Water and women were common themes among the blog’s most popular posts last month.

On the aquatic front, USAID launched a new water and conflict toolkit, guest contributor Cameron Harrington took on the concept of impending “water wars,” and Keith Schneider introduced the “Choke Point: India” project.

Last month brought a slew of major stories, including guest contributor François Gemenne’s take on a new direction for climate change and conflict research, a breakdown of climate change in the U.S. Quadrennial Defense Review, and USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah speaking at the Wilson Center about public-private partnerships. Our sister program, the China Environment Forum, also had a great showing with a new video featurette, infographic, and report launch on the potential of renewable energy.

The Wilson Center’s Urban Sustainability Laboratory, in partnership with USAID, International Housing Coalition, World Bank, and Cities Alliance, is pleased to announce the 5th Annual Urban Poverty Paper Competition for graduate students. The competition calls on students currently enrolled in a Master’s or PhD program to submit paper abstracts on topics relating to urban poverty in the developing world.

“Population was long perceived as mainly an issue in terms of people’s resource appetites: more people means more demand for stuff,” said The New York Times’ Andrew Revkin in an interview last month. “But in vulnerable places it actually means a bigger exposure to hazard.”

There are lots of questions for 2014. After another round of devastating natural disasters, is this the year we pin down a definition of the much-ballyhooed concept of resilience? What about “women’s empowerment?” In Africa, will there be signs of accelerating demographic transitions? Will China solve its water-energy choke point? And can other countries too balance natural resource extraction and climate change adaptation with equitable development?

In what’s becoming a trend, another set of devastating natural disasters made headlines in 2013. Typhoon Haiyan enveloped the Philippines in November while the world watched online, and less publicized but just as traumatic, flash flooding in India this summer killed thousands of pilgrims making their way up Himalayan river valleys.

Rates of species extinction are so high that some scientists have categorized the current era as Earth’s sixth mass extinction event. In last month’s most popular post, Kathleen Mogelgaard explains that a new study indicates, of all the human factors related to this biodiversity loss, population growth and density may be the strongest. Popular new additions also include a review of former Wilson Center Fellow Jeff Colgan’s Petro-Aggression; the launch of research on urbanization, demography, and climate change adaptation; the UN Foundation’s Alaka Basu on Friday Podcasts talking about re-thinking women’s empowerment; and a brief from the China Environment Forum on China’s distant water fishing fleets.

“We are coming up with solutions. That’s the story here – the resilience, not the vulnerability,” Saleemul Huq told us last month. Jacob Glass’s interview with Huq – later transcribed in full – was part of a look at Bangladesh’s budding aquaculture sector and one of the most popular new articles last month. Joining it were other newcomers, on storytelling and influencing policy; the annual Society of Environmental Journalists conference; Africa’s nexus of demography, environment, and security challenges; and 10 recommendations for the population, health, and environment (PHE) community from the BALANCED Project, as they finish five years of global programming.