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Displaying 13 of about 13 resultsGENEVA, 18 December 2012 - The Italian Government is urgently seeking EUR 40 billion over the next 15 years for flood prevention following a week of heavy rains that began on 10 November in the north and then wreaked havoc in Umbria and Tuscany in central Italy.
Italy's Environment Minister, Corrado Clini, recently presented a proposal to the country's…
VENICE, 28 March 2012 - The Mayor of the fabled city of Venice, Giorgio Orsoni, has been chosen by UNISDR as Europe's first Champion of Urban Resilience in recognition of his efforts to build resilience to disasters and protect cultural heritage.
Margareta Wahlström, United Nations disaster risk reduction chief, appointed Mr. Orsoni a champion as part…
Few people outside Italy are aware that six seismologists and a government official are on trial in the small city of L'Aquila. But the story has implications for scientists, engineers, administrators, and legal systems far beyond Italy's borders.
L'Aquila was largely destroyed by earthquakes in 1461 and 1703. The city was rebuilt, eventually grew to m…
DUBROVNIK, 3 October 2012 - Details of the first-ever peer review of a country implementing the world's first agreement on disaster risk reduction, the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), were presented today on the final day of the European Forum on Disaster Risk Reduction in Croatia.
The UK volunteered to participate in the HFA Peer Review a year ago a…
Geneva, 21 May 2012 – Following a 6.0-magnitude earthquake that rocked north-east Italy on Sunday morning, around 3,000 residents of San Felipe and surrounding areas are living “like refugees” advised not to re-enter their homes by the Italian civil protection service because of ongoing aftershocks.
UNISDR Chief, Margareta Wahlström, today extended her…
Geneva, 4 January 2011 – Byblos, with its ancient port dating back 5,000 years, is dotted by Phoenician, Roman and medieval ruins along the waterfront that municipal authorities now fear are in danger from sea storms.
“Heavy waves hit the heart of the harbour directly, damaging it,” explained Lisa Abou Khaled, from the United Nations Development Progra…
NAPLES, 5 September 2012 - One of China's fastest growing cities, Guangzhou, announced yesterday at the World Urban Forum that it is joining UNISDR's Making Cities Resilient Campaign and also invited applications for the new Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation.
Liu Baochun, Director General, Guangzhou Municipal People's Government, descr…
GENEVA, 3 September 2012 - At the opening of the 6th World Urban Forum in Naples today, the Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Dr. Joan Clos, said many countries were being overwhelmed by urbanization which he compared to a tsunami.
More must be done to develop national urban policy and institutional capacity to ensure jobs and prosperity and to tackle…
GENEVA, 12 July 2012 - The head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, UNISDR, Margareta Wahlström, today praised the social cohesion and community solidarity which she observed during a two-day visit to Emilia Romagna where 13,000 people continue to live in tented camps and other emergency accommodation following two severe earthquakes in May.…
GENEVA, 21 December - In 2014 Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico, Italy’s biggest public works project which began nine years ago is scheduled to begin reducing the flood risks faced by the population of Venice each year.
Venice stretches across numerous islands in the Venice Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea. At high tide, parts of the city are flooded.…
GENEVA, 16 July 2012 - It is truly humbling to see how easily we are fooled by nature but we can also draw hard-won insights from the defeats caused by earthquakes. We used to think that the age and speed of a subducting slab governs its maximum earthquake magnitude but the Great East Japan Earthquake forever puts to rest that view.
The May earthquake…
World Urban Forum, NAPLES, 5 September 2012 – There was a special ceremony today at the World Urban Forum to mark Italy’s strong participation in the two-year-old Making Cities Resilient Campaign with a formal signing ceremony for nine cities from the Basilicata Region and the commune of Bomporto which was severely damaged by the recent Emilia-Romagna e…
World Urban Forum, NAPLES, 4 September 2012 - The Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), Dr. Joan Clos, and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, and chief of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), Margareta Wahlström, signed a Statement of Cooperation to…