Typical landscape of the north coast of São Paulo state:GADRI
ACTIONS
Winter 2023
Volume 20— Number 1

Landslides in Vila do Sahy village, São Sebastião
municipality in February 2023 (Source: Tiago Queiroz/
Estadão Conteúdo)1

Dear Members,Contents

Greetings!
This edition of the newsletter covers various activities.
Prof. Masato Kobiyama, Hydraulic Research Institute, Federal
University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil shares a detailed reporton the largest 24-hour rainfall event ever recorded in Brazil in
February 2023 which resulted, sadly, in nearly 60 deaths. The
report covers the disaster area, characteristics triggering thetragedy, rainfall amount and intensity and much more
information. While climate change remains a usual culprit forsuch disasters, our attention is also driven to mismanagement insociety, economical and unstable local geology that vulnerable
communities are forced to live in.

• Disaster Report—The largest 24hour rainfall event ever recorded in
Brazil• GADRI Lecture Series• Dr. Kaushal Keraminiyage,
University of Salford, UK• Prof. Daniel Aldrich,Northeastern University, Boston,
MA, USA• Dr. Subir Sen, Indian Institute ofTechnology Roorkee, India• Dr. Caroline Gevaert, Universityof Twente, Netherlands

From NCDR, Prof. Wei-Sen Li, Secretary-General, shared abrief report on the flagship International Training Workshop on
Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) for Raising
Youth Leadership. This year’s international training workshop
was held in Hualien, Eastern Chinese Taipei from 25 to 28
August 2023.
Under the GADRI Lecture Series, GADRI Secretariat organized
six lectures by visiting professors: Dr. Kaushal Keraminiyage,
University of Salford, UK; Prof. Daniel Aldrich, Global Resilience
Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; Dr. SubirSen, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian
Institute of Technology Roorkee, India; Dr. Caroline Gevaert,
Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation(ITC), University of Twente, Netherlands; Prof. Charles
Scawthorn, Visiting Researchers, University of California,
Berkeley, USA; and Prof. Khalid Mosalam, PEER, USA.
GADRI Secretariat also welcomed new members among whichis from the health sector Prof. Sachiko Kanbara and her teamfrom the Kobe City of College of Nursing, Disaster Nursing and
Global Nursing Section, Kobe City University of Nursing.

• Prof. Charles Scawthorn,
University of California, Berkeley,
USA• Prof. Khalid Mosalam, PEER,
University of California, Berkeley,
USA• New Member• Kobe City University of Nursing• PLANDES, University of thePhilippines, Diliman.
• Research and Innovation
Portfolio , RMIT University
Melbourne, Australia• Rabdan Academy, Abu Dhabi• National Crisisonomy Institute,
Chungbuk National University,
Korea• Member Associate• AFPCNT Secretariat, France

We hope you will enjoy the newsletter. Do not hesitate to share
any news items that you would like us to share with the GADRI
community.
We wish you all a very Happy Christmas and best of luck,happiness, peace and joy during the New Year.
Hirokazu Tatano and Everyone at the GADRI Secretariat

Photos are from the articles in the newsletter. © Copyright 2023 GADRI Secretariat.
All materials provided are subject to copyright permission. GADRI Actions is designed, formatted and edited by
Hirokazu Tatano and Wilma James.
2Disaster news from Brazil

Heavy Rainfalls in February 2023
Prof. Masato Kobiyama, Hydraulic Research InstituteFederal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
The largest 24-hour rainfall event ever recorded in Brazil killed 65 people along thenorth coast of São Paulo state during the Carnival season.
1. Introduction

was changed to 534.4 mm on March 20th,
2022 in Petrópolis municipality, Rio deJaneiro state.

Brazil is a vast country with a wide variety
of climates. Although there exist some semi-arid areas, annual rainfall in the country isvery high overall. Due to the frequent
occurrence of hydrological disasters,
hydrometeorological observations havebeen carried out at the national level for along period of time. Until recently, thelargest 24-hour rainfall ever recorded in the
country was 404.8 mm measured in
Florianopolis municipality, southern Brazil,
on November 15th, 1991. This largest value

However just under a year later, themaximum was changed again. A heavy rain
event that reached 682 mm in 24 hours on
February 5th-6th, 2023 caused a disasterwith 65 dead, 1815 homeless, and 2251
temporarily-displaced people along thenorth coast region of São Paulo state(Figure 1).

Figure 1 – Locality of the north coast region of São Paulo state and its constituent municipalities. Two
municipalities drawn with diagonal lines are those that have lost human lives in the disaster. Note that
normally Guarujá is not a part of this region.

3

2. Disaster Area

The north coast region of São Paulo state ismade up of the municipalities of Ubatuba,
Caraguatatuba, Ilhabela, São Sebastião
and Bertioga (Figure 1). It is the region thatborders Rio de Janeiro state. And that iswhere the best beaches in the state arelocated: many are breathtaking. Figure 2(a)shows one typical scene of this place where
there are few plane places between the sea
and the steep hillslopes covered by the
Atlantic Forest. Some characteristics of thecomponent municipalities are described inTable 1.

(b)

Figure 2 – Typical landscape of the north coast of São Paulo state: (a) Photo ofsteep hillslope with few beaches; and (b) 3D-image of São Sebastião municipality
region with Vila do Sahy village.

Table 1 – Characteristics of the municipalities of the north coast region ofSão Paulo.
Area (km2)

Population (2021)

HDI (2013)

Ubatuba

708.105

92,8190.751

Caraguatatuba

484.947

125,194

0.838

Ilhabeta

346.389

36,1940.756

São Sebastião

402.395

91,637

0.772

Bertioga

490.148

66,1540.730

Guarujá*142.589

320,459

0.751

Municipality

Obs.: * The municipality of Guarujá is not considered a part of the northcoast region.

4

Souza et al. (2018) demonstrated that aslope distribution of the north coast is
20.33% (< 2%), 3.29% (2-5%), 19.14% (515%), 42.57% (15-30%) and 14.68% (>30%). Their report on a slope distributionof the region clearly indicates that there
are very few flat or safe areas in thisregion. At such flat or safe areas, wealthy
hotels and exclusive residential areas havebeen constructed. On the other hand,though many of the hillslopes that occupy
most of the region are covered with
Atlantic Forest which is legally protected,
some of them are illegally occupied by a
lot of houses.

The Atlantic forest is especially prone tolandslides because the soil layer is not so
deep and the rocks commonly havefractures. The region, at the same time,encompasses most of the larger Brazilian
cities and tourist centers, where landslides
disasters have been concentrated inrecentyears.
Figure3showsmunicipalities with records of deaths due
to landslides during the period 1988 to
March 2011 and locations of large
disasters with debris flows during theperiod 1900-2014. Most of them arelocated in the Atlantic Forest region(Brazilian coastal region).

(a)

(b)

Figure 3 – Sediment-related disasters’
distribution in Brazil: (a) Municipalities
with records of deaths due to landslides
during the period 1988 to March 2011
(Source: Carvalho and Galvão, 2016);(b) Locations of large disasters with5debris flows in Brazil during the period
1900-2014 (Source: Kobiyama et al.,2019)

On the coast of São Paulo, the Serra do Mar
is predominantly characterized by an
escarpment, a kind of huge step between the
coastal plain and the plateau, clearly
demonstrating a mountain environment.
Especially on the north coast, as the case of
São Sebastião, the Serra do Mar practicallycollapses onto the seafront, which makes thecoastal area very narrow. This characteristic
could be decisive for this tragedy. There is
nowhere to run for evacuation. The lower
region easily receives the sediments that
violently descend from the steep hillslopes(Figure 4).

Figure 4 – Mud and debris coveringresidents’ area in São Sebastião
municipality in February 2023 (Source:
São Sebsatião City Hall)With the construction of theBrazil's Route BR-101 between
Bertioga and São Sebastião
municipalities (Figure 1), the local
communities living just near thesea were displaced by force, andthe beaches were occupied byclosed subdivisions (an illegal
urban plan at that time) aimed at
the implementation of summer
houses for the very high-income
population. The poor population, whether
former local communities or those who cameto work for construction, had to occupy thefoothills of the mountains, the areas
geologically formed by the accumulation ofsoil and rocks caused by landslides.
Therefore, such areas could be affected by

Figure 5 – Typical locality of simple houses
just beside hillslopes in São Sebastião in
February 2023 (Source: Amanda Perobelli/
Reuters)

Here it is necessary to say that above- ecosystem, and the resources derived frommentioned constructions are not about this economy are crucial, including indemonizing
touristsorhigh-income supporting public policy.
businesses. Cities are made up of this diverse

63. Rainfall characteristics triggering the tragedy

There was a forecast of a rainfall quantity ofaround 200 mm between February 18th
(Saturday) and 19th (Sunday), 2023.
Though the rainfall of 200 mm per 24 hours
was already high, the actual one was evenmuch higher. On February 18th, the mostintense cold front during the last 54 years
arrived from the south of the continent.
There was a transport of heat and humidity
coming from the Amazon region. These two
dynamics met in the low atmosphericpressure zone. This low pressure caused

the increase of wind coming from the sea.
Thus, this event dragged moisture andraised sea levels. Rising sea levels
hampered surface runoff into the sea. All
these factors led to the highest 24-hour
rainfall recorded in Brazil.
Table 2 presents the rainfall in 24
hours in several municipalities on the northcoast of São Paulo. Since the mean
monthly rainfall for February is 225 mm inthis region, it can be said that the rainfall
quantity of this event was extremely high.

Table 2 – Rainfall during 24 hours in the northcoast region of São Paulo state
Municipality

24-hour
rainfall (mm)Death

Bertioga

6820São Sebastião

626

64

Guarujá388

0Ilha Bela

337

0

Ubatuba335

1

Caraguatatuba

234

0Figure 6 –Spatialdistribution of
24-hours
rainfall in thenorth coast of
São
Paulo
duringtheperiodFebruary 18th
to 19th, 2023.

7

The 24-hour rainfall distribution canbe seen in Figure 6. The extreme
rainfall was very concentrated in
Bertioga and São Sebsatião
municipalities. Here it should be
noted that in Caraguatatuba aheavy rainfall event in March 1967
(584.8 mm in 48 hours) caused
flash floods and debris flows, andkilled 487 people.

4. Principal factors causing disasterAs with any natural disaster, there are many factors involved in this disaster. However, here
are three key points that seem decisive, being that one is related to natural phenomena andthe other two are social issues.
4.1. Rainfall amount and intensity
Figure 7 demonstrates hyetographs obtained
at two rainfall gauge stations: Praia de
Guartuba (Bertioga municipality) and Barrado Una (São Sebastião municipality) which
are both maintained by the Brazilian Center
for Monitoring and Early Warnings of Natural
Disasters (Centro Nacional de Monitoramen-

to e Alertas de Desastres Naturais –CEMADEN). It was observed that in Bertioga,
an extremely intense rainfall event occurredwith 273 mm in 2 hours and 25 mm in 10
minutes on February 18th at night. On thesame day overnight, Bertioga received morethan 400 mm of rain for 6 hours.

Figure 7 – Hyetographs obtained at two rainfall gauge stations: Praia de
Guartuba (Bertioga municipality) and Barra do Una (São Sebastião municipality)from February 18th 13:00 to 19th 23:00.

If only this rainfall factor is observed, thepresent disaster can be easily considered“purely natural-hazard-induced disaster”, i.e.,“natural disaster”. However, we need to see
other factors which attributes to a local
society.

8

4.2. Carnival season
Here base on the report of Casemiro andMatos (2023) and Xavier (2023), the actionsof several organizations are chronologicallypresented.

•

On February 13th, the CEMADEN started
to issue bulletins describing the high risk•of "hydrological events" in the region.

•

On the 16th (Thursday), 48 hours inadvance, the CEMADEN sent a disaster
forecast warning about "very intense
rainfalls with the potential to cause
disasters" to the federal government andthe State Civil Defense Agency (SCDA) ofSão Paulo, including the possible
locations of the disaster. On the sameday, the website of this Agency warned
that heavy rain would be expected over
the weekend: "Highlights and attention to
the north coast where accumulations up
to 250 mm can be recorded". This kind of
warning is unusual. In this way, thecoastal areas of São Paulo wereattracting attention anyway. However, the
SCDA gave no warning to the local city
offices.

•On the 17th (Friday), at 00:52 am, the •SCDA sent the first SMS alert to the cell
phones of only 34,000 people registeredin its system on the north coast. The
bureaucratic message, however, spoke
only of “isolated rain” in Ubatuba andnearby areas without reference to thedisaster risk on the hillsides of Vila do
Sahy village.

•

On the 17th, even in the morning, the
CEMADEN held a meeting with theBrazilian Center for Risk and Disaster
Management(CentroNacionaldeGerenciamento de Riscos e Desastres –9

CENAD) and with the SCDA. Therefore,
the incident was well anticipated and had
been notified to the competent authorities
and local authorities. The CEMADEN senta list of all danger areas, including Vila do
Sahy, but the disaster’s magnitude was
not well predicted.
On the 18th (Saturday), the CEMADEN
issued more than 60 alerts for Ubatuba,
Ilhabela,
Caraguatatuba
andSão
Sebastião municipalities, etc. At noon, the
SCDA sent an SMS to the population
about heavy rain in the region. It should
be noted that the state governor later
admitted that the SMS messages sent topart of the population had no effect.
Residents, however, reported that they
were not alerted by the SCDA and were
not asked to leave their houses even in
the face of the danger of landslides. Hereit should be noted that the entire state ofSão Paulo, including the north coast
region, does not have siren’s systems inhazard areas. As a result, all the
population have been dependent upon the
notifications of the state and municipal
Civil Defense agencies.
Around 11 pm, the storm was alreadyquite intense, and the municipal Civil
Defense of São Sebastião tried to reachVila do Sahy, but there was no longer any
access due to landslides. The SCDA sent
an SMS saying that there was "persistentrain on the north coast" and warned the
population to be aware of "the walls’
inclination and cracks" and, if necessary,to leave the place. At this time, however,there was no shelter set up by the SCDA
or any guidance as to where thepopulation should go.

••On the 19th (Sunday), at 2:00 am, the rain
was very intense, and many landslides
began to take place in the north coast
region. Several locations were alreadywithout electricity and internet or cell
phone signal. At 3:00 am, the SCDA senta new SMS to people registered by cell
phone, advised the population to beaware of "the walls inclination andcracks", but did not mention anything
about the risk of landslides. Here it should
be noted that in the north coast region,
only about 12% of 288,000 residents wereregistered in the SCDA's system.
At 6 am, a new SMS from the SCDA,
saying rain, wind and lightning, asked
people to leave the place in case of “thewalls’ inclination and cracks”. However, it
did not mention landslides yet. At thismoment, there were already dead andmissing people buried alive.

Note that this tragedy occurred during theCarnival season, one of the busiest times fortourism in Brazil. This lack of communication
may have happened by chance, or theannouncement may have been made out ofconsideration for the risk of keeping tourists
away from the city during the carnival
season. In any case, the above-mentionedlack of information transmission increased
the damage. According to the announcementof the São Sebastião city hall, 500 thousandpeople had been expected for the four daysof the Carnival. Then the heaviest rainfall inhistory hit the north coast of Sao Paulo over
the Carnival weekend. Therefore, many
tourists who were not familiar with the local
geography died in this tragedy.
Thousands of tourists went down to thebeaches to enjoy the Carnival in the northcoast. Only in São Sebastião municipality
with less than 100 thousand inhabitants,
there were almost 500 thousand people on
Saturday. The SCDA did nothing to preventor at least discourage this. City halls on thenorth coast did nothing, either. The radios,
televisions and internet did not advise against
moving this huge population towards thepoint where the flash flood and debris flow
would occur. In fact, the alert was given, but
nobody was interested. No one recognized
the seriousness of the matter. Furthermore, it
should be noted that nobody knew what to doafter the alert. This is due to the lack oftraining each citizen.
Because of these disasters, on Sunday
several municipalities canceled festivities thatwere planned and the rains kept tourists
away from the beaches. However, landslide
deposits on roads made it difficult for tourists
to leave the north coast. This situation further
increased the disaster magnitude.
If this historic downpour had occurred outsideof the carnival season, the disaster might nothave been so severe.

4.3. Remarkable and deep-rooted social problems in historical background
One of the major and most serious problems
in Brazil is the irregular and illegal landoccupation of hazard areas. This problem
requires the analyses of different factors,
including the vulnerability of several types
associated with the populations that occupy
these spaces.
The area most affected by the disaster is theVila do Sahy village which is typical of such10

land-occupations. This village emerged in the
1980s as an occupation by needy immigrants
from the Brazilian Northeast region seeking
job opportunities. The houses in Vila do Sahy
are simple and located close to very steep
slopes (Figure 8). Residents work mainly incondominiums, luxury houses, and high-end
hotels in the region.

The occupation is irregular because it islocated within an environmental protection
area. This village is a "frozen" area, i.e.,
where new land-occupations are prohibited.

The freezing took place in 2009. However,expansion of the area (village) continues
even today.

Figure 8 – Very simple
houses destroyed bylandslide in Vila do
Sahyvillage,SãoSebastião municipalityinFebruary
2023(Source: Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil)

Schmidt (2023) reported that the City Hall ofSão Sebastião has received at least four
warnings about the risks of landslides andfloods in the municipality since 2013. The firstwarning came in 2013 when the State
UniversityofCampinas(UNICAMP)
investigated the expansion of risk areas in
the São Sebastião municipality and detailed
the landslides hazard areas.
The second took place in 2018 whenthe Institute of Technological Research(Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas – IPT)
conducted a survey and pointed out 52 areasthat were at risk of landslides in São
Sebastião. Their report showed that in São
Sebastião there were 161 houses in areas ofhigh risk for landslides and 2,043 houses inareas of medium or low risk for landslides.
The mayor of São Sebastião commented:“People do not leave these areas, and stay.
Talking is easy. When we start the demolition
program, the popular commotion isenormous, the pressure is violent” (UOL,2023). This mayor’s comment clearly implies
that the whole society with each resident’s
11

force has been increasing its vulnerability.
The third was associated to an
inspection by the State Public Ministry of São
Paulo which conducted on November 11th,
2020, evaluated a plan of the São Sebastião
municipality to urbanize and legalize thesituation of properties in the area, andidentified works and areas at risk oflandslides in Vila do Sahy. Then, the Public
Prosecutor's Office filed a lawsuit against theCity Hall to demand measures. In this way,
the City Hall should fulfill its duty to urbanize
several villages, to legalize the situation of
the properties, and to increase the security ofthe properties, especially in Vila do Sahy.
However, its actions are much smaller thanwhat they are charged with. For example, theCity Hall adopted measures to minimize risks
to the population regarding possible floods;
meanwhile, the biggest problem in hazard
areas is surely landslides (Figure 9). In 2020,
the State Public Ministry concluded that Vilado Sahy village would be an announced “truetragedy” (Schmidt, 2023).

Figure 9 –Landslides in Vila do
Sahy village, São Sebastião
municipality in February 2023
(Source: Tiago Queiroz/Estadão
Conteúdo)families occupying Vila do Sahy should be
relocated to a neighboring area which isout of the landslides hazard areas.

Finally, as the forth warning, in 2022, theHousing and Urban Development Company of
the State of São Paulo (Companhia deDesenvolvimento Habitacional e Urbano do
Estado de São Paulo – CDHU) suggested that

It seems that there are problems not only
on the administration’s side, but also on
the residents’ side. In other words,
disasters have become a more serious social
problem in the study region, because disastereducation has not been disseminated in bothsides.

5. Final remarks
Many scientists have linked this historic
rainfall event to climate change. While effectof climate change may be clear andundeniable, its consequence, i.e. disasterespecially with 65 deaths could have resulted
from mismanagement in society. In the northcoast region of São Paulo, occupation of thesteep hillside practically began due to theregional geography where there are very few
flat and safe areas. In the case of São
Sebastião, with the growth of residential
subdivision and developments aimed attourists, people, especially the less wealthy,
are being expelled to more fragile places,with less infrastructure and larger steepness.
Any disasters have various causes. The
larger the disasters’ magnitude, the more
complex the combination of causes that canoccur. This unexpected combination makes it
difficult to prevent larger disasters. In thetragedy of the north coast of São Paulo in
2023, such a combination could be: unstablelocal geology + increasingly frequent heavy
rains + ignoring weather and civil defense
warnings + lack of urban planning + inability
to provide security to communities that have12

historically been displaced to unsafe areas.
Thus this combination indicates urgent
necessity to carry out huge quantity ofactions for the Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR).
Since January 2019, 35% of Brazilian
municipalities
have
faced
emergency
situations or public calamities due to storms,
landslides, flash floods or floods (Unterstelland Margulis, 2023). This current situation
naturally improve DRR at the nation’s level.
Indeed, the CEMANDEN has been showing
its better execution in terms of institutional
action (alert system performance in the
country). This must result from a lot ofexperiences due to the frequent occurrencesof disasters and their warnings’ actions.
On the other hand, state and local
governments have not practiced as often as
CEMADEN in recent years. According toUnterstell and Margulis (2023), today, a gap
exists in the inability to link state-of-the-art
information generated by centers of
excellence related to climate and disaster risk
issues such as CEMADEN to actual action bystate and local governments.

These states and local governments often
lack real-world experience and are unable toact appropriately in an emergency. Thisstrongly underlines the urgent need for
simulated behavioral training and risk
management awareness rising at the local
and state government level.
Similar to the tragedy of Petrópolismunicipality in Rio de Janeiro state in 2022
(Kobiyama, 2022), many people did not know

where to go at the moment of emergency inthe north coast of São Paulo in 2023.
Precisely for this reason, it is necessary tohave regular awareness and training forresidents.
Considering all of the above, it seems that
there is no solution other than persistently
continuing disaster education for the generalpublic as well as state and local
governments.

References••

Carvalho, C.S.; Galvão, T. (2016) Prevenção
de riscos de deslizamentos em encostas emáreas urbanas. In: Morais, M.P.; Krause, C.;
Lima Neto, V.C. (eds.) Caracterização e•tipologia de assentamentos precários :estudos de caso brasileiros. Brasília: IPEA,
p.169-185.
Casemiro, P.; Matos, T. (2023) Governo de
SP e Prefeitura de São Sebastião foram
avisados de risco de desastre 2 dias antes,
diz diretor de órgão nacional demonitoramento. In: G1 São Paulo. São Paulo,
•
22
Feb.
2023.
Availableinhttps://
g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2023/02/22/
governo-de-sp-e-prefeitura-de-sao-sebastiaoforam-avisados-de-risco-de-desastre-2-diasantes-diz-diretor-de-orgao-nacional-demonitoramento.ghtml Access on April 1, 2023.
••

Kobiyama, M. (2022) Unusual rainfall intensity
and total amount causing more than 200
deaths in Petrópolis City, Rio de Janeiro State,
Brazil, in February 2022. GADRI Actions,v.17, n.1, p.15-20.

•

Kobiyama, M.; Michel, G.P.; Goerl, R.F. (2019)
Proposal of debris flow disasters managementin Brazil based on historical and legal aspects.
International Journal of Erosion Control•
Engineering, v.11, n.3, p.85-93.

•

Schmidt, T. (2023) Em 10 anos, São
Sebastião recebeu ao menos 4 alertas
sobre risco de tragédia. In: Brasil de Fato.
São Paulo, 26 Feb. 2023. Available in https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2023/02/26/em-10-

13

anos-sao-sebastiao-recebeu-ao-menos-4alertas-sobre-risco-de-tragedia Access on April
1, 2023.
Souza, S.O.; Oliveira, R.C.; Lupinacci, C.M.
(2018) Mapeamento da declividade enquanto
instrumento de planejamento do litoral norte
paulista. In: Proceedings of XII National
Symposium of Geomorphology (Crato, 2018).
Available in https://www.sinageo.org.br/2018/trabalhos/9/9-5-546.html Access on March 1,
2023.

Unterstell, N.; Margulis, S. (2023) A tragédiade São Sebastião é um ultimato. In: Outras
Palavbras. Piauí, 27 Feb. 2023. Available inhttps://outraspalavras.net/outrasmidias/atragedia-de-sao-sebastiao-e-um-ultimato/
Access on April 1, 2023.
UOL (2023) Governo de SP e Prefeitura deSão Sebastião foram avisados de risco dedesastre 2 dias antes, diz diretor de órgão
nacional de monitoramento. In: UOL. São
Paulo, 24 Feb. 2023. Available in https://
noticias.uol.com.br/cotidiano/ultimasnoticias/2023/02/24/o-que-poderia-ter-sidofeito-evitado-tragedia-litoral-sp.htm Access on
April 1, 2023.
Xavier, C. (2023) Governos de SP e São
Sebastião ignoram alertas de desastre. In:
Vermelho. Brasília, 22 Feb. 2023. Available inhttps://vermelho.org.br/2023/02/22/governosde-sp-e-sao-sebastiao-ignoram-alertas-dedesastre-2-dias-antes/ Access on April 1, 2023.

GADRI Lecture Series
Modelling Barriers and Enablers to Participatory Risk-Sensitive
Urban Developments in Sri Lanka
Lecture by Dr. Kaushal Keraminiyage
Dr. Kaushal Keraminiyage, Associate
Professor, Centre for Disaster Resilience,
School of Science Engineering andEnvironment, University of Salford, UK was
visiting the Kyoto University to lecture at the
Intensive Courses offered by ILAS, Kyoto
University Kyoto as a "Distinguished Visiting
Professor". He took the opportunity tocontribute a lecture to the GADRI Lecture
Series as well. The lecture was delivered to
DPRI students and faculty members on 12
September 2023.
Abstract:
Urban developments inherently contribute toincreased disaster risks. Hence, it isimportant
to
adopt
risk
sensitive
development strategies in helping global
disaster risk reduction attempts. Whilecommunities play a significant role inrecognising the local risk sensitivity, despite
their lived experience in surviving local
hazards, in most cases, local disaster risk
mitigation and development plans seem tobe developed predominantly through a topdown approach. This study, using Sri Lanka
as a case study, investigated the barriers toeffective community participation in thedecision-making process of risk sensitive
urban developments and thereby developed
an interpretive logic model to establish anunderstanding of why they occur and howeach barrier is interlinked. The study
employed a Grounded Theory Methodology(GRM), followed by the Total Interpretive
Structural Modelling (TISM) and Matrix
Impact of Cross Multiplication Applied toClassification (MICMAC) analysis.

14

Brief Biography:
Dr. Kaushal Keraminiyage is an Associate
Professor (Reader) in disaster risk reduction
and smart communities at the Centre forDisaster Resilience, School of Science
Engineering and Environment at the
University of Salford, UK. He is also currently
a visiting professor at the Kyoto University,and an experienced researcher with a good
publication profile and funded research
projects. Having secured external andinternal funding from funding bodies such as
EPSRC, and EC, he has led a number of
research projects as a principal investigatorand a co-investigator.
Dr. Keraminiyage has supervised andgraduated more than 15 doctoral students
successfully and he is currently supervising
PhD students in the broad research areas ofDisaster Resilience and Construction
Management. He has also examined (as theexternal or the internal examiner) more than
20 Doctoral theses. His specialism is in
Disaster Induced Resettlements, Resettledand Host Community Integration, Community
Resilience to Disasters, Agile Communities
for Disaster Response and Sustainable andResilient Urban Developments.

How Social Infrastructure Builds Resilience?
Lecture by Prof. Daniel P. Aldrichpolarization and disinformation.
Brief Biography:

During his visit to the Disaster Prevention
Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University,
Uji Campus, Kyoto, Japan, Prof. Daniel
Aldrich, Department of Political Science andSchool of Public Policy and Urban Affairs,
Director, Security and Resilience Studies
Program, and Co-Director, Global Resilience
Institute, Northeastern University, Boston,
MA, USA, delivered a lecture to the students
and faculty of DPRI on 3 August 2023.
Abstract:
Much of our policy process focuses on therole of physical infrastructure, that is,
structures that hope to mitigate the impact ofshocks and disasters such as floods,
terrorism, and crime. But a growing body ofevidence suggests that social infrastructure-the places and spaces that build andmaintain connections, such as libraries,
parks, and pubs - hold greater potential toblunt the impact of such events. Using
qualitative and quantitative evidence fromcases around the world, Aldrich pushes us
to appreciate how the modest and often
underappreciatedfieldofsocialinfrastructure should be front and center as
we confront wicked problems including
15

An award winning author,
Aldrich has published fivebooks
including
Building
Resilience and Black Wave,
more than 90 peer-reviewed
articles, and written op-eds for
the New York Times, CNN,
HuffPost, and many othermedia outlets. He has spent more than 5
years in India, Japan, and Africa carrying out
fieldwork and his work has been funded by
the Fulbright Foundation, the National
Science Foundation, the Abe Foundation,
the Rasmussen Foundation, and the JapanFoundation, among other institutions. In
2021 he was Klein Lecturer at Northeastern
University.

An Assessment of Economic Impact due to Disasters:
The case of India
Lecture by Assoc. Prof. Subir Sen

During his stay as a visiting professor at theDisaster Prevention Research Institute(DPRI), Kyoto University, Uji Campus,
Kyoto, Japan, Dr. Subir Sen, Associate
Professor, Department of Humanities andSocial Sciences, Indian Institute ofTechnology Roorkee, Roorkee, India,
delivered a lecture to the students andfaculty of DPRI on 3 August 2023.
Abstract:
India remains highly vulnerable to extreme
events occurring at repeated intervals suchas floods, cyclones, and droughts.
According to the latest estimates of theUnited Nations Office for Disaster Risk
Reduction (UNDRR), about 300 disasterevents are reported in the country over the
past two decades which led to an estimated
USD 79.5 billion direct economic losses,
approximately 76,000 deaths and over 1
billion people affected including those who
were
left
homelessfollowing
the disaster. Notably, natural hazardinduced disasters may be of two categories
based on the specific characteristics they
demonstrate. First, are the fast onset

16

disasters like floods, cyclones,
earthquakes that occur rapidly, after-effects stay for a relatively shortperiod, impact a particular locationor geography and leads to property
damages and loss of human lives
and livelihood. The onset and end
time of such disaster events arequick and measurable in general.
The slow onset disasters, on theother hand, are events likedroughts.
The
characteristics,
causes, nature and the ability drought
events to harm the individuals along with theimpact on economic growth remains
complex issues in comparison to the fast
onset disasters. Droughts often have noparticular time of arrival or ending and may
spread over a small or a large geographic
area.
Though, droughts do not cause any direct
property damages, but can adversely affectthe individuals, community and the overall
economic growth of the affected region.
Therefore, most of the times, it becomesdifficult to identify their severity and the loss
and damages they cause. Contrary to thegeneral belief, there are empirical evidences
to suggest that slow onset disasters (likedroughts) may severely damage an
economy than the fast onset disasters.
Another difference between the fast andslow onset disasters is the sectors which
are adversely affected. For example,
droughts impair the agricultural sector of theeconomy, although it has indirect impact on
the secondary and tertiary sectors due tothe inter-linkages between these sectors.

On the contrary, the fast onset events canadversely affect not only the agricultural
sector but also the manufacturing andservicesectors.
With
morevisibledestruction, intensity as well as the public
and media attention, the government andpolicy-makers remain more concerned
towards the fast onset events than the slow
onset disasters.
Interestingly,
theexisting
disastermanagement policies in India treats boththese types alike raising a serious concern
towards the disaster management approachand practices. Although different ministries
manage different disasters, the policy (inform of Disaster Management Act, 2005 andNational Disaster Management Plan, 2016)
guiding them remains the same
Given the different mode and impacts ofnatural disasters on the economy and its sub-sectors, it would be interesting to analyse
the fast and slow onset disasters impact
separately along with overall impact ofnatural disasters. The present study
attempts to analyse the relationship between
natural disasters and economic growth for asample of selected 25 Indian states. Using
augmented panel vector autoregression(PVARX), the dynamic responses of theeconomic indicators (e.g. state GDP) todisaster shocks would be generated to
identify the disaster impact not only in theyear of the event but also in following years.
The fast onset disasters are represented byflood events while droughts would proxy forthe slow onset disasters. In case of fast
onset disasters (floods), yearly as well as 5
years cumulative impact would be estimatedand for the slow onset disasters (droughts) 3
years average impact would be estimated.
The outcome of the analysis may prove tobe helpful for the policy makers in both
central and the state governments to17

formulatetheappropriate
disastermanagement policies for the respective
disaster types.
Keywords: Natural Disasters, Economic
Impact, Panel Data Analysis, Disaster Risk
Reduction, India.
Brief Biography:
Subir Sen is Associate Professor in the
Department of Humanities and Social
Sciences and Joint Faculty in the Centre of
Excellence in Disaster Mitigation andManagement (COEDMM) at the Indian
Institute of Technology Roorkee. He
obtained is PhD in Economics from theInstitute for Social and Economic Change,
Bangalore with fellowship under the"Reserve Bank Scheme of Endowment ofProfessorial
ChairsandResearch
Fellowship". His research areas are
Economics of risk and uncertainty, Insurance
economies, and Economics of climatechange and natural disasters. In recent
years, he has grown interest in the field ofsustainability and the concept of circulatingand ecological sphere. He worked at TERI
University, New Delhi and Madras School of
Economics, Chennai before joining IIT
Roorkee. He received distinguished awards
such as JSPS-ICSSR Joint Research
Project, First Prize under Japanese
Outstanding Research on Development(ORD) from Global Development Network(GDN) in 2015, subsidy for PhD. thesis fromthe Association Internationale pour I'Etude
de I'Economie de I' Assurance (the Geneva
Association) and scholarship for participationin Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting 2008, tomention a few. He contributed to sponsoredresearch by the Govt. and International
agencies like Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. ofIndia, IRDAI, SANEI, APN, DST-CHORD,
IFC, World Bank Group and UK NERC.

He contributed to sponsored research by theGovt. and International agencies like Ministryof Agriculture, Govt. of India, IRDAI, SANEI,APN, DST-CHORD, IFC, World Bank Groupand UK NERC. He presented his research indifferent
nationalandinternational
conferences and has few publications to his
credit. He served as a Member of the Boardof Governors, Asia Pacific Risk andInsurance Association (APRIA) for the period
2019-2022 and is currently Secretary of the
Indian Society for Ecological Economics(INSEE). His research has appeared injournals such as Natural Disasters, Climate
and Development, International Journal ofDisaster Risk Reduction, Economics ofDisasters and Climate Change, among
others.

Accelerating Earth Observation Services for Resilient
Development - the Digital Earth Partnership
Lecture by Dr. Caroline Gevaert

During her visit to the Disaster
Prevention Research Institute (DPRI),
Kyoto University, Uji Campus, Kyoto,
Japan, Dr. Caroline Gevaert, AssistantProfessor, Faculty of Geo-Information
Science and Earth Observation (ITC),
University of Twente, Netherlands,delivered a lecture to the students andfaculty of DPRI on 5 October 2023.
Dr. Gevaert was introduced to DPRI by
Prof. Charles Scawthorn. Both, Prof.
Scawthorn and Dr. Gevaert were attending
the Science and Technology in Society(STS Forum held at the Kyoto International
Conference Center from 1 to 3 October
2023.
Abstract: The Digital Earth Partnershipaims to enhance the resilience of vulnerable
countries and communities to climatechange and natural hazard disasters
through greater access to and adoption offrontier earth observation tools & services.
Climate resilient development is especiallyreliant on stakeholders' abilities to use
accurate and timely information about our
18changing
climate,environment
andlivelihoods, for risk aware insights and risk
reduction actions. Through knowledge
building and partnership development,
Digital Earth focusses on providing demand
driven data services for spatial monitoring,decision support, and risk management
activities prompted by client governments
and their beneficiaries: activities that are
locally appropriate, affordable, actionable,scalable, and sustainable.

The presentation will demonstrate projects
that contribute towards these goals:
partnerships between universities toenhance the local knowledge ecosystemon disaster resilience (the Resilience
Academy), obtaining information onvulnerability and exposure together with
communities (Ramani Huria and Digital
Public Works) and integrating information
derived from Earth Observation into WorldBank operations and policy making (theWorld Settlement Footprint).

Brief Biography : Caroline Gevaert isAssistant Professor in Geoinformatics at
the Faculty of Geo-Information Scienceand Earth Observation (ITC) of the
University of Twente (the Netherlands)
and international consultant for the World
Bank. She is member of the Dutch Young
Academy of Sciences, one of the 15
global experts selected to review the UN
Global Sustainable Development Report
2023, and a leading expert on
ResponsibleAIforsustainable
development.
She
hasscientific19publications with >100 co-authors across
24 countries, and has presented atconferences on five continents, including
three presentations at the first UN-GGIM
World Congress in China. Through her
position at the World Bank, Caroline
advises on how to use these technologies
in operations. Example projects include:
the Resilience Academy - a partnership
between universities in Tanzania andEurope to co-develop tailored local
solutions for resilience; Ramani Huria - alargescale participatory mapping program
where hundreds of Tanzanian students
mapped the city of Dar es Salaam; using
drones to get accurate terrain models forflood mapping; and recommendations on
Responsible AI for Disaster Risk
Management.

Recent Research Activities: An overview and Extended Q&A
Dialogue
Lecture by Prof. Charles Scawthorn
above. The lecture was followed by anextended question and answer session. At
the request of the audience, Prof. Scarthorn
shared two papers published on the topics.

Prof. Charles Scawthorn delivered a lecture
to the Disaster Prevention ResearchInstitute (DPRI), Kyoto University faculty
and students during his visit to DPRI on 22
November 2023. His presentation covered
the following topics.
•

Resilient Infrastructure Grids•

Fire following
mitigation•

Determining water distribution systempipe replacement given random defects•

Effect of major stress events on buried
pipe•

Optimizing
measures•

A building classification system for multihazard
risk
assessment

earthquake

wildfire

risk

and

its

reduction

Prof. Scawthorn provided an overview of
the research purpose, methods, andfindings for each of the topics mentioned

20•

The Influence of Natural Hazards on
Urban
Housing
Local,Charles
Scawthorn, et.al., Journal of Urban
Economics 11, 242-251 (1982)•

Volume VII, Special Structures andCritical Facilities – Urban Design,
Socioeconomic Issues and Public Policy– Lifelines: Utility and Transportation
Systems, Proceedings of the Eight World
Conference on Earthquake Engineering,
San Francisco, California, USA, 21-28
July 1984

Brief Biography: Professor Scawthorn isinternationally recognized as an authority
for the analysis and mitigation of naturaland technological hazards. He retired in2008 as Professor and head of the
Earthquake Disaster Prevention Systems
Laboratory, at Kyoto University (Japan), hasbeen a Visiting Professor at Stanford,
Beijing Normal, and Waseda (Tokyo)
Universities, and is now a Visiting
Researcher,at
Univ.
California
atBerkeley. He is a consultant to the global
insurance industry, the World Bank, theAsian Development Bank, local/state/federal agencies, and Global 1000
corporations. Dr. Scawthorn is a graduate of
the Cooper Union, holds an M.S.C.E.
degree from Lehigh University, and received
his D.Eng. from Kyoto University.

PEER Overview & NLP Approach for Rapid Earthquake Reconnaissance
Lecture by Prof. Khalid MosalamProf. Khalid Mosalam, Director, Pacific
Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER)
Center, University of California, Berkeley,
USA is visiting DPRI, Kyoto University. He
took the opportunity to deliver a lecture to
DPRI faculty and students on the PEER
Overview and NLP Approach for Rapid
Earthquake Reconnaissance on 1 December
2023.
Abstract
The presentation focused on the activities of
the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research(PEER) Center and the speaker's researchgroup on reducing the harmful effects ofearthquakes and other natural hazards on thebuilt environment and communities. The
presentation started with an overview of
PEER, its mission, vision, major projects,
research directions, impacts on practice, andexperimental facilities and related activities.
This was followed by the three pillars of vision-based, vibration-based, and text-based
Structural Health Monitoring, powered by theworldwide trend of the expansion of sensor
installation on different elements of the built
environment, and a well-integrated usage ofAI technologies with domain knowledge.
Finally, details are provided on recent Natural
Language Processing (NLP) methods andtheir applications for both virtual and fieldreconnaissance following natural hazards.
These efforts support the “Building Resiliencethrough Reconnaissance” objective of theStructural Extreme Events Reconnaissance(StEER) Network, which PEER actively
collaborates with to improve sustainability andcommunity resilience.
Biography
Mosalam obtained his BS and MS from Cairo

21

University and his PhD from Cornell University
in Structural Engineering. In 1997, he joined
the Department of CEE, UC-Berkeley where
he is currently the Taisei Professor of Civil
Engineering, Director of the PEER Center,and Associate Director for Earthquake Hazardof the StEER Network. He conducts researchon performance & health monitoring ofstructures including data analytics using
different AI approaches. He is active inassessment and rehabilitation of essential
facilities, including building energy efficiency
and sustainability. He is the recipient of 2006
ASCE Huber Civil Engineering ResearchPrize, 2013 UC-Berkeley Chancellor Award
for Public Services, 2015 EERI Outstanding
Paper Award, 2020 ASCE Best Journal Paper
in Materials and Structural Response, and2021 Hojjat Adeli Award for Innovation in
Computing. He is a Corresponding Member ofthe Academia de Ingeniería México, and an
Elected Fellow of ASCE. He was a Visiting
Professor at Kyoto University, Japan, METU,
Turkey, NTU, Singapore, and Tongji
University, China. Mosalam teaches courses
in FEM, Structural Analysis, Structural
Dynamics, Design of RC and PC Structures,and Experimental Methods in StructuralEngineering.

In the meantime, the College of Civil
Engineering, Tongji University and Elsevier
invited everyone to join their free Resilient
Cities and Structures (RCS) Webinar Series.
Each talk organized was associated with an
RCS journal paper (or within the journal's
scope) which includes fundamental research,innovative technologies, and engineering
applications in resilient cities, infrastructure,
structures, and resilience−based managementby an eminent scholar selected by the editorial
board.
The eminent professor was no other than Prof.
John van de Lindt, Harold H. Short Endowed
Chair Professor in the Department of Civil andEnvironmental Engineering at Colorado State
University; and a Member of the Board of
Directors of GADRI, who delivered thewebinar under the Resilient Cities andStructures – Measuring the Resilience of a
Community Based on Four Areas ofCommunity Stability: An interdisciplinary
Approach to Measurement Science.
The webinar was held on 14 December 2023
from, 8:30-9:30 EST New York; 13:30-14:30
GMT London; and 21:30-22:30 CST
Shanghai.
These webinar series are co-supported by
22

International Joint Research Laboratory of
Earthquake
EngineeringandtheEarthquake
Resiliency
Committee,
Seismological Society of China.
Abstract:
Resilience is the ability to prepare for, adapt
to, and recover rapidly from hazards such as
earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, or floods.
The ability to model a community necessitates
combining models from different disciplines
including the interfaces, propagation of
uncertainty, and ultimately the measurementof resilience metrics across physical systems,
households, social institutions, and theeconomy.
The presentation will begin with a brief
overview of a recent Resilient Cities andStructures Special Issue entitled “Integrated
Modeling of Cities to Improve Natural
Hazards Resilience” guest co-edited by John
W. van de Lindt, Andre R. Barbosa, and You
Dong. This will be followed by a briefsummary of the state of the research ininterdisciplinary resilience modeling ofcommunities and cities developed by the U.S.
National
InstituteofStandards
andTechnology-funded Center for Risk- Based
Community Resilience Planning.

Brief Biography:
Dr. John W. van de Lindt istheHaroldH.
Short
Endowed Chair Professor in
the Department of Civil andEnvironmental Engineering
at Colorado State University.
Over the last two decades
van de Lindt’s research
program has focused on performance-basedengineering and test bed applications ofbuildings and other systems for earthquakes,
hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes and floods.
He has led data collection efforts following
hurricanes,
earthquakes,
floods,andtornadoes with the most recent being theDecember 2021 Midwest tornado outbreak.
Professor van de Lindt is the Co-director for
the National Institute of Standards andTechnology-funded Center of Excellence(COE) for Risk-Based Community Resilience
Planning headquartered at Colorado State
University in its ninth year. A major portion of
the COE is to develop a computational
platform IN-CORE to enable communities tomeasure their resilience to natural hazards.
He serves as the Past Chair of the Executive
Committee for the American Society of Civil
Engineer’s (ASCE) Infrastructure Resilience
Division, current Chair of the ASCE Technical
Administrative Committee of the StructuralEngineering Institute and has published morethan 450 technical articles and reports,
including 230 journal articles. He currently
serves on a number of journal editorial
boards including Resilient Cities andStructures, and is the Editor-in-Chief for the
ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering.

2023 International Training Workshop at the National Science andTechnology Center for Disaster Reduction (NCDR)
NCDR resumed the flagship International
Training
Workshopon
Humanitarian
Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) for
Raising Youth Leadership. NCDR, Chinese
Taipei will held the training workshop in
Hualien, Easter Chinese Taipei from 25 to 28
August 2023. NCDR provided three fullscholarships to MSc. Students at the Disaster
Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto
University.
Overview of the Course:With the vision of "Root in Technology, Build
International Connections, and Lead the
Future”, the 2023 ITW focussed onstrengthening youth leadership on HADR anddisaster risk reduction. During the training, allparticipants acquired basic knowledge ofdisaster risk management to meet futurechallenges. Through scenario-based designed
program, the brainstorming sessions wereconducted to address importance of teamwork
to solve proposed situations and challenges
23

during the training. Various on-site operations
and action-oriented approaches were aimed at
empowering future leaders with skills such as
situationassessment,
decision-making,operations, coordination, and deployment.
Participants also enjoyed hands-on experiencein utilizing information systems, constructing
provisional
shelters,
operatingwater
purificationequipment,utilizingmobilekitchens for meal preparation, engaging intabletop exercises, and designing a camp for
temporary settlements.

Courtesy Visit by the Croatian Centre for Earthquake Engineering,
University of Zagreb, Croatia

A delegation headed by Prof. Josip Atalic,
Head of HCPI, Associate Professor in the
Department of Engineering Mechanics ofFaculty of Civil Engineering University ofZagreb and head of the new branch office
CroatianCentrefor
Earthquake
Engineering, paid a courtesy visit to theDisaster Prevention Research Institute(DPRI), and the Global Alliance of Disaster
Research Institutes (GADRI) Secretariat, UjiCampus, Kyoto University on 13 September
2023.
The group was greeted by Prof. Ryosuke
Uzuoka,Vice-Director,
DPRI,
Kyoto
University, and Prof. Hirokazu Tatano,

24

Secretary-General, GADRI; and Professor,
DPRI, Kyoto University.
After presentations on DPRI and the
Croatian Centre for Earthquake Engineeringand the University of Zagreb, they were
given a detailed tour of the DPRI researchfacilities— especially of the Centrifuge Lab
and the Earthquake Simulation Lab.
The Croatian Centre for Earthquake
Engineering, University of Zagreb iscurrently processing an application for themembership of GADRI which is initiated by
Prof. Atalic.

New Members

Kobe City of College of Nursing
Disaster Nursing and Global Nursing SecDr. Sachiko Kanbara and her Team at the
Kobe City University of Nursing joined the
GADRI Community.
“The Kobe City University of Nursing opened
in April 1996, and the Kobe City University of
Nursing Graduate School opened in April
2000, both to train nursing professionals withadvanced clinical skills and educators,
researchers, and administrators, and tofurther promote nursing research. The
School of Nursing encompasses the areasof basic nursing, disaster nursing, and global
nursing. The undergraduate curriculum
includes courses such as "Disaster
Prevention" and "Disaster Nursing I & II."
The Graduate School of Nursing offers a"Certified Nursing Specialist Course in
Disaster Nursing" within its master's
program and a "Global Health and DisasterNursing" course as part of its doctoral
program.
Our research interest primarily lies in thedomain of Disaster Nursing and Global
Nursing, pivotal components within theFundamental Nursing Science Field. We
endeavor to cultivate a multifaceted
approach in our research and educational
programs, focusing on disasters and global
health challenges to induce transformativeadvancements in nursing practices.
Visit the website for further details:

Planning and Development Research Foundation, Inc., University of
the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
It includes mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change
Adaptation and Mitigation (CCAM) in policy formulation; Institutional development, urban andrural land-use and development planning; and public infrastructure and housing among others.
Essentially, our organization Programs, Projects, and Activities (PPAs) are geared towards
disaster risk reduction management thematic areas (i.e., Disaster preparedness, response,
rehabilitation and recovery and prevention, and mitigation). Further, we also deal with the PPAs
related to climate change action plan priority areas (i.e., food Security, water security, ecologicaland environmental stability, human security, climate friendly industries and services, sustainableenergy, and knowledge and capacity development). In addition sustainable development goals
2030 (i.e., no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, genderequality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic
growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, inequality, sustainable cities and communities,
responsible consumption and production, climate action, life below water, life on land, peace andjustice strong institutions, and partnerships to achieve the goal) are also part of our researches.

25

Established in 2006, Republic of Korea's first Crisisonomy specialized research institute:•

Conducting research for the academic advancement and providing education for the
training of experts of Crisisonomy•

Collaborates and cooperates with central government agencies, local government,
research institutions, and NGOs to develop policies and provide consulting services
related to Crisisonomy•

Currently consists of 1 director, 5 full-time researchers, 11 student researchers, 8
associate researchers, and 1 administrative staff member.

Rabdan Academy , Abu Dhabi
Rabdan Academy is a government-owned world-class education institution
established to coordinate and enhance learning outcomes for organisations
and individuals in the Safety, Security, Defence, Emergency Preparedness
and Crisis Management (SSDEC) Sectors. The Academy was officiallyestablished under Law No. 7 for 2013, issued by the late Sheikh Khalifa bin
Zayed Al Nahyan and is accredited by the UAE’s Commission for Academic Accreditation(CAA) of the Ministry of Education. The Academy is the first higher education institution in theworld specialised in the SSDEC domain that achieves top ‘5 star’ ratings in the 2 categories ofTeaching and Employability under the QS Stars University Rating System.
As a unique institution, the Academy provides learning in a dual approach, combining
academic and vocational education in one place, whilst recognising prior learning andexperience and providing accredited and transferable credit from course to course and job tojob.

RMIT University is a public research university in Melbourne, Australia with campuses inAustralia, Vietnam and Spain, which collaborates with communities and universities in the
Asia-Pacific and throughout the world. RMIT’s Disaster Research Network (DRN) addresses
the increasing need for research, innovation, and partnership to support disaster prevention,
preparedness, response, and recovery in Australia and internationally. Drawing together over
80 researchers from a broad range of disciplines, the RMIT Disaster Research Network takes
a multi-disciplinary approach to disaster research, working together with practitioners andcommunities to strengthen resilience and research impact. RMIT’s disaster researchcapabilities connect across three interlocking themes: Resilient Infrastructures andEnvironments, Resilient Communities and Governance, and Whole-of-Society Resilience.

26

Association française pour la prévention des catastrophes naturelles
et technologiques (AFPCNT)A network of networks organized in an Association of more than 200 members, involving
most of the French civil society segments and part as such of the National DRR Platform.
Highly qualified as well as young scientists are members and interact with practitioners of all
sectors, public and private. Networking efforts are developed with similar organizations, aswell as in neighboring (eg. DE), and francophone countries (North and West Africa),
sometimes involved as such in EU research projects.

Within the 15 staff members of the association, two of the staff members are in a PhD
process, under scientific supervision of academic members and practitioners. The ScientificCouncil is composed of about 15 members of all disciplines Its chair person is Research
Director at CNRS. About 20 academics are members of the association.

The Evidence Aid’s newsletter coveres.
Crises of all varieties, from war to climatechange, to earthquakes and pandemics,
are impacted by the actions, inactions, anddecisions of those in power. Evidence Aid,to save both lives and livelihoods impacted
by such crises, provides decision-makers
with up-to-date, available evidence tomake informed, science-based decisions
during disasters.
The improvement and preparedness of
one sector is especially impertinent. Health27

systems’ resilience, particularly in conflictor crisis-affected settings, is essential tosaving lives. Each month’s newsletter will
focus on several relevant updates andEvidence Aid summaries related to thedelivery of emergency care services incrisis settings, including a recentlydelivered webinar with the Pan American
Health Organization (PAHO), and theimpact of participation of conflict-affected
communities in enhancing health systemgovernance.
If you don’t already receive the newsletters
directly and would like to, please email:info@evidenceaid.org.

GADRI Members
Established in March 2015, the Global Alliance ofDisaster
Research
Institutes
supporttheimplementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster
Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (SFDRR) and the work of
the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group of theUnited Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction(UNDRR).

survivability and well-being, by integrating knowledge
and technologies from around the world. Over 200
institutions have joined GADRI.GADRI membershipis free; and completely voluntary and non-binding.
GADRI Secretariat is currently headquartered andhosted by the Disaster Prevention Research Institute(DPRI), Kyoto University, Japan.

In line with its vision, GADRI strives to deepen theunderstanding of disasters and find implementable
solutions to achieve disaster resilience; i.e. human,
technical system and infrastructure resilience,

To join GADRI, please contact the GADRISecretariat: secretariat-gadri@dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Geographical Distribution of GADRI as of 31 December 2023

Area

Members
12
34

Economies
7
8

Asia(Excluding Japan)

84

23EuropeJapan
Oceania

37
31
10

13
1
2

Total Institutes

208

54

AfricaAmericas

55 economies

Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (GADRI)
Secretariat

Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI)
Kyoto University, Uji Campus, Gokasho, Uji-shi
Kyoto 611-0011, JAPAN
Tel: +81-774-38-4621
Fax: +81-774-38-4254
E-mail: secretariat-gadri@dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Web: www.gadri.net

All rights reserved. GADRI ACTIONS is the property of GADRI and protected by the international copyright laws. GADRIACTIONS contents may not be reprinted, copied, and distributed without the copyright holder's prior written permission.

28