A slow-moving tropical depression caused persistent heavy rains in the Solomon Islands between April 1 and 4, 2014. The highest recorded daily rainfall associated with this event was 318mm in Honiara on April 3. The rains caused flash flooding in Honiara, Guadalcanal, Isabel, Malaita, and...

Pakistan is vulnerable to a number of adverse natural events and has experienced a wide range of disasters over the past 40 years, including floods, earthquakes, droughts, cyclones, and tsunamis. The World Bank is supporting the Government of Pakistan (GoP) in building capacity in the area of...

Vietnam is one of the most hazard-prone countries in the East Asia and Pacific region, with droughts, severe storms, and flooding causing substantial economic and human losses. Climate change is projected to increase the impact of disasters, especially the timing, frequency, severity, and...

The Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) is exposed to significant climate and disaster risks. The country's rapid economic development can put more people and assets at risk from natural hazards, if investments in risk reduction, planning, and preparedness are not made. The results of this...

The adoption of crowdsourced geographic data, or volunteered geographic information (VGI), as a valuable source of spatial data is growing at all levels of government. VGI is crowdsourced geographic information provided by a wide range of participants with varying levels of education, knowledge...

Japan has long suffered from intermittent but devastating natural disasters. Over the years, the country has developed a comprehensive disaster risk management (DRM) system to ensure that disaster response and recovery are as effective and efficient as possible. Japan has also created an...

This note highlights the critical contribution that social protection can make to a broader disaster recovery effort by helping directly to disaster-affected households. It is intended primarily for those government officials involved in organizing the post-disaster response and recovery effort...

This handbook outlines an approach to proactively manage the risks of geohazards on roads, road users, and the people living near and affected by road. This handbook is structured to support road geohazard risk management sequentially and systematically: Part I, Framework for Road Geohazard Risk...

Japan's Program for Earthquake-Resistant School Buildings has increased the seismic safety of Japanese schools, and hence increased the safety of Japanese schoolchildren, teachers, and communities. Since 2003, when the program accelerated, the share of earthquake-resistant public elementary and...