Common flood maps have been criticized for outdated data, limited spatial coverage, and inaccuracy. This study evaluates the accuracy of four official flood maps, including FEMA's 100-year flood zone, Fathom's 100-year and 500-year maps, and FDEM evacuation zones during the 2024 Hurricane Helene in Pinellas County, Florida. High-resolution, camera-based water level monitoring provided real-time ground-truth flood data for validation. Land use and population grids were integrated to estimate affected area and exposure. FEMA's flood maps showed the best recall but overestimated particularly inland and vulnerable communities. The FDEM evacuation map demonstrated higher precision and closely aligned with observed flood patterns. However, Fathom's flood maps consistently underestimated coastal flooding. Both FEMA and FDEM maps revealed significant discrepancies in accuracy across disadvantaged communities. This raises concerns over limitations of current official flood maps and the need for localized flood modeling approaches. 

Read the full article, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2025.105912

The 2022 global outbreak of monkeypox (mpox) exhibited unprecedented characteristics and transmission dynamics that diverged from historical outbreaks of the disease. This study presents the first county-level spatial analysis of the 2022 mpox outbreak across five U.S. states. The study suggest a higher mpox rate is associated with denser population, a higher ratio of male same-sex couples, and larger Asian and Black populations.

Read the full article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2025.2474445

This study analyzes the spatial patterns of building damage in Hurricane Ian in 2022 and investigates the socio-economic disparities in building damage. Specifically, this study employs NASA’s Damage Proxy Map to analyze spatial patterns of building damage in the hurricane. It uses statistical analysis to assess the relationships between building damage and various hurricane intensity, building conditions, and socio-economic variables at the building and census tract levels. 

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https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16203792

This study quantitatively examines the effects of Hurricane Ian on urban vegetation in Fort Myers, Florida, using remote sensing data. We analyzed pre- and post-hurricane vegetation indices, including NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), ARVI (Atmospherically Resistant Vegetation Index), and SAVI (Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index). The study area experienced a 63.75% reduction in vegetation cover, from 67.10 km2 before Hurricane Ian to 24.325 km2 after.  Support Vector Machine classification achieved 89% accuracy (Kappa = 0.85) for pre-hurricane and 87% (Kappa = 0.83) for post-hurricane vegetation mapping.

Read the full article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pce.2024.103750

This review examines its impacts on groundwater droughts, flood risks, urban heat islands, agriculture, food security, and public health. The study concludes by outlining diverse adaptation and mitigation strategies and future research opportunities tailored to specific challenges.

Read the full article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsd.2024.101115

Water, a vital resource in Bangladesh, faces critical challenges in Khulna due to escalating demand driven by population growth, urbanization, and various activities like industry and agriculture. This study, focusing on Khulna City, aimed to assess the current water crisis and identify vulnerable districts. The identification of vulnerable zones utilized a weighted index technique. The demand for water is expected to continue until 2050. Findings revealed that Khulna City does not adequately ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, which suggests a negative sign for achieving SDG 6.

Read the full article: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/385517543_CHALLENGES_OF_THE_WATER_CRISIS_IN_KHULNA_CITY_AND_PROSPECTS_FOR_ACHIEVING_SDGs

Floods in India are extremely frequent owing to their geographical position. Recently, the formation of Cyclone Yaas over the Bay of Bengal struck the Indian state of Odisha, causing severe devastation to a larger extent. This study aimed at developing a methodology for rapid mapping of potential flood-affected areas exploiting Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar data through the usage of ground range detected images to mitigate the extent of flood damage and make a quick response.

Read the full article: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362690993_Delineation_of_Flooded_Areas_using_Remote_Sensing_Technology

Park is an important feature of urban area that not only provides better living environment in urban life but also helps to maintain ecological balance. This study aims to investigate the spatial distribution of existing parks as well as identify served, unserved and over served area of these parks of Khulna City. A reconnaissance survey was done to find out the location of the parks, then analysis was done by GIS (Network analysis tool). It was found that 20 wards have no access to parks. Then comparing with standards, it was evident that grossly parks are adequate for Khulna City but in the real life scenario, they are not distributed properly over the area.

Read the full article: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347517615_Assessing_the_Spatial_Distribution_of_Parks_in_Khulna_City