Despite significant efforts to reduce the impact of natural disasters, global disaster losses (in absolute numbers) have substantially increased in recent decades.
In light of the projected rise of risk in many regions, due to both the effects of climate change and augmented exposure and vulnerability in risk prone areas, an improved understanding of the fundamental causes of disasters is key to effective disaster risk reduction; to improve the basis for integrated risk management and to support the rebuilding of impacted areas in a forward-oriented way.
The interaction of key metrics such as hazard, exposure and vulnerability defining the risk must be better understood than is presently the case. This applies also to the effectiveness of risk mitigation strategies implemented before, during and after a disaster occurred to improve resilience. Event-centered research based on a multi-disciplinary approach is particularly suitable to this objective, in terms of learning from disasters; i.e. understanding the complex interactions between the natural hazard, the natural and the built environment (particularly as far as technical installations and infrastructures are concerned) as well as the societal institutions and their capacities to cope with the event.
Event-focused studies can also be a powerful vehicle for exploring future trends in exposure growth, vulnerability, and the impact of climate change on hazard frequency and severity. Disaster forensics which include a prospective or forward-looking element, using scenario-type approaches, have significant potential for motivating action and policy insight.
We welcome submissions on event-centered research aiming to learn from disasters for improving risk management and adaptation to changing risk.
We are interested in contributions covering some of the following topics: geophysical, atmospheric and hydrological processes, technological, ecological, sociological and economic consequences, preparedness, emergency response, disaster relief and rehabilitation, attribution of current extremes to climate change, and the use of prospective scenarios in the field.
Particularly, methodological developments for the monitoring and structured documentation of natural hazard events as well as approaches for their rapid assessment are within the scope of this session. Methodological developments in relation to assessing future trends and linking disaster and climate forensics (attribution) are also desirable.
Abstracts are sought from people involved in either one of, or both the theoretical and practical aspects of the above mentioned or related topics.