People all over the world are rushing to cities, forming increasingly densely populated regions. As a result, natural hazards are also threatening more and more people - the risk of being affected has been increasing worldwide for decades. A disaster is rarely an isolated incident: A flood can cause a landslide or an earthquake can cut off the power and water supply, meaning situations can be exacerbated for those affected as well as task forces. The possible implications of such escalation chains are illustrated by the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe in 2011, in which an earthquake triggered a tsunami disaster on the Japanese coast, subsequently damaging the nuclear power plant.

Urban agglomerations are growing worldwide and new megalopolises are emerging. The dense settlement structures with millions of people are particularly vulnerable to natural hazards. In the RIESGOS project (Spanish for "risks"), the Earth Observation Center (EOC) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) investigates natural hazards and their interactions using the Andean region as an example.

The first annual meeting of the RIESGOS project took place from October 16 to 17, 2018. For almost a year, the RIESGOS team has been working on the research and development of scientific methods to better understand complex interactions in multi-risk analysis and prevent future natural disasters.

Under the leadership of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), a German consortium is planning a drone-assisted method for exploring uranium mining legacies in Central Asia in cooperation with partner authorities from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

On 8 May 2019, the kick-off meeting of the German partners for the TRABBIO funding project took place at REW Regenis in Quakenbrück.

The CLIENT II project IntenKS officially started on the 11th of march 2019.

Together, German and South African researchers are studying how sustainable agriculture can be achieved in the South Cape. Secretary of State Thomas Rachel visited a local wine-growing establishment which tests innovative methods in practice.

Researchers from the IEEM - Institute of Environmental Engineering and Management - at Witten/Herdecke University (UW/H) are working on the conservation of freshwater and land resources in Vietnam in a new joint project. Together with German and Vietnamese partners, they are developing strategies and technology in the Mekong Delta. The interdisciplinary German-Vietnamese project "Vietnam Water Technologies" (ViWaT) is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (FMER).

In August and September 2018, all partners involved in the Lin4Future project met for a joint Sino-German team meeting. They included a researcher and a forestry expert from the Chair of Forest Growth of the University of Freiburg, a software developer from GISCON Systems, forest scientists from the Chinese Academy of Forestry, and the director and staff from the Zhongtiaoshan State-Owned Forest Bureau.

How wastewater in China can be processed in a more resource-efficient manner is the subject of a new German-Chinese research project. Among other things, topics include how phosphorus can be extracted from wastewater as well as new processes that purify water with higher energy efficiency. The "PIRAT-Systems" project is coordinated by Professor Heidrun Steinmetz. She is head of the Department of Resource Efficient Wastewater Technology at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern (TUK). Steinmetz's team will be working with project partners in Germany to adapt tried-and-tested technologies to the Chinese market. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (FMER) is funding the project for three years with three million euros.