Socio-environmental systems are increasingly exposed to interacting environmental, climatic and societal pressures, while capacities to anticipate, respond to and transform in the face of these pressures remain highly uneven across territories. Rethinking resilience therefore requires moving beyond isolated assessments of hazards and vulnerability towards approaches that consider the interconnected dimensions of exposure, vulnerability and resilience, and their implications for action and transformation.
This session brings together research from the Belmont Forum Resilience Collaborative Research Action (CRA), "Vulnerability and Resilience Management for Socio-Environmental Systems in Exposed Territories". The seven Resilience projects engage with diverse hazards, territories and socio-environmental contexts, including floods and droughts, wildfires, coastal hazards, climate-related risks, ecosystem degradation and changing conditions of habitability. Across these contexts, they combine natural and social sciences with participatory and transdisciplinary approaches to explore how resilience is understood, assessed and strengthened.
The session will focus on cross-cutting questions emerging across this research portfolio: How are vulnerability, exposure and resilience conceptualised and assessed across different contexts? How can social, environmental and institutional dimensions be better integrated? How do local knowledge, lived experience and scientific knowledge contribute to understanding and managing risk? Under what conditions can resilience approaches support equitable adaptation and transformative pathways?
Building on the inherently interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary character of the Belmont Forum, the session will foster dialogue across disciplines, territories and knowledge communities. We particularly welcome contributions that connect environmental and social sciences, integrate different knowledge systems, engage with societal partners, and address vulnerability, exposure, resilience, governance, decision-making, adaptation and transformation.
Co-organised with the leading funding agencies ANR (France) and NSTC (Chinese Taipei), we welcome contributions beyond the Belmont Forum Resilience CRA that engage with the session's cross-cutting themes.