All posts tagged: natural disasters

Watch Duty Is Adding Flood Alerts to Its Wildfire App

Watch Duty Is Adding Flood Alerts to Its Wildfire App

Published by skeptic

Watch Duty, the wildfire alert app, is introducing flood alerts to its popular disaster-awareness service. This is the second disaster type to be broadly included, after wildfires; it’s available as a free update. If you have the app, allow it to track your location, and happen to be near a flood zone, Watch Duty will send you a push notification with more information about the flood. The nonprofit started in 2021 with a focus on California’s wildfires. The app has since expanded to the entire US, where it uses a combination of paid employee “reporters” and many more volunteers who monitor emergency responder radio channels and translate that information about disaster zones to app users. Watch Duty became a critical resource during the Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles last year, providing real-time information about the fire’s movements that users came to rely on. In the year since, Watch Duty has capitalized on that increased recognition and brought in thousands of new users and partnerships, including one with Amazon’s Ring cameras that lets people …

Centre for Disaster Protection closes disaster preparedness gap

Centre for Disaster Protection closes disaster preparedness gap

Published by skeptic

Conor Meenan, Head of Labs at the Centre for Disaster Protection, discusses how innovation can help governments move from reacting to disasters to preparing for them before they strike. The cost, complexity, and frequency of climate and disaster impacts are on the rise. But the systems that many countries’ governments rely on were not built for planning and responding to these, or are struggling to keep up. The gap is widening fastest where risks are highest. Despite being able to anticipate future shocks, disaster planning and financing systems still too often treat disasters like surprises. Most money is arranged in the heat of the crisis – emergency budget allocations, borrowing, and unpredictable support from the international system. These responses are not only unreliable and inefficient, they can also be harmful. Funds raided from health, education, and social protection budgets carry consequences that extend well beyond the disaster itself. The case for pre-arranging financing Some countries are starting to choose a different path. By arranging financing in advance of a storm on the horizon, they can …

Transforming wildfire management with geodesy and geospatial science

Transforming wildfire management with geodesy and geospatial science

Published by skeptic

Wildfire management can be improved through geodesy and geospatial science, offering proactive, evidence-based strategies and advanced technologies that enhance risk assessment, resource allocation, and response efforts. Geodesy and geospatial science are fundamental to wildfire management and can move the involved processes from reactive response to anticipatory, evidence-based action. Conventional measures such as fuel reduction, patrols, aircraft reconnaissance, emergency calls and firefighting crews remain essential, but geospatial systems add the spatial intelligence needed to act earlier and target resources more precisely. By integrating satellite, aircraft, drone and ground-based observations with other data on terrain, vegetation, and weather through classical and artificial intelligence (AI) methods, we can identify where risk is building, how a fire may evolve and which communities, infrastructure and ecosystems are most exposed. The geospatial data sets involved are vast. On the fundamental level, geodetic techniques provide all the reference systems for mapping, models and methods to operate the different platforms such as satellites, aircraft, and drones, as well as enable accurate positioning, navigation and timing. On the applied level, the geospatial technologies and …

How the EU responds to disasters

How the EU responds to disasters

Published by skeptic

The Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) has become the operational backbone of Europe’s disaster response system, coordinating emergency assistance for countries hit by natural disasters, conflicts and humanitarian crises. Operating under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, the centre works around the clock to mobilise relief supplies, specialist teams and technical equipment wherever support is needed. In 2025 alone, the Emergency Response Coordination Centre was activated 64 times in response to emergencies, including the war in Ukraine, wildfires across Europe, severe storms in multiple countries and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The ERCC has also overseen the EU’s largest-ever civil protection operation in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, helping deliver millions of emergency items to affected regions. By centralising coordination between EU Member States, participating countries and humanitarian experts, the Emergency Response Coordination Centre helps avoid duplication of aid efforts and speeds up the delivery of critical support. The result is a more organised European response system capable of reacting quickly to both natural hazards and human-made disasters. What the Emergency Response Coordination …

The Great Pyramid of Giza is surprisingly earthquake-proof

The Great Pyramid of Giza is surprisingly earthquake-proof

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. The ancient pyramids at Giza in Egypt are some of the most recognizable architectural feats in the world. The Great Pyramid itself was completed 4,600–4,450 years ago, yet remains largely intact despite spending millennia exposed to not only the harsh desert environment, but multiple major seismic events. Earthquakes in 1847 and 1992 rocked the region with respective magnitudes of 6.8 and 5.8, while other earthquakes have undoubtedly occurred in the generations before reliable measurements. So, how has the famous structure survived to the present day? It’s a question seismologists like Asem Salama at Egypt’s National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics have pondered for years. “What makes the pyramid particularly fascinating is that it combines monumental architecture with remarkable structural stability over millennia,” Salama tells Popular Science. “Our work aimed to provide quantitative measurements that help explain part of that resilience.” Salama and his colleagues believe they now have the answer. After conducting extensive investigations while recording ambient onsite …

Bridging the gap in urban-wildland defence

Bridging the gap in urban-wildland defence

Published by skeptic

Wildfire Water Solutions discusses the evolving challenges of wildfire management and emphasises the importance of deployable infrastructure solutions to enhance water accessibility and improve preparedness in urban-wildland interfaces Across many regions of the world, wildfire behaviour is evolving. Longer fire seasons, increased fuel loading, and more frequent extreme weather events are creating conditions that exceed the original design assumptions of many response systems. In fast-moving wildland-urban interface (WUI) environments, firefighting effectiveness is often shaped not only by expertise and effort, but by logistics – how quickly and reliably critical resources can be delivered to where they are needed. Water access, pressure, and delivery pathways can become limiting under these conditions, particularly where terrain, infrastructure design tolerances, or concurrent demand create friction. This is not a failure of existing systems, but a reflection of the scale and intensity of modern wildfire events. This gap has led to the emergence of a new category: deployable infrastructure. Wildfire Water Solutions (WWS) operates within this category – providing systems that can be rapidly positioned to extend and reinforce existing …

This Pompeii victim was likely a doctor trying to help survivors

This Pompeii victim was likely a doctor trying to help survivors

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. The Garden of Fugitives is one of Pompeii’s most haunting sites. Discovered during archaeological excavations in 1961, the former vineyard quickly became a gravesite for over a dozen people who perished amid the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and its choking, burning hot pyroclastic cloud that enveloped the city in 79 CE. Although the victims’ bodies eventually decomposed underneath the pumice and ash, the unique burial conditions at their time of death presented a remarkable opportunity for future archaeologists. Shortly after their identification, researchers created chilling, highly detailed casts of their final moments by carefully pouring plaster into the hollowed spaces they left behind. These echoes of the ancient Roman catastrophe have taught historians a lot about life at the time of the eruption, even if much of the Pompeiians’ personal information is lost to time. However, modern diagnostic imaging technology has yielded unexpected evidence that points to one of the Garden of Fugitives’ professions. Based on recent findings highlighted …

How Wildfire Protection, Inc. enhances wildfire preparedness

How Wildfire Protection, Inc. enhances wildfire preparedness

Published by skeptic

The Innovation Platform spoke with Don Green, President of Wildfire Protection, Inc., about the organisation’s efforts to enhance wildfire preparedness in underserved communities and the proactive strategies aimed at mitigating the threat of wildfire. Wildfires pose a significant threat to communities, especially in regions vulnerable to dry conditions and strong winds. The devastating impact of these fires can lead to the loss of homes, natural landscapes, as well as loss of life. With climate change amplifying these risks, taking proactive measures to combat wildfires is more essential than ever. Wildfire Protection, Inc. plays an important role in addressing these challenges by equipping underserved and high-risk communities with the knowledge and resources necessary for effective wildfire preparedness. To learn more about the wildfire risk in Southern Arizona and the efforts of Wildfire Protection Inc. to address these dangers, we spoke with Don Green, the organisation’s President. Can you provide an overview of your organisation and how Wildfire Protection Inc. improves community readiness for wildfires? Wildfires are inevitable in many landscapes, but the loss of homes and …

How space and AI outpace wildfires

How space and AI outpace wildfires

Published by skeptic

In the world of disaster management, tracking data about fire is only useful if it arrives before the smoke does The image of a wildland fire is no longer a distant threat confined to remote wilderness. In recent years, ‘mega-fires’ have rewritten the rules of disaster management, leaping across traditional firebreaks and threatening urban fringes from the Mediterranean to the sub-Arctic. As climate change accelerates the frequency of these extreme events, the tools we use to track and fight them must evolve from reactive to predictive. At the forefront of this evolution is RSS-Hydro, a science-led geospatial tech company known primarily for its leadership in satellite Earth Observation (EO) and modelling intelligence. Through its FireSENS and FireSENS-GEO applications, RSS-Hydro is proving that the best way to fight fire is with actionable, rapid-response data. FireSENS: Delivering critical impacts in real-time In the escalating battle against wildfires, timely and comprehensive information is the most valuable asset. RSS-Hydro’s FireSENS represents a leap forward, providing multi-faceted wildfire impact intelligence that bridges the gap between raw data and life-saving action. …

Hawaii’s Worst Flooding in 20 Years Leaves Farmers Struggling and Fewer Veggies at the Market

Hawaii’s Worst Flooding in 20 Years Leaves Farmers Struggling and Fewer Veggies at the Market

Published by Sam Flores

WAIALUA, Hawaii (AP) — The reddish-brown mud that smothered Bok Kongphan’s Hawaii farm has hardened in the tropical sun. Irrigation tubes lie in a tangle where his lemongrass, cucumber and okra once flourished. His niece, Jeni Balanay, lost her crops too — a mustardy green called choy sum, bitter melon, tomato. The leaves of her recently planted banana, coconut and mango have gone yellow, the trees unlikely to survive. Across Oahu’s North Shore, an area famed for its big-wave surfing, the small farms that help supply the island’s food are struggling after back-to-back storms in March brought the state’s worst flooding in two decades. Officials are pleading with farmers not to give up, stressing that local agriculture is crucial for the isolated archipelago. “In some cases entire farms have been wiped out,” said Brian Miyamoto, executive director of the Hawaii Farm Bureau. “These are farmers who were just days or weeks away from harvesting and now they have to start over.” According to data collected by farming advocates, more than 600 of Hawaii’s 6,500 farms …