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General Security and Resilience

Global Disasters Likely to Increase Going Forward, according to UN Report

Disasters, both natural and man-made, across the globe will become more frequent and produce greater destruction as the world’s increasing interconnectedness facilitates cascading impacts across geographies and sectors, a new UN report finds. The new study released this week, Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2022, seeks to answer how governance systems can evolve to better address the systemic risks of the future. The report found that based on current trend lines the world could go from around 400 disasters per year in 2015 to more than 560 a year by 2030.

U.S. Western Drought Affecting Hydropower Production

The record-breaking drought throughout the Western U.S. is affecting hydropower production and further drops in water levels could catalyze greater impacts across the region, underlining the interdependencies of water and power production. Water levels at Lake Powell, the reservoir supplying the 1,320-megawatt Glen Canyon Dam, are at historic lows. And if conditions continue to worsen, the dam could stop producing electricity which would impact around 3 million customers who rely partially on the dam for power generation.

Insider Threat Awareness – Potential Risk Factors for Extremist Radicalization

Security Magazine has published an article describing the domestic terrorism landscape, potential risk factors that might lead someone to become radicalized, and workplace solutions for organizations to increase their security posture. Since 2015, there have been 267 plots or attacks associated with right-wing terrorism, with 91 fatalities, and 66 plots or attacks associated with left-wing terrorism, with 19 fatalities. This violence peaked in 2020 and the broad trend continues to rise.

New Water Research Center Promises to Provide Resilience and Water-Management Solutions to the Sector

A new collaborative research initiative, led by the University of Alabama, will bring together experts from across the U.S. and Canada to better forecast water-related hazards and help sustain the continent’s water resources. The project, known as Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH), is composed of 28 academic institutions, non-profit organizations and government and industry partners. CIROH will be administered by the Alabama Water Institute, and NOAA is providing $360 million to fund the project over the next five years.

April is Emergency Communications Month

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has kicked off activities for its annual Emergency Communications Month. This year, CISA will focus on helping people understand what emergency communications is, the important role that it plays in our everyday lives, and resources available to help entities increase the security and resilience of their emergency communications networks.

New Method of Water Loss Monitoring Revolves Around Aquifers

This week, NASA announced that a research team from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory has developed a new method of measuring groundwater loss that will help improve groundwater management techniques. The team focused on utilizing satellite data during their study of Tulare Basin, part of California’s Central Valley, in order to track the effects of decades of farmers irritating crops using groundwater wells.

Forecast for 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season Predicts Above-Normal Activity

Today, the Colorado State University’s (CSU’s) Tropical Meteorology Project released its Extended Range Forecast of Atlantic Seasonal Hurricane Activity and Landfall Strike Probability for 2022. The researchers anticipate above-normal activity for the upcoming season, which runs from June 1 to November 30. The team predicts there will be 19 named storms – those reaching the criteria for hurricanes, tropical storms, or sub-tropical storms – and that there is a 71 percent chance of at least one major hurricane making landfall somewhere on the entire U.S.

Study Shows Extreme Fire, Extreme Rain Events Rising in the West, Leading to Dangerous Cycle

Climate researchers have released a study forecasting that extreme fire and rain events will continue to rise in the western U.S., with dangerous consequences in the form of more debris flows, mudslides, and flash floods. The study concludes that both wildfires and extreme rainfall will increase in the West as climate change persists. While the rise in wildfires was expected, scientists were surprised and concerned at their results stating that extreme rainfall events are much more likely to occur in the aftermath.

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