The “Atlas of the Human Planet 2020 – Open Geoinformation for Research, Policy and Action” collects contributions from more than 100 users of the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) data sets including decision-makers, researchers and practitioners.

Among the projects financed under the Knowledge Network Partnerships - 2020 call of DG ECHO, the 18 months-long project ROADMAP (EuRopean ObservAtory on Disaster risk and crisis MAnagement best Practices) was launched on 18 January 2021.

The report, which became available in February 2021, provides an assessment of climate change-related risk management and presents a review of the building blocks of disaster risk financing.

The European Commission, together with Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and in close collaboration with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), launched in February 2021 the GWIS country profile, which is a new tool for providing information on the geographic distribution of wildfires, burnt areas and emissions, and assessing wildfire regimes and impacts at country and sub-country level for all continents worldwide.

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) has been working on monitoring the Covid-19 pandemic since the very beginning. On 10 February 2021, the new Covid-19 scenario analysis toolbox was presented to the Executive Steering Committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Through this toolbox the user is now able to make his own analysis.

This report, online since 23 February 2021, is already the second in this series of reports, the preparation of which is a key activity of the Commission’s Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Centre, linking national, regional and global efforts to acquire better risk governance structure through evidences, science and knowledge management. This latest version is an outcome of collaboration of 50 scientists from 14 separate expert teams.

The European Commission adopted its new EU strategy on adaptation to climate change on 24 February 2021. The new strategy sets out how the European Union can adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change and become climate-resilient by 2050.

The “Earth Observation Toolkit for Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements” was launched on 25 February 2021. The Toolkit is the result of a collaborative effort between the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) - Earth Observations for Sustainable Development Goals (EO4SDG) Initiative, UN-Habitat and many other international collaborators, to advance the New Urban Agenda, and Sustainable Development Goal 11 to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”.

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the European External Action Service launched, on 4 March 2021, the “Supporting wildfire management in the Amazon and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region” project, an initiative intended to enhance the capabilities in the Amazon and LAC region on wildfire early warning and monitoring.

From 8 to 10 March 2021 the regional tsunami exercise NEAMWave21 took place in the Euro-Mediterranean region. The European Commission participated, with the JRC and the EU’s Tsunami Last Mile 2 project partners from Malta, as well as with DG ECHO, which simulated the activation of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM).

The Commission proposed to strengthen the EU's global humanitarian impact in order to meet the substantially rising humanitarian needs exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A series of virtual events are scheduled within CERIS, the Community of European Research and Innovation for Security, in the five Thematic Areas of the Security Research programme. CERIS is the continuation of the Community of Users, which DG HOME has been forming and animating since 2014, to disseminate research outputs and define research programming and capacity building programs.

The “Science for Disaster Risk Management 2020: acting today, protecting tomorrow”, the second of it series, has been produced with the collaboration of more than 300 experts in disaster risk management and on 23 March will be launched with a virtual event.
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Would you like to hear the story and achievements of EU MODEX/MODTTX in its first 10 years? Do not miss this dynamic 90 minute show that will be broadcasted on 27 March at 19.00 CET ! Journalist Karin Helmstaedt will moderate this live show including guest appearances from EU Commissioner Janez Lenarčič, Portugese Minister of Internal Administration Eduardo Cabrita, the first Desk Officer of EU MODEX Anja Brammann, and many more.