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This systematic review delves into strategies for managing health consequences during floods and the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as other emerging diseases. It stresses the necessity of integrating disaster risk reduction into development planning, enhancing community preparedness, and implementing effective response protocols to mitigate health impacts. The text discusses various studies on the intersection of floods and the COVID-19 pandemic in regions such as Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Indonesia, and China, highlighting the challenges faced by communities in preparing for and responding to flood disasters during the ongoing pandemic. [Extracted from the article]

In response to increasing demands for information on disasters and extreme events by the policy, practice, and research communities, there has been a recent surge in approaches to the measurement of applied risk management and resilience. Nevertheless, very few of these approaches address systemic risks, particularly in multi-hazard environments, and thus do not holistically contribute to decision making in various contexts. This paper addresses this gap by means of a critical review and an assessment of approaches to climate and disaster resilience measurement with a particular focus on three issues: (1) the consideration of compounding socioeconomic and climatic risks in approaches to resilience measurement; (2) the methodological and technical aspects of resilience measurement; and (3) the application and practicability of resilience measurement across various contexts to reliably inform decision-making processes. Seventeen key resilience measurement approaches developed by researchers, government, and private and civil society organizations are selected and evaluated according to a set of assessment criteria. Based on this assessment, we conclude with three key findings. First, we find a lack of clear standards and validated approaches in the measurement methodologies, which can lead to inconsistencies and poor data comparability. Second, approaches to resilience measurement should further strive to combine both process- and outcome-based methodological perspectives to represent resilience in the most holistic and standardized manner possible. Third, in the context of multiple hazards, decision-making strategies should address multiple vulnerabilities. To conclude, we suggest that future developments in resilience measurement should allow for the analysis of interactions between multiple stressors across different scales and among systemic risks. Moreover, more rigorous process-based approaches to resilience measurement are still required that can incorporate outputs into decision making.

Pokhara is one of the most naturally beautiful cities in the world with a unique geological setting. This important tourist city is under intense pressure from rapid urbanization and population growth. Multiple hazards and risks are rapidly increasing in Pokhara due to unsustainable land use practices, particularly the increase in built-up areas. This study examines the relationship among urbanization, land use/land cover dynamics and multiple hazard and risk analysis of the Pokhara valley from 1990 to 2013. We investigate some of the active hazards, such as floods, landslides, fire, sinkholes, land subsidence and earthquakes, and prepare an integrated multiple hazard risk map indicating the highly vulnerable zones. Land use and land cover maps from 1990 and 2013 from Landsat images (30 m resolution) have been prepared and analyzed for the spatial dynamics of urbanization and the transition of land use and land cover. In the 23-year period, the built-up area more than doubled from 24.03 km² to 54.20 km². Although the landscape in the urban, peri-urban and rural areas appears to be fragmented, different drivers play pivotal roles in landscape change in these areas. The results provide substantial information for establishing innovative action plans for disaster risk management in the valley. Recommendations are made for the most suitable places for future urban expansion in the valley. This study is important for raising awareness among policy makers and other public officials to include multiple hazard risk mitigation in land use policies and plans. Establishing connections between urban expansions, escalating population growth and multiple hazards and risk assessment will also improve in modelling the latent impact of future catastrophes and emergency preparedness.

This paper investigates the performance of a novel semiactive damping device at mitigating nonsimultaneous multihazard loads. The device, termed modified friction device (MFD), has been previously proposed by the authors. It consists of a variable friction system based on automotive drum brake technology. The device has been demonstrated in a laboratory environment, and its dynamic behavior has been modeled. This model is used to conduct numerical simulations on two representative structures, one short building located in Japan and the other tall building located in Boston, MA. Simulated hazards include wind, blast, and seismic loads. Various control cases are considered, including semiactive control under five different sets of control weights, and passive viscous and passive friction to benchmark performance. Results show that the semiactive control cases outperforms all of the other cases for the vast majority of hazards and performance indices, provided that the right control weights are utilized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]