11 December 2015/WJ

Member Institution Data

Logo or Photo of Institute in jpg format

Name of Institute

Bournemouth University Disaster Management Centre

Address

Dorset House, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, BH12Telephone No.

+44(0)1202 961260

Fax No:+44(0)1202 37522

E-mail:

BUDMC@bournemouth.ac.uk

5BB, United Kingdom

Outline:https://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/disaster-management/
https://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/disaster-management/contact-us/
Research Achievements and Challenges:
SUMMARY OF BUDMC RESEARCH ACTIVITIESBournemouth University Disaster Management Centre (BUDMC) is a leading nationaland international centre on crisis and disaster management in the UK, and a fully
designated Research, Knowledge and Enterprise (RKE) centre of Bournemouth
University. Established since 2001, the Centre has secured an international reputation
for its work in research informed (R) knowledge (K), enterprise and professional
practice delivery (E), with a particular international renown for excellence for ‘incountry’ knowledge transfer. The Centre’s has achieved major success in securing
research informed professional practice contracts in Oman, Ghana, Nepal, Turkey,Sierra Leone, Croatia, Sri Lanka and Nigeria, complemented by UK contracts that areregularly delivered to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and also include
innovative market operations with the UK Independent School sector. The Centre alsoworks closely with the private sector both in the UK and abroad.
The Centre is also home to research of international excellence under the stewardship11 December 2015/WJof a full Professor of Crisis and Disaster Management (Lee Miles) and Head of theBUDMC, Richard Gordon MBE. Indicative RKE achievements include, for example:•Competitive external-funded research of practical relevance including, aUNWTO project on Integration of Travel and Tourism into Emergency

Management (2013-14), EU RISE project (2016-2018) on Disaster Robotics andDisaster Management Training in China, and the GIZ-UNISDR-PATA Hotel
Resilient project (2016) investigating hotel resilience to disasters in thePhilippines.
•Regular involvement as external speakers and conference panels including,ATLAS (Portugal, October 2015); ISA (Atlanta, February 2016); Global Risk
Forum (Davos, August 2016) and ISA (Baltimore, February 2017).

•Existence of a vibrant BUDMC research community, including a dedicatedpost-doctoral Research Fellow (Dr Henry Bang), and 6 PhD researchers in 2016,
supported by a taught CPD postgraduate cohort via the MSc in Disaster
Management and MSc in Crisis, Disasters and Cyber Security offerings and anew BUDMC dedicated e-learning portal, operational from 2016.

•RKE activities of the Centre resulting in major policy change, for example in theintroduction of the national training policy for emergencies in Ghana and indeveloping emergency contingency planning for the Overseas Territories (OTs) ofthe UK.

•Successful delivery of tailored innovative simulation exercises and gaming tools– via the CNET virtual simulation platform - that continue to demarcate
BUDMC in terms of international excellence and as a UK market leader in RKE
in international disaster management.

The BUDMC continue to pursue its mission: ‘To be a centre of international excellence
in international disaster management, with world class expertise in international
public policy, emergency planning and business and organisational resilience aspects ofinternational crisis and disaster management’.
Future Challenges include the advancement of identified key research themes,including•Integration of International Disaster Management, focusing on Integrated
Emergency

PlanningSystems,Crisis

CommunicationandRiskandVulnerability across sectors and agencies. This work includes major cross-sector
investigations of Cyber Resilience (with Bournemouth University’s CyberSecurity Unit) and Disaster Robotics, as well a particular focus on African
Disaster Management (with specific reference to Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria andSierra Leone).
•Innovation of International Disaster Management focusing on the emergence of‘Entrepreneurial Resilience’ and policy entrepreneurship in crisis and disastermanagement. This work includes major research on the development of soft skill

11 December 2015/WJsets and knowledge transfer as part of the ‘bouncing forward’ and/or ‘bouncing
back better’ from disasters.
The Centre is also home to major internationally excellent research publications,including interaction with key authoritative outlets such as The Guardian Small

Business Network and international press, such as in Oman. Recent indicative
publications by BUDMC members include:•Miles, L. (2016) The Five C’s: International Disaster Management and Public
Health and a Place for Entrepreneurial Resilience, Perspectives in Public

Health, 136(6).
•Miles, L. (2016) Entrepreneurial Resilience, Crisis Response Journal, Vol. 11,No. 4.

•Guderjan, M. and Miles, L. (2016) The Fusion Approach – Applications for
Understanding Local Government and European Integration, Journal of

European Integration, DOI: 10.1080/07036337.2016.1176028.
•Gordon, R. (2016) Integrating Emergency Panning with Tourism and Travel,
Part 1, Gulf Fire, 1(3).

•Miles, L. and Petridou, E. (2015) Entrepreneurial Resilience: The Role of Policy
Entrepreneurship in the Political Perspective of Crisis Management. In
Bhamra, R. (ed.) Organizational Resilience (CRC Press: London).

•Narbutaite-Aflaki, I., Petridou, E and Miles, L. (eds.) (2015) Entrepreneurshipin the POLIS: Understanding Political Entrepreneurship (Ashgate: Aldershot).
•Miles, L. (2015) Responding to Ebola: The Importance of Entrepreneurial
Resilience and Policy Entrepreneurs in Crisis and Disaster Management, Public

Sector Executive, Oct/Nov 2015.
•Bang HN (2015) Disaster Management in Cameroon: The lake Nyos disaster
experience: In New Perspectives in Global Environmental Disasters, Emerald
Group (Ed), Emerald Group Publishing Ltd, London.

•Miles, L. and Wivel, A. (2014) (eds.) Denmark in the European Union(Routledge: London).

•Bang HN (2014) General Overview of the Disaster Management Framework inCameroon, Disasters, Vol. 38 No. 3. Doi.10111/disa.1261•Bang HN (2013) Governance of disaster risk reduction in Cameroon: the need toempower local government, Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies, 5(2).
http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ jamba.v5i2.77

11 December 2015/WJ

Suggestions for GADRI Future Directions:
2 suggestions:
Suggestion 1: In future, the GFDRR can focus specifically on disaster research in lessdeveloped countries especially the most vulnerable/at-risk groups. It is widely
acknowledged within the International disaster community, based on empiricalevidence, that disasters have the greatest toll in less developed countries, and hit thepoor in these countries hardest, mainly because these countries and its people are themost vulnerable. It is also common knowledge that while only a small amount of people(11%) exposed to natural hazards live in less developed countries or countries with a low
level of human development, they account for more than halve (53%) of the total
number of recorded deaths (UNDP, 2004). In addition, it has been estimated that up to325 million extremely poor people will be living in the 49 most hazard-prone countries
in 2030, the majority in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa (Shepherd et al., 2013).
The Sendai Framework has also acknowledged that exposure of populations andassets has increased faster than vulnerability has decreased with dire consequences fordisaster related loses and social, cultural, health and environmental losses especially at
the local and community levels in developing countries. Some targets of the Sendai
Framework are to:• Substantially reduce global disaster mortality by 2030, aiming to lower the averageper 100,000 global mortality rates in the decade 2020–2030 compared to the period
2005–2015.
• Substantially reduce the number of affected people globally by 2030, aiming to lower
the average global figure per 100,000 in the decade 2020–2030 compared to the period
2005–2015.
• Substantially increase the number of countries with national and local disaster risk
reduction strategies by 2020.
• Substantially increase the number of countries with national and local disaster risk
reduction strategies by 2020.
• Substantially enhance international cooperation to developing countries throughadequate and sustainable support to complement their national actions forimplementation of the present Framework by 2030.
• Substantially increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning
systems and disaster risk information and assessments to people by 2030 (UNISDR,2015).
These targets will only be achieved if there are substantial improvements in DRR
in less developed countries. Considering the current limitations and vulnerabilities toDRR in less developed countries highlighted earlier, there will need to be more researchin developing countries to identify failures in DRR. This implies, therefore, that there isneed for more research to investigate the underlying causes of risk drivers such as poor
DRR

legislative

frameworks,unplannedandrapid

urbanisation,

poor

land

management, demographic change, weak institutional arrangements, lack of initiatives

11 December 2015/WJ

for DRR investments, poverty that inhibits DRR and unsustainable use of natural
resources amongst others. The research would develop indicators that can be used toenhance DRR in less developed countries. This would hopefully, increase the chances toachieve the above mentioned targets.
Suggestion 2: Need to Focus Research More Strongly on Innovation dynamics ofdisaster management as part of the process of understanding international disastermanagement. The Sendai Framework places an even greater focus on resilience and on
training and simulations. Research on the role that soft skills training and humaninnovation in disaster management is a key future agenda item within this. These
aspects need to be developed further especially in the wider context of developing
organizational and human resilience in less developed countries as outlined inSuggestion 1.
References:
Miles, L. (2016) The Five C’s: International Disaster Management and Public Healthand a Place for Entrepreneurial Resilience, Perspectives in Public Health, 136(6).
Shepherd, A., Mitchell, T., Lewis, K., Lenhardt, A., Jones, L., Scott, A. and Muir-Wood,
R. (2013) The Geography of Poverty, Disasters and Climate Extremes in 2030. London:ODI.
UNDP (2004) Reducing disaster risk – a challenge for development, United Nations
Development Programme, New YorkUNISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) (2015) Sendai
frameworkfordisasterrisk

reduction

2015–2030.

http://www.wcdrr.org/uploads/Sendai_Framework_for_Disaster_Risk_Reduction_2015-2
030.pdf.