Disaster Risk (IRDR)

Working Groups

To help meet its research objectives, IRDR has established ad hoc working groups to focus on different aspects of disaster risk reduction. The working groups bring together diverse disciplines and formulate new methods to address the shortcomings of current studies on natural hazards. This involves conceptualizing completely new approaches to disaster risk reduction that extend outside the bounds of any one field of study, as well as promoting innovative research in line with the working groups' objectives.

Forensic Investigations of Disasters

The Forensic Investigations of Disasters (FORIN) Working Group has proposed an approach to studying natural disasters that aims to uncover the root causes of the disasters through in-depth investigations that go beyond the typical reports and case studies conducted after disasters. Thoroughly analysing cases, including both success stories and failures, will help build an understanding of how natural hazards do – or do not – become disasters. The Working Group has identified a diverse range of objectives:

• Policy – Conduct analyses with inputs from multiple disciplines, stakeholders, and policy makers in order to guide policy and encourage coherence across all key disciplines.
• Management – Focus attention on the link between research findings and improved policy formulation and application in practice, and develop and maintain a bank of high-quality case studies publicly available through the IRDR website.
• Scientific research – Advance methodological diversity and implement science-based results, and build a strong interdisciplinary capacity of young researchers.
• Development – Substantiate that generic causes have local manifestations, promote a 'learning culture' among all stakeholders, and foster wider dialogue between analytical researchers and implementing practitioners, building a common discourse in the process.
• Disaster risk reduction – Promote sustainable risk management and risk reduction through science-based research, relate the research to the Hyogo Framework, provide wider emphasis on reducing human consequences, and develop case studies that illustrate 'risk-drivers'.

In its initial phase, the FORIN Working Group has been developing a framework to guide investigations across regions and hazards. This framework is intended to act as a standardized but flexible template for conducting such investigations. The document is available for download here.

The Co-Chairs of the FORIN Working Group are Ian Burton (Canada) and Anthony Oliver-Smith (USA). They may be contacted at ian.burton@ec.gc.ca and aros@ufl.edu respectively.

Risk Interpretation and Action

The focus of the Risk Interpretation and Action (RIA) Working Group is on the question of how people – both decision-makers and ordinary citizens – make decisions, individually and collectively, in the face of risk. There are several broad fields of work that are relevant here, but many of these have progressed somewhat independently of each other, typically within the framework of single academic disciplines. This has led to a number of discontinuities in how the issue of risk reduction is conceptualized, as well as gaps in the areas where research activity (and funding) is presently concentrated. Among these gaps might be:

• Challenges in generalizing from one type of hazard to another, or to combinations of hazards
• Challenges in generalizing across cultures

• A greater emphasis on risk forecasting than on communication
• Incomplete understanding of why and when local citizens' evaluations of risks may appear to diverge from scientific forecasts
• Incomplete understanding of how people's decisions may appear to diverge from their evaluations of such risks
• Within traditional research on decision-making, an emphasis on choice between sets of prospects of known expected value, as distinct from contexts where information is acquired through experience
• Within policy/planning, an emphasis on protection or restoration of existing infrastructure, rather than redesign for greater resilience or prevention

The RIA Working Group does not seek to conduct primary research on these questions, but rather have an influence on the priorities adopted by funding agencies, and how research findings are sought and used by policy-makers. The Group has held two workshops to date, and is currently producing a concise and authoritative position paper that will specify the kind of research that needs to be conducted and funded. The document is available for download here.

The Co-Chairs of the RIA Working Group are Richard Eiser (UK) and David Johnston. They may be contacted at j.r.eiser@sheffield.ac.uk and david.johnston@gns.cri.nz respectively.

Disaster Loss Data

The Disaster Loss Data (DATA) Working Group is to study issues related to the collection, storage and dissemination of disaster loss data. When human, monetary, or environmental losses occur as a result of a disaster, extensive loss data are collected and stored, but the thoroughness and accuracy of the data varies from country to country and even among local entities. Government agencies, private companies, and other organizations may collect and manage data related to their own areas of interest using their own standards and procedures, without significant collaboration with other groups. This results in gaps, inconsistent overlaps, and biases that ultimately affect the quality of research conducted and policies made based on the data.

The Working Group has identified needs for:

• Education of users regarding data biases and issues of social loss data.
• Comparable and accessible human disaster loss data to support research and policy.
• Identification of existing loss database projects (from national to regional to global, from single-peril to multi-peril, and from single-sector-based to all-sector-based).
• Increased downscaling of loss data to sub-national geographies for policy makers.
• Definition of a "loss" and creation of a methodology for assessing it.

To meet these needs, the Working Group intends to establish an overall framework for disaster loss data for all providers, establish nodes and networks for databases, conduct sensitivity testing among existing databases, and create mechanisms for archiving loss data.

The Co-Chairs of the Disaster Loss Data Working Group are Susan Cutter (USA) and Angelika Wirtz (Germany). They may be contacted at: scutter@mailbox.sc.edu and awirtz@munichre.com respectively.

Assessment of Integrated Research on Disaster Risk

The Assessment of Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (AIRDR) project will undertake the first systematic and critical global assessment of research on disaster risk. The goals of AIRDR are to provide a baseline of the current state of the science in integrated research on disaster risk to measure effectiveness of multiple programmes, use it to identify and support longer-term science agenda for the research community and funding entities, and to provide a firm scientific basis for support of policy and practice.

The Co-Chairs of the Assessment of Integrated Research on Disaster Risk Working Group are Susan Cutter (USA) and Allan Lavell (Costa Rica). They may be contacted at: scutter@mailbox.sc.edu and allan_lavell@yahoo.com respectively.