Why earthquakes cause disasters and how to counteract it?

Scientific discoveries on earthquake occurrences integrated into hazard, vulnerability and exposure studies help in disaster risk assessment and its understanding. Research on the lithosphere dynamics, extreme seismic occurrences, and earthquake forecasting as well as seismic hazards assessments and early warning have significantly advanced during the last decades. Numerical earthquake simulations coupled with a seismic hazard analysis provide a better assessment of potential ground shaking due to future large earthquakes. Hazard analysis, modeling, and forecasting help in development of preventive measures aimed to reduce impacts of extreme events. Meanwhile, we cannot counteract disasters without the nexus between the scientific knowledge on seismic hazards, preparedness to large earthquakes and public awareness about disaster risks. Integrating natural, engineering, social and behavioral sciences and practices with policymaking should significantly improve measures to reduce disaster risks. To this end, a fundamental change in scientific approaches to disaster risk reduction is needed by shifting the current emphasis on individual hazard assessment (e.g., seismic hazard assessment only), which is dominant in the geoscientific community, to a transdisciplinary system analysis with action-oriented research on disaster risk co-produced with multiple stakeholders. This will allow for acquisition of policy-relevant knowledge and its immediate application to evidence-based policy and decisionmaking for risk reduction.