Members of the GADRI Board of Directors and the Advisory BoardGADRI
ACTIONS
Spring 2020
Volume 11— Number 1

1

We hope you are all doing well and keeping safe. This is an extraordinary
and an unprecedented situation where we are pushed to find immediate
solutions to contain the Covid-19. It has exposed our vulnerabilities tounknown disasters of which risks were looming for decades. We need tolearn to cope-up with the disease and uncertainties and proceed cautiously
but expediently, especially to save lives. We need to evaluate carefully our
response to the situation.
As researchers, we can collect data on how the world responded to thesituation and how they plan to build a prosperous, resilient and asubstantiable world after the pandemic. Every researcher should act now,
collect valuable data on the impact, response, and resilience, and share it
among each other so that it can be used to help us approach a secondwave of the pandemic, if any, or future pandemics with a better
understanding of the situation.

Contents•

GADRI
LectureSeries—February
2020—pg. 3•

First Announcement of
SADRI—pg. 5

•

GADRI
3rd
Open
Discussion Forum—
pg. 6

•

Meeting of the GADRIBoard of Directors andthe Advisory Board—pg. 10•

Covid-19
GADRI—pg.12•

GADRI Book Series—
pg. 15•

CUrW—ReportonDamage Assessment
Methodology
forFloods—pg. 18

rd

In this issue we are covering the GADRI 3 Open Discussion Forum which
took place on 26th February 2020 at DPRI, Kyoto University, Japan. We
managed to hold the forum just before lockdown. There were a few
cancellations, yet we had a successful discussion session. Another activity
that took place at the same time was the meeting of the GADRI Board of
Directors and the Advisory Board held on 25th February 2020. Members of
the Board of Directors and the Advisory Board also initiated to write a letterto the editor on Covid-19 and GADRI. This is currently being pursued by
the Board and Advisory Board members to publish the letter in one of theleading newspapers or journals.
We hope you will remain strong under this situation, stay safe, and act
proactively to collect data and other information for the post-pandemic
future.
With best wishes,
Hirokazu Tatano and Wilma James

Prof. Andrew Collins - Honoured with the 6th DPRI Award, Kyoto University
Prof. Andrew Collins, Chair of the GADRI Board of Directors from theNorthumbria University, UK was recognized as the recipient of the
6th DPRI Award for Outstanding Contributions to Research and Education
The Award was presented by Prof. Manabu Hashimoto, Director, DPRI,
Kyoto University on 20th February 2020 during the DPRI Annual Meeting
held at DPRI, Obaku Plaza, Kyoto, Japan between 20th to 21st of February
2020. To commemorate the occasion, Prof. Collins delivered apresentation on the "Progress and Prospect for Action Data in People
Centred Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Building". Further details
can be found at GADRI homepage. http://gadri.net/resources/2020/03/
test.html

Photos were taken from the reports shared by members of GADRI. Credit to the photos can be found in therespective articles.
GADRI Actions is designed, formatted and edited by Hirokazu Tatano and Wilma James.

2

andGADRI LECTURE SERIES AT DPRI, KYOTO UNIVERSITY, JAPANThe Spring Session of the GADRI Lecture Series was heldat the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto
University, Uji Campus, Kyoto, Japan on 25th February
2020. The following prominent professors delivered thelectures to DPRI students and faculty members. Prof.
Andrew Collins and Prof. Gretchen Kalonji are members of
the GADRI Board of Directors while Prof. John Clammer is amember of GADRI.

types of systems and how it interprets them. Thenthe lecture shifts beyond towards system-based risk
assessment to thinking about how societies actuallyengages with risks. It doesn’t always fit into a neatsystemic type of analysis. There is an increasing
interest in systemic risk itself and usually that leads tosome of the difficult questions as to how different
systems interact with each other. The questions thatcome out of this is where should be systematized andwhat is beyond the system; where might the nonsystemic be useful also to the systems that are
currently in use.

Prof. Andrew
Collins, Leader,Disaster andDevelopment
Network,
Northumbria
University
Newcastle, United
Kingdom
Andrew Collins is Professor in Disaster andDevelopment, Department of Geography. Beyond
research, local teaching and management
responsibilities,
herepresents
disaster,development and health related initiatives
internationally. Beyond his regular research,teaching and management responsibilities, herepresents disaster, development and healthrelated initiatives internationally. He gained his
PhD from King’s College London in Human
Geography.

Lecture title: Systematising and Desystematising the Societal
Contributions to Disaster Risk
Reduction
The presentation focused on people centred
approaches to disaster risk reduction and the idea ofsystems analysis and what it means by different types
of approaches using systems and sometimes but non-systemic aspects as well. People are quite used tothe idea of systems being fundamental to ther subject
areas. There are many questions ahead as to whysystems approach has got its limitations.
The lecture starts by looking at metanarratives there
are about systems – there are world systems, andwhat is going on really in the subject area in terms of
those world systems. It moves more towards looking
at the management implications of the systems or
non-systemic approaches; and and other different

3

There is a tendency to accept as a way forward trying
to work out what can be achieved beyond thestandards of the systems approach to DRR, andthere is the need to think about how to go about
achieving it. The talk start to discuss about learning
processes and the experiential learning and nonexperiential learning, that has been writing about inrecent years. It also discussed about some of thebarriers there are to developing the approach.
Ultimately this all have to be applied. How might one
engage with this approach going forward. Lot ofanswers to this is by looking around at what isalready going on in the society. The societal
contributions are there naturally and what we aretrying to do is interpret it so that we can remove
barriers to advance forward.
Click the link to watch the lecture at YouTube https://youtu.be/Y9tA9QgDlTQGADRI LECTURE SERIES AT DPRI, KYOTO UNIVERSITY, JAPANProf. Gretchen
Kalonji, Dean,
Institute for Disaster
Management andReconstruction(IDMR), Sichuan
University, China

Prof. John Clammer,
O. P. Jindal Global
University, India
John Clammer is a Professor
at Jindal School of Liberal
Arts and Humanities. He
comes to the university after
a long period in Japan as
Professor of Comparative Sociology and AsianStudies at Sophia University and formerly Director of
the Graduate School of Comparative Culture there,
and as Visiting Professor at the United Nations
University, Tokyo. He is a graduate of Oxford
University and completed his D.Phil. degree there inSocial Anthropology.

Gretchen Kalonji is an American scientist andacademic administrator. She is Dean of Sichuan
University. Kalonji was previously the assistant
Director-General for Natural Sciences at UNESCO.
She is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology (MIT), USA and obtained her D.Phil. on
Materials Science and Engineering.

Lecturetitle:
Innovations
in
Undergraduate Education Design of a
New Major in “Integrated Disaster
Sciences and Management” - itaddressed the following items:•••

Why was this topic chosen and how is it related
to the strategic development of our Institute forDisaster Management and Reconstruction(IDMR)?

Lecture title: Culture, Sustainability andDisaster Recovery: A Sociological,
Architectural and Cultural Approach
discussed the following issues:Comparison of the emerging field of “disastersciences” with the historical evolution of the fieldof “materials science” – lessons and ongoingchallenges; and details of the design for a newundergraduate major in “Integrated Disaster
Sciences and Management”
Prospects for international collaboration in a
research-based, interdisciplinary undergraduate
program

Click on the link to watch the lecture at YouTube https://youtu.be/XMEmZXrbNqM•

Linking Natural Disasters, Humanitarian Crises
and Climate Change•

Building a Holistic model of the relationships
between natural disasters (prevention andrecovery), humanitarian crises, climate change
and sustainability.

•

Which means: Deepening Theory and methodology
 Exploring social, cultural and psychologicaldimensions as well as scientific andengineering ones
 Analyzing cases studies for clues for bothpreparedness, short-term recovery and longterm recovery and rehabilitation
Click on the link to watch the lecture at YouTube- https://youtu.be/XMEmZXrbNqM

4

First Announcement to form the South Asian Alliance of Disaster
Research Institutes, International Workshop on Influencing Last Milein Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) - Evidence Based Lessons from theCommunities’ - Odisha, India from 20 to 21 December 2019The School of Climate and Disaster Studies(SCDS) of the Centurion University of Technology
andManagement, Odisha, India organized a 2-days’
workshop of experts from 20th to 21st December
2019, at Bhubaneswar on ‘Influencing Last Mile inDisaster Risk Reduction (DRR) - Evidence Based
Lessons from the Communities’.
Realizing a sharp increase in frequency ofoccurrence of extreme weather condition related
disasters, largely impacted by climate change,
poses new challenges across the world. Realizing
further that in order to achieve improved andcomprehensive result in DRR it is very importantthat the adaption and coping capabilities at the
local and community level, the last mile in DRR,
must be significantly augmented. The easternboard of the Bay of Bengal, involving India,
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka is emerging as theworst hit region under the climate change impact.
Odisha state, in particular, has been struggling
with both, increase in the frequency as well as theintensity of several disasters. Extremely severe
cyclone, Fani, 26 April to 09 May 2019, first insummer months in 100 years, devastated theeastern regions of the state of Odisha, affecting
the eastern and northern areas of the Bay of
Bengal.
About 50 academicians, researchers, practitioners
and NGO professionals from India, U.S.A, Japan,
Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka actively
participated in the event. Several institutions,5

includinguniversities,
research
institutions, civil society organizations
and the Odisha State Disaster
Management
Authority(OSDMA)
deliberated
tostrengthen
theunderstanding on Community Efforts
in disaster risk reduction. The event is
expected to influence policy decisions
and implementation of strategies for
effective DRR. The workshop provided
a platform for knowledge sharing aswell as developing partnerships
across institutions to strengthen research andfurther knowledge and practice on the theme.
Encouraged by strong support for regional
networking to focus on regional and local issues
by over 20 international participants at the 2019conference of the Global Alliance of Disaster
Research Institutes (GADRI) held in DPRI, Kyoto
University,
Japan,
international
workshopparticipants resolved to form the South Asian
Alliance of Disaster Research Institutions(SAADRI) and made an announcement on thesame.

Prof. Hirokazu Tatano represented GADRI at theworkshop.

GADRI 3rd Open Discussion Forum

Changing Expectations of Natural Hazards: Lessons from
Recent Disasters
DPRI, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan on 26 February 2020

what have not changed over the last
decade in a particular area. Are thesechanges caused due to actual hazardchanging or due to societal fact? Whatsort of background is behind thechanges that we see now and we
expect in the next few decades.
Speakers within GADRI and DPRI
presented their views on the subject.

• Prof. Andrew Collins, Leader, DDN,
Northumbria University, UK talked on
Revisiting Infectious Disease Risk Reductionin the Context of Current Emergencies;

The GADRI 3rd Open Discussion Forum took
place at the Collaborative Research HubConference Hall 301, Disaster Prevention
Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University, UjiCampus, Kyoto, Japan on 26th February 2020.

•

Prof. Gretchen Kalonji, Dean, Institute forDisaster Management and Reconstruction(IDMR), Sichuan University, China presented
on the Disaster Health Sciences at IDMR –Background and News from the Front in
Hubei;•

Prof. Eiichi Nakakita, DPRI, Kyoto University
presented on the Perspectives on Disaster
Related Climate Change Impact Assessment
and Adaptation in Japan (II);•Mr. Kazuhiko Fukami, International Centre for
Water Hazard and Risk Management(ICHARM) under the auspices of UNESCO,
Japan talked on the Japanese Policy
Evolution Responding to the Recent
Catastrophic Floods;•

Dr. Tom de Groeve, European Commission,
Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC), Italy
Understanding Risk: the key to preparedness
and crisis management; and•Prof. Charles Scawthorn, PEER, University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, USA presentation wason the Wildland-Urban Fire—the risk and its
mitigation (online).

•

Prof. Jim Mori, DPRI, Kyoto University, onearthquakes and volcanoes .

The Open Discussion Forum is organized:•

to introduce GADRI activities, andmembers of GADRI Board of Directors•

to facilitate discussion between GADRI
members and important stakeholders in
disaster risk reduction; and•to find directions for GADRI to proceed in thenext few years and provide opportunity forparticipants to interact with the presenters.

theThe 3rd Open Discussion Forum focussed on the"Changing Expectations of Natural Hazards:
Lessons from Recent Disasters". Theme of thesession discussed about changing hazards –andcharacterised briefly what are the changes and
6

The Panel session covered the following topics:••

On infectious disease risks – if we focus on
the hazard, the exposure factors are to do withplaces and with your vulnerabilities including
the biological susceptibility to the hazards.
There are two dynamics to the situation: one is
the physical proximity to the hazard and theother is the susceptibility to the hazard. Thechange in the hazard pathogen, is a result of
the change in its environment. What we doknow is that this is something which we could
recognize as an extensive risk. Because as
you can see – what happens in one part of theworld immediately is an issue to another partof the world as well. It is completelyinterconnected and could be regarded as
extensive risk.
Onadaptation
adaptation
requirespopulations to move around but then it
increases multi-risk levels as well – risk tomore marginal environments which are more
prone to flooding, more prone to perhaps
nutritional insecurities, and that can raise thevulnerability levels. If we think about multihazards, as well as multi risks, and the one
which is usually left out and which is actually
critical in looking at is the infectious diseaserisk, particular the old infectious diseases;
what we call endemic diseases - is often
associated with areas with lot of conflict.
Another factor is conflict risks reduction andother forms of disaster risk reduction which

could work together. Ultimately vulnerability
seems to be the biggest risk we all face.
•

On urbanization – urbanization enhancevulnerability – for example increased intensity
in rainfall and urban flooding issues which are

7quite prominent in the recent years around theworld. Not only the fact that the urbanization isincreasing, this exacerbated by massive
infrastructure development which in turn leads
to poor planning or lack of insufficient attention
to planning or resilience against urban
flooding. That could be significant in urban
areas.
•On health risks, one of the huge health risks isthe air pollution especially in industrializedcountries. It is a human induced risk. It is
having an horrendous impact on many
aspects of human health especially forchildren. If that problem is not drastically dealt
with more effectively, there could be anotherlooming health disaster.

•In the area flood management and especiallyin this case dam construction, etc. - during thepast few decades, we have encountered withmany changes. Few factors that have greatly
contributed are the limitation of budget andhuman resources. With the Internet, people
have easy access to information andcommunication among the researchers anddecision-makers
havebecomescarceespecially when decisions are concerning
multi-stakeholders and multi-disciplinaries. In
the past, if it is a problem in engineering, adecision could be reached just by consulting
the specialist of river management or riverengineering. Now with administrations, there
are so many limitations and many
administrative constraints. Another factor iscommunication with the local people who areresiding in the areas affected by the disasterand it is important to understand the situationfrom their standpoint. They do have much
important information that are useful for
research too. Global initiatives such as the
Sendai Framework, therefore, are needed togrip on such communications and share data.

•changing all that and certainly this, senses,
severity in frequency of probable cyclones
and probably going to increase.

In the area flood management and especiallyin this case dam construction, etc. - during
the past few decades, we have encounteredwith many changes. Few factors that havegreatly contributed are the limitation of budget
and human resources. With the Internet,
people have easy access to information andcommunication among the researchers anddecision-makers have become scarce
especially when decisions are concerning
multi-stakeholders and multi-disciplinaries. In
the past, if it is a problem in engineering, adecision could be reached just by consulting
the specialist of river management or riverengineering. Now with administrations, there
are so many limitations and many
administrative constraints. Another factor iscommunication with the local people who areresiding in the areas affected by the disasterand it is important to understand the situationfrom their standpoint. They do have much
important information that are useful for
research too. Global initiatives such as the
Sendai Framework, therefore, are needed togrip on such communications and share data.

•

Regarding the changing nature of disasterand hazards by rainfall – we have seen
serious hazardous disasters caused by heavy
rainfall. We have seen gradual or sometime
rapid changes due to climate change. For
example, we have experienced and seen an
increase in rainfall intensity, increase in total
volume, length and amounts which in turninduce inundation in larger scale. Future
projections of heavy rainfall follow thecharacteristics of global warming simulations.

•Hazards are not changing much but the restof the situations have changed - the risk isbeing in the intersection of natural hazards,
society, and technology or the natural built
social environment. Global warming may be•

8

The world population is increasing and it will
peak later this century. Increased population
extending into flood prone areas or wildlife
interface, volcanic areas create a problem.
Rapid urbanization, and people moving andfarmers becoming industrialized, thereby
creating voice for labourers. Then they cannot
live on the farms, hence move to cities, andcause an enormous increase in towns.

•systematically extract important knowledge
from the type of events we haveencountered?

On changing expectations of natural
hazards; in a certain way it is not because of
the hazard itself that has change, but also
due to climate change. Perhaps climatechange is aggravating certain natural
hazards. But a lot of it depends on more
exposure, complicity, interconnectedness
and interdependent, including social media
and social network and connectivity. For
example, with the social media, people are
more aware of what is happening
everywhere. It is easy to spread true or
false panic, as we have seen now about thecorona virus.

•

Another important fact is that mitigation
does pay. It is essential to prepare fordesign and beyond. One of the issues isresources. Decision making is slow and it
will be - as may science. These issues are
all very important.

•

This all comes down to understanding therisks - risks is what we are looking at andwhat can affect and it is a combination of thehazard, vulnerability, and exposure. We
need to move regulations for example,
require the governments to disclose
information to its citizens although we may
not have all the answers. How can we

9•Within the GADRI community, if it ispossible to find a mechanism to extract suchkind of information, even as an abstract, andcollect data on the type of event, forexample how it happened, what was
implemented, what are the successes andwhat are the failures, lessons learned, etc.
and share among members.

•

GADRI could play an important global roleby having a more exclusive focus on
science policy issues that are having to deal
with disaster risk reduction. The challenge
would be how to make the long, detailed
papers on science policy lessons bite sizeand comprehensible. It is an interesting
challenge and GADRI could really make adifference.

Meeting of the GADRI Board of Directors and the Advisory Board
DPRI, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
25th February 2020

The 18th meeting of the GADRI Board of Directors
and Advisory Board took place at the Disaster
Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto
University, Uji Campus, Kyoto, Japan on 25th
February
2020.

institutes for the vacant positions and thesecond step was the voting of the institutes to
the GADRI Board of Directors. The vacant
positions were - two vacancies in Europe andAfrica; two vacancies in Asia and Japan; andone vacancy in Americas forUSA.

Term of office of half of themembers of the Board of
Directors will come to an end
as of 31st March 2020. The
occasion
was
used
to
introduce the new members of
the Board The meeting wasattended by the new membersof the Board who will start
their term from 1st April 2020
for four years.
•• Appointment of the Chair –the term of office of the current
Chair of the Board will come toan end as of 31 March 2020. It
was proposed to receive
nominations
includingselfnominations for the Chair of theBoard by e-mail. The GADRISecretariat will follow-up on this in due course.

The meeting was opened by Chair of theBoard requesting all members to give a brief
self-introduction. In addition to the Board
members and the Advisory Board members,
the meeting was joined by the new members of
the Board who would take their term of officefrom 1 April 2020.

•

Minutes of the last meeting - The minutes of
the 17th Meeting of the GADRI Board of
Directors was reviewed and approved by themembers.

•

Voting Results - The
Secretary-Generalof
GADRI
sharedinformationonthevoting process that took
place
betweenNovember 2019 to 1
February 2020 in two
steps. The first step
was to nominate the

•

10

5th
GlobalSummitof
GADRI:
Preparations
areunderway
for
the
5th
Global Summitof GADRI withthe sub-theme
on Engaging Science with Action” in Milan,
Italy, in March 2021.

Members of the GADRI Board of Directors
Name

Term

Institute

Europe and Africa
1Prof. Ortwin Renn

1 April 2018 to 31 March 2022

Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Germany

2

Dr. Zita Sebesvari

1 April 2020 to 31 March 2024

United Nations University, Institute for Environment and Human
Security (UNU-EHS), Bonn, Germany

3

Prof. Peter Sammonds
Prof. David Alexander

1 April 2020 to 31 March 2024

Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction (IRDR), University College
London, UK

1 April 2016 to 31 March 2021

Disaster and Development Network (DDN), Department ofGeography, Northumbria University, UK

4Prof. Andrew Collins(Chair of Board)

Asia and Oceania
5

Prof. Gretchen Kalonji

1 April 2020 to 31 March 2024

IDMR, Sichuan University, Chengdu. China

6

Prof. Toshio Koike

1 April 2020 to 31 March 2024

Public Works Research Institute (PWRI), International Centre for
Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) under the auspicesof UNESCO, Tsukuba, Japan

7

Prof. Mahua Mukherjee

1 April 2018 to 31 March 2022

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, India

8

Dr. Indrajit Pal

1 April 2018 to 31 March 2022

DPMM) Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok, Thailand

Americas9Prof. Paul Kovacs

1 April 2018 to 31 March 2022

Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, Western University,
Toronto Office, Canada

10

Prof. Rodrigo Cienfuegos

1 April 2018 to 31 March 2022

Centro Nacional de Investigacion par la Gestion de Desastres
Naturales (CIGIDEN), Santiago, Chile

11

Prof. John van de Lindt

1 April 2020 to 31 March 2024

Center for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning, Colorado
State University, USA

Secretary-General

DPRI, Kyoto University, Kyoto, JapanGADRI Secretariat
12

Prof. Hirokazu Tatano

1Prof. Irasema Alcántara-Ayala 1 April 2018 to Institute of Geography, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico

2

Dr. Walter Amman

3

5

Prof. Mohsen Ashtiany
1 April 2018 to Iranian Earthquake Engineering Association (IEEA), IranDr. Tom de Groeve
1 April 2020 to European Commission, Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC), Italy
Dr. Elisabeth Krausmann
Dr. Stefan Hochrainer-Stigler 1 April 2018 to International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA), Austria

6

Prof. Fumihiko Imamura

7

Prof. Wei-Sen Li

8Prof. Khalid Mosalam

9Prof. Yuichi Ono

1 April 2020 to10

Prof. Lori Peek

1 April 2020 to Natural Hazard Center (NHC), University of Colorado-Boulder, USA

11

Prof. Charles Scawthorn

1 April 2018 to

12Prof. Rajib Shaw

1 April 2018 to Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Japan

13

Prof. Jörgen Sparf

14

Prof. Kaoru Takara

15

Dr. Gary Wilson

1 April 2020 to Risk and Crisis Research Centre (RCRC), Mid Sweden University, Sweden
Graduate School of Advanced Integrated Studies (GSAIS) in Human Survivability
01-Apr-18(Shishu-Kan), Kyoto University, Japan
1 April 2018 to GNS Science, Natural Hazards Group, New Zealand16

Ms. Ritsuko Yamazaki-Honda 1 April 2020 to National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED), Japan

17

Prof. Qian Ye

Members of the GADRI Advisory Board

4

1 April 2018 to Global Risk Forum (GRF Davos), Switzerland

International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University,
Japan
National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction (NCDR), Chinese
1 April 2018 to
Taipei
Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), University of California,
1 April 2018 toBerkeley, USA
1 April 2020 to1 April 2018 toInternational Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University,
Japan
Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), University of California,
Berkeley, USA

Integrated Risk Governance Project (IRG-Project), State Key Laboratory of Earth
Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, China

Regional Alliances
18
19
20
21

Prof. Andrew Collins (Chair of
UK Alliance of Disaster Research (UKADR), Disaster and Development Network
the Board of Directors; and Co 1 April 2020 to(DDN), Northumbria University, UK-chair UKADR)
Prof. Desmond Manatsa,
African Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (AADRI), Bindura University of Science
1 April 2018 to
Chair
Education, Zimbabwe
North American Alliance for Hazards and Disaster Research Institutes (NAAHDRI),
Prof. Paul Kovacs, Chair
1 April 2018 toInstitute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, Western University, Canada
GADRI Secretariat, Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University,
Prof. Hirokazu Tatano
1 March 2015
Uji Campus, Japan

11

COVID 19 and GADRIThe Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes(GADRI) promotes a collaborative platform forshared knowledge and networking on topics
assisting disaster risk reduction and resilience,
whereby combinations of research groups aroundthe world become more influential by pulling
together.
The current COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates
anew the interconnected and systemic nature ofrisks and ongoing uncertainties affecting all
societies in every part of the world. The GADRIBoard of Directors and the Advisory Board—
representing a membership of over 200 disaster
research institutes worldwide—recognise thechallenges for improved science, policy andpractice in our championing of knowledge andunderstanding in one of the great challenges of ourtimes.
To overcome COVID-19 and similar threats going
forward we recognise that the emergence of
pandemic occurs in contexts of complex
biophysical, exposure and capacity influences thatpredispose to disaster outcomes. Addressing hopein our research and actions in securing sustainable
futures our children wish to experience requires anunending advance in disaster related specialist
knowledge and integrated and multidisciplinary
contributions.
GADRI encourages all it members and theirextensive array of further networks to invest theirefforts to recognise their roles in bringing about
improvements in the way global emergencies,
such as that caused by COVID-19, can beinformed by high quality knowledge from all

12

regions and disciplines that are able to contribute.
This way we will answer back to the current global
predicament, including through building up earlier
our readiness and capacity to also address thewider array of hazards and risks and ongoingchallenges that follow.
Towards this end, GADRI is joining with the North
American Alliance of Hazard and Disaster
Research Institutes (NAAHDRI) to support the
new COVID-19 Global Research Registry for
Public Health and Social Sciences. The Registry is
a collaborative initiative of the CONVERGE facility
headquartered at the Natural Hazards Center at
the University of Colorado at Boulder that involves
partners from around the world. GADRI
encourages all regional alliances of disaster
research and their related networks to proactively
share their further innovations and actions.
The next Global Summit of GADRI is due to takeplace in northern Italy 14th-19th March 2021,
leading to which we will be consolidating aninevitable
multi-institutestimulustonewknowledge and what must be achieved going
forward. We also intend to run a participatory
Webinar shortly for member discussions anddebate relating to COVID 19.
Wishing you all well in your many contributions forchampioning the purpose of the Alliance.
On Behalf of GADRI Board of Directors andAdvisory Board.
Prof. Hirokazu Tatano, Secretary-General, GADRI
Prof. Andrew Collins, Chair, GADRI Board of
Directors

Evidence Aid—Covid-19

Evidence Aid’s COVID-19 evidence collection(https://www.evidenceaid.org/coronavirus-covid19-evidence-collection/) now contains more than
100 summaries of systematic reviews relevant to
COVID-19 listing what works, what doesn’t work
and what’s uncertain with new content being
uploaded daily. Most of these have beentranslated into: Arabic, Chinese (simplified andtraditional), French, Spanish and Portuguese.
The summaries currently fall under the headingsof ‘Clinical characterization and management’,‘Epidemiology’, ‘Ethical considerations’, ‘Healthsystems and services’, ‘Infection prevention andcontrol (including healthcare workers)’, ‘Publichealthinterventions’,‘Researchanddevelopment: therapeutics and vaccines’ and‘Social science in the response’. We aredeveloping a more refined category list which will
ensure easier identification of reviews you want
to read in the future. We are still accepting
volunteers for the project so if you think you canhelp us, please do contact Claire Allen(callen@evidenceaid.org).

Disaster and Risk Management Information Systems
Research Group, Chulalongkorn University
By Assistant Professor Natt Leelawat, Natt.L@chula.ac.th
The
DisasterandRiskManagement
Information
Systems
Research
Group, Chulalongkorn University, are trying to
produce as many outputs in Thai language for Thai
society:.

1. CU Radio podcast

TPA News: http://www.tpa.or.th/tpanews/upload/
mag_content/159/ContentFile3202.pdf

3.
Article:“สังคมญีปุ่่ นกับการรบั มือภัย
COVID19” [Japanese Society and Their Response to
COVID-19]

and article “ส่องเทคโนโลยี

TPA News: http://www.tpa.or.th/tpanews/upload/
mag_content/157/ContentFile3177.pdf

สารสนเทศจีนช่วงวิกฤต
COVID-19”[Information
Technologies in China during COVID-19]
Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/
episode/2KDBahkdlOCkRzYyOSXbOB่4.
Article:“เจาะลึกเรืองราวไวรสั โคโรนาสายพันธุ ์ใหม่
2019” [Cover Story Novel Coronavirus 2019]

TPA News: http://www.tpa.or.th/tpanews/upload/
mag_content/156/ContentFile3154.pdf

TPA News: http://www.tpa.or.th/tpanews/upload/
mag_content/156/ContentFile3139.pdf

่
2. Article: “BCP กับความเสียงโรคระบาด
และ COVID19” [BCP with Pandemic Risk and COVID-19]

More info:
research/13

http://drmis.eng.chula.ac.th/covid-19-

COVID-19 Community Awareness Survey
Centre for Disaster Studies, James Cook University Australia
Written by Dr. Yetta Gurtner Coordinator , Centre for Disaster Studies ,22 May 2020
Email: yetta.gurtner@jcu.edu.au
communities in terms of awareness, preparedness,
response and resilience.
From a disastermanagement/risk reduction perspective there are anumber of potential lessons that can be learnt fromthis event regarding effective communication,
disaster preparedness and pandemic management.
To address this apparent knowledge gap, an online
survey was developed by the Centre for Disaster
Studies at James Cook University to investigate
Australian community awareness, understanding,preparedness and response to COVID-19 andpandemics. Distributed primarily via electronic andsocial media, the survey directly targeted any public
Australian based corona virus/covid-19 group visible
on Facebook (over 50 groups). Within the first monthof the survey (9 April – 9 May 2020) over 1000
survey responses had been received, withparticipants from all States and Territories. Key
preliminary results were collated and publicallydisseminated to the community/associated groups
with a basic infographic (refer Figure provided).

In 2020, most individuals and communities havebeen impacted by the global COVID-19 pandemic insome way. In addition to daily updates and tolls,
there has been an abundance of information, advice
and recommendations on how to reduce viraltransmission and exposure.
Although variable
control and support measures have been developed,
communities have been largely expected to selfadapt and cope in an environment of risk,
uncertainty, and rapidly changing circumstances.
There have been a number of surveys and research
projects designed to determine medical, physical andmental health implications of this crisis, however,there has been limited understanding of impacted

14

While the survey data cannot be considered
representative of the entire Australian population, it
did highlight a high degree of confusion anduncertainty regarding response, behavior andpandemic management strategies. Although mostbelieved it was primarily an individual or household
responsibility, 9% of respondents indicated they weretaking no form of voluntary, recommended or
mandated control measures (ie social, individual and/or environmental control). The degree of confidence
in official information and government imposed
strategies also remained highly variable. In the
broader disaster management context, despite theduration and ongoing nature of the crisis, almost all
respondents indicated they still did not have theknowledge, resources and/or capacity to adequately
prepare for a recommended 14 day pandemic/
isolation lock down. This limitation has significant
implications if an additional hazard/disaster were tooccur during a pandemic.
The survey will remain open until 9 June 2020 withfurther insight expected. The collated data andresponses will be analysed to provide feedback andrecommendations to all relevant stakeholder. As
public good research the survey was notcommissioned or sponsored by any agency.

DISASTER AND RISK RESEARCH:GADRI BOOK SERIES
Publication of the First Book

Under GADRI Book Series the first book “Disaster Risk
Reduction and Resilience” edited by Muneta Yokomatsu andStefan Hochrainer-Stigler was published by Springer in March
2020. https://www.springer.com/series/16177?detailsPage=titles

Other book proposals submitted to Springer under the series arelisted below.

Proceedings of the 3rd Global Summitof Disaster Research Institutes for
Disaster Risk Reduction

disaster risk reduction and management but also
promoted active dialogue through group
discussion sessions that were held according tovarious disaster research disciplines. To facilitate
the group discussion sessions, a prior survey was
conducted to evaluate the current research status
and identify the most important future research
themes and projects. This document was sharedwith each group leader. The 3rd Global Summit
was organized by the Global Alliance of Disaster
Research Institutes (GADRI) which wasestablished soon after the second Global Summit
and the UN World Conference Disaster Risk
Reduction in March 2015, aims to support
implementation of the Sendai Framework for
Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.

By Hirokazu Tatano and Andrew Collins
This book presents selected papers from the 3rd
Global Summit of Research Institutes for Disaster
Risk Reduction which focused on “Expanding the
Platform for Bridging Science and Policy Making”
which was held at the Disaster Prevention
Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University, UjiCampus from 19 to 21 March 2017. The
conference not only provided a platform fordiscussion and exchange of information on mostimportant current and future research projects in

Enhancing Risk GovernanceManage Disaster Risks

governance at different levels are interrelated
each other. Therefore, a variety of actual
governance forms for DRR is observed indifferent contexts of hazards, geographicalconditions and social norms. It implies theadvantage of pursuing a governance pattern for
DRR fitting for the hazard‐specific and local‐
specific context rather than one‐size‐fits‐all
approach. To understand the variety ingovernance patterns, explicit knowledge on thecompatibility between governance pattern andcontexts is necessary.

to

By Masamitsu Onishi and Yuichi Ono
This book provides state‐of‐the‐arts ofresearches
inintegrated
disasterriskmanagement fields specifically from the aspect ofgovernance. The Sendai Framework 2015
addresses the significance of governance inmanaging disaster risks. Subjects relevant to thegovernance include different levels from theinternational and national level to the municipality
or smaller community level. Mechanisms of

15

DISASTER AND RISK RESEARCH:GADRI BOOK SERIES
Health and Disaster Risk Management•

Capacity development of health professionals
at all levels in understanding disaster risk
reduction and management is vital. |An all
hazards approach demands an inclusive risk
management
system,ofdisaster
preparedness for effective response to “Build
Back Better” in recovery, rehabilitation andreconstructionascontinuous
quality
improvement process of the health system.

•

Research needs to deliver evidence informed
Health and Disaster Risk and Management
approaches that will be addressed in this bookwhich will provide resource to facilitate howthese goals can be addressed

By Virginia Murray, Andrew Collins, Ryoma
Kayano and Emily Chan••

Health is a key element of the Sendai
Framework and the other landmark 2015
agreements including the SDGs and Paris
Climate Change Agreements. Emphasis will
be placed on population vulnerability at alllevels including those of that are marginalized,
young, old, disabled, and those that have noncommunicable diseases, are migrants and areof indigenous origin.
Under the Sendai Framework agreement,
building resilient health systems throughintegration of all-hazards disaster risk
management within health care and wellbeing
is essential

resilience tool. Our purpose is to introduce readers
to the challenging context of development andopportunity creation for Eco-DRR. Role of policy,
science research and implementations will bepresented cohesively. An attractive proposition ofthis book is a bouquet of case-studies from different
parts of the world where integration of BGI are
experimented with various levels of success. It isenvisaged that shared tacit experiences from therealm of practices will strengthen explicit knowledge
further.

Strategic inclusion of Eco-system based
Disaster Resilience
By Mahua Mukherjee and Rajib ShawThis book will aim to provide an introduction tocritical role of Eco-system based Disaster Risk
Resilience (Eco-DRR) for building community
resilience to multiple environmental risks like risingheat, water stress, pollution etc. Blue-GreenInfrastructure (BGI) are Eco-DRR tool which is anunder-explored paradigm and can respond as one
common strategy to targets set by Sustainable
Development Goals (UNDP), Climate Agreements(UNEP), Sendai Framework (UNISDR) and New
Urban Agenda (UNCHS).

The book will deliberate on Need and Context
Building, Policy and Science (investigation, analysis
and design), Case studies and Future Road map in
4 successive parts. Each part will be self-sufficient
yet linked to its predecessor and/ or successor as
the case may be.

The book is intended to be comprehensive
beginning to systematic discussion on this emerging

GLOBAL DISASTERS OF 2017-2018
By Charles Scawthorn
Ghafory-Ashtiany

andMohsenThe book is a compendium of papers from the 4th
GADRI Summit, summarizing major disasters that
occurred in 2017 and 2018 (see table of contents).
The disasters range across the globe including Asia,
North and South America and the Pacific.

16

A section also deals with the issues and current
state of the art of global disaster databases. The
volume is intended as the first of a biannual series
on global disasters, compiled from GADRI Summits.

DISASTER AND RISK RESEARCH:GADRI BOOK SERIESSocial Dimensions of Disaster Risk
The book presents an array of complex disruptive
aspects of the people centred responses to livingwith risk, including conflict, health, mobility,communication, faith, capacity and politics. An
outcome of this publication is to consolidate acontribution to decision making processes indisaster interventions that the series of chapter
orient including through unique and co-produced
analysis. The contributions herein represent
smart accounts that combine underlying
philosophical challenges of the subject withidentifying what really addresses disaster risk.
This involves studies of real world complex
hazard, disaster and risk challenges andopportunities. It brings seemingly disparate
chapter topics together into a common agenda ofaddressing humanity’s social interaction withcrises that can be both rare and a part ofeveryday life.

By Andrew Collins, Masamitsu Onishi,
and Subhajyoti Samaddar
This book brings together contiguous andinterrelated aspects of people centered disasterrisk
forbetterunderstanding
amongstpractitioners, policy makers, postgraduate andundergraduate students. It responds toincreasing demands to address risk as bothcause and consequence of human struggle.
Using an array of examples, the book examines
how people are responding to, and living with oldand new risks that are partly understood.
Sentient people mediate risk through social
relations and actions stemming from varying
systems of meaning. This is explored through thedifferent social contexts and adjustments that
occur in times of crises exemplifying how people
in groups or as individuals negotiate future safety
and security.

Deepening the Understanding of
Risks: Atmospheric and Hydrometeorological Disasters

The understanding of the risk is decomposed
into the understanding of physical mechanisms
for the responses of disaster-spawning extreme
weather to global warming, changes in statistics
of extreme hazard events, and responses of built
environment to the extreme events. The chaptersconsist of contributions from scientists,
researchers, engineers and practitioners.

By Wei-Sen Li, Kaoru Takara, Srikantha
Herath,TetsuyaSumi,
Sameh
Kantoush, Tetsuya Takemi, Kazuyoshi
Nishijima
This book will focus on atmospheric & hydrometeorologicaldisastersfromscientific,
engineering and implementation perspectives.
The disasters could be caused by extreme
meteorological phenomena at various spatial
scales. Under changing climate, these extreme
phenomena are anticipated to intensify andhence to become more disastrous. Therefore, aspecial emphasis is given on the impact
assessment of changing climate.

17

DAMAGE ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY FOR FLOODS
Center for Urban Water (CUrW)
Metro Colombo Urban Development Project Ministry of Urban Development
Water Supply and Housing Facilities, Sri Lanka
Shared by Prof. Srikantha Herath

Introduction and the structure of the report

Services Centre, Municipal councils, Urban
Councils and Divisional Secretariats)

1.1. Introduction to the damage assessment report

There are more types of damages that can be seen
in a disaster, which are not easily captured by aphysical property, such as the value of a (lost)
human life and the extent of a disease outbreakwhich is due to the cascading effect of the flood
event.

This report will explain the methods adopted by theCentre for Urban Water (CUrW) for the loss
estimations for the simulated past and future flood
scenarios. The losses will generally occur in thefollowing aspects.
•

Structural damage for buildings (Damages tothe building structural elements such as walls/
roof)

•

Content damage for buildings (Damages to thethings inside the building such as sofas/
television/refrigerator)•

Damages to the economic activities (Damages
occur from not conducting the economic
activities such as interruptions to businesses
etc.)

•

Damages to the prominent infrastructure (suchas bridges, roads, culverts, telephone
connection points and poles, electricalinfrastructure, flood protection structures etc.)•

Damages to the vehicles•

Expenditure for relief (cost borne for the relief
requirements of the flood affected people,
which is usually born by the relevant
governmental authorities such as Disaster
Management Centre, National Disaster Relief

Currently, CUrW adopts damage functions
prepared for the structural damages and thecontent damages, which were prepared based on
the field surveys carried out by the internal staff of
CUrW, in order to calculate the respective
damages. At the same time, CUrW seeks
opportunities to develop relevant damage curves
for the other types of the aforementioned damage
categories,
throughpossiblepartnerships,
methodologies and workarounds.

1.2. Structure of the report The rest of the reportwill initially explain the concept behind damage
assessment, the methodology adopted for the
structural damage calculation and the developmentof the damage curves for the structural damages,
the methodology of development of the content
damage functions, computational methods for thedamage calculation and how CUrW has adopted
rapid calculation methodologies for the damage
assessments.

18

2. Damage assessment-concept

Data collection

2.1. Introduction Flood damages are assessedconsidering the flood hazard, exposure of theassets (buildings in this case) and thevulnerability of the exposed structures, by thefollowing formula.

For this study, data is collected as aquestionnaire survey in the flood affected areas
for the recent flood events. There have been 297
respondents, who are mainly adults who have aclear memory of the recent flood events. Data on
the replacement cost and the repair cost of thedamaged structural items were collected in thissurvey, alongside with the flood depths and thetype of the building in the relevant flood event.

Here, the flood hazard is expressed by the floodinundation maps, which are often the results ofthe flood simulation exercises. Flood inundation
maps for a particular flood scenario produce two
important information: flood extent (area ofinundation) and the flood depth at the inundated
locations.

The basic types of the buildings are taken as (A)Unreinforced masonry bearing walls, (B)Concrete frame with unreinforced masonry fillwalls, (C) Wooden structures, (D) Commercial
buildings as identified by the World Agency ofPlanetary Monitoring and Earthquake Risk
Reduction (WAPMERR) and as documented byUnited Nations office of Disaster Risk Reduction(UNISDR). Here, it is assumed that thecommercial buildings are built with concrete
frames and unreinforced masonry walls as well,
however the finishes and the furnishes would be
different from the general residential buildings.
Furthermore, one more building category was
identified as (E) Watta, in order to comply to the
local conditions. The category Watta usuallycontain densely populated dwelling units often
made with temporary building materials or withunreinforced masonry bearing walls.

Exposure is the placement of the assets,buildings in this case (if the people at risk isconcerned, the exposure would be the peoples'
locations). Alongside, the building properties are
considered in this stage such as structuralproperties for the structural damage calculationand the building use categories for the content
damage calculations. There are five structural
damage categories and nine building use
categories considered in assessing damages inthis study, as mentioned in the Section 3. These
exposure maps are available in the form ofvectors (shapefiles), having attributes of building
structural fabrication and the building use, foreach of the individual buildings.
Vulnerability is contextualized by the vulnerability(damage) functions and the base damage values
for each of the building exposure category as
discussed in section 3. These functions can bemodelled in the Geographic Information System(GIS) modelling software, in order to calculate
the damage for a given flood. Figure 1
demonstrates the concepts of hazard andexposure, where the flood map (hazard) isoverlaid with the building footprint layer to show
the exposure of the building to the floods.
3. Derivation of
structural damage

damagefunctions

Visit GADRI website for the full report—http://
gadri.net/events/pdf/SriLanka_CUrW%
20ShortReport.pdf

for

The damage functions for the structural
damages are directly drawn from the study from
Komolafe et al., 2018, which studies the floods in
Sri Lanka for the 2010 floods. Since acomprehensive methodology of derivation of thedamage curves and many more information ispresented in the aforementioned study, only asummary of the methodology will be explained
under this section. The full paper is annexed tothis report at Annex 7.1. 3.1.

19

GADRI Members
Geographical Distribution of GADRI
Members as of 30 April 2020

The Global Alliance of Disaster ResearchInstitutes (GADRI) was established in March 2015
to support the implementation of the Sendai
Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030(SFDRR) and the work of the Scientific andTechnical Advisory Group of the United Nations
Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).
Since March 2015, GADRI membership has
expanded to exceed 200 institutions.
GADRI Secretariat is currently headquartered andhosted by the Disaster Prevention ResearchInstitute (DPRI), Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
GADRI membership is free; and completely
voluntary and non-binding.
To join GADRI, please contact the GADRISecretariat:
secretariat-gadri@dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp

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.

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