Newsblog

On August 29 and 30, 2025, the 2nd Betreuungsdienst-Symposium “Betreuungsdienst in stürmischen Zeiten – Krise oder Chance?” (‘Care services in turbulent times – crisis or opportunity?’) will take place in Bad Wildungen. Experts and leaders from civil protection, representatives from politics, science, and administration, as well as industry exhibitors, will come together for the second […]

Air quality measures in Germany have shown early success: In 2024, the entire set of limits in the European Air Quality Directive was met for the first time. Fine particulate matter levels have remained below the standards for the seventh consecutive year, and the annual mean limit for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) of 40 µg/m³ was […]

On March 13, 2025, the first warning day of the year will take place in North Rhine-Westphalia. At 11 a.m., sirens will sound across the state, announcements will be made over loudspeakers, and warning messages will be distributed via social media and digital billboards. This test alarm is intended to raise public awareness, assess and […]

Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) is presenting a survey to assess progress in overcoming gender inequalities in disaster risk reduction. Last year, insights were already gathered from female scientists through the IRDR Young Scientists Programme. Now, the survey will evaluate whether progress has been made and if improvements have been achieved in promoting gender […]

Given the current geopolitical situation, particularly the war in Ukraine and the political change in the United States, the urgency of improving German civil protection becomes particularly clear. The geopolitical events and the associated shift in the international security situation highlight the necessity of preparing security structures and civil protection for the challenges of an […]

The worldwide melting of glacier ice is reducing the available freshwater resources in many regions and at the same time leading to a sustained rise in global sea levels. A new study conducted as part of the Glacier Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise (GlaMBIE) and published in the journal Nature on 19 February 2025 provides important […]

In 2023, the National Consortium for Societal Resilience [UK+] (NCSR+) published its strategy for promoting societal resilience, followed by two practice-oriented modules. The third module has now been published, focussing on how to diagnose and improve the resilience of a key sector to disruption. This module has been developed in collaboration with UK resilience practitioners, […]

The RIMMA2025 conference, held for the first time in Switzerland at the University of Bern from January 27th to 31st, 2025, brought together around 230 participants from 30 countries. Co-organized by leading experts from the University of Bern, ETH Zurich, and the Swiss Federal Government, the conference focused on the integrated management of natural hazards […]

The book ‘Development and Disasters: Natural Hazards and Vulnerability Reduction’ by James Lewis and Ilan Kelman 2025 has been revised and offers deeper insights into the complex relationship between development, vulnerability and disasters. In particular, this second edition explores how development can be both a cause of vulnerability and a means of reducing it. The […]