What's New in Knowledge | May 2026

In this month’s What’s New in Knowledge, we’ve pulled together a diverse mix of global, national and local, place-based Australian research that’s caught the attention of AIDR staff and colleagues.  

In understanding consequences and recovery, this cross-national empirical study outlines how practitioners navigate the transition from short-term relief to longer-term recovery in humanitarian shelters and settlements. This analytical paper presents the concept of reformative recovery, which highlights the need to intervene in social and environmental long-term processes leading to vulnerability. It advances an analytical framework to guide interpretation of nonlinear recovery dynamics. For Australia, this study interviewed people across three disaster-impacted communities to examine how local community networks evolve in terms of centralisation. It shows how ‘effective disaster response depends on the strength of local social infrastructure, the community groups, informal collectives, and trusted relationships and their relations with formal organisations’.

In disaster risk reduction, researchers traced the cascading economic impacts of a volcanic disruption scenario in the Kawerau District of New Zealand's Bay of Plenty through regional value chains. Using the case study of hurricane risk in Novia Scotia, Canada, an impact-based risk assessment of coastal infrastructure adaptation to climate change evaluated the cost-effectiveness of green and grey adaptation measures, which helped illustrate the value of quantitative decision support methodologies in this area. The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery has released a catalogue of nature-based solutions for coastal resilience. The catalogue is designed to support the identification of investment opportunities and the integration of NBS into coastal risk management and planning processes. Meanwhile, ‘Let the Mushrooms Run the Risk Department’ asks us to consider more-than-human methods to monitor and assess risk. Moving to the human dimensions of risk reduction, a new participatory community-managed risk mapping guide has been developed that is grounded in research. It demonstrates how participatory risk mapping can generate decision-relevant evidence to inform disaster risk reduction and resilience planning. This review, meanwhile, outlines the evolution of early warning systems and anticipatory action, and presents concrete action points to strengthen both approaches for risk reduction.

In First Nation's knowledge, UNESCO and ICHCAP have been focusing on supporting pacific countries in integrating living heritage into education and disaster preparedness.  This BBC article describes how First Nations people in Fiji have interesting and unusual ways of predicting when a cyclone is approaching. Within Australia, the Digital Atlas of Australia has released a new dataset that shows locations of Indigenous Ranger Groups nationally.

For children and young people, there has been a focus in research on how increasing exposure to heat can boost malnutrition among children and young people. UNICEF has also released a report on children displaced in a changing climate. They use historical disaster impact data to understand and map child displacement risk for action and investment. Turning to digital media and young people, this article from the Royal Meteorological Society finds that combining climate and media literacy together and help students apply critical thinking and evaluation skills to real-world climate content.

For animals in disasters, here is an interesting Conversation article around how animals fight diseases as the climate changes and how vital this information is in protecting animals. This article covers the uncertainty and unwritten future of animal emergency management and how we can shape its future.

Recognising and addressing inequity, here is an article from the United States that looks at deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing university student experiences with earthquake early warning . The study also evaluates language planning and technology access. On a more positive note, here is an article about leading with dignity and women in Fiji leading climate adaptation. The World Bank has released a report that presents a new regional diagnostic of disability-inclusive emergency preparedness and response across 38 countries. It assesses the extent to which disability inclusion is embedded in legal and policy frameworks, governance arrangements, financing, data systems, risk communication, preparedness measures, and response operations. Turning to the local scale, the Centre for Just Places brought together a coalition of organisations, including research institutions, to foster shared learning and strengthen organisation and community resilience in order to support just adaptation and healthy equity in Western Melbourne – read more here.

Looking at weather and climate change, this Conversation article explains how climate change is causing more landslides across New Zealand, but that there is new technology being released that can help reduce the risk. Also in New Zealand, this article articulates the impacts of a recent storm deluge in Wellington and how weather events there are becoming more intense. Meanwhile, a narrative review [paywalled] in Nature Health Journal synthesises emerging evidence on how climate change exacerbates loneliness and social isolation, and how social connections can be a tool for public health and resilience during extreme weather.  

Focusing on extreme heat, the Net Zero Commission has released its second Spotlight Report, which shares 5 evidence-based actions that can significantly strengthen NSW’s resilience to heat stress. This Conversation article covers how cities are getting hotter, and how new research is hastily revealing the scale of the challenge. Also, a big topic in articles this month is Antarctica’s ice shelves and how vulnerable they are to melting due to the reach of ocean heat. Meanwhile, this interesting study shares a probabilistic performance-based framework for heat vulnerability and risk assessment of buildings.

In health, here is a guidance document on heat and pregnancy published by India’s Ministry of Health and Welfare for healthcare professionals and community health workers. The 2026 Europe report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change tracks health effects of climate change adaptation and mitigation action, economics, and finance.

Turning to governance, leadership, and capacity building, here is an article by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on how we can increase private sector investments in climate adaptation. At the community level, the Fire to Flourish research program has released a report that shares 6 key capabilities for community disaster resilience, based on researcher’s observations and learnings across the program. From a governance and accountability perspective, this publication outlines how AI is making strides in helping with disaster management such as aerial firefighting, but without formal governance frameworks to guide its use. Focusing on governance and leadership in insurance, this article from the World Economic Forum covers how insurance can help build economic resilience and this ABC News article shares how Australian insurers are among groups who are proposing cheaper premiums in exchange for more resilient homes. Turning to fire risk, an international study has combined global fire data and climate models to identify gaps in wildfire risk projections and outline a framework to better inform long-term planning. Keeping a focus on the future, a new Grattan Institute report identifies 5 priorities for Australia to build a better and more resilient democracy, including recognition that ‘crises are the moments that build or erode trust’. Meanwhile, this commentary from researchers around the world calls for an urgent reconfiguration of governance, research, businesses, as well as public, private, and philanthropic funding streams to build systemic risk capacity in a polycrisis world.

Looking at knowledge development and translation, with increasing amounts of AI technologies being utilised, here is a review of AI policies in disaster research. An excellent book has been published on the topic of human geography and disasters which can be purchased here. On the topic of research impact, this study finds tensions between institutional and researcher framing of research impact practices and values. It argues for an alternative, ‘research value’ approach to reconcile these tensions.

Examining the frontiers in technology, here is an article about a website that helps landowners track wildfire recovery and view history too. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) has released a review of The Stop Disasters video game that has travelled around the world in the past year, and which was viewed over 2 million times. The Seismological Society of America have released information that indicates that if there is a magnitude 8 or 9 megathrust earthquake off the coast of the Pacific Northwest, data from ocean bottom seismometers could improve earthquake detection times calculated by the ShakeAlert system.  New research from Natural Hazards Research Australia, conducted by the University of Melbourne, analysed social media activity to examine how communities experienced and responded to the 2025 Mid North Coast floods.

WNIK TV

Here is the first part of a 4-part video series on the strength of knowledge systems as part of the Fire and Country Cultural Values Project in NSW.

Here is an interesting YouTube video from the UNDRR on the importance of radios and how they save lives during a disaster.

WNIK Radio      

This month, a new podcast episode has been released in the Resilient Ready podcast series, which features an interview with clinical psychologist David Younger on the psychology of disasters. It is available to listen to here.         

Compiled by Blythe McLennan and Lexi Barrington