungary of the UN’s International Search And Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG), a global network of more than 80 countries and […]