Topic description and stories

Brahmaputra - Assam

Opinion: Droughts and floods: India’s water crises demand more than grand projects

06 Jun 2016

Bhaskar Vira (Department of Geography and University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute) discusses ways of dealing with the crisis...

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Why a disaster may not be disastrous

03 Oct 2014

Research shows that the behaviour of business leaders could be directly linked to their experiences in childhood.

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Caption: A group of Sri Lankan refugees arrives in Tamil Nadu after a risky 30-mile boat ride across the Palk Straits

Unsafe havens? Health risks for refugees

05 Feb 2014

A new study is looking at a century of mass migrations worldwide to understand the public health consequences when people are forced to flee from war...

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Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in the US. Speaking this week in Cambridge, engineer Tom O’Rourke will describe such disasters as game-changers for those wishing to protect people from similar, future events.

Natural disasters, infrastructure and the “new normal”

15 Jan 2013

The Japanese and Canterbury earthquakes, Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy and a host of other modern natural disasters have changed the game for those...

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A wave approaches Miyako City from the Heigawa estuary in Iwate Prefecture

Scientists explain scale of Japanese tsunami

24 Aug 2012

Tsunamis are caused by earthquakes under the seabed. Some tsunamis – including the disaster that hit Japan last year – are unexpectedly large...

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Bam, southeastern Iran, after the 2003 earthquake

Earthquakes without frontiers

30 May 2012

Understanding the threat posed by unanticipated earthquakes in continental interiors is the focus of a new study led by the University of Cambridge...

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Search and rescue

Tweeting disasters

12 Oct 2011

Social networks like Twitter cannot help prevent disasters, but can quickly correct misinformation resulting from false rumours preventing possible...

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Japan of the apocalypse

Facing up to Fukushima

20 May 2011

In the wake of the disaster at the Fukushima reactor, Japan and other nations are re-evaluating their attitude to nuclear energy. Cambridge academic...

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Fabric of folly - weekly unique visitors

Risk initiatives seek to challenge the stats we’re in

21 Jan 2010

Two different projects which aim to improve our understanding of the nature of, and statistical realities behind, health scares, natural disasters...

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Soldiers set up security and provide aid in Haiti

Academic warns of psychological impact of Haiti earthquake

21 Jan 2010

A Cambridge academic who is coordinating the mental health response to the Haiti earthquake disaster for one of the first international NGOs into the...

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