This World Bank discussion paper examines how Japan uses its employment insurance system to protect jobs and support workers during disasters, offering a detailed case for designing adaptive social protection that goes beyond traditional emergency social assistance. Set against the backdrop of disasters becoming more frequent and severe — and disproportionately harming the poor and […]
This peer-reviewed study offers the first comprehensive documentation of how a remote Himalayan community experienced warning dissemination and evacuation during recent glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Focusing on Lunana in Bhutan — one of the world’s most at-risk basins, surrounded by dangerous glacial lakes and a nine-day walk from the nearest road — the authors
This collection brings together four community-level research studies examining how urban populations perceive, experience, and respond to extreme heat. Published in late 2025, the studies were conducted as part of the Coastal City Resilience and Extreme Heat Action Project (CoCHAP) — a joint initiative supported by National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the American
Community Heat Risk Perception Studies: Honduras, Indonesia, and Tanzania Read More »
This series of guidance notes presents evidence-based communication strategies for protecting vulnerable communities from extreme heat, drawing on heat risk perception surveys conducted across five cities: Choluteca and San Lorenzo (Honduras), Surabaya and Medan (Indonesia), and Tanga and Unguja (Tanzania). Across all contexts, surveys consistently identify older adults, outdoor workers, pregnant women, people with pre-existing
Evidence-Based Communication Strategies for Protecting Communities from Extreme Heat Read More »
Authors and Collaborators: Chandan Sarangi Parama Roy Gourav Suthar Akshaya Ayyangar Ramachandran A. Summary: Extreme heat is an escalating climate risk in Indian cities, disproportionately affecting socio-economically vulnerable populations, especially children who spend long hours in public schools and Anganwadi’s. Nature-based solutions such as edible rooftop gardens offer a promising, low-cost strategy for localised cooling
Authors and Collaborators: Hanna Akila B. Abdul Rauf, Heriot Watt University Alexander van der Jagt, Heriot Watt University Supreeya Wungpatcharapon, Kasetsart University Sani Limthongsakul, Kasetsart University Harry Smith, Heriot Watt University Summary: Community gardens and canal revegetation are common urban nature-based solutions (NbS) initiated in informal settlements for climate resilience. Engaging with and tending to
Authors and Collaborators: Ravi Mohan Tiwari, Kathmandu Institute of Applied Sciences Susma Giri, Kathmandu Institute of Applied Sciences Jagannath Adhikari, Birendra Multiple Campus Summary: As climate change accelerates, urban areas are increasingly exposed to risks such as flooding, heat stress, and environmental degradation, which disproportionately affect marginalized communities. Nature-based Solutions (NbS), including urban forests, wetlands,
Jacobabad, Sindh, is a city defined by its extremes. Known historically as one of the hottest inhabited places on Earth, summer temperatures here frequently soar beyond 50°C (122°F). For decades, this heat was treated as an unavoidable fact of life a “normal phenomenon.” However, beneath this stoic acceptance lay a tragic reality: every year, the
A Shield Against the Sun: The Story of CDF and Jacobabad’s Heatwave Revolution Read More »
Authors and Collaborators: Dyah Ayu Retnowati, Institut Teknologi Bandung Summary: Flooding is one of the most persistent urban challenges in Indonesia, which is increasingly intensified by climate change, rapid urbanization, and declining environmental capacity. Bandung City, a central metropolitan and economic hub in Indonesia, experiences recurrent flooding that intersects with slum proliferation and riparian degradation.
Authors and Collaborators: Anshu Ogra, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi Nistha Kanodia, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi Summary: Delhi’s record-breaking heat in May 2024—followed within weeks by extreme early-monsoon rainfall—exposed not only a meteorological hazard but a governance challenge: residents’ capacity to stay safe depends on who controls water, where, and through what procedures. This