Windstorm Niklas to cost German insurers 750 million euros

Reuters: German insurers are likely to face damage claims of around 750 million euros ($808 million) from windstorm "Niklas", which struck the country on March 31, insurance trade body GDV said on Monday.

That would make Niklas, which entailed wind speeds of up to 192 kilometers (119 miles) per hour, one of the five most costly storms to hit the country in the last 15 years, the GDV said of its estimate, which is preliminary.

Germany's third-largest insurer Talanx on Monday said it had penciled in a cost in the low double-digit million euro range from the storm and said this did not include claims faced by its subsidiary, reinsurer Hannover Re....

German heart disease deaths from heatwaves to rise fivefold

Sophie Yeo in Responding to Climate Change: Five times as many people will die of heart disease in Germany by 2098 as climate change causes more intense heatwaves. This is the finding of a study which the German government has funded as part of their climate adaptation strategy.

The valleys of the Rhine, the Danube and some regions in the East will suffer the most. Specifically, the Upper Rhine valley will experience heatwaves of over 31C each day by the end of the century, the authors found. They say that research rarely investigates how climate change will impact cause specific deaths.

“Studies investigating the heat-mortality relationship are of major importance to design preventive measures, which are able to minimize the future heat wave risks,” said Stefan Zacharias from the German Meteorological Service, which conducted the research

The results are based on a moderate emissions scenario up to 2098. Coronary heart disease is responsible for around 17% of all deaths in Germany. Between 2001 and 2010, it killed an average of 403 people on every summer day where temperatures were normal. This increased by 15.2% during heatwaves, adding up to 331 excess deaths every year.

Climate models suggest that, by the end of the 21st century, heatwaves in Germany will be three times as frequent, 25% longer, and around 1C hotter....

Combined heat and power station in Hanover-Linden, Germany. View in westerly direction from an adjacent high-rise of the "Ihmezentrum" housing area. Shot by ChristianSchd Christian Schröder, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

German water supply threatened as climate change boosts droughts

Stefan Nicola in Bloomberg News: German water supplies will become increasingly threatened this century as climate change raises the risk of droughts and water shortages in the country.

While Germany is considered water-rich, more water evaporates than falls as rain in the eastern part of the country, according to a report by a German parliamentary committee. Average temperatures may rise 3.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, resulting in more precipitation in the winter and less in the summer, the authors wrote.

“This will worsen the already unfavorable water balance in eastern Germany, which will further increase
the risk for droughts and a generally worse water availability,” they wrote. Temperature increases in southern Germany will also threaten water supplies and as a result “biodiversity, and availability of snow in ski resorts.”....

Feed of river power plant Speichersee, Aschheim near Munich, Germany, shot by Richard Bartz, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license

Storm in western Germany kills six, disrupts transport

Matthias Inverardi in Reuters: At least six people were killed in storms that swept Germany's most populous state late on Monday, forcing Duesseldorf airport to shut down, felling trees and leaving some roads impassable.

After a scorchingly hot three-day holiday weekend, thunderstorms, strong winds and heavy rain pounded the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, causing Germany's third-largest airport in Duesseldorf to close for about an hour.

Three people were reported to have died in the state capital when a tree fell onto a garden shed in which they were seeking shelter. Firefighters rescued three more injured people - two severely hurt - from the shed, according to media.

A cyclist aged around 50 died in nearby Cologne after being hit by a falling tree that local police said was probably struck by lightning. A 28-year-old cyclist in Krefeld was killed when a falling tree brought down an overhead electricity cable which electrocuted him. One other person died in the town of Essen while trying to clear a street.

Commuters were stuck in long traffic jams on Tuesday. Ten incoming flights at Duesseldorf airport were diverted while 10 other flights were canceled. The airport said winds gusting up to 150 km per hour (93 mph) were recorded. It opened again at 10 p.m. (2000 GMT)....

An aerial view of the Rhine passing through Dusseldorf, shot by Marieke Kuijjer , Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons 2.0 license

Smithsonian reports GMO soybean pollen threatens mexican honey sales

A press release from the Smithsonian Newsdesk: Mexico is the fourth largest honey producer and fifth largest honey exporter in the world. A Smithsonian researcher and colleagues helped rural farmers in Mexico to quantify the genetically modified organism (GMO) soybean pollen in honey samples rejected for sale in Germany. Their results will appear Feb. 7 in the online journal Scientific Reports.

David Roubik, senior staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and colleagues developed the ability to identify pollen grains in honey in Panama and Mexico during the 1980s and 1990s when they studied the effects of the arrival of Africanized bees on native bees. “Nobody else can do this kind of work in the ‘big field’ environment and be confident that what they are seeing are soybean pollen grains,” said Roubik. They found that six honey samples from nine hives in the Campeche region contained soy pollen in addition to pollen from many wild plant species. The pollen came from crops near the bee colonies in several small apiaries.

Due to strict European regulations, rural farmers in the Mexican Yucatan face significant price cuts or outright rejection of their honey crop when their product contains pollen from GMO crops that are not for human consumption. The regional agricultural authorities, furthermore, seemed unaware that bees visited flowering soybeans to collect nectar and pollen.

 “As far as we could determine, every kind of GMO soybean grown in Campeche is approved for human consumption,” said Roubik. “But the importers sometimes still just say ‘forget it’ and do no further analysis to match GMO pollen grains with their source.”

... “We cautiously interpret these results as significant for elsewhere in Mexico where some five times the GMO soy grown in Campeche is found and beekeeping is alive and well, not to mention the rest of the world,” said Roubik. “Bee colonies act as extremely sensitive environmental indicators. Bees from a single colony may gather nectar and pollen resources from flowers in a 200-square-kilometer area. With an economy based on subsistence agriculture associated with honey production, the social implications of this shift in the status of honey are likely to be contentious and have profound implications for beekeeping in general.”....

Bees pollinated on a flower in Tula, Mexico, shot by AlejandroLinaresGarcia, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

EU set to approve new GM corn after Germany drops objection

Seed Daily via AFP: A new genetically modified crop, US firm Pioneer's TC1507 corn, is set for approval in Europe next week after Germany dropped its objections, several EU sources told AFP Wednesday. "Germany is moving from being against to abstaining" in a vote on the long-running controversy, said a source close to the dossier who asked not to be identified. A second source confirmed.

Ministers meeting in Brussels on Tuesday are to hand down a final decision on the cultivation of TC1507 corn after a European Court ruled late last year that the company's 2001 request for permission must be dealt with. But the 28-nation bloc is badly divided over GM crops, and the EU's complex voting arithmetic has been at the heart of a deadlock on a decision.

The European Union's general affairs ministers will decide next week using qualified majority voting -- which is weighted to take account of the bigger states. If there is no majority against due to one nation's abstention, then approval will be automatic, said the EU's Health Commissioner Tonio Borg on website Vieuws.

When the principle was last voted on in 2009, the heavyweights of Britain, France and Germany ended up cancelling each other out. Asked to allow GM cultivation in the EU, but to leave space for national and even territorial opt-outs on non-health or environmental grounds, Britain was one of six backers...

A withered corn field near Erftstadt, Germany, shot by Christian Nurtsch, Wikimedia Commons,  under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany license

Storms hit German insurers hard in 2013

Reuters: Summer floods and hailstorms will cost the German insurance industry almost 7 billion euros ($9.7 billion) for 2013, the biggest bill for damages the industry has faced in more than a decade, an industry report showed on Thursday.

German insurance trade body GDV said it expects weather-related catastrophes to intensify in the coming decades, with flood frequency doubling and storm-related damages increasing by half by 2100. "The accumulation of extreme weather of different types within a few months turned 2013 into an extraordinary year," said GDV head Alexander Erdland in a media release....

From drought to hurricanes, Grenada tackles climate change with German help

Christa Marshall in E&E News: After a sudden thunderstorm this fall, Paul Valdon sat in a line of cars for 45 minutes near a bridge over a river because of gushing water....  Valdon missed an important work meeting because of the flood. "It was so frustrating. This happens at this river several times a year," said Valdon, a project coordinator at SPECTO, an environmental advocacy group.

Valdon's group is planning to fortify the riverbank with boulders and clear a buildup of sediment and debris, which is contributing to the frequent flooding. It also is planning workshops to change the practices of local communities and farmers, who routinely toss logs and other matter into the river, causing it to become elevated beyond normal levels.

It is one of several initiatives funded by the Integrated Climate Change Adaptation Strategies (ICCAS) program -- a three-year, €5 million ($6.84 million) initiative through 2016 funded by the German government to address Grenada's climate threats from droughts to hurricanes.

The ICCAS program is not the first climate change project in this 133-square-mile country by any stretch. But it is unique for being Grenada-specific rather than a blip on a broader regional effort and for considering multiple topics across government agencies, said Dieter Rothenberger, head of program at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and leader of the ICCAS work.

What has been missing in the country at times is tangible results on the ground, so the team is developing a series of projects that will have permanent effects, said Rothenberger, who is working on a daily basis with the Grenada Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Forestry, Fisheries and Environment.

That level of government cooperation allows for much more detailed attention than typical regional projects, where a team might fly in for a few days and move on to another Caribbean island. Grenada was selected because it has played an active role in international climate negotiations, he said at a ministry interview here....

Downtown St. George in Grenada, shot by Boltique, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

The potential for successful climate predictions

GEOMAR, the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research-Kiel: Will there be rather warm or cold winters in Germany in the coming years? We may have a long way to go before reliable forecasts of this kind can be achieved. However, marine scientists, under the auspices of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, recently managed to successfully hindcast climate shifts in the Pacific. These shifts also have a profound effect on the average global surface air temperature of the Earth. The most recent shift in the 1990s is one of the reasons that the Earth's temperature has not risen further since 1998. The study, published in the online edition of Journal of Climate, shows the potential for long-term climate predictions.

What happened in the years 1976/77 and 1998/99 in the Pacific was so unusual that scientists spoke of abrupt climate changes. They referred to a sudden warming of the tropical Pacific in the mid-1970s and rapid cooling in the late 1990s. Both events turned the world's climate topsy-turvy and are clearly reflected in the average temperature of the Earth. Today we know that the cause is the interaction between ocean and atmosphere. Is it possible to successfully predict such climate shifts? This is the question that scientists, under the auspices of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, pursued. Using a coupled model of the ocean and the atmosphere, they were able to successfully replicate these events.

"The ocean plays a crucial role in our climate system, especially when it comes to fluctuations over several years or decades," explains Prof. Mojib Latif, co-author of the study. "The chances of correctly predicting such variations are much better than the weather for the next few weeks, because the climate is far less chaotic than the rapidly changing weather conditions," said Latif. This is due to the slow changes in ocean currents which affect climate parameters such as air temperature and precipitation. "The fluctuations of the currents bring order to the weather chaos".

The researchers used a climate model, a so-called coupled ocean-atmosphere model, which they forced with the observed wind data of the last decades. For the abrupt changes during the 1970s and 1990s they calculated predictions which began a few months prior to the beginning of the observed climate shifts. The average of all predictions for both abrupt changes shows good agreement with the observed climate development in the Pacific. "The winds change the ocean currents which in turn affect the climate. In our study, we were able to identify and realistically reproduce the key processes for the two abrupt climate shifts," says Prof. Latif. "We have taken a major step forward in terms of short-term climate forecasting, especially with regard to the development of global warming. However, we are still miles away from any reliable answers to the question whether the coming winter in Germany will be rather warm or cold”. Prof. Latif cautions against too much optimism regarding short-term regional climate predictions: “Since the reliability of those predictions is still at about 50%, you might as well flip a coin."

Observed and predicted temperature changes in the Pacific during the 90ies. Graphics: C. Kersten, GEOMAR.

Indian state launches adaptation center

Zee News: Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma today launched a 'Centre for Adaptation to Climate Change' in the state capital with an aim to providing a platform to engage the different government departments and civil societies towards addressing the issue of climate change.

Dedicating the centre to the people of Meghalaya, Mukul said, "I believe that that this centre can be a source of knowledge and data that will benefit not only Meghalaya but also its neighbouring North Eastern states and countries like Bangladesh."

The centre was launched in cooperation and technical support from the German Development Cooperation through the climate change adaptation programme in the North East Region.  The Chief Minister said the impact of climate change has hit the orange cultivation in Garo hills region of the state.

"We need to re-strategize our approach towards adapting to climate change," he said urging participation from cross sections of the society in ensuring sustainable development.

In his speech at the inaugural event, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Head of Division South Asia, Thomas Helfen said one billion US dollar has been projected for the North Eastern Region for sustainable development. ...

Umiam Lake is a reservoir located in the hills 15 km to the North of Shillong in the state of Meghalaya, India. Shot by Vikramjit Kakati, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Mosquito numbers rising as Germany warms up

Deutsche Welle: Thanks to mild winters and moist air, mosquitoes are thriving in Germany. And not just the native species. Scores of exotic mosquito types are now moving here and the unwanted visitors are bringing dangerous baggage.

More and more species of exotic mosquitoes are arriving in Germany and with them the amount of dangerous infectious agents is rising, such as bacteria or viruses. Many of the mosquitoes hitch a ride on tourists or business travellers around the world before arriving in Germany.

Although they tend to survive for only a limited time and die out during the cold winter, experts say the climate in Germany will get warmer and the winters will shorten, meaning their numbers are set to continue to increase.

"The average temperature in certain regions is relatively high, and it's also getting wetter," says Sven Klimpel from the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, a group of research institutes and natural history museums in Germany which conduct research into bio- and geosciences. "Those are ideal conditions for mosquitoes."

But it's not only the exotic pests causing scientists to worry. Native mosquitoes find the change in conditions equally appealing and are producing several generations of offspring each year...

Mosquito photo by Alvesgaspar, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Merkel urges greater flood protection as tours region

Space Daily via SPX: Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that Germany still had much to do in bolstering the country's flood defences as she toured a northern water-logged region battling historic river levels.

Merkel made her fourth trip to flooded zones in around a week, visiting Hitzacker in Lower Saxony whose 4,000 residents have been told to leave their homes despite an anti-flood barrier set up after devastating 2002 floods.

The defence system has prevented the swollen River Elbe gushing into the town and Merkel said it showed the protective measure was worth having but said "there remains a lot to do", pledging further steps. She earlier went to Lauenburg, 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Hamburg, where the town centre is covered by about 30 centimetres (a foot) of water.

The water level stabilised at around 9.5 metres (31 feet) overnight in the picturesque town of half-timbered houses but was still almost twice as high as normal.

Disastrous floods in Germany began to subside Wednesday after leaving at least 19 people dead in central Europe. While the River Elbe has begun to stabilise, thousands of volunteers are still working to shore up sodden dykes and some 10,000 soldiers are still helping in flooded regions....

The Elbe's high water mark in Dresden, shot by Coffins, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Europe floods: Hungary Danube set for record high

BBC News: Hungarians have been warned to prepare for their country's worst floods ever as the Danube is set to reach record levels this weekend. "We are facing the worst floods of all time," said PM Viktor Orban.

Europe's second-longest river is set to hit unprecedented levels in the capital Budapest in the next few days. A state of emergency has been declared, and thousands of volunteers have been working to reinforce the banks of the swelling river.

Water levels are set to reach 8.85m (29ft), some 25cm (10in) higher than the Danube's previous record high in 2006. Emergency workers have set up camps along the river as residents packed sandbags around their homes amid an atmosphere of concerned expectation, says the BBC's Nick Thorpe in Budapest.

Kristalina Georgieva, the EU Commissioner for International Co-operation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, tweeted: "Hungary well prepared for highest ever measured water levels on Danube. We are monitoring & ready to assist."...

High water in Linz, Germany, in February 2013, shot by Liberaler Humanist, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Germany struggles to hold back flood "catastrophe"

Channel News Asia: Thousands of emergency workers, troops and volunteers in Germany battled Sunday against central Europe's worst floods in over a decade, while the swelling Danube put Budapest on high alert. Rising flood waters in Germany have forced mass evacuations in what one lawmaker termed a "national catastrophe."

As Hungary braced for a deluge in its capital, bolstering sandbag barriers as the Danube is expected to reach historic levels, German rescuers focused on the eastern city of Magdeburg. Vast areas around the city were covered in a sea of brown water, sparked by recent torrential rains which have washed down the Elbe river system from the Czech Republic.

The water level in Magdeburg reached 7.45 metres (24 feet) in the morning, up from the usual level of around two metres and worse than massive floods that struck the region in 2002, local authorities said.

Despite frantic efforts to secure it, a dam broke on Sunday south of the city at the point where the Elbe meets the Saale tributary, the local crisis command said, urging the remaining 150 residents in the region to quickly seek high ground. Almost 3,000 residents were evacuated from Magdeburg's Rothensee district, where hundreds of army troops struggled to reinforce a dyke protecting a crucial electricity facility.

President Joachim Gauck on Sunday went on a tour of the flood-hit states of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, where in vast areas only roofs and tree tops stick out of the water and the only access is by boat or helicopter. "One cannot imagine how much remains to be dealt with," said Gauck in view of the massive clean-up, after joining a church service in the city of Halle.

So far the floods on the Elbe and Danube river systems have killed at least 18 people, including 10 in the Czech Republic....

A May 30 shot from Wertheim, Germany of the flooding then. By Xocolatl, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Floodwaters threaten central Europe

The Guardian (UK) via AP: Raging waters from three rivers poured into the old town of Passau in south-east Germany on Monday, one of the cities worst hit by flooding that has spread across a large area of central Europe. Rescuers used boats to transport residents from flooded parts of the city to dry land as officials warned that water levels – already the highest in 70 years – could rise further.

A spokesman for the city's crisis centre said much of Passau was inaccessible by foot and the electricity supply had been shut down as a precaution. "The situation is extremely dramatic," Herbert Zillinger told the Associated Press.

Water from the Danube, Inn and Ilz rivers rose above markers set in 1954, when the city suffered its worst flooding in living memory. Zillinger said levels would continue to rise throughout the day.

At least six people were reported to have died and seven were missing due to floods in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic following days of heavy rainfall. Czech authorities were working to erect further protective metal barriers along the Vltava river, which also flows through the capital of Prague.

The interim mayor, Tomas Hudecek, said no major evacuations were planned, but animals from a zoo located by the river had been taken to safety. Parts of the city's subway network had also been shut down because of flooding....

Marking the height of past floods in Passau, shot by Roger Wollstadt, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Jamaica among beneficiaries of Germany-funded climate adaptation program

Jamaica Observer: The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) and the German Financial Cooperation (KfW) have signed a programme geared towards reducing the risks of climate change on the Caribbean's coastal population.

The approximately six-year Ecosystem-Based Approaches for Climate Change Adaptation in Coastal Zones of Small Island Developing States in the Caribbean (EBACC) programme, which is slated to start later this year, will be implemented in Jamaica, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The main components of the programme are investments in sustainable improvements of coastal ecosystems, relevant for climate change adaptation, and knowledge management, project support and monitoring.

Under the first component, the programme aims to invest in measures related to protection and sustainable management, rehabilitation or substitution, and monitoring of coastal ecosystems in an effort to assist the participating countries to mitigate climate change-induced risks to livelihoods and development prospects.

The second component of the programme will assist the countries in the preparation and implementation of the local adaptation measures, monitoring of project goals and impacts, and the systematisation and dissemination of project experiences.

"These four participating countries were selected because the programme seeks to establish synergies with the Caribbean's Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPCR). However, mainly because of the limited financing, not all the participating Caribbean PPCR countries will be involved in EBACC, " said Dr Mark Bynoe, the centre's senior economist and head of the programme development and management….

The Jamaican coat of arms

Philippines and Germany ink agreement on $42.2 million climate change projects

GMA News: The Federal Republic of Germany and the Philippines toughened their joint stance against climate change Monday with the signing of a $42.2-million implementation agreement on projects related to the weather phenomenon.

The agreement called for technical and financial support by the German Development Cooperation-Deutsche Gesellshaft fur Internationale Zusammennarbeit (GIZ), which is responsible for several projects and programs in the country designed to secure natural resources as a basis for livelihood generation, enhancement of employment opportunities and in renewable energy.

During a briefing at the International Hotel in Makati City, presidential assistant for climate change Elisea G. Gozun said the "partnership has already identified programs that will be covered under this initiative."

Secretary Mary Ann Lucille Sering, vice chair of the Climate Change Commission, said that the GIZ is providing the needed support for local initiatives designed to help communities adapt to the impacts of climate change....

The spillway of the Pantabangan Dam in the Philippines, shot by Susan Corpuz, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Rain drives Germans to flee, shops to discount early

Reuters: While German retailers hang out their summer discounts early, the wet summer is providing a boost for the country's travel firms as people turn to foreign climes for sunshine.

Tour operator Alltours said it has laid on an extra five charter planes from Duesseldorf to the Canary Islands and Majorca in response to last-minute demand from Germans, who spend more than any other nation on foreign holidays.

"The prospect of a sunny summer in Germany is fading," Alltours chief executive Willi Verhuven said on Tuesday. "That is the only way to explain why travel agents have been so busy these last few weeks." According to Germany's national weather office, there has been more rain and less sunshine than in an average summer.

Since the start of June, Germans have seen 65 percent of the rain and only 40 percent of the sunshine normally seen in June, July and August together.

Rewe - which offers package holidays under the ITS, Jahn und Tjaereborg brands - and TUI Germany, part of London-listed TUI Travel, also said Germans were heading for places such as Spain, Turkey and the Maldives to escape the miserable weather. "Our last minute team is seeing a jump in bookings," said a spokeswoman. "It's not discounted holidays either, but regular products from our catalogues."...

A heavy rain in Germany, shot by Darkone, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license

German firm to help the Philippines in climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction

Inquirer News (Philippines): German experts would be assisting the Housing Land Use and Regulatory Board (HLURB) in integrating climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction planning instruments into the Comprehensive Land Use Plans (CLUP) of local government units (LGUs).

HLURB signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with German firm Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zeusammenarbeit (GIZ). “The MOA involves integrating climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction planning instruments into CLUPs in the form of climate proofing and disaster risk mapping,” HLURB Chairman Vice President Jejomar Binay said in a statement Thursday.

Binay also said the MOA called for GIZ to help the HLURB in enhancing CLUP guidebooks by including Forest Land Use and Coastal Land Use Planning as well as the Model Zone Ordinance and the Plan Review Parameters and Guidelines.

“The partnership with GIZ was a direct response by the HLURB Board to the policies stated under the Climate Change Act of 2009,” said Binay. “This law seeks to systematically integrate the concept of climate change in various phases of policy formulation, development plans, poverty reduction strategies and other development tools and techniques by all agencies of the government,” Binay added...

German Red Cross helps Vietnam with integrated disaster risk reduction

Prevention Web via the German Red Cross: Thanks to a contribution made by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, the German Red Cross in close cooperation with the Vietnam National Red Cross (VNRC) is implementing a DRR project in the Hue province of Vietnam between June 2011 and December 2012.

Vietnam is one of the most disaster prone countries of Asia because of its geographic situation and long coastline exposed to typhoons. Hit time after time by floods as well as droughts, Vietnam is ranked 14th on the list of priority countries of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR).

Because of its exposed coastal location, the country is one of those most severely affected by climate change. Some climate trends are already felt in Vietnam nowadays, such as a rise in average temperatures, lower annual precipitations, increased rainfall during the autumn months and more frequent extreme weather conditions such as heat waves, cold spells and up to 8 or 10 annual typhoons, with a rising trend.

The project is implemented in close consultation with local authorities and will generate close synergies with other DRR projects. The main aim of the project is to contribute towards the reduction of impact of natural disasters in Vietnam and an estimated total of almost 48.000 people living in six counties of the Hue Province will benefit from improved DRR mechanisms....

Two farmers and a rice field in Hue Province, Vietnam, shot by Piwaie at fr.wikipedia, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 1.0 Generic license