Annual Report 2023

Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes
Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —1

Global Alliance of Disaster

The 2011 Global Summit paved the way to start the Global Summit series of GADRI.
In November 2011, the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto
University held the First Global Summit of Research Institutes for Disaster Risk
Reduction which was held at DPRI, Kyoto University, Uji Campus, Kyoto, Japan inNovember 2011. At the conference, it was the proposed to establish a network ofdisaster research institutes to be fostered by DPRI, Kyoto University to bring
together research institutes working on disaster risk prevention and mitigation invarious disciplines.

GADRI Secretariat is hosted by:Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI)GADRI Annual Report 2023 —2

Research Institutes (GADRIThe Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (GADRI) was established in
March 2015 with a mandate to support the implementation of the Sendai Frameworkfor Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 during Second Global Summit held at DPRI,
Kyoto University, Uji Campus, Kyoto, Japan which was held soon after the UN World
Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR, 2015) which took place in Sendai,
Japan.
Currently, GADRI members work in close partnership with the initiatives of UNDRR.
GADRI works closely with the science and technology community collaborating inscience-based research and technology, endorsing policies related to disaster risk
reduction, and disseminating and sharing cutting-edge knowledge and information
supported by evidence-based research among research institutions, internationalorganizations and the private sector in various nation states. GADRI community
continue to evolve and strengthen research activities towards disaster risk reduction
and management and find implementable solutions to achieve disaster resilience inthe world.

Kyoto University, Uji Campus, Kyoto, JapanGADRI Annual Report 2023 —3

Contents

Table of Contents•

Message from the Secretary-General, GADRI•GADRI Activities in 2023

We thank for the support
received by all members•

GADRI Book Series•

6th Global Summit of GADRI:•

Board of Directors of GADRI; and theRegional Alliances of GADRI

and appreciate withgratitude their inputs to•

Keeping in touch with Members of GADRI

the GADRI Annual
Report 2023.

GADRI Secretariat
Disaster Prevention ResearchInstitute (DPRI), Kyoto University••

Americas (11)•Asia (12)•Japan (11)•Oceania (1)•Europe (18)•Africa (1)Geographical Distribution of GADRIUji Campus, Gokasho, Uji Shi
Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
Tel: +81-0774-38-4651

E-mail: secretariatgadri@dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Web: http://gadri.net

GADRI Annual Report 2023 is the
Secretariat.

property of GADRI

Edited and designed by Hirokazu Tatano and Wilma James.
Copyright © 2023 by GADRI Secretariat.
All rights reserved. GADRI Annual Report 2023 or any portion
thereof may not be reproduced or used in any
mannerwhatsoever
without
thewritten permissionofthe publisher—GADRI Secretariat.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —4

GADRI
Annual Report
2023

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —5

Message from theSecretary-General, GADRI
guidanceandrecommendations,particular, for Committees of GADRI.

in

6. GADRI Secretariat successfully concluded
the nominations and voting process to electnew members to fill the upcoming
vacancies in the Board of Directors of
GADRI.
7. The five Committees of GADRI are moving
forward.
https://gadri.net/resources/
committee-of-gadri/

Dear Member of GADRI,
Greetings!
We hope you are doing well.
We are pleased to bring to you the GADRI
Annual Report 2023.
We sincerely thank all our members who sent
information on their respective institute’s
activities to complete the report. Over 50
member institutes shared information.
GADRI Secretariat kept busy during 2023 too.
1. 6th Global Summit of GADRI: Towards
GADRI Objectives of Achieving a
Sustainable Disaster-Resilient World washeld at the Disaster Prevention ResearchInstitute (DPRI), Kyoto University, UjiCampus, Japan from 15 to 17 March 2023.

8. Plans are underway to collect papers for
the Proceedings of the 6th Global Summit of
GADRI.
9. Plans are underway to organize the 7th
Global Summit of GADRI at the Colorado
State University, USA during the week of
17th March 2025.
10. GADRI Lecture Series were revived and six
lectures were held at the DPRI, Kyoto
University, Uji Campus. https://gadri.net/
resources/gadri-lectures-series/
11. GADRI Actions – the newsletter of GADRI
was published during the Summer andWinter 2023. https://gadri.net/resources/
publications/

2. Side event on Sendai Midterm ReviewMTF-SF Viewpoints and Discussion for the
Next Seven Years of the Sendai
Framework was held on 14 March 2023 at
DPRI, Kyoto University.

12. GADRI was represented at many
international conferences and symposia..

3. A pre-conference survey was conductedamong GADRI members to collect their
institute contributions to the four priority
areas of the SFDRR.

14. GADRI Secretariat received nearly ten
membership applications.

-

Outcomes and Recommendations fromthe above-mentioned events were
submitted by the Board of Directors of
GADRI to the UNDRR for the Midterm
Review meeting held in New York in
May 2023. Click here to review the fullreport.

4. Resolution_6th Global
2023.pdf (gadri.net)

Summit

13. GADRI Regional Alliances continue tosupport GADRI and promote its objectives.

Do visit our website to find more about theabove-mentioned activities.

Once again, thank you for your continued
support and contributions to GADRI. We could
not have achieved the successes of GADRI
without your help.

March
Hirokazu Tatano

5. The Board of Directors of GADRI met fourtimes this year. The Board continue to takeof stock of GADRI activities and provide

Secretary-General, GADRI; andDPRI, Kyoto University, JapanGADRI Annual Report 2023 —6

GADRI Vision
To deepen the understanding of disasters and find implementable
solutions to achieve disaster resilience, by integrating knowledge andtechnologies from around the world.

GADRI Objectives•

To support the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk
Reduction 2015-2030•

To establish a global research network that promotes and engages disaster
research.

•

To provide a research roadmap, with plans that help facilitate the organization ofdisaster research groups.

•

To promote capacity building and development of disaster research institutes andenhances researcher and student exchange.

•

To promote exchange and sharing of data and information for scientific researchacross the globe.

•

To serve as an advocacy organization presenting
approaches that influence decision-making processes.

evidence-based

GADRI Activities•

Planning and organization of regionally or globally
research initiatives•

Formation of international research groups to investigate current global disasters,
and implement new research methodologies for disaster risk reduction andimplementation•

Establishment of an international network for timely communication related toresearch on disasters•

Organization of conferences, workshops and meetings•

Dissemination and sharing of information, publications, reports, data and otherresearch outputs••

collaborative disaster risk

Facilitation of rapid reconnaissance field surveys following
disasters

Preparation ofbulletins, research

GADRI news releases, policy recommendations, news
reports, and other publications.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —7

Disaster and Risk Research:
GADRI Book Series

Disaster and Risk Research: GADRIBook Series is published under the
auspices of the Global Alliance ofDisaster Research Institutes (GADRI).
The global status of disaster researchreflects the major strides made in thedisaster sciences. These volumes
present the forefront of disaster
research,includingkeyscientificfindings,
methodologies,
policyrecommendations and case studies.
Whilst disaster risk needs to be
managed in an integrated manner,persistently isolated applications ofknowledge, practice and policy are
falling short of ensuring disaster-resilient
societies.
Responding to this deficit calls formeasurement, tools, techniques andinstitutional structures that can realisticallysupport comprehensive risk assessmentand management across multiple hazard
landscape. As such, disaster research is
now faced with a multi-disciplinary, multistakeholder challenge. Contributions tothis series therefore address many varied
and critical opportunities to advance thesubject area. A cross-cutting vision
shared across the Disaster and Risk
Research volumes is to improve thefuture of scientific and technologicalguidancewithclearly
identifiableroadmaps to ensure human safety andsecurity.
https://www.springer.com/series/16177
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —8

GADRI strives to work in close
partnership with the UNDRRThe Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes(GADRI), established during the same year as the
Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction was
adopted in 2015, aims at stock taking of progress andachievements in DRR research from its members
towards the targets of the Science and Technology
Roadmap to implement the goals and priorities of the
Sendai Framework

GADRI has contributed to the
ScienceandTechnology
Advisory Group (STAG); and theExpert Group on the Global Risk
Assessment Framework (GRAF).

During the Global Summits of GADRI, members of
GADRI are requested to report on their instituteprogress through a survey, voluntary progress reports
and through the conference discussion sessions.
At the end of each conference, the Board of Directorsof GADRI will share the recommendations andachievements from the survey and the discussion
sessions with the UNDRR Office.
Soon after the 6th Global Summit of GADRI and Side
Event organized to Sendai Midterm Review – MTR-SF- Viewpoints and Discussion for the Next Seven Years,
were submitted to the Sendai Mid-term Review
Meeting held in New York in May 2023.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —9

6th Global Summit of GADRIEngaging Sciences with Action
DPRI, Kyoto University, Japan
15 to 17 March 2023

The 6th Global Summit of GADRI: Towards GADRI
Objectives of Achieving a Sustainable DisasterResilient World was held at the Disaster Prevention
Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University, UjiCampus, Kyoto, Japan from 15 to 17 March 2023.
The Opening Ceremony was decorated by thedistinguished guested invited from the Kyoto
University, UNDRR, Uji City Office, and DPRI. Namely,
Prof. Nagahiro Minato, President, Kyoto University;
Ms. Mami Mizutori, SRSG, UNDRR; Ms.
Atsuko Nakamura, Mayor, Uji City Office;and Prof. Eiichi Nakakita, Director, DPRI.

•DRR objectives and vision should be integrated
with sustainable development goals to foster aresilient world;•

Short-term DRR objectives need to be integrated
with a long-term vision and plans for a resilient
society.

Five Committees were created by the
Board of Directors of GADRI to carry out
the implementation of the five broad
objectives of GADRI.
Through the 6th
Global Summit of GADRI, it was envisaged
to align these objectives towards thefollowing three area to achieve asustainable and resilient society against
hazards and prevent disasters.
•

Disaster risk should not be treated inisolation but should be integrated withhealth risks, climate change, andenvironmental risks;GADRI Annual Report 2023 —10

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —11

Plenary Sessions introduced an expert array of
keynotespeakers
fromvariousfieldsandspecializations.
Plenary Session One noted thecurrent disasters, especially the recent Türkiye
devastating earthquakes and, to find ways to integrate
disaster risks preventions to present and futuredisasters. The session was chaired by Prof. Rajib
Shaw and Prof. Virginia Murray.
••

The state of Disaster Risk Reduction and theTransformations Needed to Ttake the World from
Risk to Resilience, Mami Mizutori, UNDRR,
Switzerland
What Happened on 6 February 2023
Earthquakes in Türkiye, Mustafa Erdik, Emeritus
Professor, Dept. Earthquake Engineering,Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake ResearchInstitute, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi, Türkiye•

Climate Science for Action, Masahide Kimoto,President, National Institute for Environmental
Studies (NIES); and Professor Emeritus, The
University of Tokyo, Japan•The Potential for Recovery to Support
Transformative Improvement in Disaster Risk
Reduction, Paul Kovacs, Chair, Board of
Directors of GADRI; and Executive Director,
Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR),
Western University, Canada.

Plenary Session Two focussed on visions to mitigate
climate change and increase resilience through DRR
objectives with SDGs. The Session was chaired by
Prof. Yuichi Ono, IRIDeS, Tohoku University, Japan;
and Dr. Tom De Groeve, Activing Head, European
Commission, Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC), Italy.
••

Digital Twinning of Communities for Disaster Risk
Reduction: Climate Adaptive Solutions, John vande Lindt, Harold H. Short Endowed Chair
Professor, Co-Director, Center for Risk-Based
Community Resilience Planning, Colorado State
University, USA•

Addressing Climate Change and Disaster Risks in
the Context of Sustainable Development inSouthern Africa, Chipo Mudavanhu, VicePresident, AADRI; and Senior Lecturer, Bindura
University of Science Education, Zimbabwe

Plenary Session Three was on Systemic Risks andEmerging Future Challenges.
Part One of the session was chaired by Prof. Charles
Scawthorn, Emeritus Professor, University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, USA; and Ms. Ritsuko YamazakiHonda, NIED, Tsukuba•

Online - Risk Communication and Governance ina Post-Truth Environment, Ortwin Renn, Retired
Scientific Director,
International Advanced
Science Studies (IASS), Germany

Part Two of the Plenary Session Three was chaired by
Prof. Wei-Sen Li, NCRD, Chinese Taipei; and Prof.
Gretchen Kalonji, IMDR, Sichuan University, China.
•

Anticipation, Integration and Impact – Three
Elements for Tackling Future Risks, Tom De
Groeve, European Commission, Joint ResearchCentre (EC-JRC), Italy•

Disaster Science: Updating Theory to Guide
Disaster Risk Reduction in the Future, David
Alexander, Professor, Institute for Risk andDisaster Reduction (IRDR), University College
London, UK

The Climate Crisis is a Health Crisis - Climate
Change and Public Health - links to the Sendai
Framework, the Paris Agreement and the SDGs,
Virginia Murray, Head, Global Disaster Risk
Reduction, UK Health Security Agency, UK

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —12

To facilitate discussions, following group discussion
sessions were organized;• Committee on Networking - Fostering Networking toEnhance Global DRR
Chaired by Prof. Charles Scawthorn, Emeritus
Professor, University of California, Berkeley, USA;
and Co-chaired by Ms. Ritsuko Yamazaki-Honda,
NIED, Tsukuba, Japan. Supported by Prof. Kenji
Tanaka and Prof. Tetsuya Sumi, DPRI, Kyoto
University, Japan.

This session started with a keynote lecture by Prof.
Reini
Wirahadikusumah,
Rector,InsituteofTechnology Bandung (ITB), Indonesia (online)

Other panellists were: Mr. Bill Ho (online); Prof. Ailsa
Holloway (online), Stellenbosch University, South
Africa; Prof. G. Mukwada (online), Free State
University, South Africa; and Prof. Dimiter Velev(online), University of National and World Economy,
Bulgaria.
• Committee on Data and Information Sharing

Panelist were: Prof. Rajib Shaw, Dr. Ronan Sato,
Energy and Environment Investment, Tokyo, Japan;
Prof. Jean-Paul Pinelli, Florida Institute ofTechnology, USA; Prof. Hiroyuki Goto, DPRI, Kyoto
University, Japan

Chaired by Prof. Andrew Collins, DDN, Northumbria
University, UK; and Dr. Tom De Groeve, EC-JRC,
Italy; and Co-chaired by Prof. Philipp Ulbrich,
University Glasgow, UK; and Prof. Hiroyuki Goto,
DPRI, Kyoto University, Japan• Committee on S&T Roadmap

Panellists were: Prof. Norio Maki, DPRI, Kyoto
University, Japan; Prof. Jean-Paul Pinelli, Dr.
Rebecca Richardson, Northumbria University, UK and
Prof. Hiroyuki Goto.

Chaired by Prof. Hirokazu Tatano with co-chairs Prof.
Toshio Koike, and Prof. Selim Gunay. Supported by
Dr. Yuki Matsushi, DPRI.
Panelists consisted of: Prof. Toshio Koike, ICHARM,
Japan; Prof. Qunli Han, IRDR, China; Prof. Yuichi
Ono, IRIDeS, Tohoku University, Japan; Prof. Mahua
Mukherjee, IIT, Roorkee, India; Dr. Guirong Grace
Yan, Missouri University of Science and Technology,
USA; and Prof. Selim Gunay, PEER, USA• Committee on Institutional Capacity Building
Chaired by Prof. Wei-Sen Li, Secretary General,
NDRC, Chinese Taipei; and Co-chaired by Prof.
Desmond Manatsa, AADRI, Bindura University of
Science Education, Zimbabwe; and Prof. Gretchen
Kalonji, IMDR, Sichuan University, China. Supported
by Dr. Subhajyoti Samaddar, Prof. Tetsuya Takemi,
and Prof. Kenji Kawaike, DPRI, Kyoto University,
Japan.

• Committee on Advocacy—Science Technology andInnovation linked to Advocacy
Chaired by Prof. Rajib Shaw; and co-chaired by Prof.
Irasema Alcantara-Ayala, Institute of Geography,
UNAM, Mexico; and Prof. Paul Kovacs. Supported by
Prof. Masamitsu Onishi, DPRI, Kyoto University,
Japan.
Panellists: Ms. Antonia Loyzaga (video), DENR
Philippines; Prof. Joy Pereira (video), UKM, Malaysia;
Prof. Takeshi Komino, ADRRN, and CWS, Japan;
and Prof. Sayaka Irie, Matsumoto University, Japan.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —13

On Panel Discussion two on New Challenges for
Action by GADRI, focussed on the following:•

Big Science for DRR: Large-scale Experiment

Chaired by Prof. Nobuhito Mori, and Co-chaired by
Prof. Shinichi Matsushima, DPRI, Kyoto University,Japan
Panelists were Prof. Nelson Pulido, National
Panelists were Prof. Nelson Pulido, National
Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster
Resilience (NIED), Tsukuba, Japan; Prof. Kojiro
Suzuki,
Director,
Dept.
CoastalHydraulicEngineering, National Institute of Maritime, Port andAviation Technology, Port and Airport ResearchInstitute, Japan; and Prof. Kentaro Tabata, National
Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster
Resilience (NIED), Tsukuba, Japan•

Sustainable DRR: Integrating climate action,
SDGs and Field DRR & Data (experience)
Sharing - New Challenges for Actions by GADRI

Chaired by Prof. Tetsuya Takemi, DPRI, Kyoto
University, Japan; and Co-chaired by Prof. John vande Lindt, Colorado State University, USA.
Panelists included: Prof. Weiqiang Ma, ITP Chinese
Academy of Science, China; Prof. Fatima Akter,
University of Dhaka, Bangladesh; Prof. Mahua
Mukherjee, IIT, Roorkee, Indid; Dr. Novvria Sagita,
DPRI, Kyoto University, Japan•

Gender and Inclusivity in DRR Policy andPractice

Panellists consisted of Prof. Punam Yadav, IRDR,
University College London, UK; Prof. Miwako
Kitamura, IRIDeS, Tohoku University, Japan; Prof.
Shigeo Tatsuki, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan,
and Prof. Ana Maria Cruz.
•

Putting Health into Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) and Recovery

Chaired by Prof. Virginia Murray, UKHSA, UK; andCo-chaired by Prof. Andrew Collins, DDN,
Northumbria University, UK; and Dr. Ryoma Kayano,
WHO Kobe Office. Supported by Dr. Genta Nakano,
DPRI, Kyoto University.
Panellists were: Dr. Ryoma Kayano, Dr. Genta
Nakano, and Prof. Virginia Murray•

Young Scientists Session on Youth and DRR;
The Role of Youth and Young Professionals indata and knowledge sharing in disaster risk
management

Chaired by Prof. Gretchen Kalonji, IRDR, Sichuan
University, China; and Co-chaired by Prof. Wei-Sen
Li, NCDR, Chinese Taipei. Supported by Dr. Huan
Liu, DPRI, Kyoto University, Japan.
Panellists were: Dr. Mizan Bisri, Kobe University,
Japan; Dr. Ryo Tsuchida, Kyoto University, Japan;
Dr. Nuraini Rahma Hanifa (online), U-INSPIRE,
Indonesia; and Dr. Ranit Chatterjee,RIKA, India; Dr.
Maria Camila Suarez Pablo, UNGRD, Colombia; andDr. Chipo Mudavanhu, AADRI, Bindura University of
Science Education, Zimbabwe.

Chaired by Prof. Peter Sammonds, Institute for Risk
and Disaster Reduction, University College London,
UK; and Co-Chaired Prof. Ana Maria Cruz DPRI,
Kyoto University, Japan; and Dr. Guirong Grace Yan,
Missouri University of Science and Technology, USA.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —14

In addition, there was a regional session to showcase
the activities of the regional alliances of GADRI. A
chance of given, especially to young researchers andscientists to demonstrate through poster presentation
session, their current and ongoing research projects. A
Networking Session on Seeds and Needs was organized to share, exchange and collaborate information
among institutions.
GADRI Questionnaire
A pre-conference GADRI survey collected data from allof its members to submit as a collective report to the
UNDRR Sendai Mid-Term Review meeting in New
York, USA in May 2023.
Wrap-up:Concluding the summit, a final resolution was draftedcollecting the outcomes and recommendation from theten panel discussion session which was shared by
Board of Directors of GADRI with the UNDRR meetingon the Mid-term Review of Sendai Framework to beheld in New York, USA in May 2023.
The 6th Global Summit of GADRI was attended bynearly 200 participants from 30 economies.

Detailed descriptions, summaries of outcomes can befound in the newsletter, GADRI ACTIONS, Spring 2023
- https://gadri.net/resources/publications/.
Complete
reports and outcomes will be published in the Proceedings of the 6th Global Summit of GADRI to be published under the Disaster and Risk Research: GADRIBook Series, Springer. https://www.springer.com/
series/16177
Closing Banquet
The final closing banquet was held at the Rihga Royal
Hotel, Kyoto. Prof. Kyoko Inagaku, Vice-President,
Kyoto University; and Mr. Kadokawa, Mayor, Kyoto
City delivered congratulatory remarks.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —15

Side Event on the Sendai Midterm
Review – MTR-SF - Viewpoints andDiscussion for the Next Seven Years
14 March 2023
A side event was organized to discuss a action plan and recommendations to be submitted to
the Sendai Mid-Term Review meeting to be held in New York, USA in May 2023.

13:00

Registration

13:1515:00

Greetings – Hirokazu Tatano, Secretary-General, GADRI; Professor, Disaster Prevention
Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University, Japan

Results of the GADRI Survey—Genta Nakano, Assistant Professor, DPRI, Kyoto
University, Japan
Yuki Matsuoka, Head, UNDRR Kobe Office, JapanGADRI Annual Report 2023 —16

Presentations and Panel Discussion I: Learning the current situation/status of the MTR
SF and Current Progress
Chair: Chipo Mudavanhu, Senior Lecturer, Bindura University of Science Education,
Zimbabwe; and John van de Lindt, Co-Director, Harold H. Short Endowed Chair
Professor, Colorado State University, USA
Transformative Steps to Shift the World onto a Sustainable and Resilient Path
Toshio Koike, Executive Director, ICHARM, Japan – G-Science covering CC, Ocean and
Health, Japan
Science Technology and Innovation: Mid-term review from Asia Pacific Perspectives
Rajib Shaw, Professor, Keio University, Japan – Asia Scientific and Technological Advisory
Group (A-STAG), Japan
Message from Health and Sendai Framework Mid Term Review
Virginia Murray, Head, Global Disaster Risk Reduction, UK Health and Security Agency

Managing the Changing Risk Landscape: IRDR Perspective Actions Toward an
Inclusive, Safe, and Sustainable Development
Qunli Han, Executive Director, Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR), China
Message from Sendai to the Midterm review on the Sendai Framework for Disaster
Risk Reduction
Yuichi Ono, Director and Professor, IRIDeS, Tohoku University, Japan
15:00-15:15

15:15-16:30

Coffee Break
Presentations and Panel Discussion II: How can we/GADRI contribute to theremaining/next 7 years of the SF
Chair: Tom De Groeve, Acting Head, DRM Unit, European Commission Joint ResearchCentre, Italy
Engaging Systemic Risk in Under-Resourced and Highly Exposed Settings
Andrew Collins, Leader, DDN, Northumbria University, UK
Progress on the Implementation of the Sendai Framework: Challenges for the Scienceand Technology Community in the Americas and the Caribbean
Irasema Alcantara-Ayala, Professor, UNAM, Mexico
Introduction to Fostering Networking to Enhance Global DRR
Charles Scawthorn, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Sendai Midterm Review – Next Step
Paul Kovacs, Executive Director, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR), Western
University, Canada
Use of Multi-modal Data-based Methods for Increasing Resilience
Selim Gunay, Visiting Scholar, PEER, USA (on behalf of Khalid Mosalam, Director andProfessor, PEER, University of California, Berkeley)
Wrap-up and Closing

16:30-17:00

Charles Scawthorn—Short summary to be shared during the Summit (to be prepared inadvance
Hirokazu Tatano—Closing Remarks
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —17

3rd General Assembly of GADRI
Campus Plaza Kyoto, Kyoto Station,
Japan—15 March 2023

The 3rd General Assembly of GADRI was held at theCampus Plaza Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan on the last day of the
The meeting was chaired by Prof. Paul Kovacs, Chair,
6th Global Summit of GADRI, 17 March 2023.
Board of Directors of GADRI; and Prof. Hirokazu Tatano,
Participation was limited to member institutes of GADRI.
Secretary-General, GADRI.
Nearly 40 members from 33 GADRI Member Institutes
joined the 3rd General Assembly of GADRI held at theCampus Plaza Kyoto, Kyoto Station, Japan on 17 March2023 from 16:00 to 17:00h.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —18

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

A delegation headed by Prof. Josip Atalic, Head of
HCPI, Associate Professor in the Department ofEngineering Mechanics of Faculty of Civil Engineering
University of Zagreb and head of the new branch office
Croatian Centre for Earthquake Engineering., paid acourtesy visit to the Disaster Prevention ResearchInstitute (DPRI), and the Global Alliance of Disaster
Research Institutes (GADRI) Secretariat, Uji Campus,
Kyoto University on 13 September 2023.
The group was greeted by Prof. Ryosuke Uzuoka, ViceDirector, DPRI, Kyoto University, and Prof. Hirokazu
Tatano, Secretary-General, GADRI; and Professor,

DPRI, Kyoto University.
After presentations on DPRI and the Croatian Centre for
Earthquake Engineering and the University of Zagreb,
they were given a detailed tour of the DPRI researchfacilities— especially of the Centrifuge Lab and theEarthquake Simulation Lab.
The Centre for Earthquake Engineering and the
University of Zagreb is currently processing anapplication for the membership of GADRI which is
initiated by Prof. Atalic.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —19

GADRI Lecture Series
GADRI Secretariat organizes the GADRI Lecture Series by utilizing theo oprotunities presented by the visiting
professors who either visit the Disaster Prevention Research institute (DPRI), Kyoto University or the GADRI Secretariat.
Lectures are delivered by the visiting professors on a subject of their interest for one and a half hours followed bya question and answer session.
The lectures are opened to the DPRI faculty members and students.
In 2023, there were six such lectures organized by the GADRI Secretariat.

An Assessment of Economic Impact due toDisasters: The case of India

Dr. Subir Sen, Associate Professor, Department of
Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute ofTechnology Roorkee, Roorkee, India, delivered alecture to the students and faculty of DPRI on 3
August 2023.

How Social Infrastructure Builds Resilience?
Prof. Daniel Aldrich, Department of Political
Science and School 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 andfaculty of DPRI on 3 August 2023.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —20

How Social Infrastructure Builds Resilience?
Modelling Barriers and Enablers to Participatory Risk
-Sensitive Urban Developments in Sri Lanka
Dr. Kaushal Keraminiyage, Associate Professor, Centre
for Disaster Resilience, School of Science Engineeringand Environment, 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 theopportunity to contribute a lecture to the GADRI Lecture
Series as well. The lecture was delivered to DPRI
students and faculty members on 12 September 2023.

Accelerating Earth Observation Services for
Resilient Development - the Digital Earth
Partnership
Dr. Caroline Gevaert, Assistant Professor, Faculty of
Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation(ITC), University of Twente, Netherlands, delivered alecture to the students and faculty of DPRI on 5
October 2023.

Recent Research Activities: An overview
and Extended Q&A Dialogue
Prof. Charles Scawthorn delivered a lecture to
the Disaster Prevention Research Institute(DPRI), Kyoto University faculty and students
during his visit to DPRI on 22 November 2023.

PEER Overview & NLP Approach for Rapid
Earthquake Reconnaissance
During his sabbatical stay at DPRI, Kyoto University,
Prof. Khalid Mosalam, Director, Pacific
Earthquake Engineering Research(PEER) Center, University ofCalifornia,
Berkeley, USA, took theopportunity to delivera lecture to DPRI
faculty and students on
the PEER Overview
and NLP Approach for Rapid Earthquake
Reconnaissance on 1 December 2023.
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —21

Members of the GADRI Board of Directors
2020-2024
Name

Term

Institute

Europe and Africa
1Dr. Zita Sebesvari

1 April 2020 to 31
March 2024

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

2

Prof. Peter Sammonds
Prof. David Alexander

1 April 2020 to 31
March 2024

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

3

Dr. Kaushal
Keraminiyage

1 April 2022 to 31
March 2026

Research Centre for Disaster Resilience, University ofSalford, UK

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

International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk
Management (ICHARM) under the auspices of
UNESCO, Tsukuba, Japan

7

Prof. Yuichi Ono

1 April 2022 to 31
March 2026

International Research Institute of Disaster Science(IRIDeS), Tohoku University, Japan8

Mr. Bill Ho

1 April 2022 to 31
March 2026

Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), Thailand

Asia and Oceania
5

Americas9Prof. Paul Kovacs(Chair)1 April 2018 to 31
March 20224

Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, Western
University, Canada

10

Prof. John van de Lindt

1 April 2020 to 31
March 2024

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

11

Mr. Luis Carlos Barreto

1 April 2022 to 31
March 2026

Unidad Nacional para la Gestión del Riesgo deDesastres de Colombia-UNGRD, Colombia

12

Prof. James Kendra

1 April 2022 to 31
March 2026

Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware, USA

GADRI Secretariat
13

Prof. Hirokazu Tatano

Secretary-General DPRI, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

Regional Alliance1.
1.

Prof. Desmond Manatsa
Prof. Andrew Collins
Co-chair UKADR

African Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (AADRI), Bindura
University of Science Education, Zimbabwe
UK Alliance of Disaster Research (UKADR), Disaster and Development
Network (DDN), Northumbria University, UK

2.

Prof. Lori Peek

North American Alliance for Hazards and Disaster Research Institutes(NAAHDRI), Natural Hazards Center (NHC), University of Colorado,
Boulder, USA

3.

Prof. Mahua MukherjeeSouth Asian Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (SAADRI), IIT,
Roorkee, India

4.

Prof. Toshio Koike

Japan Science Council

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —22

New Members of GADRIHumanitarial Enegineering Lab, RMIT
University, Australia

Prof. Spyros Schismenos

Rabdan Academy, Abu Dhabi

Dr. Matthew Ellis
Program Chair, BCM and IEM

Planning and Development Research
Foundation Inc. (PLANADES) , Philippines

Dr. Tabassam Raza, DBA, Ph.D., P.E.
Executive Director

National Crisisonomy Institute, Chungbuk
National University, Korea

Prof. Jae Eun Lee, Director
Dr. Junho Choi

Disaster Nursing and Global Nursing sectionof Fundamental Nursing, Kobe City College ofNursing , JapanGADRI Annual Report 2023 —23

Prof. Sakiko KanbaraKeeping in touchwith members

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —24

Americas

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —25

Americas

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —26

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

Americas—Members
Argentina
BrazilEnvironment and Natural Resources Research Program (PIRNA), Instituto de Geografía“Romualdo Ardissone”, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires
Department of Civil Engineering, Centre for Technology and Natural Resources, Federal
University of Campina Grande

BrazilInstituto de Pesuisas Hidraulicas (IPH), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)

CanadaThe Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR), Western University

Chile

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

Colombia Department of Chemical Engineering, Universidad de los Andes
Colombia

National Unit for Disaster Risk Management in Colombia (NGRD)(Unidad Nacional para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres de Colombia-UNGRD)

Colombia

Seismological and Geophysical Observatory of the Southwest (Observatorio Sismológico yGeofísico del Suroccidente (OSSO)), Valle University (Universidad del Valle)

Ecuador

Pacific International Center for Disaster Risk Reduction (PIC-DRR), Escuela Superior
Politechnica del Litoral

MexicoInstitute of Geography, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)

MexicoStructures Laboratory, University of Michoacan

MexicoResearch Institute of Risk Management, University of Michoacan

USA

Center for Emergency Management and Homeland Security, Arizona State University (ASU)

USA

Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), University of California, Berkeley

USA

Resilient Communities Research Institute (RCRI), College of Architecture and Environmental
Design, California Polytechnic State University

USA

Natural Hazards Center (NHC), University of Colorado Boulder

USA

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

USA

Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware

USA

Wind and Hurricane Impact Research Laboratory (WHIRL), Florida Institute of Technology (FIT)USA

Center for Wind Hazard and Infrastructure Performance, Texas Tech

USA

Dept. of Business Information Technology, Virginia Tech

USA

Program on Population Impact, Recovery and Resilience (PiR2), College of Global Public Health,
New York University

USA

Nevada Seismological Laboratory, University of Nevada

USA

Global Resilience Institute, Northeastern University

USA

Coastal Resilience Center (CRC), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC)

USA

Advanced Radar Research Center, University of Oklahoma

USA

Center for Infrastructure, Transportation, and the Environment (CITE), Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute (RPI)USA

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)

USA

Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC)

USA

Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE), University of Southern
California

USA

Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center (HRRC), Texas A&M University (TAMU)

USA

Geologic Hazards Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey

USA

Department of Environmental Studies, Resilience Institute, Western Washington University

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —27

Federal University of Campina Grande（UFCG),
Brazilhttps://portal.ufcg.edu.br/
The Federal University of Campina
Grande (UFCG) conducts studies,
researchandinterventiononenvironmental disasters in a broad
sense, spanning several areas. This ispartly motivated by the institution’s
location in the semiarid region of Brazil,
high populated and socially andeconomicallyvulnerable
toenvironmental
hazards,suchasdroughts,
desertification,
landdegradation,
flash
floods,healthvulnerability, leading to social inequality.
Our
present
interests
areonunderstanding local and regional needs
and the social aspects of Disaster Risk
Reduction (DRR).

Among such activities, we highlight, in 2023, the ones related to
the role of rainwater harvesting in DRR. Rainwater harvesting inthis region of Brazil is an important alternative source of watersupply for urban and rural human settlements. On the other side,in urban areas it has the additional role of storing rainfall
volumes and, thus, reducing the magnitude and impacts of flash
floods.
A major 20-year program on construction of rainwater harvesting
systems in the rural semi-arid region, the One Million Cisterns
Program (P1MC), was featured in the 2023 UN World Water
Development Report. The Report theme is ‘Partnerships andcooperation for water’, and emphasizes the decentralized andparticipative character of P1MC, and the strong community
involvement. P1MC has built over traditional experiences inrainwater harvesting in the region, to cope with recurrent
droughts. Rainwater has been secularly used for human,livestock and agricultural supply. P1MC has scaled-up the
implementation of such systems in regionally dispersedhouseholds and communities.
The vulnerability of P1MC systems under climate change wasanalyzed in a research project, simulating scenarios for 2050
and 2100. The results show a decrease of the capacity of thesystems in supply water for the current demands. However,
simple adaptation measures, such as increasing the rainfall
catchment areas, can mitigate the adverse climate impacts.

Prof. Carlos de Oliveira GalvaoBook ‘The lesson of cistern’ (https://
eduepb.uepb.edu.br/e-books/)E-mail: carlos.galvao@ufcg.edu.br

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —28

Climate change impacts and adaptation measure simulation on rainwater harvesting systems in theBrazilian semi-arid region (https://doi.org/10.9771/gesta.v9i3.42910)

In 2023, a new book was edited by an emeritus UFCG is an entry on Rainwater Harvesting in the Elgar
professor, containing several analyses by researchers Encyclopedia of Water Policy, Economics andfrom UFCG and other institutions, on the lessons from Management(https://P1MC. This book provides multidisciplinary perspectives doi.org/10.4337/9781802202946.00055).
of the program and points to improvements and new
For urban areas, another study simulated the
directions.
effectiveness of rainwater harvesting for flash flood
Another ongoing cooperative initiative regarding
attenuation in dense precarious settlements. Among four
rainwater harvesting has involved UFCG, thesustainable urban drainage systems, it was the most
Research Group on Rainwater Harvesting of thesuitable technique, since it can be integrated in private
Federal University of Pará, located in the Amazon
lots inside such denser settlements. Besides theregion, and the School of Geographical Sciences ofpotential to minimize stormwater runoff, it can increase
the University of Bristol (UK), on comparative analysis
water supply for indoor usage. Rainwater harvesting isof such systems in the contrasting semi-arid andparticularly effective during extreme precipitation events
Amazon regions of Brazil. A first product of this effortof short duration.

Simulation of implementation of rainwater
harvesting as sustainable urban drainage system(https://doi.org/10.1080/27678490.2021.2016024)

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —29

Instituto de Pesquisas Hidraulicas (IPH), Federal
University of Rio Grande do Sul （UFRGS), Brazil
https://www.ufrgs.br/iph/

Field survey of the GPDEN/IPH/UFRGS in Muçum city, Taquari-Anta watershed,in September 2023.

The Technical Committee of Disasters (CTD) of
Brazilian Association of Water Resources(ABRHidro) consists of some members of the
Research Group on Natural Disasters (GPDEN) of
IPH of Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul(UFRGS). This CTD held the III National Meetingof Disasters (in-person event) in Niterói city, Rio deJaneiro State, during the period March 6 to 9. At
the event, one important book on disasters in
Brazil was launched: Zanandrea, F. et al. (orgs.)(2023) Desastres e água: eventos históricos no
Brasil. Porto Alegre: ABRHidro, 398p. (https://www.abrhidro.org.br/SGCv3/publicacao.php?
PUB=5&LIVRO=257&TITULO=desastres_e_agua_eventos_historicos_no_brasil)

In June and July, some members (undergraduate
course students) of GPDEN, together with the
Geopark “Caminhos dos Canions do Sul” (https://
canionsdosul.org/) registered by UNESCO in 2022,
carried out one training course “Handmade rain
gauge for Disaster Risk Reduction” (4 hours) at 6
different primary schools in two states (Rio Grande
do Sul and Santa Catarina). This course wasoffered to pupils aged 10-15. It was a kind ofuniversity extension activity.

Some of Master's and PhD students in the
Graduate Program of Water Resources andEnvironmental Sanitation (PPGRHSA) of IPH ofFederal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)
organized one commemorative and scientificseminar (hybrid mode) “IV Student Seminar on
Water Sciences” on March 22nd (World Water
Day).
(https://www.ufrgs.br/sdca/?page_id=968)
Overviewing the first three versions (2020, 2021
and 2022), the event organizers published theevent report paper: Vanelli, F.M. et al. (2023)
Student Seminar on Water Sciences: Youthprotagonism
throughuniversity
extension.
Interfaces – Revista de Extensão da UFMG, v.11,
n.2, p.136-149.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —30

Prof. Masato Kobiyama
E-mail: masato.kobiyama@ufrgs.br

Rio Grande do Sul state, where the IPH is located,suffered from several natural hazards in 2023.
Among them, the flood disaster occurred in TaquariAnta watershed on September 4th and 5th was themost severe in the state, with more than 40 humandeaths. This tragedy was also historically the most
severe tragedy for local inhabitants within thiswatershed. Due the magnitude of the severity, theIPH expressed its opinion through its note (https://www.ufrgs.br/iph/nota-sobre-a-cheia-na-bacia-dorio-taquari-antas-4-e-5-de-setembro-de-2023/).
Furthermore,
after
field
survey(https://www.ufrgs.br/iph/gpden-iph-visita-locais-afetadospelo-desastre-hidrologico-ocorrido-em-setembro/),the GPDEN also expressed its opinion through its
note(https://www.ufrgs.br/gpden/wordpress/wpcontent/uploads/2023/09/Nota-Tecnica-Taquari.pdf)(SHALSTAB, MORPHO2DH, HEC-RAS, and HACHMS) in order to computationally represent floods,
mass movements and associated processes. The
course had a half-day field trip to sevel places where
mass movements and floods have recently occurred.
The objective of this course was to teach techniques
as well as to construct a network of disasters
managers and researcher in Brazil

In order to align science and practice to improve themanagement of climate events, the Brazilian
government, via the Public Calling CNPq/MCTI Nº
15/2023, approved the project “Development of the
Early
Warning
SystemforLandslides(Desenvolvimento do Sistema de Alerta Antecipado
para Deslizamentos – SALAD) whose coordinator is
Dr. Gean Paulo Michel, leader of the GPDEN. The
project is on-going and consists in 6 universities, 2During the period October 18th to 20th, the GPDEN research institutes and 1 management institute.
organized one in-person course “Reduction ofhydrological disasters (flood, landslide and debrisflow) with an emphasis on computational
mapping” (20 hours) with 10 participants who were
civil defense officers of Garopaba City Hall. This
course addressed hydrogeomorphological modeling

Zanandrea, F. et al. (orgs.) (2023)“Desastres e água: eventos históricos no
Brasil” (= Disasters and water: Historicalevents in Brazil, in English). Porto Alegre:
ABRHidro, 398p

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —31

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

Centro de Investigación para la Gestión Integrada delRiesgo de Desastres (CIGIDEN), Chile
https://www.cigiden.cl/

Patrimony day:

Invited Outreach Talk from the geologist Francisca
Roldán in the “Congreso del Futuro”
17 January 2023
Participation of Francisca Roldán, CIGIDEN researcher
and coordinator of the Research Line “Solid Earth
Processes and Associated Hazards” in the “Congresodel Futuro” addressing the relevance of scientificresearch, technological development and innovation for
Disaster Risk Management.

integrated coastal zone management, and a roundtable
regarding the role of the community in coastal
governance. The CIGIDEN lead researcher, Carolina
Martinez, held the seminar.
More info.
Watch the seminar.
Patrimony day

28 May 2023

The art installation “Aluvión'', developed by CIGIDEN
Disaster and Art unit (DESARTES), aimed to raiseawareness of flood risk in the Chimba basin waspresented in this venue. Besides this artwork, aprojection of a potential flood on a three-dimensional
scale model of the basin was displayed in the event.

Celebration of the patrimony national day in the historicfacilities of the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Serviceof the Chilean Navy (SHOA by its initials in Spanish).
The aim was to raise awareness of the tsunami risk andhighlight the relevance of the National Tsunami Alarm
System (SNAM by its initials in Spanish), ranked among
the five most advanced and critical warning centers,
according to the UN. During the day, two scaled models
part
of
the
exhibition“¡Chile,territorioenmovimiento!” (Spanish for “Chile, territory in motion!”)portraying the 2010 earthquake and floods inConstitución and what would happen in Valparaíso Bay
with a 1730-like seismic event were presented.
Additionally, the Tsunami lab platform was exhibited.

More info.

More info.

More info.
Watch her presentation.

Participation in the “Paseo por la ciencia de Puertode Ideas” in Antofagasta
20 April 2023

Integrated Coastal Zone Management for Chile
International Seminar
3 May 2023
Dr. Rodrigo Cienfuegos
This event featured the participation of Dr Juan ManuelBarragán, an integrated coastal zone management
international expert and scholar of the Universidad deCadiz, who commented on his experience of Spain on
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —32

Director
E-mail: director@cigiden.cl

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

Design 4 Emergency 3rd roundtable: «Design After
Disaster»

who gathered geographic
Licantén's residents.

7 June 2023

Watch the video

The third roundtable was conducted by the UC Design
School scholar and CIGIDEN researcher Rodrigo
Ramirez, with Notre Dame University professor Clinton
Carlson, around participative design in an emergency.

data

and

interviewed“Meeting of Experts on Tsunami Sources andHazards in southern Peru and northern Chile”
25 August 2023

More info.

Closure of the FONDEF project “ASISTE: Análisis
Sismo-Tsunami-Evacuación” (Spanish for Assist:
Analysis Earthquake-Tsunami-Evacuation). Fondef
IT20I0054

During four days, CIGIDEN researchers Patricio Catalán(USM), Juan González (UCN), and Rafael Aranguiz(UCSC) took part in the expert meeting organized by
Universidad de Tarapacá, in collaboration with UNESCO

27 June 2023
ASISTE is the Spanish acronym of the “Análisis SismoTsunami-Evacuación" project. It is an earthquake andtsunami risk exposure visualization platform for Chilean
coastal cities. The project addresses the challenges ofstrengthening prospective risk diagnosis and its
incorporation in the decision-making for territorial plan
instruments through risk studies, as well as having astronger link between varied instruments requiring risk
study.
More info.
Watch the seminar.

Disaster-flood reconnaissance team, 1st group of
researchers

and the Intergovernmental Geographic Commission.
Read the note.

From 3 to 5 July 2023
Post-flood fieldwork in the Maule region during June. It
was conducted by CIGIDEN director Rodrigo
Cienfuegos, CIGIDEN lead researcher Manuel Tironi,
and CIGIDEN PhD students Katherine Campos and Ivan
Ojeda, among other professionals.
Watch the video

Disaster-flood reconnaissance team, 2nd group of
researchers
From 12 to 16 July 2023
This was the second trip to the Maule region to conduct
post-June floods fieldwork. It
involved the participationof
CIGIDEN
researchers
Carolina
MartinezandJorge Quense and the CIGIDEN
professionals
Simon Inzunza, Nikole Guerrero, and Malcolm Bonet,

Seminar «Disaster risk reduction in Chilean informal
settlements: Challenges and proposals withterritorial,
interculturalandgenderperspectives» («Reducción de Riesgos de Desastresen Asentamientos Informales de Chile: Desafíos ypropuestas con perspectiva territorial, interculturaly de género» in Spanish)
26 September 2023
This activity was organized by the Faculty ofArchitecture and Urbanism of the Universidad de Chileand TECHO Chile, where the CIGIDEN PhD student,
Katherine Campos, presented the camps and disasterrisk national report as a collaborator.
More info.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —33

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

CIGIDEN post-disasters report after the floods of2023 June 21-26 for the Mataquito, Maule, and Maipo
river basins.

13 October 2023
The hydrometeorological event from June 21 to June 26
of 2023 affected the south-central area of Chile, causing
floods in different cities. During this event, basins
experienced a significant increase in surface runoff due
to rainfall in pre-mountain range zones with hightemperatures. To understand this disaster, CIGIDEN
researchers focused on post-disaster data collection in
the basins of the Maipo, Mataquito, and Maule rivers.
With this information, two reports were delivered with aninterdisciplinary approach to risk assessment andproposals for the government agencies.

Watch the video.

More info.
II Conferencia Internacional Ciudades Resilientes
desde el Sur Global 2023 (Spanish for II International
Conference Resilient cities from the Global South)
28, 29 and 30 November 2023
II International Conference Resilient Cities from the
Global South was organized by the FONDAP research
centers CIGIDEN and CEDEUS, with venues in Santiago,
Valparaíso, and Concepción cities in succession with
open access for the general public.
See the summary report.

Seminar «Extreme decentralization ofsystems» («Descentralización Extrema
sistemas Sanitarios» in Spanish)

sanitaryde los

23 November 2023
“Manual para una gestión de riesgos de desastressituada” (Spanish for “Situated disaster risk
management manual”)
18 October 2024
The presentation of the document addresses how tomanage disaster risk with a participative approachbased on the active engagement of communities’
representatives, local and regional authorities, and other
territorial agents with interest in the topic. This initiative
belongs to the CIGIDEN research line «Disaster culture
and risk governance».

This virtual seminar, held by CIGIDEN researcher Maria
Molinos Senante, discussed the technical and economic
viability of implementing decentralized systems for bothdrinking water and sewage treatment.
More info.
Immersive
scenicinstallation«AfectosdelDesastre» (Spanish for «Affections of the Disaster»)
23, 24, and 25 November 2023 in Valparaíso
30 November and 1, 2, and 3 December 2023 in Santiago

This immersive installation explores the affective
dimension of the human experience facing socioRegional seminar «Towards a geosocial model for environmental disasters associated with economic
Disaster Risk Management»(«Hacia un modelo practices. The artwork combines a performance piecegeosocial para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres» in with a new media installation to vividly portray theexperience of three disasters that occurred in Chile. This
Spanish)was put on by ‘DESARTES’ director Ignacio Gutierrez.
19 October 2024
More info.
CIGIDEN researchers shared concrete experiences ofinter and transdisciplinary research to strengthen a Know Desartes project here
geosocial agenda in the Antofagasta region.
Seminar «Lessons for Forest Fire Prevention andMore info.

Recovery in Chile» («Lecciones para la Prevención yRecuperación ante Incendios Forestales en Chile» inInternational Seminar “From observation to impact: Spanish)
New technologies for data and image collection on
disaster risk management” (“De la observación al 13 December 2023
Watch the seminar.

impacto: Nuevas tecnologías de captura de datos e This seminar was co-organised by CIGIDEN, the UC
imágenes para la gestión del riesgo de desastres” in Public Policy Centre and the UC Vice-rectorate of
Spanish)Research. There, CIGIDEN released the policy paper
titled "After the emergency: keys to sustainable recovery
in fire-affected areas at the
wildland-urban
This activity was organized by researcher Alejandra interface” (“Después de la
emergencia: claves para
Gubler, as part of the project www.proyectochile3d.cl una
recuperación
sostenible
enaimed to provide an open platform of LIDAR images for zonas afectadas por
the scientific community and technical public institutions incendios en la interfaz
urbanoinvolved in disaster risk management.
-forestal” in Spanish).
22 November 2024

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —34

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

After the emergency: keys to sustainable recovery in fireaffected areas at the wildland-urban interface” front cover:Seminar «Towards a geosocial modelfor Disaster Risk Management»:

Platform Assist: Analysis
Earthquake-Tsunami-Evacuation:

Post-flood field trip, 1stgroup of researchers:

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —35

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

Institute of Geography, National Autonomous
University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico
https://www.geografia.unam.mx/geoigg/

The Institute of Geography at UNAM conductednumerous research projects and activities in 2023.
The topics covered in these projects ranged fromaddressing global warming as a factor to consider inprotecting cultural heritage to developing an app thatguides what to do in case of earthquakes. The
Institute also focused on strengthening volcano
research from an integrated perspective andimplementing a geographical agenda to guide
institutional management action for the next two
decades. Other efforts were made to reinforce
preventive measures against possible mega-fires, tostrengthen water management from a moreconservative and safe approach, to see reconstruction
processes as an opportunity to address and prevent
disaster situations, and to value and implement longterm planning to face future emerging situations
better.
UNAM's television channel broadcasted the series"Anthropocene in Mexico: Stories of Evolution,
Biodiversity, and Climate Change." Additionally,
researchers developed a new dynamic model thatanalyses the risk of floods from a multifactorial,
multiscale, and multitemporal context with anefficiency of 89%. This model reduces costs andenables the creation of scenarios that cities could facein the present and future.

The University published the collection "The COVID
Decade in Mexico: The Challenges of the Pandemic
from the Social Sciences and Humanities." The
Geography Institute contributed to this collection byaddressing urban poverty, which is one of the biggest
problems in cities. The low-income population is theleast resilient due to detrimental conditions associatedwith health, housing, tourism, population, andeconomic issues.

Prof. Irasema Alcántara-Ayala
E-mail: ialcantara@geografia.unam.mx

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —36

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

In light of global climate problems such as fires, floods,
and displacement of populations, experts from theInstitute of Geography and other research centres from
UNAM gathered at the International Conference "Urban
Transformations: Towards Resilient Cities" to discuss
whether cities need to be more resilient or must
transform. Furthermore, several Diploma courses, suchas the annual Diploma in Geomatics, were organised tostrengthen the development of skills, competencies,
and professional aptitudes aimed at deepening andacquiring new knowledge in management, analysis,
and interpretation of spatial data through the use of
methodologies and tools focused on the new fields ofscientific and technological knowledge.

International Landslide Consortium (ICL). This
prestigious recognition is the highest honour awarded
to academics who have demonstrated professional
excellence in the field of landslide research. Prof.
Alcántara was awarded this award for her exceptional
work in risk reduction of landslide disasters.

Several research articles, book chapters and books
related to disaster risk reduction were published.
Among them is the book Disaster Risk, published by
Routledge, London, and Progress in Landslide
Research and Technology, Volume 2 Issue 1, andVolume 2 Issue 2, 2023, Springer Cham, Switzerland.

On October 24, 2023, Prof. Irasema Alcántara Ayala
was awarded the "Benito Juárez" Medal by the
Academy of Geography of the Mexican Society of
Geography and Statistics during the opening ceremonyof the XXV National Congress of Geography. This
recognition was given to her forher
exceptional
contributions to thefield of geographicalscience.
Inaddition, on November 14,
2023, during the
VI World Forum on Landslides in Florence, Italy,
she was bestowed the Varnes Medal 2023 by the

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —37

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

Natural Hazards Center
University of Colorado, Boulder, USA
https://hazards.colorado.edu/
https://converge.colorado.edu/

The Natural Hazards
Center team hostedthe48thAnnualNaturalHazards
ResearchandApplications
Workshop in Boulder,
Colorado in 2023!

The Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado
Boulder serves as the U.S. National Science Foundation•
designated information clearinghouse for the societal
dimensions of hazards and disasters. The mission of theCenter is to:•Translate and share hazards and disaster researchand information;•

Build connections between researchers, nonprofit andprivate sector professionals, the media, policymakers,
and local, state, and federal officials;••

Advance social science and interdisciplinary
knowledge, with a special emphasis on the mostsocially vulnerable populations and places; and•Train and mentor, a diverse next generation of
hazards and disaster professionals.

The team at the Natural Hazards Center led several
initiatives during the reporting period including:••centers

Hosted the 48th annual Natural Hazards Researchand Applications Workshop, which involved morethan 650 researchers, local/state/federal practitioners,
policymakers,
privateandnon-profit
sectorrepresentatives, journalists, and students. The themeof the 2023 Workshop was “Ethical Action for
Disaster
Risk
Reduction.”
https://
hazards.colorado.edu/workshop/2023
Co-facilitated the annual Researchers Meeting, which
involved more than 350 hazards and disaster
researchers from across the U.S. and around theworld. The theme of the 2023 Researchers Meetingwas “New Frontiers of Disaster Research: ActionOriented Approaches to Solve Complex Challenges.”
https://hazards.colorado.edu/workshop/2023/
researchers-meeting/overview

Served as the Secretariat for the North American
Alliance of Hazards and Disaster Research Institutes(NAAHDRI). https://naahdri.org/
Maintained a global map and list of university-based
hazards and disaster research centers and publishedthe data associated with the map and list. See:
https://hazards.colorado.edu/resources/research-

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —38

Prof. Lori Peek
Director
E-mail:Lori.Peek@colorado.edu

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

UniversityofColorado
Boulder,
https://
hazards.colorado.edu/news/research-counts/specialcollection/disaster-cycle•

Hosted the monthly Making Mitigation Work webinar
series. https://hazards.colorado.edu/training/webinars/
making-mitigation-work•

Published the Research Counts series https://hazards.colorado.edu/news/research-counts,
including a new special collection focused on The
Disaster Cycle https://hazards.colorado.edu/news/
research-counts/special-collection/disaster-cycle.

•

Published Disaster Research—News You Can Use.
•
https://hazards.colorado.edu/disaster-research/current••

Hosted the Disaster Grads listserve for undergraduate
and graduate students in the hazards and disaster•field. https://hazards.colorado.edu/signup

During this reporting period, the CONVERGE facility
completed the following activities:•

Released the 11th CONVERGE Training Module inour series https://converge.colorado.edu/resources/
training-modules/.
••Continued to add to the CONVERGE Training
Modules Assignment Bank, which now also includes
anintroductory
webinar.
https://
converge.colorado.edu/resources/training-modules/
assignment-bank/•Released additional Annotated Bibliographies through
CONVERGE.
https://converge.colorado.edu/•
resources/training-modules/annotated-bibliographies/•

Published additional Extreme Events Research Check
Sheetshttps://converge.colorado.edu/resources/
check-sheets/.

•

HostedWebinars
https://converge.colorado.edu/
category/webinars/,
VirtualForumshttps://
converge.colorado.edu/category/virtual-forums/, and •SocialScience
Fridayssessions
https://
converge.colorado.edu/category/social-sciencefridays/ through CONVERGE.

•

Funded researchers through the CONVERGE Data •Ambassadors program https://converge.colorado.edu/
data/data-ambassadors/.

Researchers affiliated with the Natural Hazards Centerand the CONVERGE facility produced the following
books, journal articles, and review publications in 2023:•

Zorich, Zach, Laurie J.
Schmidt, Lori Peek,
Heather
Champeau, Jennifer
Tobin,
Shi-KaiHuang,
Tristan Wu, andSudha Arlikatti, eds. 2023.
SpecialCollection on the Disaster Cycle. Volume 5, Research
Counts. Boulder, CO: Natural Hazards Center,•

Adams, Rachel M., Candace M. Evans, and Lori
Peek. 2023. “CONVERGE Training Modules: A Free
Online Educational Tool for Hazards and Disaster
Researchers and Practitioners.” Frontiers in Built
Environment,
9.
https://www.frontiersin.org/
articles/10.3389/fbuil.2023.1096204/full
Adams, Rachel M., Candace M. Evans, and Lori
Peek. 2023. “Defining, Collecting, and Sharing
Perishable Disaster Data.” Disasters. https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12592
Beaven, Sarah, Dijillali Benouar, Mihir Bhatt, Terry
Gibson, and Lori Peek. 2023. “Post-Disaster
Research:
Challenges
andOpportunities
Conversation on Disasters: Deconstructed on 11th ofJune 2021.” Disaster Prevention and Management 32(3): 384-399. https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-11-20220233
Crayne, Jenny, Carla Herrán, Danielle F. Sumy,
Marcie Benne, Todd Shaggot, and Lori Peek. 2023.
“Public Education About ShakeAlert® Earthquake
Early Warning: Evaluation of an Animated Video in
English and Spanish.” International Journal of
Science Education, Part B: Communication andPublicEngagement.
https://
doi.org/10.1080/21548455.2023.2238872
Chisty, Musabber Ali, Nesar Ahmed Khan, Syeda
Erena Alam Dola, Israt Arif Sumaya, and Md.
Mostafizur Rahman. 2023. “Knowledge, Attitude, andPractice Toward Flood Volunteerism in Bangladesh: A
Gender-Based Analysis with Policy Implications.”
Global Social Welfare, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40609-023-00276-9
Peek, Lori. 2023. “Living in an Age of Extremes,”
Review of The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live inan Age of Disasters by Juliette Kayyem. American
Scientist 111(2): 122-124.
Villarreal, Melissa. 2023. “Long-Term Housing
Recovery Among Mexican Immigrants: How Service
Providers
Navigate
Racialized
Anti-ImmigrantDisaster Recovery Policies.” International Journal ofMass Emergencies and Disasters 41(1): 133-149.
https://doi.org/10.1177/02807270231171359
Villarreal, Melissa and Nnenia Campbell. 2023.
"Scholars From Underrepresented Groups inEngineering and the Social Sciences (SURGE)
Capacity in Disasters: The Benefits and Challenges ofMentoring for Racial and Ethnic Minority Graduate
Students."
HigherLearning
Research
Communications
13(1):
70-92.
https://GADRI Annual Report 2023 —39

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

Researchers affiliated with the Natural Hazards Centerand the CONVERGE facility produced the following
data publications, reports, online publications, andtraining materials in 2023:•

Austin, Jessica, Heather Champeau, and Lori
Peek. “2021 Social Science Extreme Events
Research (SSEER) Census,” in Social Science
Extreme Events Research (SSEER) Network Data,
SurveyInstrument,
andAnnualCensus.
DesignSafe-CI. https://doi.org/10.17603/ds2-jw4k6w60•

Champeau, Heather, Jessica Austin, and Lori Peek.
“2022 Social Science Extreme Events Research(SSEER) Census,” in Social Science Extreme
Events Research (SSEER) Network Data, Survey
Instrument, and Annual Census. DesignSafe-CI.
https://doi.org/10.17603/ds2-4qek-wg82•

Mordy, Meghan, Rachel M. Adams, and Lori Peek.
2023. “Public Health Disaster Research Award
Program Evaluation Report,” in Public Health
Disaster Research Award Program Evaluation.
DesignSafe-CI. https://doi.org/10.17603/ds2-zxsem028•

Peek, Lori, Mary Angelica Painter, Gina Eosco,
Alison M. Agather, Jonathon Mote, Cassandra
Shivers-Williams, Jennifer Tobin, Jolie Breeden,
and Open Data Workshop Participants. 2023. “Final
Report of the Workshop on Open Data and Reuse
in Social Science Weather Research.” Natural
Hazards Center, University of Colorado Boulder.
hazards.colorado.edu/research/weather-readyresearch/open-data-workshop•

Adams, Rachel M., Meghan Mordy, and Lori Peek.
“Public Health Disaster Research Award Program
Evaluation Questionnaire,” in Public Health
Disaster Research Award Program Evaluation.
DesignSafe-CI. https://doi.org/10.17603/ds2-8dtb9k68•

Adams, Rachel M., Meghan Mordy, and Lori Peek.
2023. “Public Health Disaster Research Award
Program Evaluation Survey Invitation,” in Public
Health Disaster Research Award Program
Evaluation.
DesignSafe-CI.
https://
doi.org/10.17603/ds2-wjf8-8b13•

Adams, Rachel M., Meghan Mordy, and Lori Peek.
“Public Health Disaster Research Award Program
Evaluation Survey Data,” in Public Health Disaster
Research Award Program Evaluation. DesignSafeCI. https://doi.org/10.17603/ds2-ana0-kf03•

Painter, Mary, Melissa Villarreal, and Lori Peek.
“2016-2021 State Hazard Mitigation Plans andSocial Vulnerability,” in State Hazard Mitigation

Plans and Social Vulnerability. DesignSafe-CI.
https://doi.org/10.17603/ds2-sc34-as63•

Peek, Lori, Heather Champeau, and Jessica
Austin. “2022 Social Science Extreme Events
Research (SSEER) Network,” in Social Science
Extreme Events Research (SSEER) Network Data,
SurveyInstrument,
andAnnualCensus.
DesignSafe-CI. https://doi.org/10.17603/ds2-arw39z86

Major active grants and contracts at the Natural
Hazards Center include:•

2018-23
Lori Peek, Principal Investigator,“CONVERGE:
CoordinatedSocialScience,Engineering, and Interdisciplinary Extreme Events
Reconnaissance Research.” Funded by the
National Science Foundation, Award #1841338.
($5,041,204)•

2017-23
Lori Peek, Principal Investigator, “A
Clearinghouse on Natural Hazards Applications.”
Funded by the National Science Foundation, Award#1635593. ($8,413,801)•

2022-23
Lori Peek, Principal Investigator, “NSF
INTERN.” Funded by the National Science
Foundation, Supplement to Award #1841338.
($38,238)•

2021-23
Lori Peek, Principal Investigator,“Reducing Social Vulnerability in Disaster: An
Assessment of What Works.” Funded by the
Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies. ($421,820)

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —40

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

Center for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning
Colorado State University, USA
http://resilience.colostate.edu

IN-CORE and DesignSafe Workshop—15 November 2023
Co-Directors: Prof. John van de Lindt; andProf. Jamie Kruse
The year 2023 covered many milestones for the Center
for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning. There
were many accomplishments over the 13-university
partnership headquartered at Colorado State
University, but the three major events were: (1) Project
IN-CORE (Interdependent Networked Community

Resilience Modeling Environment); (2) the IN-CORE
ASCE INSPIRE workshop (3) the continuation of theMidwest Tornado Field Study and other pilot
communities. Details for these achievements within
the Center are provided below.

Project IN-CORE is a sponsored project throughCommunity Initiatives, Oakland, California. Project INCORE and its partners provide support and services
based on the IN-CORE platform (Interdependent
Networked
Community
Resilience
Modeling
Environment), which is a state-of-the-science cloud
platform that models the interconnected impacts ofnatural hazards to help communities make scienceinformed planning and policy decisions to lessen theimpacts of hazards and enhancecommunity resilience.

has the capability of computing resilience metrics at theuser-defined, community level. The IN-CORE platform ispublicly available and includes IN-CORE Lab, acustomized Jupyter Lab with Python libraries installed
and hosted on a cloud system provided by the National
Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). Withan IN-CORE account, users can develop, run, or test
models in their own workspace.

IN-CORE isan
open-source
computational environmentthat
enables
users to model communities andinvestigate
alternative policies using “what if” scenarios and theirinterconnected impacts upon communities. IN-CORE

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —41

Prof. John W. van de Lindt
Co-Director
E-mail: jwv@colostate.edu

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

IN-CORE is science-based to support informed
community decision making: IN-CORE maps acommunities’ individual households, its population
demographics and income levels. Models can anticipate
population dislocation down to the household-level, as
well as changes to income as a result of natural hazards
and during recovery. Additionally, models can depict
disruptions to employment by industry-type, individual
businesses, and by location.

engagement and to train practitioners – with the ultimate
intention of making communities more resilient.

IN-CORE Newsletter December 2023

IN-CORE uniquely models equity and predicts theimpacts of natural hazards across population
demographics. This nuance allows for decision making
that optimizes recovery and resilience for the mostvulnerable populations. IN-CORE enables decision
optimization related to equity by linking redlined areas
with infrastructure, housing, and household income toidentify the most effective interventions that promote
equity.
Project IN-CORE and the NIST-funded Center of
Excellence for Risk-Based Community Resilience
Planning is working with pilot communities to enhancetheir resilience. To read more about the pilot
communities and how they are using IN-CORE, please
visit www.in-core.org.
Colorado State University was awarded a contract from
California Office of Emergency Services to apply INCORE with the Objectives and Scope of work tounderstand how to compare the metrics/losses of amore affluent community of similar size to show any
inequities with a rural and poorer community. The
ultimate question we will address is: “How does animpoverished rural community even begin to help its
citizens?” This is a fundamental and often neveraddressed state of disaster recovery.
The methodologies and algorithms developed in INCORE will provide the quantitative and science-based
approach to community resilience assessment. INCORE will be used to analyze metrics of population
dislocation, total damage/loss, and economic metrics forcomparison. The analysis of metrics and attributes will
provide information critical for decision support. The
most vulnerable communities and especially those that
do not meet FEMA’s threshold for a Federal Declarationneed a framework and playbook to become resilient.
Project IN-CORE is working to submit proposals tovarious agencies. Our strategic partners have expresseda keen interest and urgency to use IN-CORE for climate
resilience at the community level. This is mainly
because the fully integrated modeling approach within
IN-CORE is unmatched by other platforms, and requires
training that will produce a cadre of certified
professionals that can provide the expertise necessary
to “drive” this powerful tool. Our proposed training
aspects will include best practices of community

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GADRI Annual Report — Americas

Midwest Tornado Field Study
Ongoing field studies for the Midwest tornado field study
continued in 2023. Below is an example of the Field
Study Procedures and IN-CORE Modeling Results. Oneof the main objectives and outcomes of our research isthat we can prove the benefits of IN-CORE such as theunique nimbleness of the platform and how we can very
readily provide policy and code information from which a
community can start to rebuild.

recreate the approximate the 2021 tornado path in
Mayfield.

Step 2: Run damage analysis based on existing building
stock and document the damage.
Step 3: Include proposed changes to building code(provided by R. Drane) and update residential buildings
with specific levels of strength, stiffness, andperformance and re-run the simulation and damage
analysis.

Step 1: Create a model in IN-CORE that is reflective of
Step 4: Provide Mayfield with a comparison of damage
Mayfield’s building structures and design model of theanalyses with and without proposed changes to building
EF4 tornado wind fields based on historical data andcode to support decisions on changes in building code.

Comparisons of damage (figures 1 and 2) with dark blue indicating a greater chance that buildings
will become nonfunctional
Comparisons of damage (figures 1 and 2) with dark blue indicating a greater chance thatbuildings will become nonfunctional

Analysis indicates a 24% reduction in nonfunctional buildings under improved building codes after an
EF 4 tornado, resulting in 62% of buildings becoming nonfunctional, versus 86% under current design.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —43

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

Wind Hazard and Infrastructure Performance (WHIP), USA
https://ww.whipc.org

The WHIP Center’s mission is to pursue research ofinterest to industry and government agencies toenhance the resiliency of buildings and infrastructure
to extreme windstorms such as hurricanes andtornadoes.
Between the three universities, listed below, faculty
and students represent the following disciplines:•

Civil engineering•

Mechanical engineering•

Aerospace engineering

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY• WallofWind(WOW) Experimental
Facility (EF) under FIU
International Hurricane
ResearchCenter(IHRC) is a legacy of
Hurricane Andrew• Wind Engineering
Program since 2005;
12-Fan WOW since
Figure
1Wall
of
Wind
Experimental Facility
2012;
4
Facultymembers;>70
refereedjournalpublicationsonwind
engineering; 2 patent; 16 PhDs in the area ofwind engineering (plus current Ph.D. candidates);
2 post-Docs.
••

Computer science•

Atmospheric science•

Economics•

Social science

All three universities have laboratory and field facilities
to test the impact of wind on building and otherinfrastructure components. These facilities have beendeveloped over the years and are well equipped withnecessary instrumentation. A brief description of thelaboratory and field facilities for the three institutions isgiven below.
•

A 200 m instrumented
measurement tower•

Sticknet instrumentation platform to measurewindspeed, direction, etc. in land-falling
hurricanes and in-land tornadoes.

•

Ka-Band Doppler Radars to measure speed anddirection in windstorms.

meteorology

FLORIDA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY•

Florida Public Hurricane Loss Model used byinsurance industry.

•

Portable Zephir300 Lidar system for nearsurface wind profile

EF Team has conducted >$10M in research andindustry projects since 2012.

TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY•data

One of the two largest tornado simulators in theworld; VorTECH support studies of tornadoes
and tornadic loading on structures.
Figure 3 - Portable Lidar

Prof. Kishor Mehta
Center Director
E-mail: Kishor.mehta@ttu.edu

Figure 2 - VorTECH Tornado Simulator
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —44

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

WHIP Center has effectively involved multiple students
in its functions and research activities. These students
not only carried out research in the broader area of
Natural Hazards Engineering, but also had a unique
opportunity to interact and directly communicate withleading industry experts:•

Year 1: 7 graduate students•

Year 2: 6 graduate students•

Year 3: 11 graduate students•

Year 4: 10 graduate students• Prediction of wind and surge damage to buildings byhurricane, PI: Doug Smith – Mentors: Eric Haefli(State Farm Insurance), Tim Doggett (BHS), Karthik
Ramanathan and Tim Johnson (Verisk), GAF, andNIST• Wind effects on ballasted rooftop photovoltaic
systems, Co-PIs: Arindam Chowdhury, Ioannis Zisis,
Amal Elawady – Mentors: Erica Sherman (GAF) andNIST

Number of students recruited by member companies: 2.

WHIP Center Research Webinars
The WHIP Center successfully organized a series ofwebinars that were attended by a broad audience,
including academics, industry representatives and stateand federal agency officials. The attendees represented
214 businesses/organizations from thirty different
countries
1. The WHIP Center, why it makes good “cents” to bea member; presenters Dr. Tim Doggett, BHSI and
Dr. Kishor Mehta, Texas Tech University, November
2022
2. Laboratory and numerical studies of tornado loadingon buildings, presenter Dr. Delong Zuo, Texas Tech
University, February 2023
3. Multi-Hazard vulnerability modeling- An example ofwind and rain vulnerability of mid/high-rise buildings
during hurricane events; presenter Dr. Jean-Paul
Pinelli, Florida Tech; May 2023
4. Wind-driven rain and wind-induced vibrations effects
on curtain wall systems; presenters Dr. Amal
Elawady and Dr. S. J. Lee, Florida International
University, September 2023
5. Wind and surge damage to buildings by hurricane;presenter Dr. Doug Smith, Texas Tech University,
October 2023
6. Wind-induced loads on irregular-shaped low-risebuildings; presenter Dr. Ioannis Zisis, Florida
International University, November 2023
Research Projects (2022/2023)•

Doggett (BHS), Marc Levitan and Dan Rhee (NIST),
and Tim Johnson (Verisk)

Development
of
Fragility Curves for
Tornadic Loadingon
Low-Rise
Buildings, PI: Delong Zuo –Mentors:Tim• Wind-induced loads on irregular shaped buildings, Co-PIs:
Ioannis Zisis and Arindam Chowdhury –Mentors: Abby Scott and Chris Kang (State Farm
Insurance), Verisk and NIST
• Integration of field damage, hazard, and exposure
data for potential use in risk models – CoPIs: Nezamoddini-Kachouie Nezamoddin and JeanPaul Pinelli – Mentors: Karthik Ramanathan and Tim
Johnson (Verisk) and Eric Haefli (State Farm
Insurance)• Empirical vulnerability model to assess impact ofwindborne tree debris on low-rise construction. PI:
Amal Elawady, Co-PI:
Jean-Paul Pinelli –Mentors: Tim Johnson (Verisk), Abby Scott and Chris
Kang (State Farm Insurance), Tanya BrownGiammanco and Dan Rhee (NIST) and Daniel Diaz
(USAA)WHIP Center Members
The WHIP Center is supported by the National Science
Foundation under award Numbers 1841523 and1841503. Research at the Center is funded bymembership fees from the industry members of theCenter, including:•

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance•

ENSTALL

•

GAF

•

NIST

•

State Farm Insurance

•

USAA

•

Verisk Analytics

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —45

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

Global Resilience InstituteNortheastern University, USA
https://globalresilience.northeastern.edu/

USAID Caribbean Community
and Climate Resilience Project
Field Visit
to Saint Lucy Parish, Barbados,Sep 29, 2024

Events:•Stephen Flynn and Angie Valencia co-hosted,attended, and presented in Salinas, Puerto Ricoduring the Salinas Community Collaborative Sessionin July, part of NASA ROSES.

•

Kristin Raub created/hosted and presented
alongside
National
Oceanic
Atmospheric
Administration in a National Water Model
Conference in October.

•

Kristin Raub attended and presented (in-person,
poster presentation) at the AGU23 Annual
Conference; SY43F – Understanding the Societal
Value and Use of Earth Science Information.

•

Kristin Raub and Ciaran Hedderman attended (inperson) the Vermont State and Local Municipal Day,
hosted by the Vermont Agency of Natural Resourcesin Montpelier.

Research Grant Projects:

For 2023, the work of the Global Resilience Institute at
Northeastern University has been primarily focused on
two lines of effort: (1) engaging with underserved
communities in the United States and the Caribbean
region on efforts to enhance community and climate
adaptation, and (2) undertaking this work with local
university collaborators so as to expand the capacity for
locally adopting and scaling community resilience bestpractices. 3 major projects animated these efforts:

Publication:•

Raub, K.B., Laufer, J., Flynn, S.E., Daniels, S.,
Sivalingam, T. 2023. Harnessing Climate Services to
Support Community Resilience Planning: Lessons
learned from a community-engaged approach toassessing NOAA’s National Water Model. Climate
Services, in review.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —46

Dr. Stephen E. Flynn
Founding Director and Professor of Political
ScienceE-mail: s.flynn@northeastern.edu

GADRI Annual Report — Americas“Advancing Community Climate Resilience Planning in
the Caribbean Region.”
Barbados and Dominica Partnership Grant, May 2023
With funding from USAID, the project is advancing
community resilience and climate adaptation for
managing the risks associated with extreme weather
events and sea level rise, while also advancing thedevelopment of blue and green economies. The
project team includes senior researchers from the
University of the West Indies (UWI), the University of
Hawai’i at Mānoa (UH), and the Global Resilience
Institute at Northeastern University who are working
with students and faculty at universities and colleges
who are members of the Caribbean Islands Higher
Education Resilience Consortium (CIHERC). Throughregional collaborations, the project is building capacity
for the CIHERC higher education partners to play a
support role in assisting Caribbean Islands States inundertaking efforts to mitigate and adapt to the effects
of climate change.

“Leveraging Earth Observation Data to Support
Environmental Justice: A Puerto Rico Coastal
Community Case Study”

Research Trust and the municipality of Salinas, Puerto
Rico that experienced devastating flooding during
Hurricane Maria (2017) and Hurricane Fiona (2022).
The project examines how NASA Earth observation(EO) data can inform actionable steps that both small
communities and NASA can take to leverage NASAEO data to address environmental justice concerns
and to articulate the process through which
communities would like to be engaged in responding
to climate adaptation challenges.
“An Analysis and Demonstration of the National Water
Model’s Applicability to Community Resilience
Planning”
With Funding from NOAA, the project involves acollaboration with the Consortium of Universities for the
Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc (CUAHSI).
The project provides a better understanding of thelandscape of how communities apply (or could apply)
NOAA’s National Water Model to resilience planning,demonstrates a set of applications with local
communities, and investigates how the National Water
Model can help address the prevalent lack of capacitythat some communities face that prevents them fromengaging in resilience planning.

With funding from NASA, the project involves acollaboration with Puerto Rico Science & Technology

USAID Caribbean Community
and Climate Resilience Project
briefing on
U.S. Capitol Hill with Jamaica
Ambassador to the UnitedStates Aubrey Marks
on Nov 16, 2023

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —47

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

University of Oklahoma
Advanced Radar Research Center (OU, ARRC), USA
https://arrc.ou.edu

The University of Oklahoma has developed and now deployed the most advanced weather radar in theworld. Led by a team of engineers and weather experts, and with funds from NOAA’s National Severe
Storms Laboratory, the Advanced Radar Research Center at OU has launched "Horus," an all-digitalpolarimetric phased array radar capable of obtaining data with unprecedented quality and temporal
resolution to help understand and predict the formation of severe weather.

1. The ARRC’s research expenditures continued
increasing and are over $10M USD in FY2023 withfunding from NSF, NOAA, NASA, DARPA, ONR,
AFRL, private industry, and others.
2. The University of Oklahoma (OU) extended thememorandum of understanding between the Disaster
Prevention Research Institute (DRPI) and ResearchInstitute for Sustainable Humanosphere (RISH) fromthe Kyoto University and the College of Atmosphericand Geographic Sciences at OU to March 27, 2028.

•

Dr. Jorge Salazar has been selected as theTechnical Coordinator for the 2024 IEEE Antenna
Measurement Techniques Association (AMTA)
meeting and symposium. In addition, he has also
been elected to the 2024 AMTA Board of
Directors.

•

Dr. David Schvartzman received the “2022 IEEE
R5 Outstanding Young Professional” Award.

3. ARRC faculty and students have received a numberof national and international recognition and awards.
••

Dr. Jay McDaniel has been selected as therecipient of the 2023 IEEE Instrumentation andMeasurement Society Outstanding Young
Engineer Award.
Dr. Nathan Goodman was elevated to the status
of Fellow in the Institute of Electrical andElectronics Engineers (IEEE) organization.
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —48

Prof. Tian-you Yu
Director of Operations
E-mail: tyu@ou.edu

GADRI Annual Report — Americas•

Dr. Justin Metcalf has received the 2023 Fred
Nathanson Memorial Radar Award from the
Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society of the
IEEE.

•

ARRC PhD student Sam Emmerson received
third place in the poster contest at the AMS 40th
Conference on Radar Meteorology, held recently
in Minneapolis, MN.

•

Dr. Jay McDaniel has received a prestigious
Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER)
Program award from the National Science
Foundation's Office of Polar Programs.

•

ARRC PhD Jon Knowles was awarded an
FY2023 Department of Defense (DoD) National
Defense Science and Engineering Graduate(NDSEG) Fellowship.

•

ARRC graduate students Rylee Mattingly andShane Flandermeyer were placed first and third
respectively in the Student Paper Competition at
the IEEE International Radar Conference held
November 6-10 in Sydney, Australia.

•

ARRC graduate student Cora DeFrancesco wasawarded and selected into the National Science
Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship
Program (GRFP).

•

ARRC PhD student Sam Emmerson wasawarded the 2023 Weathernews Scholarship.

•

ARRC graduate student, Alexis Oblitas, who wasawarded third place for his paper “Enhancing OnChip Antenna mmWave Calibration: A Hybrid Multi-Axis Scanner Enabling Near-Field and Far-Field
Measurements for Over-the-Air Calibration” at theIEEE
Antenna
Measurement
Techniques
Association (AMTA) Symposium held in Seattle.
WA. Oct. 8-13.

ARRC Lights It Up During 2023 Homecoming Parade: The ARRC put on a festive light display
during OU's Homecoming parade Friday night. Even the radar trucks got in on the action.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —49

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

Center for Infrastructure, Transportation, and theEnvironment, Rensselaer Politechnic Institute, USA
https://www.rpi.edu/

The team used the data collected by a large-scaleinternational data collection effort to capture the effectof the Covid-19 pandemic on households' purchasing
patterns.

1.

In 2023, the team continued researching various
aspects related to such data collection efforts. To start,
the team investigated the underlying motivations
influencing purchasing pattern changes. One of theobjectives has been to identify mechanisms to mitigate
panic buying.

Holguín-Veras, J., et al., The Role and Potentialof Trusted Change Agents and Freight Demand
Management in Mitigating “Panic Buying”
Shortages.
Transportation
Research
Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 2023. 19: p. 1-19.

2.

Calderón-Quevedo, O., J. Amaral, and J. Holguín-Veras, Willingness to Limit “Panic Buying”
Purchases During the COVID-19 Crisis. (inreview), 2024.

3.

H Liao, J. Holguín-Veras, and O. Calderón,
Comparative analysis of the performance ofhumanitarian logistic structures using agentbased simulation. Socio-Economic Planning
Sciences 90, 101751, 2023. 90.

4.

Holguín-Veras, J., M. Jaller, and T. Wachtendorf,
Comparative
performanceofalternative
humanitarian logistic structures after the Port-auPrince earthquake: ACEs, PIEs, and CANs.
Transportation Research Part A: Policy andPractice, 2012. 46(10): p. 1623-1640.

To this end, the team proposed freight demand
management programs to reduce the amount of panic
buying. This work, entitled “The Role and Potential of
Trusted Change Agents and Freight Demand
Management in Mitigating “Panic Buying” Shortages,”
was published [1]. A complementary article quantifying
the willingness to Limit “Panic Buying” purchases was
submitted for publication and is in the final round ofreviews [2].
The team also published an important paper [3] thatquantifies the performance of the different humanitarian
logistics networks originally identified by [4], using
numerical experiments based on the 2011 Port-auPrince earthquake. The experiments verified thesuperiority of the local “Collaborative Aid Networks(CANs) over the more structure Agency-Centric Efforts(ACEs) and Partially Integrated Efforts (PIEs).
A second objective has been assessing the impact ofpurchasing patternschangeson households’
inventories. As part of this objective, the team focusedon the interconnection between the shortages
experienced during the beginning of the COVID-19
pandemic, the changes in purchasing behaviors in
response to the crisis, and the households’ inventory
levels in Latin American countries. A manuscript for thiswork was submitted for publication.
The team has been sharing the research results on
various venues, including the 2023 Transportation
Research Board Annual Meeting.

Prof. José Holguín-Veras
Willian H. Hart Professor;
and Director
E-mail: jhv@rpi.edu

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —50

GADRI Annual Report — Americas
GADRI Annual Report — Americas

Statewide California Earthquake Center (SCEC),
University of Southern California (USC),USA
https://www.scec.org

2023 was a very challenging year that tested theresilience of many communities worldwide toearthquakes and other natural & human-induced
disasters. SCEC had its share of challenges, losses,
but also gains. In California 2023 earthquake activity
was moderate, fortunately, with the highest rate ofseismicity in the offshore region of the Mendocino triple
junction. This area, which accommodates the transition
from the San Andreas fault system to the Cascadia
subduction zone, is not well understood and deserves
further research.
In 2023 there were very important positive
developments for SCEC, including the start of a new
Statewide phase for the Center with a natural laboratorythat includes the entire transform plate boundary in
California as well as the western Basin and Range andnorthernmost Baja California. SCEC has been
conducting components of our research, education, andpublic preparedness activities over the entire state ofCalifornia and beyond, but the formal change to a
Statewide center provides strong impetus for focused
activities outside southern California. This is reflected in
the RFP for the 2024 SCEC science collaboration,
which was released to the community in earlyNovember, with an aim to extend the available
knowledge on community earth models and seismic
hazards across all portions of the plate-boundary, witha special focus in 2024 on northern California.
Also in 2023:
The SCEC Annual Meeting was held in September withmore than 500 attendees sharing their SCEC-funded
research progress and other work. The meeting
included a presentation on new CyberShake results,
which combine detailed models of fault structures andseismic
velocityalong
withphysics-based
computationalmodelingusing
theSummitsupercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to
produce information about where strong shaking ismost likely to occur. See
image below.
UC Berkeley was
SCEC’s 26th Core Institution.

approved

On October 19, SCEC and the Earthquake Country
Alliance (which SCEC leads statewide) coordinatedanother very successful Great Shakeout Earthquake
Drill with 10.25 million participants in CA, 19.3 million in
the US, and 56.4 million globally (includes national/
regional drills). SCEC also coordinates ShakeOut
globally.

•

On November 27, the SCEC directors, Advisory
Council member Steve Bohlen, and the director of
NHR3 Yousef Bozorgnia had a productive meeting in
Sacramento with representatives of several stateagencies (CalOES, CGS, DWR, CEC, CPUC) toadvance a vision on developing a Coalition for
Earthquake Resilient California.
On December 15, SCEC opened
for Summer 2024 internship programs.

applications•

In December we received additional support from
PG&E, submitted a major 2-year proposal to the USGS
to fund activities of the Statewide Center, and submitted
a modest 3-year proposal to NASA to fundcollaborations of SCEC and NASA researchers.
In closing, we wish to congratulate members of ourcommunity who received Medals, Awards and Prizes in
2023. These include Norm Abrahamson (the Gilbert F.
White Award and Distinguished Lecture of AGU),
Ramon Arrowsmith and Chelsea Scott (the OpenScience Recognition Prize of AGU), Alice Gabriel (AGU
Macelwane Medal and AGU fellow), Lucy Jones (theGutenberg Lecture of AGU), Valere Lambert (the Keiiti
Aki Early Career Award of AGU), Eric Fielding (AGU
fellow), Francois Renard (AGU fellow), and Daniel
Trugman (the Charles F. Richter Early Career Award of
SSA).

as

Prof. Mark Benthien
Director
E-mail: benthien@usc.edu

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —51

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

This CyberShake Study 22.12 seismic hazard model shows the Southern California
regions (in reds and yellows) expected to experience strong ground motions at least oncein the next 2,500 years.

On December 15, SCEC opened applicationsfor Summer 2024 internship programs.

•

In December we received additional support from PG&E, submitted a major 2-year
proposal to the USGS to fund activities of theStatewide Center, and submitted a modest 3year proposal to NASA to fund collaborationsof SCEC and NASA researchers.

Open Science Recognition Prize of AGU),
Alice Gabriel (AGU Macelwane Medal and
AGU fellow), Lucy Jones (the Gutenberg Lecture of AGU), Valere Lambert (the Keiiti Aki
Early Career Award of AGU), Eric Fielding(AGU fellow), Francois Renard (AGU fellow),and Daniel Trugman (the Charles F. Richter
Early Career Award of SSA).

In closing, we wish to congratulate membersof our community who received Medals,Awards and Prizes in 2023. These include
Norm Abrahamson (the Gilbert F. WhiteAward and Distinguished Lecture of AGU),
Ramon Arrowsmith and Chelsea Scott (theGADRI Annual Report 2023 —52

GADRI Annual Report — Americas

Asia
Japan and Oceania

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —53

Asia
Japan and Oceania

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —54

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

Asia — Members
Abu Dhabi

Rabdan Academy

Bangladesh

Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM)
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)

Bangladesh

Department of Meteorology Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Dhaka

China

Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEP), Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT)

China

Integrated Risk Governance Project (IRG-Project), State Key Lab of Earth Surface Processes andResource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University

China

School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Chang'an University

China

Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences

China

Disaster Risk Reduction Knowledge Service of International Knowledge Centre for Engineering
Sciences and Technology under the auspices of UNESCO (IKCEST-DRR), Chinese Academy of
Sciences

China

Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)China

Beijing National Earth Observatory, Institute of Geophysics, China Earthquake Administration (CEA)

China

State Key Laboratory of Geo-hazards Prevention and Geo-environment Protection (SKLGP), Chengdu
University of Technology

China

Key Laboratory of Coastal Disaster and Defence (KLCDD), Hohai University

China

Natural Disaster Research Institute, Northeast Normal University

China

College of Engineering, Ocean University of China

China

Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction (IDMR), Sichuan University

China

College of Architecture and Environment, Sichuan University (SCU)

China

State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering (SKLH), Sichuan University

China

Shanghai Institute of Disaster Prevention and Relief, Tongji University

China

China Research Center for Emergency Management (CCEM), Wuhan University of Technology

Hong Kong

Hong Kong Jockey Club, Disaster Preparedness and Response Institute (HKJCDPRI)

India

Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM)

India

Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi

India

Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre (DMMC), Uttarakhand Secretariat

India

Humanities and Social Sciences Department, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB)

India

Research & Development, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITG)

India

Center of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation & Management, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee(IITR)

India

South Asia Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (SAADRI), IITR

India

Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, O.P. Jindal Global University

India

School of Ecology and Environment Studies, Nalanda University
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —55

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

India

School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), Delhi

Indonesia

Research Centre for Geosciences and Disaster, Brawijaya University

Indonesia

Gadjah Mada University, Faculty of Engineering, Center for Disaster Mitigation and TechnologicalInnovation

Indonesia

JASA TIRTA I Public Corporation

Indonesia

Research Center for Disaster Mitigation, Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB)

Iran

Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute (SCWMRI)

IranInternational Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES)

IranCollege of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran

Iran

Natural Disasters Research Institute (NDRI)

IsraelInstitute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJ)

IsraelNational Knowledge and Research Center for Emergency Readiness, University of Haifa

Korea

National Crisisonomy Institute, Chungbuk National University

Korea

International Water Resources Research Institute, Chungnam National University

Korea

Department of Disaster Prevention & Safety Engineering, Kangwon National University

Korea

Seoul National University

Korea

School of Urban & Environmental Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology

Lao PDR

Asia Research Center, National University of Laos (ARC-NUOL)

Lao PDR

Disaster Risk Reduction Division, Department of Climate Change (DCC), Ministry of Natural
Resource and Environment

Malaysia

Southeast Asia Disaster Prevention Research Initiative (SEADPRI-UKM), University of Kebangsaan
Malaysia (UKM)

Malaysia

Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)

Malaysia

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)

Malaysia

Universiti Tenaga National (UNITEN)

Malaysia

Centre for Coastal and Ocean Engineering (COEI), Universiti Technologi Malaysia (UTM)

Malaysia

Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Water Security (IPASA), Research Institute for
Systainable Environment, Universiti Technologi Malaysia (UTM)

Malaysia

Institute of Noise and Vibration, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)

Malaysia

Malaysia Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT), Universiti Technologi Malaysia (UTM)

Malaysia

Disaster Management Institute (DMI), Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM)

Myanmar

Department of Disaster Management, Min. of Social Welfare, Relief and Settlement, Republic of theUnion of Myanmar
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —56

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

Nepal

International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)

Nepal

Central Department of Geology, Tribhuvan University

Oman

German University of Technology in Oman (GUTech)

Pakistan

University of Peshawar

Pakistan

Center for Disaster Management (CDM), University of Management and Technology

Philippines

Partnerships in Environmental Management for Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA)

Philippines
Philippines

Disaster Risk Management Unit, Graduate School of Business, Philippine School of Business
Administration (PSBA)
National Hydraulic Research Center, National Engineering Center, University of the Philippines,
Diliman Campus

Philippines

Planning and Development Research Foundation Inc. (PLANADES)

Philippines

University of the Philippines Resilience Institute (UPRI)

Philippines

Philippine Society of Emergency Medical Technicians (PSEMT)Singapore

Institute of Catastrophe Risk Management, Nanyang Technological University (NTU)

Sri Lanka

Natural Resource Management & Laboratory Services, Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau(CECB)

Sri Lanka

National Building Research Organisation (NBRO)

Sri Lanka

Center for Transdisciplinary Research

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT)

Sri Lanka

Faculty of Engineering, University of Moratuwa

T-Chinese Taipei

National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE), National Applied ResearchLaboratories

T-Chinese Taipei Disaster Prevention Research Center (DPRC), National Cheng-Kung University (NCKU)
T-Chinese Taipei Tainan Hydraulics Laboratory (THL), National Cheng Kung University (NCKU)
T-Chinese Taipei National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction (NCDR)

T-Chinese Taipei Center for Weather Climate and Disaster Research (WCDR), National Taiwan University
Tajikistan

Mountain Societies Research Institute (MSRI), University of Central Asia

ThailandAsian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC)

ThailandDisaster Preparedness, Mitigation and Management (DPMM), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)ThailandDisaster and Risk Management Information Systems Research Group (DRMIS), Chulalongkorn
University

TurkeyKandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute, Bogazici University

Vietnam

Department of Geo-Environment, Vietnam National University (VNU), Hanoi
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —57

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research

Chinese Academy of Sciences (ITPCAS), China
http://www.itpcas.ac.cn

Fig. 1 Plate tectonic background with earthquakes (colored circles) and the HTHH
volcano (red triangles) in the Tonga subduction zone

In 2023, our significant achievements included the
publication of two internationally renowned articles inEarth-Science Reviews and the Bulletin of theAmericanMeteorologicalSociety,along
withcontributions to other professional journals such as
ESSD, JGR, and JH. Additionally, the establishment of
the first three-dimensional observation network platform
for atmospheric water and energy over the Tibetan
Plateau. This platform offers continuous observationaldata, serving as a cornerstone for weather and climate
monitoring, prediction, disaster weather warnings, andclimate environment forecasts in the Tibetan Plateau
and its surrounding regions. The observational dataand platforms mentioned above play a crucial role inadvancing disaster prediction and early warning
capabilities.

generated an ash plume that reached the mesosphereat nearly 60 km altitude with a maximum diameter of
600 km. Tsunami waves had a height of up to 15 m
near HTHH and were still over 1 m high along all coastsof the Pacific Ocean.

Another is a powerful eruption of the Hunga TongaHunga Ha’apai (HTHH) volcano that occurred in Tonga
on 15 January 2022, produced strong vibrations in theatmosphere, ocean, and solid Earth. This eruption
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —58

Prof. Yaoming Ma
E-mail: ymma@itpcas.ac.cn

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

Prof. Ling Bai led a study to identify infrasound waves
traveling with an apparent velocity of 0.31 km/s up to
10,000 km from Tonga in seismic and tsunami
recordings. Clear signals of these infrasound waves
with a fundamental model of Lamb wave are evident
before the shallow-water gravity wave and after theRayleigh and body waves. The pressure amplitudes of
the infrasound waves at stations of 400–1000 km fromthe eruption is 5–10 hPa. The infrasound wave
generated trans-Pacific tsunami waves to arrive 4–5 hearlier than the gravity waves of regular tsunami in the
populated countries near the Pacific oceans.

Numerical simulation methods are also used for theoceanic plate subduction zone in Tonga to estimate
the pressure-temperature fields and the desulfurization
at shallow depths. The simulated total sulfur dioxide
released during the eruption ranges from 0.4 to 2.0 Tg.
This is small in comparison with previous studies ofcomparable infrasound pressures. The total emission
and sulfur dioxide amounts may have been controlled
by the amount of sulfur contained in the subducted
plate as well as the pressure and temperature
conditions of the subduction zones.

Fig.2 TPE Integrated Three-dimensional Observation and Research Platform (TPEITORP)

Projects:•

the President’s International Fellowship Initiative(PIFI) program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. 2024PVA0024), Primary investigators:
Prof. Ling Bai, Prof. MM Rahman, 2023-2024

Drinking water quality assessment based on index values incorporating WHO guidelines andBangladesh standards. Physics and Chemistry of
the Earth, 129, 103353.
•

Papers:•Bai, L.*, Liu, C., Ji, Y. Zhu, W., 2023. Infrasoundwaves and sulfur dioxide emissions caused by the2022 Hunga volcanic eruption, Tonga. Frontiers inEarth Science, 11:1144496.

•

Rahman, M.M., Bai, L.*, 2023. Seismic hazard
maps of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis by integrating the surface topography and site effects.
Pure and Applied Geophysics,
https://
doi.org/10.1007/
s00024-023-03396-7.

•

Rahman, M.M., Haque, T.,
Mahmud, A.,
Amin, M.A, Hossain, M.S., Hasan, M.Y., Shaibur,
M.R., Hossain, S., Hossain, M.A., Bai, L.*, 2023.

Yaoming Ma*,T.Yao, L.Zhong*,B.Wang*, X.Xu,
Z.Hu, W.Ma, F.Sun, C.Han, M.Li, X. Chen,
J.Wang, Y.Li, L.Gu, Z.Xie, L.Liu, G.Sun, S.Wang,
D.Zhou,H.Zuo,C.Xu,
X.Liu,
Y.Wang,Z.Wang,2023,Comprehensive study of energy
and water exchange over the Tibetan Plateau: A
review and perspective: from GAME/Tibet and
CAMP/Tibet to TORP, TPEORP, and TPEITORP,
Earth-Science Reviews，237, 104312, doi:
10.1016/j.earscirev.2023.104312.

•

Yaoming Ma, Z.Xie*, W.Ma*, C. Han , F.Sun,
G,Sun L.Liu, Y.Lai, B.Wang , X.Liu , W. Zhao,
W.Ma, F.Wang, L.Sun, B.Ma, Y.Han, Z.Wang,
Z.Xi,2023,QOMS: A Comprehensive Observation
Station for Climate Change Research on the topof the Earth,Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 104(3), E563-E584, doi:10.1175/
BAMS-D-22-0084.1

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —59

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

Disaster Risk Reduction Knowledge Service of International
Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology
under the auspices of UNESCO, Chinese Academy of Sciences(IKCEST-DRR), China
http://drr.ikcest.org

economy, medical care,conditions and other data.

national

4.
International
training.
From
November 4 to 18, 2023, theInternational Training workshop on
Resource & Environment Scientific Data
Sharing along the “Belt and Road” wassuccessfully held at the Institute ofGeographic Sciences and Natural
Resources
Research,
ChineseAcademy of Sciences (IGSNRR, CAS).
The training class lasted 14 days, and20
students
from7
countries
participated in the training. A total of 23
lecture reports and 6 technical visits were organized.

The overall progress in 2023 is as follows:
1.Disaster Risk Reduction Knowledge Service ofInternational Knowledge Centre for Engineering
Sciences and Technology under the auspices of
UNESCO (IKCEST-DRR) entered the index of open
science platforms selected by UNESCO, becoming a
UNESCO open science demonstration platform In
2023. The demonstration platform has been showcasedon the UNESCO website at: https://www.unesco.org/en/
open-science/knowledge-sharing.
2. IKCEST-DRR provides platform, technology, data,
education and other knowledge services for current
global disaster risk reduction (http://drr.ikcest.org).
By the end of 2023, the data volume of the Platform hadreached more than 4.6 million records, with a data
volume of more than 800 GB. The platform's web page
visits totaled 2,248,000 times, and the number of users
totaled 902,000 (international users visited 667,000,
accounting for 54.5%).

5.
International Workshop on Disaster Risk
Reduction Knowledge Service. The 7th International
Workshop on Disaster Risk Reduction Knowledge
Service & 2023 "Belt and Road" Forum on Digital Earth Big Data-Driven Disaster Risk Reduction Knowledge
Services Session was held in Beijing on December 6,2023. This workshop was hosted by the Disaster Risk
Reduction Unit and Science, Technology and Innovation
Policy Section, Natural Sciences Sector, UNESCO, andthe International Knowledge Centre for Engineering
Sciences and Technology (IKCEST) under the Auspicesof UNESCO, organized by the Institute of Geographic
Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese
Academy of Sciences (IGSNRR, CAS) and the Disaster
Risk Reduction Knowledge Service of IKCEST (IKCESTDRR). The event attracted top scientists, engineers,
government officials, educators, entrepreneurs, andrepresentatives from international organizations fromcountries along the "Belt and Road" initiative and othernations.

3. Emergency disaster relief data sharing services.
Provide disaster emergency data sharing services forthe earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, hurricanes in
Libya, and earthquakes in Morocco, which occurred in
2023, and provide 123 shared datasets. The data
includes remote sensing imagery, historical disasters,
basic geography, land cover, meteorology and climate,agriculture, administrative divisions, population, society,
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —60

Prof. Juanle Wang
E-mail: wangjl@igsnrr.ac.cn

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

Natural Disaster Research Institute,
Northeast Normal University
China
http://www.ndri.nenu.edu.cn/

Participated in the Academic Annual Meeting of Natural Disaster Risk and Comprehensive Disaster
Reduction Committee of Geographical Society of China in 2023, Chengdu, China, 2023.9.16

1. The National Key Research and Development
Program of China: Research on multi-temporal andspatial scale fine risk assessment and zoning of crop
7.
drought, high and low temperature disasters. 2022.11-2025.12.

Prevention
Technology
Crops".2023.11.

for

Major

Cash

Over 16 academic papers related to disasters were
published in high-level international academic
journals.

2. The National Key Research and Development
8. Instructed students to win the gold medal in the 9th
Program of China: High-intensity forest fire risk factor
Jilin "China Construction Bank Cup" internet plus
monitoring and assessment technology. 2022.11university student innovation and entrepreneurship2025.10.
competition. The director of Natural Disaster3. The National Natural Science Foundation of China:
Research Institute won the title of excellent instructor.
Research on multi-hazards meteorological disasters
9. As the convener of the comprehensive disaster risk
risk early warning, prediction and adaptation strategy
of agriculture and forestry system sub-meeting,system in Songliao maize belt. 2022.01-2025.12.
participated in the academic annual meeting of
4. The Major Science and Technology Program of Jilin
natural disaster risk and comprehensive disaster
Province: Optimize the distribution of regional
reduction committee of Geographical Society of
China in 2023.
ecological industries and intelligent decision support
platform. 2023.01-2025.12.
5. The Major Science and Technology Program of Jilin
Province: Multi-hazards comprehensive risk early
warning based on Space-air-ground Integrated and“scenario-response” type emergency intelligent
decision-making technology andproduct
development.
2023.01-2024.12.
6. Publishedtheacademicmonograph "Research on
Meteorological
Disaster Risk Assessment and Comprehensive

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —61

Prof. Jiquan Zhang
Director
E-mail: zhangjq022@nenu.edu.cn

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

The academic monograph "Research on Meteorological
Disaster Risk Assessment and Comprehensive Prevention
Technology for Major Cash Crops".

Instructed students to win the gold medal in the 9th Jilin "China
Construction Bank Cup" internet plus university student innovationand entrepreneurship competition.

The director of Natural Disaster
Research Institute won the title ofexcellent instructor.

Participated in 2023 Academic Annual Meeting of Agricultural Disaster
Prevention and Mitigation Professional Committee of China Agricultural Green
Development Research Society and High-end Forum on Agricultural Disaster Prevention and
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —62

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

Institute for Disaster Management andReconstruction, Sichuan University (SCU), China
http://www.idmr.scu.edu.cn/
publications in high-level journals
continue to increase and span a wide
variety of disaster-related fields,
including disaster health sciences;
natural sciences; disasters and thebuilt environment; and disaster social
science and policy.

Young Students in Emergency Training

IMDR made considerable progress in 2023, in terms of
our human capacity development, strengthening ourresearch
portfolio,
infrastructuredevelopment,
continued innovations in disaster-related curricula,enhanced service to Sichuan Province, and in ourleadershiproles
innumerousinternational
collaborations.

As for research infrastructure, we
were
successfulinobtaining
generous funding from the Hong
Kong Jockey Club for a new building,which is almost fully completed. Thisnew building, of 6 floors andapproximately 8,600 sq meters floor
space,
willbe
devotedtocollaborative research on topics
including: geohazards (with a focus on landslides); on
flood mitigation; on nature-based solutions for DRR; on
urban and rural planning for DRR; on human behavior
in disaster evacuation situations; on high performancecomputational applications for seismological research;and on emergency management information systems.

In terms of human capacity development, in 2023 wewere successful in hiring four new faculty members,
each of which has significant international experienceat prestigious universities worldwide. They significantly
enhance our capacity in such core areas as: Evaluationof long-term seismic hazards and design of early
warning systems based on GNSS/InSAR approaches
to block kinematics and dynamics; Hydrologicalmodelling, focusing on the Water, Food, Environment
Nexus, particularly in the context of water-related
disasters; Disaster evacuation strategies, focusing on
human behavior and its implications for infrastructuraldesign; and, Artificial intelligence applications fordisaster risk reduction, with a focus on landslides. This
brings the number of faculty members with full-time
IDMR affiliation to 30, with an additional 40 faculty
members from other colleges andschools who serve as IDMR
graduatestudent
advisors and in otherroles at IDMR.
As
forresearchaccomplishments and infrastructure development, ourmostly young faculty members have been successful inwinning multiple awards and national and provincial
research grants. In fact, our research funding level for
Annual Report
2023 increased over that of 2022 GADRI
by 156%.
Our 2023 —63

Prof. Gretchen Kalonji
DeanE-mail: Gretchen.kalonji@qq.com

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

In terms of innovative disaster-related curricula, we
continued to refine the curricula of our Masters’ and
PhD programs in “Safety Science and Disaster
Reduction.
In addition, we worked on continued
development of our research-intensive undergraduate“innovation class”, on “Interdisciplinary Disaster
Sciences and international Collaboration”, a three-year
program in which teams of students, starting in their
sophomore year, work with mentors both in China andworldwide on interdisciplinary team projects. The firstbatch of our “innovation class” graduated in summer
2023. 88% have gone on to graduate studies, most ofthem directly to PhD programs (bypassing the masters)
and with significant scholarship support. They havebeen accepted to such international universities as
Stanford, Northwestern, Duke, NYU, Carnegie Mellon,
Imperial College, Delft University, and University
College London (UCL), to the Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, as well as to PhD programs in prestigious
Chinese universities, such as Tsinghua and Zhejiang.
We are excited about sharing lessons learned from ourresearch-intensive undergraduate program with other
GADRI partners.
In addition, we have played
leadership roles within our university, within our
province, and nationally on short-term training
programs on “Safety Science and Emergency
Response Skills” for thousands of students, incoordination with our IDMR’s hosting role for thenational Ministry of Education Key Laboratory on
Disaster Education for Youth.

In terms of support to Sichuan Province on DRR, IDMR
undertook two main tasks in 2023, both in collaboration
with the provincial Department of Emergency
Management.
Firstly, we continued to carry out
research and development of mountain disastermonitoring and early warning technologies, cooperatingwith the governments of Ya'an City and Ganzi
Prefecture to carry out experimental applications, andwe obtained two patent authorizations for this work.
The second major provincial service task for 2023 wasto serve as the core technical force for the first natural

disaster risk census in Sichuan Province.
We
undertook the development of indicator weights for risk
assessment and zoning, conducted training for thetechnicians of the province, and took the lead in theacceptance of the assessment report. In addition,
IDMR sent staff to participate in the verification of thisyear's national-level Comprehensive Disaster Risk
Reduction Demonstration Communities and conductedguidance for 70 communities in Sichuan Province.
Through the verification, IDMR summarized the
difficulties faced by communities in different regions in
disaster prevention, refined the excellent practices andformedthe"Guidelinesfor
PreparationofComprehensive Community Disaster
Reduction
Planning in Sichuan Province", which provides strong
support for the enhancement of grassrootscommunities' capacity in disaster reduction.
In terms of international leadership roles, we continue
to work closely with HELP, the High-Level Experts andLeaders Panel on Water and Disaster (http://
wateranddisasters.org), for which we host the
Secretariat of HELP’s flagship initiative, the AOA, theAlliance of Alliances for Research and Education on
Water and Disasters. We also co-lead a major Chinese
Academy of Sciences initiative on disaster reduction on
the Belt and Road called ANSO-DRR. This has justbeen renewed for another 3 years; in fact, we were the
top-ranked among 21 Belt and Road projects funded by
the Chinese Academy of Science in their first round. In
addition, we have played key leadership roles in 2023
in the International Center for Big Data for the SDGs
(CBAS), a major initiative by China but with extensive
global participation (http://cbas.ac.cn/en).
We have also continued to prioritize collaboration with
UNESCO on the development of U-INSPIRE, a network
which currently encompasses more than 1,000 young
DRR researchers from 14 countries (https://
uinspirealliance.org/). In addition we established a
specific collaboration with Turkish academic andgovernmental partners to share experiences on megadisaster response, recovery and reconstruction.

IMDR-Sichua University andTurkiye Collaboration Seminar

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —64

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

7th International Symposium on Natural Hazard Triggered Technological Disasters (NaTech)As for international conferences, IDMR hosted the 7thInternational Symposium on Natural Hazard Triggered
Technological Disasters (NaTech) from June 29th to
30th, 2023. More than 70 scientists and practitioners in
Natech risk management and reduction from 11
countries attended the meeting via a hybrid way to
discuss "Strategies to Address Challenges of Climate
Change under a Post-Covid-19 Era".
In terms of other international conferences, IDMR
contributed to the organization of several major eventsat the UN in New York, including: co-organization of
the science and technology panel at the 6th Session of
the UN General Assembly on Water and Disasters on
March 21, 2023; and, co-moderating with CBAS an
event on “Big Earth Data for Sustainable Development”
at the UN STI Forum, on May 2, 2023. In conjunction
with the 3rd International Forum on Big Data for the

SDGs (FBAS) in Beijing from September 6 – 8, IDMR
organized two major sessions: an open session of
CBAS’s International Advisory Committee focusing on
the roles of higher education in big data for the SDGs,
and a session on the roles of youth and young
professionals. Lastly, IDMR played active roles indesign and preparation for the “Bandung Spirit Water
Summit” to take place in conjunction with the 10th World
Water Summit in Bali in May 2024, and co-organized by
HELP, the Government of Indonesia, and the AsianDevelopment Bank. Our preparatory activities included
a planning meeting in Madrid on June 26 and 27, 2023,
co-organized by HELP and the Club de Madrid.
For further details, visit the IDMR website: https://wudo.scu.edu.cn/info/1015/2437.htm

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —65

GADRI Annual Report — AsiaGADRI Annual Report — Asia

Centre of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation &Management, IIT, Roorkee, India
http://www.https://iitr.ac.in/Centres/Centre%20of% 20Excellence%20in%20Disaster%
20Mitigation%20and%20Management/Home.html•

The Centre of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation andManagement has organized a training Programme
on “FOREcaSting and Early Warning of Extreme
Events and Disasters” (FORESEED 2023)”, by Prof.
Piyush Srivastava during 2-8 January 2023
sponsored by the Department of Science &Technology, Government of India.

•

The Centre of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation andManagement has organized a Course on “Disaster
Risk Reduction on Museums and Heritage Safety in
the Himalayan Region” by Prof. Sumit Sen from 2425 February 2023, sponsored by Global Rescue
Foundation, and National Disaster Management
Authority (NDMA).

•The Centre of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation andManagement and SAADRI organized a 2-day“Technical Workshop on Earthquake Early Warning
System” together with the National Science andTechnology Center for Disaster Reduction Taiwan
from 10-12 April 2023.

•

The group of 9 research scholars participated andpresented their research work in the European
Geosciences Union General Assembly in April 2023,
at Vienna Austria.

•

Ms. Chanda Kumari, Ms. Sakshi Goyal, and Mr.
Joshal Bansal, Ph.D. students of the Centre of
Excellence in Disaster Mitigation and Management
got the prestigious Prime Minister Research
Fellowship (PMRF) through the lateral entry channel(May 2023 cycle).

Prof. Sumit Sen
Director
E-mail: coe_dmm@iitr.ac.in

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —66

GADRI Annual Report — AsiaGADRI Annual Report — Asia•

The Centre of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation andManagement has organized an International
Conference "IDRiM 2023, 13th Conference Integrated
DRR
for
Inclusive
Sustainable
Development: Science, Policy, and PracticeDialogues [InSPIRE-Dialogue]," held at IIT Roorkee
during 28th to 30th September 2023.

•

An Agreement between the International Centre forIntegrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) Nepal,
and the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee wassigned for the purpose of “Organize a session at the
IDRiM - 2023 Conference titled” Strengthening the
HUC Network for Safeguarding Hill Heritage”.

•

CoEDMM at IIT Roorkee developed the “Earthquake
Early Warning System for North India”. Under thisproject, 165 pAlert type EEW sensors have been
installed in Garhwal and Kumaun regions of
Uttarakhand.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —67

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

School of Environment and Sustainability, O. P.
Jindal Global University, India
https://www.jgu.edu.in/

O.P. Jindal Global University continues to expand its
work in the School of Environment and Sustainability,
including work on disaster prevention and post-disasterrecovery.
The main work has been studying natural disasters inIndia, especially earthquakes (Gujarat and Kashmir andrecent ones in nearby Nepal), the effect of cyclones in
the Bay of Bengal, and the slow but on-going effects ofclimate change on Indian agriculture, food security andavailability of water, many areas of the country alreadybeing water-stressed before obvious effects of climatechange and in particular warming became so evident.

The School is concerned to integrate disasterawareness and mitigation into all courses wherever
appropriate. The School delegated one faculty member(Prof. John Clammer) to attend the GADRI Summit heldat the Uji campus of Kyoto University in March 2023,
and the same faculty person is also the author of aforthcoming book published by Springer on the subjectof “Vulnerability, Risk and Sustainability: Culture andSociology in Disaster Management and Recovery”.

Prof. John Clammer
E-mail: jrclammer@jgu.edu.in

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —68

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

South Asia Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes(SAADRI), India
https://www.saadri.net/

Co-Organizing Partner for Workshops/ Webinars•

FORESEED Workshop

A one-week workshop for "FOREcaSting and Early
Warning of Extreme Events and Disasters” (FORESEED
2022) under the 'Accelerate Vigyan Scheme' of DST, India
by IIT Roorkeefrom 02 to 08 January 2023.
•

Disaster Awareness Training Program

SAADRI-Young Professional Platform has conducted a
Disaster Awareness Training Program for“Primary andSecondary Education Intervention" in association with
Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, RCI, IIT Roorkee on 28 January
2023.
•

Critical Writing Workshop

The Critical Writing Workshop is being co-organized by
SAADRI,
U-Inspire,
and
India
Japan
Lab-Keio
University,every six months, aimingat capacity building ofYoung Professionals in Disaster Management. The second
Edition of the Workshop was held on 08 June 2023.
The third Edition of the Workshop was held on 14
December 2023.
•

Technical
SystemWorkshop:

Earthquake

Early

Warning

SAADRI and the Centre of Excellence in Disaster
Mitigation and Management (CoEDMM) IIT Roorkeeorganized a 2-day “Technical Workshop on Earthquake
Early Warning System” together with the National Scienceand Technology Center for Disaster Reduction Taiwan.
•

AALAAP Pre-conference
Conference

event

at

IDRiM

2023

The IDRiM 2023 Conference, hosted by the CoEDMM, IIT
Roorkee, took place from September 28 to 30, 2023.
Experts and scholars from 18 countries have participatedin this conference. SAADRI partnered with the IDRiM
2023 and organized a Pre-conference event titled"AALAAP“ on 27 September 2023. Prof David Alexanderdelivered a lecture on "Disaster Risk Reduction: Is the
Past a Guide to the Future?“, followed by a panel
discussion"Collaborative
Strategies for Enhancing
Resilience in the
Himalayan Region".
The panelists were Prof Amod
Dixit, Prof. Tilak
Hewawasam, Prof Harshit Lakra,
and Prof M.A
Abedin, and the session was moderated by Prof M.L
Sharma.
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —69

Prof. Mahua Mukherjee
Secretary-GeneralE-mail: saadri@iitr.ac.in; mahuafap@iitr.ac.in

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

Participation
Workshop•inConference/Summit/

Webinar/Participation in the 6th Global Summit of GADRIThe 6th Global Summit of GADRI was organized at theDisaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto
University, Uji Campus, Kyoto, Japan from 15th to 17th
March 2023.

•

UNDRR Training
Programme

for

KoreanSchoolSafetyA Training Programme on Korean School Safety
Programme towards a Culture of Disaster Prevention
was held in GIFT CITY, India. The program wasattended and observed by the SAADRI members.

The Summit consisting of plenary sessions, panelgroup discussions, and poster sessions was attended
by the SAADRI members, Prof. Mahua Mukherjee,Prof. Rajiv Shaw, Dr. Wei-Sen Li, and Dr. Gretchen
Kalonji, to name a few.
•

The Nepal Geological Society (NGS) Webinar
Series 2023

Prof. Mukherjee, Secretary General of SAADRI
delivered a talk on 'Transboundary Efforts in Disaster
Risk Reduction by Regional Alliance' as part of thewebinar series of Nepal Geological Society.
•

International Training Workshop 2023 by NCDR
Taiwan•World Congress on Disaster Management

The 6thWorld Congress on Disaster Management washeld from 28 November to 01 December at Dehradun,
Uttarakhand, India. Prof. Mukherjee, Secretary Generalof SAADRI delivered a talk on 'Food and Nutritional
Security in Emergency Preparedness and Response'as part of the webinar series.
The National Science and Technology Center (NCDR)
Taiwan has been hosting a series of International
Training Workshops (ITW). The purpose of theWorkshop was to empower youth leadership on
humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) by
highlighting the role of science and technology indecision-making, ranging from situation assessments tofield operations. Two Young professionals fromSAADRI Young Professional Platform (SAADRI-YPP),
Khshitij Kacker and Debaleena Roy participated in theworkshop. The Hands-on workshop has given an
experience in how to lead Disaster response as a teamsystematically.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —70

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

Knowledge partner and/or co-organizing partner for
conferences:•

Special Session Webinar

Avoidable Deaths Network (ADN) conducted a Special
Session Webinar Series on ‘Women’s Stories ofSurvival, Innovation, Resilience, and Development’on 31 May 2023.Prof. Deepthi Wickramasinghe, on
behalf of SAADRI, facilitated the event. Two SAADRIYoung Professional Platform members Ms. Debaleena
Roy and Ms. Vihanga Amarakoon also presented during
the seminar.
••

Translation of book in collaboration with UNDRRSAADRI facilitated the translation of the book ‘SFDRR
for Children’ by collaborating with UNDRR. The book is
an important component of the school children’sawareness program, and hence based on the need toreach out to the children of vulnerable communities inthe Himalayan region, the book has been translated to
Hindi.

SAADRI AGM

SAADRI conducted the 2nd Annual General Meeting on
27th September in a Hybrid mode.

•

SAADRI Publication•

SAADRI Quarterly Newsletter

The first issue of the quarterly SAADRI Newsletter was
published on International Mother Language Day, on 21
February 2023 considering the role of vernacularlanguages in preparedness for disaster risk response.
Subsequently, SAADRI Newsletter is published every
quarter.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —71

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

Natural Disaster Research Institute (NDRI)
Iran
http:/www.en.ndri.ac.ir
In
2023,
the
Natural Disasters
Research Institute(NDRI)
mainlyemphasized
expandinginternational
cooperation
withUN offices andinternational
institutes.
The
NDRI coordinatedtheMidterm
Review report of
The Workshop on Traditional and Indigenous Knowledge and Disaster Risk Reduction
theSendaiFrameworkin
I.R.Iran and actively participated in the meetings of the • Identifying and introducing indigenous knowledge;
UN Sustainable Development Framework, UNSDCF(2023-2027). Moreover, NDRI has obtained the Special • An emphasis on traditional and indigenous
knowledge is vital (traditional and indigenous
Consultative Status with ECOSOC.
knowledge has to be highly considered in the
1-The special consultative status with ECOSOC
development plans), using the principles ofrethinking development;
The meeting of the ECOSOC Committee of NonGovernmental Organizations was held on May 15-23,
2023 at the United Nations headquarters in New York,
where the files of 204 organizations from around theworld were reviewed. In this meeting, the granting of a
special consultative status to the Natural Disasters
Research Institute (NDRI) was approved. In Iran, the
NDRI is the first organization in the field of natural
disasters that has achieved this status.
(https://en.ndri.ac.ir/ECOSOC)•

Let's learn from the nomads how they managed
their land;•

Combining indigenous
technologies;•

Holding collaborative workshops by the people
themselves to transfer local knowledge with theparticipation of the young generation and elders;•

Building trust through continuous communication
with local people and forming collaborative
workshops to solicit opinions on the implementationof development projects;•

Emphasis on people's participation as well aswatershed and aquifer management, preservationof vegetation were among the most important
recommendations.

2- Traditional and Indigenous Knowledge andDisaster Risk Reduction
The Natural Disasters Research Institute (NDRI) and
UNESCO Chair on Natural Disaster Management, in
collaboration with the UNESCO office in Tehran
organized the Participatory Workshop on Traditionaland Indigenous Knowledge and Disaster Risk
Reduction. This event took place on December 12 and13, 2023, in the rural district of Siakh-Darengun,
located in Shiraz Country, Fars Province, Iran. The
workshop witnessed the active participation of
approximately 85 individuals including rural women andmen, academia, local government officials, community
facilitators of local development plans, as well as
experts from NDRI and UNESCO.
The recommendations raised by the five group
activities can be summarized as follow:

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —72

knowledge

Mr. Masoud Hamedani
E-mail: hamedani@ndri.ac.ir

with

new

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

3-Fighting Inequality for a Resilient Future
On the commemoration of the International Day for
Disaster Risk Reduction with the theme "Fighting
Inequality for a Resilient Future" was held with thepresence of a group of Officials, professors and thoseinterested in this field in-person and online and with thepresence of Golda El-Khoury, director of the UNESCO
Office in Tehran, Lalini Veerasamy, Chief of theInternational Organization for Migration (IOM) in Iran,Letizia Rossano, director of the Asia and Pacific Centerfor the Development of Disaster Information
Management (APDIM), Nejad Jahani Deputy head of
NDMO, Osamu Tanaka, Chief representative of Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA) office in Iran,
Venco Elisabetta Maria, Research fellow at the
University of Pavia, Italy, Masoud Hamedani, directorof the International Department at the NDRI, Hiroki
Nishi, head of the department Economic Cooperationof the Japanese Embassy in Iran, South Korean
Deputy Ambassador Kim Joon, Gulbahor Nematova
and Adi Mohammad, Indonesian Embassy, Julia Flore,
Head of the Commercial Department of the Italian
Embassy, Mohammad Aftab, the Embassy of Pakistan.
Seyed Amirhossein Garakani, head of the Natural
Disasters Research Institute (NDRI) mentioned that
Disasters are an increasing threat to sustainable
development. We must seize this moment to transform
how we manage risks.
(https://en.ndri.ac.ir/iddrr-day-2023)

4-Lessons learned in disaster management fromthe 2023 Earthquake in Türkiye
Seyed AmirHossein Garakani, head of the NDRI, share
his view on his recent trip to Türkiye that: The disastermanagement system in Türkiye enjoy transparency,
simplicity and integrity. The vision of crisis
management in Turkey was not based on the rapid
repatriation of people and the rapid reopening of shops
and stores, and largely emphasized the evacuation of
the city. It seems that this view in metropolises is acorrect procedure that we should pay attention to.
(https://en.ndri.ac.ir/unesco-chair-Lecture-29)
5-Lessons learned from Iran, Japan, and Mexico
In this webinar, Dr. Yoshihiro Ito, Professor of the
DPRI, and Dr. MohammadReza Ghayamghamian,
Professor of the International Institute of Earthquake
Engineering and Seismology presented their speeches.
Yoshihiro Ito initially noted the difference between slow
earthquakes and normal earthquakes and highlighted
the effects of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami
in Japan. Then he described the 8.2 magnitude
earthquake and tsunami of 1932 in Jalisco, Mexico.
Ghayamghamian also pointed out the main challenges
in big cities and Tehran. Then he discussed theearthquake history in Iran. He pointed out that southern
districts of Tehran are more exposed to risk based onstudies.
(https://en.ndri.ac.ir/unesco-chair-Lecture-138-news)

Lessons learned in disaster management from the2023 Earthquake in Türkiye

Fighting Inequality for a Resilient Future

Lessons learned from Iran, Japan,
and Mexico

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —73

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

Israel National Knowledge and Research Centre for Emergency
Readiness
University of Haifa, Israel
http://muchanut.haifa.ac.il

The National Knowledge and Research Center for
Emergency Preparedness was established in January
2018 with 90 researchers divided among 8 disciplinary
research teams: Law; Public Policy; Social Science;
Public Health and Emergency Medicine; Welfare andSocial Work; Engineering, Technology and Planning;
Risk Assessment and Management; and Environment.

The Center holds weekly seminar talks (most are in
Hebrew), all are streamlined on Facebook, recorded
and uploaded to YouTube.

The research at the Center in 2023 focused on:•

Blitstein-Mishor, E., Vigoda-Gadot, E., & Mizrahi,
S. (2023). Navigating Emergencies: A Theoretical
Model of Civic Engagement and Wellbeing during
Emergencies. Sustainability, 15(19), 14118.
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/19/14118•

Grinberger, A. Y., & Felsenstein, D. (2023). Agentbased simulation of COVID-19 containment
measures: the case of lockdowns in cities. Lettersin Spatial and Resource Sciences, 16(1), 10.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12076023-00336-w•

Mishor, E., Vigoda-Gadot, E., & Mizrahi, S. (2023).
Exploring civic engagement dynamics during
emergencies: an empirical study into key
drivers. Policy & Politics, 1-23.
https://
doi.org/10.1332/030557321X16886470793447•

Vigoda-Gadot, E., Mizrahi, S., Cohen, N. et
al. Citizens’ reactions to global crises: alongitudinal study during the COVID-19 pandemicin Israel. SN Soc Sci 3, 24 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-023-00610-0•

Continued research on the Impact of COVID-19
on Well-being in Israel•

The role of local authorities and the way they
coped with the challenges of the pandemic•

Measuring resilience: indicator-based tool formeasuring regional resilience in localities in Israel(for the Prime Minister’s Office)•Regulatory and Policy Frameworks for a Mid andLong-term Recovery after a Major Earthquake, as
well as other major disasters, such as the war in
Israel with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in
LebanonFollowing October 7th Hammas attack on Israel from
Gaza, the Center was involved in a few activities
towards physical and social rehabilitation in Israel:•

Cooperation with Shmuel Neeman institute at theTechnion in forming policy papers on (1)Construction, rehabilitation and physical andenvironmental development (2) Strengthening
trust, resilience and a sense of personal andcommunity security (3) Rehabilitation of economic/
industrial/agricultural activities.

•

Round tables meetings with various groups aimed
to improve the delicate relations between Arabs
and Jews in Israeli society.

•

Short guide – neighborhood organization during
emergencies: a how-to guide.

•

Short guide for families to communicate withsoldiers coming home after experiencing thehorrors of war.

A full list of the talks is available on our website here:
https://muchanut.haifa.ac.il/index.php/en/events
2023 selected publications:

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —74

Dr. Michal Ben Gal
Research CoordinatorE-mail: bmichal@geo.haifa.ac.il

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

National Crisisonomy Institute (NCI)

Chungbuk National University, Korea
http://www.ncemri.re.kr/english/

In particular, we signed the
MOU in June with DPRI
where GADRI headquarters
is located, and we are very
happy to have newly joined
GADRI in November.
NCI's major achievements
in 2023 can be broadly
divided into 1. Events, 2.
Projects, 3. Publications. A
summaryoftheseachievementsareasfollows:2023

was a very meaningful year for the
National
Crisisonomy
Institute,
Chungbuk
National
University(NCI).
This is because NCI has
been the mostactive in hosting events andwinning largescale research projects since its establishment in
2006.

Prof. Jae Eun Lee
Director
E-mail: jeunlee@chungbok.ac.kr

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —75

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

1. Events (conferences, workshops, seminars, etc)
1) Co-hosting regular academic conferences

Title

KAD (The Korean Association
for Disastronomy, since 2023)

Schedule

Location

Spring Academic
Conference

April 28, 2023

Chungbuk National University,
Korea(since 2023) Fall
Academic Conference

October 20, 2023

Kangwon National University,
Korea(since 2023) Winteracademic conference

December 15,
2023

Wonkwang University, Korea

Spring Academic
Conference

May 12, 2023

Incheon National University, Korea

November 24-25,
2023

Dongeui University, Korea

July 6, 2023

Korea Press Center, Korea

July 19-20, 2023

Jeju National University, Korea

October 28, 2023

Campus Plaza Kyoto, Japan

December 9-10,2023

Chinese Academy of Sciences,
China

December 14,
2023

Online Meeting

December 22,
2023

Chungbuk Viewer Media Center,
Korea

KACEM
(The Korean Association for
Crisis and Emergency
Management since 2009)

Fall Academic
Conference

The 11th National Crisisonomy Forum (since 2020)2023 ACC(Asian Conference on Crisisonomy, since 2021)
The 11th Global Crisisonomy Symposium(since 2015)
The 17th ICCEM(International Conference on Crisis and Emergency
Management, since 2007)

The 1st Online Meeting on Critical Infrastructure Crisis
Management in the Current Climate Crisis(with TNDR and ADPC
since 2023)
National Community Crisisonomy UCC, Monitoring
Competition(Since 2007)

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —76

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

2) NCI workshops inviting scholars (held at Chungbuk National University, Korea)
Workshop Title

Instructor (Affiliation)

Schedule

Prof. Gigeun Yang

Efficient operation and management planfor disaster management resources

May 4, 2023

Department of Fire Administration,, Wonkwang
University
Prof. Muhammad Azam

Government organization management,
culture and disasters in Pakistan

May 22, 2023

Department of Structures and Environmental
Engineering, PMAS Arid Agriculture University
Prof. Dohyeong Kim

Environmental economics andenvironmental justice

June 19, 2023

Director of Geospatial Health Research Group,
University of Texas at Dallas

ADPC Special lecture on GIS for training
Crisisonomy experts

Mr. Bill Ho-To respond to the climate crisis in the
Chungbuk region and build a safe society-

August 27-31,
2023

Director, ADPC (Asian Disaster Preparedness
Center)Prof. Bonjun Koo

Energy system risk in the era of climate
crisisCenter for Creation of Symbiosis Society with Risk,
Yokohama National University

Chungcheongbuk-do 2030 Plan to respondto climate crisis

Mr.Yeonjun Kim
Special Assistant to the Governor of
Chungcheongbuk-do

October 11,
2023

December 28,
20233) Occasional seminars
Name
Seminar commemorating the opening of Cheongju Carbon Neutrality
Support Center
Joint academic seminar

Schedule

Location

April 17, 2023

Chungbuk National
University, Korea

Cultural Diversity and Disastronomy

May.31- June 1,
2023

Jeju Research Institute, Korea

Seminar commemorating thesigning of MOU on NCI and
DPRI

June 26, 2023

Kyoto University, Japan

How should we respond to
extreme rainfall disasters in
the era of climate crisis?

September 22, 2023

Chungbuk ResearchInstitute, Korea

Extreme disaster response strategy
forum in the era of climate crisis

How should we respond to
extreme rainfall disasters in
the era of climate crisis?

November 29, 2023

Jikji Global, Korea

ICW 2023 Workshop

International Clustering
Workshop

December 19-20,
2023

Ton Duc Thang University, Vietnam

with Research Institute for the Tamla Culture
The kick-off symposium on DPRI
and NCI Collaboration
Joint academic seminarwith KAD and Chungbuk ResearchInstitute

Title
Strategy Workshop for Carbon Neutrality Implementation

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —77

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

2. Projects—1) Project starting in 2023

3.Publications
Research grant

Project title

Ordering
agencyPeriodConsignment Project ofCheongju Carbon
Neutrality Support
CenterCheongju city,
Korea

March, 2023December, 2025

Humanities and Social
Research Institutesupport project

National
Research
Foundation,
Korea

November 1,
2023 – August,21, 2029

Chungbuk Disaster and
Safety 2030 Vision

Chungcheongb
uk-do, Korea

December 19,
2023

（USD）
About
150,000
About•‘Contingencies and Crisis
Management Review’ isan academic journal hosted and published by NCI
since 2017. It is publishedtwice a year (June andDecember), and Volume
7, Issues 1 and 2 havebeen published in 2023.

1,250,000
About
71,0002) Project completed in 2023

Project title

Ordering agency

PeriodResearch
grant
（USD）

Development of technology for
efficient operation andmanagement of disastermanagement resources

Ministry of Public
Administration and
Security, Korea

April 2020 –December 2023

Development of a crisis
management resiliencestrengthening model to make asafe community

National Research
Foundation, Korea

September 2020 –August 2023

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —78

About
1,270,000

About
450,000

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

Institute for Environment and Development(LESTARI-UKM)
University of Kabangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
https://www.ukm.my/lestari/en/

In this 2023 report, the Institute for Environment andDevelopment (LESTARI), Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia (UKM) reports selected activities, as below:(A) Performance of LESTARI in the context of SDGs
The Institute for Environment and Development(LESTARI) was established on 1st October 1994, 2
years after the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. LESTARI aims to be the centre of excellence inresearch and training on matters pertaining toenvironment and development in Malaysia and the Asia
Pacific. As LESTARI has been established for 29
years, it was noticed that the research outputs of
LESTARI are relevant to sustainable development,even before the commencement of Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs). In this regard, we havecarefully examined LESTARI’s performance in thecontext of SDGs, and we found that since 1994, a total
number of 415 research projects led by LESTARI wascompleted, with the total
amount of research grantRM
57,509,175.
LESTARI
has
also
produced 1,373
journals, and conducted 823
activities
atuniversity, national and international levels. A total
number of 148 PhD and 93 master students have
graduated from LESTARI. For more details, please visit

https://www.ukm.my/lestari/wp-content/
uploads/2023/07/pamplet_SDG-1.pdf(B) Research strengths of LESTARILESTARI focuses on multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary research. Hence, we have compiled theexpertise areas among the research fellows in
LESTARI, and this can be found at https://www.ukm.my/lestari/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/
expertiseLESTARI_2023_compressed.pdf.
Furthermore, two LESTARI’s research groups wererecognised as University Research Group (orKumpulan Penyelidikan Universiti KPU), namely the
Malaysian Research Network for Climate, Environmentand Development (MyClimate) and the Chemicals
Management Research Group (CMRG).

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —79

Dr. Goh Choo Ta
Director
E-mail:gohchoota@ukm.edu.my

GADRI Annual Report — AsiaGADRI Annual Report 2023 —80

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

National Science and Technology Center for
Disaster Reduction (NCDR), Chinese Taipei
https://www.ncdr.nat.gov.tw/

2023 International Training
Workshop (ITW) for Youth
Leadership on Humanitarian
Assistance and Disaster
Relief in Hualian, Chinese
Taipei

In 2023, the National Science and Technology Center
for Disaster Reduction (NCDR) continued its
commitment to capacity building and fostering privatepublic collaboration in disaster risk reduction efforts.
From August 25th to 28th, the 2023 International
Training Workshop (ITW) for Youth Leadership on
Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief took placeat the Taiwan Hualian Tzu Chi Jing Si Hall. Coorganized by NCDR, the Buddhist Tzu Chi Charity
Foundation, and Tzu Chi University, this marked the18th iteration of the ITW, a tradition initiated in 2015.
Notably, 2023 saw the first participation of overseasdelegates in Taiwan following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Among the main participants were students fromprestigious institutions such as National Taiwan
University, National Cheng Kung University, National
Central University, Kyoto University, the Asian Instituteof Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee,
Sunway University of Malaysia, and other academic
establishments across the Pacific region. The workshop
drew 65 participants from 19
countries,
including
Zimbabwe,
Nigeria,
Malawi,Portugal,
Sri
Lanka,
Myanmar, Nepal,
Bangladesh, Thailand, India,
Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Pakistan, the U.S.,
Colombia, Palau, and Taiwan.

The workshop's focal point lay in enhancing capacity for
Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR),
particularly in the context of typhoon scenarios. Training
sessions were tailored to equip participants with thenecessary skills in humanitarian assistance planning,technologicalapplications,anddisasterreliefoperations. The curriculum employed a multifaceted
approach encompassing lectures, hands-on exercises,
brainstorming sessions, and collaborative teamwork tofoster creativity and practical skill development.
The HADR Hands-on Exercise immersed participants inreal-life disaster relief operations. Tasks included
constructing temporary shelters, operating mobile
kitchens to prepare hot meals, ensuring access to cleanwater and lighting, and devising inclusive shelter
configurations and operational plans.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —81

Ms. Kiri Ke Hui Chen
Assistant Researcher
E-mail: khc@ncdr.nat.gov.tw

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

During the Typhoon Scenario Exercise, participants
engaged in team discussions to conduct disaster risk
analysisanddevelopemergency
operations,preparedness, and recovery plans. Utilizing a simulated
typhoon scenario as a backdrop, participants assumedroles within an international disaster relief organizationand devised strategies for various phases of atyphoon's impact.
In the concluding session, three participant teams
showcased their acquired knowledge and creativity bypresenting final reports and sharing reflections on theworkshop. Mr. George T. Chang, Deputy Chief
Executive Officer of Tzu Chi Foundation, and Dr.
Hongey Chen, Director of NCDR, delivered closing
remarks. Director Chen emphasized the importance ofcross-border cooperation and highlighted the need for
multiparty collaboration in leveraging science,technology, and training initiatives to enhance disaster
resilience.

This collaboration marked the third international training
endeavor between NCDR and Tzu Chi Charity
Foundation, underscoring their commitment to fostering"Cross-boundary Synergies" aimed at integrating
science, technology, disaster reduction, relief efforts,
humanitarian assistance, and international initiatives.
NCDR reaffirmed its dedication to driving innovative
approaches to address the challenges posed by natural
disasters.

HADR Hands-on Exercise- operating mobile
kitchens

HADR Hands- constructing temporary shelters

HADR Hands- planning shelter operations

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —82

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC)
Thailandhttps://www.adpc.net/igo/?

ADPC supported theEthiopia Public HealthInstitute to build thecapacityof
theirmiddle level managers
and other relevant
stakeholders on publichealthemergency
management
leadership.

In 2023, the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center(ADPC) continues to boost disaster and climate
resilience throughout Asia, achieving key milestones inclimate change adaptation, risk management, andcapacity enhancement. Through partnerships withnational and local government agencies, internationalorganizations, NGOs and CSOs, and local vulnerable
communities, ADPC has effectively mobilized efforts
across high-risk areas, driving significant advancements
in sustainable development and strengthening theresilience of communities, governmental bodies, andorganizations amidst the intensifying challenges posedby climate change.

resilience in the Lower Mekong region. It provided
improved access to data and tools, developed
decision support tools, trained over 3,100 people,
and influenced climate and disaster resilience
policies. These initiatives have strengthened theregion's ability to tackle climate challenges
sustainably. The tools developed by ServirSoutheast Asia included the Mekong Air Quality
Explorer Tool to monitor and forecast air quality in
Thailand, Rainstorms Tracker for the Mekong River
Commission, and the Cambodia Protected Area
Alerts System for near real-time monitoring ofprotected areas in the country.

The following highlights ADPC's accomplishments,
insights gained, and progress made in 2023,
underscoring its pivotal role in shaping disaster
preparedness and response
strategies in Asia.
Southeast• The
SERVIRprogram, backed by USAID,
NASA,
ADPC, has significantly boosted climate

Mr. Bill Ho
and

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —83

Director
E-mail: bill@adpc.net

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

Kick-off meeting of the Second Phase of the Bangladesh Preparedness Partnership with the Ministryof Disaster Management and Relief, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and ADPC.
•

The "Urban Resilience to Climate Extremes inSoutheast Asia (URCE)" program, funded by Noradfrom 2018 to 2023, aimed to strengthen the resilienceof urban systems and communities in Southeast
Asia's deltaic and coastal cities against climate
extremes and disasters. Focused on Vietnam, theinitiative enhanced the capacity of city officials andstakeholders in urban planning, early warning
response, disaster risk management, mental healthsupport, and nutrition in emergencies. It also
developed hazard maps for floods, strong winds, cold,and heatwaves to improve governance, community
readiness, and sectoral preparedness in targeted
cities. Moreover, the program supported Vietnam's
Meteorological and Hydrological Administration inestablishing an Impact-based Forecasting andWarning system in two cities.

••

Launched in 2017 with support from ADPC, the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, and USAID, the Asian
Preparedness Partnership (APP) involves Cambodia,
Laos PDR, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Nepal, andSri Lanka. Its mission is to boost resilience bypromoting local disaster risk management efforts. APP •facilitates collaboration among government bodies,
local humanitarian groups, and the private sector,
offering training and networking to enhance disaster
response and risk management. It fosters communityled preparedness and recovery, leveraging improved
coordination and capacity building. It has established
National Preparedness Partnerships across its member
states, advocating for a localization approach where
local and national actors lead DRM activities. The
partnership's achievements include fostering local
disaster preparedness actions, introducing costeffective DRM innovations, and contributing to asupportive environment for humanitarian systemtransformation at both regional and global levels.

The Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CARE) project,a collaboration between the Asian Disaster
Preparedness Center (ADPC) and the World Bank,
significantly advances climate resilience acrossBangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. Over four years,
ADPC has worked with thirty-seven ministries anddepartments, plus nearly 30 new regional entities,
enhancing sectoral policies and cooperation. ADPC's
efforts include integrating climate risk data into advisory
services, promoting gender-sensitive policies, andimproving standards for climate resilience. Bangladesh
has upgraded road and bridge design standards forclimate resilience with the Local Government
Engineering Department and supported climate-smart
agriculture initiatives. Nepal has seen a successful
review of climate public expenditure, infrastructureenhancement with the Department of Roads, and thedevelopment of a Climate-Smart Agriculture Investment
Plan. In Pakistan, ADPC has bridged federal andprovincial communications on climate change,
underscoring the project's regional impact andcollaborative approach.
Working with the Ethiopia Public Health Institute, ADPC
developed a Public Health Emergency Management
Leadership Training for managers in the public healthsector to strengthen their ability to manage emergency
events more effectively and efficiently. Topics covered
included leadership skills, risk communication,community engagement, and resource management.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —84

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

ADPC organized a tailored DRM course for senior NEMA Mongolia officials in Bangkok,
Thailand to strengthen their capacity in disaster and climate resilience

ADPC organized a technical workshop session titled 'From Innovation to
Impact: Emerging Technology and Locally-led Solutions to Address
Community Adaptation and Resilience.' at the 17th International
Conference on Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change (CBA17)GADRI Annual Report 2023 —85

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

12. Krutphong, K., Tang, J., & Leelawat, N.
(2021). Development of a disaster risk profilein the public healthcare system during flood
situation: A case study of Nakhon Sawan City
Municipality,
Nakhon
Sawan
Province,
Thailand. In G. Passerini, F. Garzia, & M.
Lombardi (eds.), WIT Transactions on the Built
Environment, Vol: 207. Disaster Managementand Human Health Risk VII, 7th International
Conference on Disaster Management andHuman Health, Rome, Italy, (pp. 191-201).
Southampton: WIT Press. doi: 10.2495/
DMAN210151

9. Leelawat, N., Tang, J., Krutphong, K.,
Chaichanasiri, S., Kanno, T., Li, C. W., Le, L.
T. Q., Dung, H. Q., Saengtabtim, K., &Laosunthara, A. (2021). Comparison of theinitial overseas evacuation operations due to
COVID-19: A focus on Asian countries.
Journal of Disaster Research, 16 (7), 11371146. doi: 10.20965/jdr.2021.p1137(Scopus
Q2)
10. Saengtabtim, K., Leelawat, N., Tang, J.,
Treeranurat, W., Wisittiwong, N., Suppasri, A.,
Pakoksung, K., Imamura, F., Takahashi, N., &Charvet, I. (2021). Predictive analysis of thebuilding damage from the 2011 Great EastJapan
tsunamiusing
decisiontreeclassification related algorithms. IEEE Access,9,31065-31077.
doi:
10.1109/
ACCESS.2021.3060114(ISI/Scopus Q1)
11. Sontayasara, T., Jariyapongpaiboon, S.,
Promjun, A., Seelpipat, N., Saengtabtim, K.,
Tang, J., & Leelawat, N. (2021). Twitter
sentiment analysis on Bangkok tourism during
the COVID-19 situation using support vector
machine algorithm. Journal of Disaster
Research, 16 (1), 24-30. doi: 10.20965/
jdr.2021.p0024 (Scopus Q2)

13. Saengtabtim, K., Tang, J., & Leelawat, N.
(2021, January). Effectiveness of applying
HEALTH-EDRM framework: A comparison of
the COVID-19 situation in Asia-Oceania
countries and territories. In 2021 Second
International Symposium on Instrumentation,
Control, Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics(ICA-SYMP 2021), Bangkok, Thailand. IEEE.
doi: 10.1109/ICA-SYMP50206.2021.9358438
14. Kodaka, A., Leelawat, N., Ino, E., Tang, J.,
Park, J., & Kodaka, N. (2021, September). The
impact of employee behavior on business
continuity at an industrial complex. In 2021
IEEE International Symposium on Systems
Engineering (ISSE), (p. 1-6). Virtual. IEEE. doi:
10.1109/ISSE51541.2021.9582516
15. Sapapthai, S., Leelawat, N., Tang, J.,
Kodaka, A., & Ino, E. (2021, April). Successful
factors of business continuity management
implementation using analytic hierarchy
process-A case of an automotive partcompany in Ayutthaya Province, Thailand. In
2021 3rd International Conference on
Management
ScienceandIndustrial
Engineering (MSIE 2021) (pp. 132-138),
Osaka, Japan. ACM, New York, NY, USA. doi:
10.1145/3460824.3460845.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —86

GADRI Annual Report — Asia

16. Meechang, K., Leelawat, N., Tang, J., Ino,
E., Kodaka, A., Chintanapakdee, C., &Watanabe, K. (2021). Affecting factors on
perceived
usefulnessofarea-business
continuity management: A perspective from
employees in industrial areas in Thailand. In S.
P. Boret, A. Suppasri, E. Mas, & E. Maly
(Eds.), IOP Conference Series: Earth andEnvironmental Science: Vol. 630. 12th Aceh
International Workshop and Expo on
Sustainable Tsunami Disaster Recovery(AIWEST-DR 2019) 7-8 November 2019,
Tohoku, Japan (012016), Bristol: IOP
Publishing.
doi:
10.1088/17551315/630/1/012016 (Scopus)

17. Punwaree, J., Leelawat, N., Tang, J.,
Laosunthara, A., & Ohashi, T. (2021).
Improvement of organic fresh milk systemthrough willingness to purchase: A comparison
between Thailand and Japan. In S. I. Ao, O.
Castillo, C. Douglas, & D. D. Feng (Eds.),
Lecture Notes in Engineering and Computer
Science: Proceedings of The International
MultiConference of Engineers and Computer
Scientists 2021, 20-22 October, 2021, Hong
Kong (pp. 202-207). Hong Kong: Newswood
Limited.

18. Research Grant Received, Fundamental Fund(FF)
(CU_FRB65_dis(22)_147_21_13),
Thailand Science Research and Innovation
Fund, Chulalongkorn University. "Simulation
Development of the Affected Industrial Supply
Chain from the COVID-19 Applying the AreaBusiness Continuity Management (Area-BCM)
Concept"
19. Research Grant Received, Collaborative
Research with External Partners (CRX) (CUCRX 2102), JICA Project for AUN/SEED-Net.
"Sustainable Healthcare System throughBusiness Continuity Management"
20. https://seed-net.org/online-seminar-bcmconcept-towards-public-healthcare-systemduring-the-disaster/
21. https://seed-net.org/seminar-supported-by-jica-project-for-aun-seed-net-covid-19-dataanalysis-using-mobile-services-data-andsatellite-geospatial-data-towards-sustainabletourism-business/
22. https://www.facebook.com/SHECU2560/
posts/4174643522622078

https://www.facebook.com/
SHECU2560/
posts/4174643522622078

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —87

GADRI Annual Report — AsiaJapan

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —88

GADRI Annual Report — Japan

Japan and Oceania
Japan

Research Center for Regional Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Akita University

Japan

Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC)

Japan

Center for Disaster Management Informatics Research, Ehime University

Japan

International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) under the auspices of
UNESCOJapan

International Consortium on Landslides (ICL)Japan

Crisis & Security Management Research Center, Kagawa University

Japan

Research and Education Center for Natural Hazards, Kagoshima University

Japan

Institute of Nature and Environmental Technology, Kanazawa University

Japan

Research Center for Social Safety Science, Faculty of Safety Science, Kansai University

Japan

Research and Development Center of Fire and Environmental Safety (RDFES), Center for Disaster
Countermeasures (CDC), The University of Kita Kyushu

Japan

Research Center for Urban Safety and Security (RCUSS), Kobe University

Japan

Disaster Nursing and Global Nursing section of Fundamental Nursing, Kobe City College of Nursing

Japan

Implementation Research and Education System Center for Reducing Disaster Risk (IRESC),
Kumamoto University

Japan

Institute of Disaster Area Revitalization, Regrowth and Governance (IDiARRG), Research Institute forDisaster Area Reconstruction, Kwansei Gakuin University

Japan

Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University

Japan

Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies (GSGES), Kyoto University

Japan

Disaster Risk Reduction Research Center, Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University

Japan

Research Institute for Applied Mechanics (RIAM), Kyushu University

Japan

Center of Environmental Science and Disaster Mitigation for Advanced Research (CEDAR), MuroranInstitute of Technology

Japan

Advanced Disaster Prevention Engineering Center (ADPEC), Nagoya Institute of Technology

Japan

Disaster Mitigation Research Center (DMRC), Nagoya University

Japan

National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience （NIED)Japan

Research Institute for Natural Hazards & Disaster Recovery, Niigata University

Japan

Research Initiative for Natural Disaster Prevention of Oil and Gas Spill in Industrial Parks, Graduate
School of Engineering, Osaka University

Japan

Graduate School of Human Sciences, Faculty of Human Sciences, Osaka University

Japan

Frontier Research Center for Natural Disaster Mitigation, Ritsumeikan University

Japan

Institute of Disaster Mitigation for Urban Cultural Heritage (R-DMUCH), Ritsumeikan University

Japan

Disaster Prevention Research Center for Island Regions, University of the Ryukyus

Japan

International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University

Japan

Center for Urban Earthquake Engineering (CUEE), Tokyo Institute of Technology

Japan

Earthquake Research Institute (ERI), The University of TokyoGADRI Annual Report 2023 —89

Open Campus Day 2023
Disaster Prevention Research Institute(DPRI), Kyoto University, Uji Campus,
Kyoto, JapanGADRI Annual Report 2023 —90

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —91

GADRI Annual Report — Japan

Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC)

Japan
https://www.adrc.asia/
A study visit to 2023 Türkiye
Earthquake-affected areas

The Asian Disaster Reduction
Center(ADRC)
conducted
activities in the fields of (1)information sharing, (2) humanresource development and (3)building community capabilities in cooperation withstakeholders.

IDEntifier, is a global program proposed by ADRC
and cooperated by partner organizations,produces identifiers to disasters in the world andcontributing to disaster information management
for more than 20 years.

The following are brief of some of the activities.
•

In October, the Asian Conference on Disaster
Reduction (ACDR) 2023 was held in Dushanbe,
Tajikistan as well as on line. More than 200
participants attended the meeting titled “Effective
Implementation of DRR Measures —Enabling
Digital Transformation in DRR—.”•

In October, ADRC, in collaboration with theDisaster and Emergency Management Presidency(AFAD) of Türkiye, University of the Ryukyus, andHacettepe University, conducted a study visit to
the 2023 Türkiye Earthquake-affected areas toobserve the impacts, challenges, and lessons
from the earthquake disaster; to gain insights on
improving the DRR plans of ADRC member
countries; and to facilitate knowledge andinformation exchange.

•

In November, ADRC’s Online Tsunami Seminar
held on 15 November 2023 dwelt with the “State
and Challenges of Community-Based Tsunami
Preparedness.”•

In December, GLIDE Steering Committee Meeting
was held online with the participation of 25 experts
from 9 SC member organizations including UN,international and regional organizations andresearch institutes. GLIDE, Global disaster•

Turkey-Syria Earthquakes (6 February 2023)]

Strong 7.8 magnitude earthquake strikes in Turkey
near Syrian border. Massive quake hits near southerncity of Kahramanmaras and is felt in Syria andLebanon, with fears of widespread destruction andcasualties. The first satellite images from the DPN
were provided on December 7, images of 1 day after
the occurrence of the disaster. Finally, 107 satellite
images were provided by DPNs and 71 VAPs were
provided by DANs. A lot of valuable information wasprovided and it was utilized to inform the situation in
the affected area. After this disaster event, ADRC andJAXA visited in Ankara (Turkey) and had a workshop
related to the Sentinel Asia in December 2023.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —92

Dr. Shiomi Yumi
Senior Researcher
E-mail: ys-shiomi@adrc.asia

GADRI Annual Report — Japan•

Utilization of Space Technology for DRR in Asian
countries -Sentinel Asia-

Natural hazards have been on the rise worldwide,
including the Asia-Pacific region. The Asia-Pacificregion suffers from different types of hazards, such as
earthquakes, cyclones/typhoons, floods, landslides,
droughts, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and forest fires.
Several of them are large-scale, devastating disasters.
Given the high population level (about 3 billion) as wellas the high frequency and severity of hazards in theregion, an integrated use of space technology, such as
earth observation satellite data and geographic
information systems, can be an effective means to
reduce the magnitude of the severity, or provide timely
management in the event of a large-scale natural
hazard or disaster.
In light of the increasing frequency of hazards and anelevated loss of lives and properties from these events,
Sentinel Asia was conceptualized in 2005, and begun
to operate in 2007. It is engaged in activities to shareand provide disaster-related information, including
earth observation satellite images via the internet, tocontribute toward disaster management in the AsiaPacific region. Space agencies from the member

countries of the Asia-Pacific Region Space Agency
Forum (APRSAF), cooperate in forming a Joint Project
Team (JPT) and promoting SA. As of December 2023,
it consists of 114-member organizations, including 97
agencies from 29 countries/regions and 17 internationalorganizations.
And Sentinel Asia is composed of two Nodes (Data
Provider Node, and Data Analysis Node) and fourWorking Groups. The Data Provider Node (DPN)
provides their own satellite imagery and other relevant
data to JPT members upon an Emergency Observation
Request (EOR) from a JPT member, to the extent
permitted by the data policy of each DPN when adisaster occurs, while the Data Analysis Node (DAN)
analyzes the satellite data provided by DPN, makes avalue-added product and uploads and shares the result
through the new Sentinel Asia EOR system “OPTEMIS”
which started to operate in 2019. Between 2006 and2022, about 451 EORs have been made or accepted,
providing data and products to its members to support
disaster management. And 27 requests were acceptedin 2023.
[For more activities and details, please visit ADRC’s
website (https://www.adrc.asia/)
products(analyzed map) at
the
event
of
Turkey-Syria
Earthquakes

Asian Conference on
Disaster
Reduction(ACDR) 2023

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —93

GADRI Annual Report — Japan

International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk
Management under the auspices of UNESCO(ICHARM), Japan
http://www.icharm.pwri.go.jp/

Fig.1 A comparison in the water
depth the peak discharge between
water only (left) and water withsediment and driftwood (right)(The white dotted line indicates theflooded area interpreted from aerial
photos)Innovative Research: Development of an analysis
model for sediment and driftwood laden floods
ICHARM has developed a rainfall sediment-runoff(RSR) model to assess the amount of sediment anddriftwood discharged from a basin during a heavy
rainfall event. This model combines rainfall-runoff
analysis with slope stability analysis, debris tracking
using equations for a system of particles, and sedimentand driftwood runoff analysis using a unit channel
model to analyze water, sediment, and driftwood runoff
at any point in a basin. The model was applied to the2017 Akatani River flood disaster in Japan to calculate
the discharge of water, sediment, and driftwood. Using
these results, a planar two-dimensional analysis was
conducted for the flooded area, and the results areshown in Fig. 1. The analyses found that the flooded
area can be more accurately calculated by considering
sediment and driftwood, indicating that these methods
are useful for creating hazard maps and evacuationplans. (Fig. 1)

Seminar at ICHARM to help graduates brush up
their skills and knowledge and to gain feedback to
improve our programs. Seventeen graduates who
were visiting Japan to attend ICFM9 participated in
the seminar along with faculty members, current
students, and other invited guests. Executive
Director KOIKE delivered the keynote address sharing
five guiding principles that he keeps in mind as ascientist; he encouraged young scientists to keep
scientific curiosity, respect diversity, cherish areciprocal relationship with fellow scientists, work
together, and be humble by always reflecting on one's
actions. There were two interactive sessions, one forlistening to voices from the graduates and the other forquestions and answers between former and current
students. An enthusiastic discussion took place in
response to questions raised by current students,
which were mainly related to the experiences thegraduates had in practicing what they had learned at
ICHARM in their countries or organizations. (Fig. 2)

Effective Capacity Building: Follow-up Seminar forthe graduates of the ICHARM master's and PhD's
programs
As of December 2023, 182 students completed themaster's program, and 17 received a doctoral degree.
On February 22, 2023, ICHARM held the Follow-up

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —94

Prof. Toshio Koike
Executive Director
E-mail: t-koike@pwri.go.jp

GADRI Annual Report — Japan

Fig.2 Participants in the Follow-up Seminar

Efficient
Information
Networking:
NinthInternational Conference on Flood Management(ICFM9)On February 18-22, 2023, GRIPS and ICHARM cohosted ICFM9. The overall theme of ICFM9 was set
as "River Basin Disaster Resilience andSustainability by All - Integrated Flood Managementin the Post COVID-19 Era." The plenary session,
held at the Tsukuba International Conference Centerfrom the 19th to the 21st, was attended by 394 flood
experts from 41 countries and regions, including
Japan. Under its grand theme, presentations anddiscussions took place on important issues to beaddressed in the post-corona era, including how torebuild a flood-resilient society and how to transformthe current flood management into comprehensive
and multi-layered water-related disaster risk
reduction that combines hard and soft measuresand takes climate change impacts into account.
Despite the lingering effects of the corona crisis, thenumber of participants was almost double theexpected number, and each session and project
was successful. (Fig.3)

Fig. 3 Participants in ICFM9GADRI Annual Report 2023 —95

GADRI Annual Report — Japan

Institute of Education, Research and Regional
Cooperation for Crisis Management, Shikoku(IECMS), Kagawa University, Japan
http://www.kagawa-u.ac.jp/iecms_english/

Kagawa University Crisis Management Symposium
We have been selected by the International Scienceand Technology Cooperation Program for Responding
to Global Issues (SATREPS) conducted by JST and
JICA, and are currently conducting the following
research.
(1. Outline of the research topic) This research will be
carried out in collaboration with MARTEST of Gebze
University of Technology in Turkey, an earthquakeprone country, to significantly contribute to thedevelopment and dissemination of earthquakeresistant technology to reduce damage as earthquake
risk related to the North Anatolian Fault increases. It issomething that contributes. MARTEST aims todevelop new technologies, test and evaluate existing
technologies, and disseminate the technologies togreatly contribute to the creation of earthquakeresistant cities that are resilient to disasters in Turkey
and neighboring countries. In addition, we aim to build
a society that is resilient to disasters from both
hardware and software perspectives by conducting
earthquake monitoring research, earthquake andtsunamioccurrence
scenario
research,anddeveloping a disaster mitigation education systemusing DX. Specifically, by providing seismic
engineering technology through structural experimentsfrom Japan, we will aim to improve the level of seismic
engineering in Turkey, and through MARTEST, we will
disseminate and educate the knowledge to Turkey
and neighboring countries. We will also propose anearthquake and tsunami damage mitigation systemusing advanced observation systems and simulations.

•

KagawaUniversity
Symposium

CrisisManagement

1. Heading) “Inclusive disaster prevention for a diverse
society - A guidepost towards making our town
resilient”
2. Purpose: In the Shikoku region, where the declining
birthrate and aging population are progressing rapidly,
the diverse human resources of the region In order topromote resilience by making the most of the city anddeveloping human resources that suit thecharacteristics of the region, while ensuring that noone is left behind.
3. Date and time: December 4, 20203 (Monday) 13:00-16:45
4. Venue: Kagawa International Conference Center(Takamatsu Symbol Tower Tower Building 6th floor)(simultaneously distributed online)

Prof. Miyoshi Masaki
E-mail: miyoshi.masaki@kagawa-u.ac.jp
Prof. Aya Tani
E-mail: tani.aya@kagawa-u.ac.jp

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —96

GADRI Annual Report — Japan•

Selected

for

NICT

FY2025commissioned

research】•

Graduate School of Emergent Science, Departmentof Emergent Science (Doctoral Program)】

1. Heading: Research and development to build a next
-generation recovery model created by AI
development ~ Modeled on Takamatsu City
Regional efforts
2. Purpose: This research aims to explain how, in pastlarge-scale disasters, it took a long time to issue
disaster victim certificates due to delays in diagnosing
damaged buildings. Taking advantage of the lessons
learned from delays in support, we envisioned a largescale disaster using Takamatsu City as a model area,and developed rapid damage estimation andunderstanding methods using cutting-edge scienceand technology such as AI. The aim is to contribute to
the rapid rebuilding of lives in the affected areas bycreating a next-generation reconstruction model thatrealizes the issuance of disaster victim certificates, thedisbursement of support funds, and the reconstructionof housing.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Scienceand Technology has notified us of permission toestablish the Department of Emergent Science(doctoral course) at the Graduate School of Emergent
Science on August 31, 2023. As part of the university's
graduate school reform, in April 2022, four graduate
schools, the Graduate School of Education, theGraduate School of Law, the Graduate School of
Economics, and the Graduate School of Engineering,
will become the parent graduate school, and the
Graduate School of Emergent Science (Department ofEmergent Science) will be established. Master's
program) has been established. Based on the idea of"emergent science" of the graduate school's master's
program, the Graduate School of Engineering
considers the knowledge, abilities, techniques, etc.
required in the region as "integrated knowledge", andhas established the Graduate School of Engineering
as a training program for doctoral personnel who canintegrate fields. Based on the doctoral program, weplan to establish the Graduate School of Emergent
Science Department of Emergent Science (doctoral
program) in April 2024. Accordingly, the current
Graduate School of Emergent Science Department ofEmergent Science (master's program) will be renamed
to the Graduate School of Emergent Science
Department of Emergent Science (master's program),and this graduate school will have a sectional doctoral
program. This is the first time that a doctoral degree(crisis management) has been established at anational university in Japan.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —97

GADRI Annual Report — Japan

Center for Disaster Countermeasures (CDC)
The University of Kitakyushu, Japan
http://www.env.kitakyu-u.ac.jp/ja/shoubou/

Seminar on environmentally friendly soap-based
firefighting agent
The Center for Disaster Countermeasures has been
actively
disseminatingknowledgeontheenvironmentally friendly firefighting agent that wasdeveloped by a joint venture of the Kitakyushu City
Government, private companies, and the Universityof Kitakyushu. This natural soap-based firefighting
agent enhances the efficiency of firefighting andreduces the amount of water use while minimizing its
environmental and ecological impacts. This soapbased firefighting “Miracle Foam” is categorized as aClass A firefighting agent that is used for dealing withfire cases involving ordinary solid combustibles suchas paper, wood, cloth, and some plastics. In 2023,
our center held a half-day online seminar on thisfirefighting agent on Feb 7. More than 200 firefightersand experts from 186 fire departments across Japanjoined this seminar.
The seminar started with the introduction of thefirefighting agent by Shabondama Soap Co., which isa Kitakyushu-based natural soap company, andfollowed by an online visit to its factory. Then, an
experiment showed the great permeability of thewater mixed with the firefighting agent. Thisenhanced permeability enables more water to reachthe surface of burning materials to effectively remove
the heat of fire, resulting in fast extinguishing of thefire with a smaller amount of water. This introduction
part was followed by a presentation by the firefightersfrom the Kitakyushu Fire and Disaster Management
Bureau. They shared the results of the experiment
where this soap-based firefighting agent was used toextinguish a simulated wildfire in the Hiraodai field,
Kitakyushu. This experiment was conducted as partof the yearly grassland burning to sustain thelandscape of this quasi-national park. Then, Prof.
Uezu Kazuya gave a lecture on the scientific theoryof extinguishing fire and how this firefighting agent
improved the efficiency of heat removal. Prof.
Kawano Tomonori then gave a lecture from theperspective of a biologist. He introduced the historyof wildfire and human society, and then he defined
the criteria for environmentally friendly firefighting
agents. The difference between natural soap-based
and artificially synthesized firefighting agents was
explained. Then, he aired some videos of his

experiments
showing the good
performance of thesoap-based
firefighting agent insaving the lives offish,
microorganisms,
protozoa, and soilorganisms.
The
lecturesessionwas followed by anactive discussion
session. The topics
discussed include
the following andmore.
•

Firefighting agent—Miracle
Foam
A comparison of theeffectiveness of thefirefighting agent used as foam and water
solution.

•

Maximum possible length in storing thefirefighting agent both in an unopened or in an
opened bottle.

•

Capability of the firefighting agent in dealing withClass B fire cases or fire cases involving
flammable or combustible liquids and gases.

•

Citizens' responses and understanding of the
impacts of firefighting foam on the environment.
Possible strategies for disseminating theenvironmental friendliness of the firefighting
agent among citizens.

Details of this seminar can be found here.
https://office.env.kitakyu-u.ac.jp/
kangiken/center/center01/

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —98

Prof. Takaaki Kato
E-mail: tkato@kitakyu-u.ac.jp

GADRI Annual Report — Japan

Kobe City College of Nursing, Japan
http://www.kobe-ccn.ac.jp/english/

Kanbara, S., Pandey, A., Mashino, S. (2023). The Nurse’s Role in Achieving
Health Equity in Disasters and Public Health Emergencies in Asia. In:
Hassmiller, S., Darcy Mahoney, A., Beard, K. (eds) The Future of Nursing
2020-2030: Global Applications to Advance Health Equity. Springer, Cham.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29746-5_9

The
Kobe
City
College of Nursing
houses a specialized
field within the Basic
Nursing
Sciencearea, focusing on
Disaster Nursing andInternational Nursing.
This field is dedicatedto the development of theory, as well as theadvancement of education and research practices indisaster nursing in Japan. Our recent research efforts
have expanded to include care strategies that address
the impacts of climate change and environmental
challenges, integrating the concepts of Planetary Healthand the Social Determinants of Health.
Japan's practice and culture of disaster nursing are
regarded as advanced by international standards. This
recognition is underscored by the inclusion of ourapproaches in the American Academy of Medicine's
National Academy of Medicine consensus study, "The
Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Pathway to
Achieving Health Equity," particularly in the context ofhealth equity during disasters and public healthemergencies in Asia.
Our commitment to education is further demonstrated
through our participation in a JICA training course on
health crisis management and leadership aimed at"Improving Nursing Management Capacity to Achieve
UHC." This course has attracted faculty from nursing
universities and government officials from eight
countries, including Bangladesh and Cambodia.
Additionally, our students have engaged in a summer
seminar atthe WHO Kobe Centre to discuss
health crisis management
and have participatedininternational
conferences,broadening their perspective
and expertise.

advanced skills in disaster management throughlectures by leaders in disaster nursing, practicalexperience in disaster center hospitals, and community
practice. These components are integral to our basic
nursing education, emphasizing self-help, mutual aid,
and the pivotal role of nursing.
In a novel approach to nursing education, we collaborate
with local residents who volunteer as guest speakers,
mock patients, and participants in various educational
activities. This interaction not only enriches the learning
experience for our students but also revitalizes
educational activities by incorporating real-world
perspectives, particularly through narratives fromsurvivors of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. Suchengagements underscore the importance of disasternursing education and preparedness.
Before graduation, our students also undergo
comprehensive training in disaster management,
including managing evacuation centers and triage postdisaster. This training is complemented by lectures fromexperienced professionals, such as the deputy chief
nurse of the Kobe City Hospitals, who share insights on
disaster response and preparedness.
Looking ahead, Kobe City College of Nursing is proud tohost the 8th World Congress of Disaster Nursing. This
event marks a significant milestone, celebrating our
growth from seven founding countries into a robust
global network actively contributing to the SDGs and the
Sendai Framework for Disaster Reduction.

The master's program at Kobe City Collegeof
Nursing is recognized as a Certified Nursing Specialist(CNS) program. It is designed to equip students withGADRI Annual Report 2023 —99

Prof. Sakiko Kanbara
E-mail: s-kanbara@kobe-ccn.ac.jp

GADRI Annual Report — Japan

ences. These experiences
allow them to engage inmeaningful dialogues on
health crisis managementwith peers from around theworld.
The Kobe City College ofNursing offers a Certified
Nursing Specialist (CNS)
program within its master's
course, focusing on producing disaster management
experts. The program includes lectures by disasternursing leaders, hands-on
practice in a disaster center
Poster; the 8th World Society of Disaster Nursing
hospital, and community
engagement. This comprehensive training is integral to the basic education providThe congress will address the challenges of the posted by our School of Nursing.
Corona era and aims to foster sustainable community
well-being through a hybrid format of sessions. It will The importance of self-help and mutual aid is emphahighlight the critical role of disaster nursing in the context sized in our compulsory basic education courses. A hallof climate change and promote global health and social mark of our educational model is the involvement of local
residents as educational volunteers. They actively particsustainability.
ipate as guest speakers, mock patients, and in various
Kobe, with its history and commitment to disaster repractical training exercises. This collaboration not only
sponse, provides an ideal setting for this gathering.
enriches the learning experience but also revitalizes our
The Kobe City College of Nursing, through its Disaster educational activities.
Nursing and International Nursing Field within the BasicWe also have a unique approach to learning from history.
Nursing Science area, stands at the forefront of disaster
By inviting individuals affected by the Great Hanshin-Awaji
nursing education and research practice in Japan. Our
Earthquake, our students gain a profound understanding
curriculum is built on a foundation of theory and practicalof disaster impact and the variability of needs based on
application, integrating cutting-edge research on carelocation, age, and the nature of support provided. These
strategies influenced by climate change, environmental
testimonies are invaluable for students, many of whom
concerns, and global health perspectives, including
have not personally experienced a disaster, enabling them
Planetary Health and Social Determinants of Health.
to reflect on their role in disaster nursing.
Our innovative approach in disaster nursing is recogBefore graduation, our students are thoroughly trained in
nized globally, notably referenced by the American
managing evacuation centers and triage through our DisAcademy of Medicine's National Academy of Medicine inaster Nursing II elective course. This training includes
their study "The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting
special lectures from experienced nursing professionals
a Pathway to Achieving Health Equity." We take pride in
and allows students to create their own district disasterour contribution to shaping the role of nursing in healthmanagement plans.
equity, particularly during disasters and public health
The College not only attracts students with a predisposiemergencies in Asia.
tion for disaster nursing but also encourages active particiWe have extended our expertise beyond the classroom,
pation in disaster management activities, as evidenced byengaging faculty and government officials from various
the response to the Noto Peninsula earthquake.
countries through a JICA training course on health crisis
management and leadership. Our efforts are aimed at Looking ahead, the Kobe City College of Nursing is honimproving nursing management capacity to support Uni- ored to host the 8th World Congress of Disaster Nursing
versal Health Coverage, with a diverse international par- next year. This Congress is a testament to the growth of
the WSDN, which has evolved into a vital global
ticipation.
network since its inception
in Kobe in 2008. The
conference aligns withthe
Our students have the unique opportunity to gain real- SDGs and the Sendai
world insights by participating in seminars, such as those Framework for Disaster
held at the WHO Kobe Centre, and international confer- Reduction, addressing the postCorona
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —100

GADRI Annual Report — Japan

Disaster Prevention Research Institute(DPRI) Kyoto University, Japan
http://www.dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/

International Agreement of Exchange concluded Between the
Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, USA; and the DPRI, Kyoto University
The Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI),
Kyoto University and the Pacific Earthquake
Engineering Research (PEER) Center at the
University of California, Berkeley, USA entered into
an International Agreement of Exchange. The
Agreement was signed by Prof. Eiichi Nakakita,
Director, DPRI, and Prof. Khalid Mosalam, Director,
PEER on 19 December 2023.

Earthquake Disasters, Earthquake Resistance
Structures Division, DPRI, Kyoto University. It isenvisaged that the two institutes will closely work
together on areas such as structure maintenance andmonitoring
technology,
large-scale
structuralexperiments and simulations, disaster informationcollection using AI, and early disaster warning
information systems.

The two institutes have been engaged in a wide
range of research in the field of earthquake
engineering since 2002. Prof. Mosalam is currently
on a sabbatical at the Research Division ofFrom:news_en/20133/

Source: DPRI, Kyoto University Home PageGADRI Annual Report 2023 —101

https://www.dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/

GADRI Annual Report — Japan

Disaster Prevention Research Institute(DPRI) Kyoto University, Japan
http://www.dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/

Signing of an International Agreement of Exchange with the Facultyof Science and Engineering, Swansea University, UK
Prof. Harshinie Karunarathna, Faculty of Scienceand Engineering, Swansea University visited theDisaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI),
Kyoto University to renew the International
Agreement of Exchange between the two institutes.
The Agreement was signed by Prof. Karunaratne
and Prof. Eiichi Nakakita, Director, DPRI Kyoto
University on 13 December 2023.

Swansea University. The two institutes will work inclose cooperation in the areas of coastal disastermitigation and climate change using Eco-DRR/
Nature-based Solutions.
From:
news_en/20133/

The Agreement was entered into force in 2013
between the Faculty of Engineering, now the Facultyof Science and Engineering, Swansea University
and DPRI, Kyoto University. Since then, they havecontinued to engage in research exchanges in thefield of coastal disaster research under theleadership of the Deputy Director, Prof. Nobuhito
Mori who is also serving as honorary professor at

Source: DPRI, Kyoto University Home PageGADRI Annual Report 2023 —102

https://www.dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/

GADRI Annual Report — Japan

Disaster Prevention Research Institute(DPRI) Kyoto University, Japan
http://www.dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/

A paper on the Kanto Daikasai following the 1923 Earthquake by
Associate Professor Tomoken Nishino et.al. was published in a
special issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America

Source: DPRI, Kyoto University Home Page

Associate Professor Tomoken Nishino co-authored apaper with Dr. Charles Scawthorn (University ofCalifornia), Professor J. Charles Schencking(University of Hong Kong), and Assistant Professor
Janet Borland (International Christian University)“Kantō Daikasai: The Great Kantō Fire following the1923 Earthquake” which was published in the Special
Issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society ofAmerica for the Centennial of Great 1923 Kanto
Earthquake, Japan.
This paper focuses on the simultaneous large-scale
fires that occurred in Tokyo City following the Kanto
Earthquake that occurred on September 1, 1923, andsummarizes the actual and estimated aspects of fireoccurrence, spread, and the effects of fire air currents.
At the same time, by touching on the recent trends inearthquakes and fires in Japan as well as the latest
research results on damage prediction and risk
assessment, we emphasize that the risk ofearthquakes and fires remains significant even inmodern times and should not be
overlooked.
As Japanapproachedthe100th anniversary of the
Great
Kanto
Earthquake, it is hoped that thelessons
learned from Japan’s historic earthquakes and fires
will once again be widely shared internationally andbe utilized for future disaster prevention in earthquake-prone countries.
•

C. Scawthorn, T. Nishino, J. C. Schencking, and J.
Borland (2023). Kantō Daikasai: The Great Kantō
Fire Following the 1923 Earthquake, Bulletin of the
Seismological Society of America 113, 1902–1923.
[SSA]

•

News [Seismological Society of America] Largest
Historic Fire Death Toll Belongs to Aftermath of1923 Japan Earthquake [SSA]•

https://www.dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/news_en/19877/

Assoc. Prof. Tomoaki Nishino
E-mail:GADRI Annual Report 2023 —103

GADRI Annual Report — Japan

Disaster Prevention Research Institute(DPRI) Kyoto University, Japan
http://www.dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/

Paper on As Global Warming Progresses Extreme and Linear
Precipitation will Increase•

Journal:JournalofGeophysicalResearch－Atmosphere•

Paper Title: Identifying robust changes of extreme
precipitation in Japan from large ensemble 5-km-gridregional experiments for 4K warming scenario•

Authors: Hiroaki Kawase1, Masaya Nosaka1,
Shunichi I. Watanabe1, Koudai Yamamoto2,
Tomoya Shimura2, Yukari Naka2, Y.-H. Wu2, Hiroki
Okachi3, Tsuyoshi Hoshino4, Rui. Ito5, Shiori
Sugimoto5, Chieko Suzuki5, Shin Fukui1, Tetsuya
Takemi2, Youichi Ishikawa5, Nobuhito Mori2, Eiichi
Nakakita2, Tomohito J. Yamada3, Akihiko Murata1,
Tosiyuki Nakaegawa1, and Izuru Takayabu1

A research group led by Prof. Nobuhito Mori conducted •a large number of high-resolution climate simulations
covering all of Japan, based on the “d4PDF: largeensemble and high-resolution climate simulations for
global warming risk assessment”.

Source: DPRI, Home page—https://www.dpri.kyotou.ac.jp/news_en/19862/

The paper “Identifying robust changes of extreme
precipitation in Japan from large ensemble 5-km-gridregional experiments for 4K warming scenario” analysis
showed that the frequency and intensity of once-every50-year heavy rainfall events and linear precipitation
zones in Japan will increase as global warming
progresses, as will the heavy rainfalls associated withtyphoons.
This data will be made public through the Data
Integration and Analysis System (DIAS). The data will be
useful for analysis of future disaster prevention in Japanagainst extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall
but also extreme heat and heavy snowfall. This data will
also be useful for the formulation of global warming
adaptation measures.
The research results were published in the international“Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmosphere” on 19
September 2023.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —104

Prof. Nobuhito Mori
E-mail: mori.nobuhito@kyoto-u.ac.jp

GADRI Annual Report — Japan

Institute of Disaster Area Revitalization, Regrowth andGovernance, Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan
https://www.kwansei.ac.jp/fukkou/about/index_en.html

Project activities;

Events;During 2023, the institute continued to implement thefollowing research activities.
• International comparative study on disaster recovery
and revitalization policies.
International study group on sustainable regional
revitalization since 2020. Recovery from catastrophic
disasters needs a long-term, sustained community
effort. It is important to pass on the experience of pastmajor disasters as systematic wisdom and knowledge
and to conduct policy research to prepare for futuremajor disasters. The group brought together
researchers, practitioners, and administrators fromJapan and abroad to exchange knowledge.

•

The institute organized an annual network meeting ofdisaster-affected areas in Japan from January 7-8,2023. The theme was: 100 years after the Great Kanto
Earthquake, let’s talk about “revitalization” again. Thistime, on the 100th anniversary of the Great Kanto
Earthquake, when the word " revitalization" began to be
used with important meaning, we held a philosophy
cafe-style discussion about " revitalization " once again.

•• International comparative study
revitalization after nuclear disasterofcommunity

The Fukushima nuclear power plant accident caused by
the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake required acompletely different type of disaster and response. The
Japanese government, including the national and local
governments, has been promoting reconstruction
policies, but there is a gab in the perception ofrevitalization as perceived by local communities andresidents.
In July 2023, the institute and Pusan
National University's Slow Disaster Life ResearchGroupjointlyhosteda
Korea-Japan
international seminar on the
topic of community
revitalization after anucleardisasterand conducted a field survey.
https://www.kwansei.ac.jp/cms/
file/publications/letter/fukkou_052.pdf

An annual network meeting“Round Table Cafe” andforumInternational symposium and joint study group on
the theme of "Thinking about new collaboration in
East Asia" is held every year since 2016. On March
23, 2023, a study group held an online symposiumwith researchers from various fields from Japan andSouth Korea regarding Seoul Halloween crowd
crush that occurred in Itaewon, Seoul, South Korea
on October 29, 2022.

https://www.kwansei.ac.jp/cms/kwansei_fukkou/file/publications/letter/fukkou_051.pdf

kwansei_fukkou/

Dr. Yoshiyuki Yama
Director
E-mail: yyama@kwansei.ac.jp

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —105

GADRI Annual Report — Japan

Institute of Disaster Mitigation for Urban Cultural Heritage (RDMUCH), Ritsumeikan University Japan
http://www.r-dmuch.jp/en/

The Institute of Disaster Mitigation for Urban
Cultural Heritage at Ritsumeikan University(R-DMUCH) has been acting as a focal
point for organizing international research,training and information network in the fieldof cultural heritage risk management anddisaster mitigation. The UNESCO Chair
Programme on Cultural Heritage and Risk
Management - 17th International Training
Course (ITC) on Disaster Risk Managementof Cultural Heritage 2023 was held online
for 3weeks from 14 August to 1 September
2023, and onsite for 2 weeks from 11
September to 24 September 2023 with 13
participants from Hungary, Israel, Malawi,
Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea,
Saudi Arabia, Spain and USA. Participants
were managers of cultural heritage, disasterrisk management experts, decision makers
and government officials involved in cultural heritage
conservation or disaster management.
We are very fortunate to have resource persons fromnational organizations such as Agency for Cultural
Affairs with Tokyo National Research Institute forCultural Properties and Cultural Heritage Disaster Risk
Management Center, the Association for the
Preservation of National Temple and Shrine RoofConstruction Techniques, Aichi University, Kyoto
University, National Institute of Technology Akashi
College, Kyoto City Fire Department, Kyoto Prefectural
Board of Education, Kyoto National Museum, Nohmi
Bosai Ltd., Yuasa-cho Board of Education, Kobe City
Culture and Sports Bureau Cultural Properties Divisionand international organizations such as ICHCAP,

Demonstration of the water shield as the fire
prevention equipment at Higashihongan-ji

KVPT, Loughborough University etc. We would like tothank all colleagues for supporting us and participants
from
all
over
the
world.
This year, the course was conducted in a hybrid format,
online and onsite. Firstly, in the online training program,
we conducted live sessions twice a week for 2.5 hours
each and one session per week was designated as afeedback session, providing an opportunity for students
to consult with instructors regarding their individual
projects. The onsite course started on 11th September
and lasted for 2 weeks. It was focused on exercisebased lectures, various site visits related with thecourse theme.

The book titled 'Good Practices
for Disaster Risk Management ofCultural Heritage' has been
published this year. It is acompilation of 12 different goodpractices
from
past
ITC
participants and has been edited
by current UNESCO Co-Chair(https://www.routledge.com/GoodPractices-for-Disaster-RiskManagement-of-Cultural-HeritagePractices/Jigyasu-Kim-Shakya/p/book/9781032411446) -ji

Prof. Shinta Yoshitomi
Director
E-mail: rekibou@st.ritsumei.ac.jp

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —106

GADRI Annual Report — Japan

Final day with theparticipants with theircertificates in their hands

The theme for this year's international training was "Safeguarding and Utilization of Intangible Cultural
Heritage for Disaster Risk Management of Cultural
Heritage”. It delved into the traditional techniques, skills,
and knowledge of wooden architecture as intangible
cultural heritage (ICH), festivals (including mountain,
float, and street events), and the origin of Japanesecuisine – soy sauce. This deepened our understandingof the necessity of utilizing and preserving intangible
cultural heritage in the prevention, restoration, andreconstruction of cultural heritage. The onsite course
included various site visits related with ICH lectures andhands-on experience with roofing work by traditional
craftsmen at Kyoto City Cultural Heritage Preservation
Technology Training Center, inspection and lectures on
the Gion Festival and its operational base, a site visit to
the traditional building preservation district of Yuya-cho
known for its soy sauce, and an inspection and lectureon "Inamura no Hi" in Hirogawa-cho as a disastermemory, along with a site visit and lecture on the prerecovery plan in Kainan City, Wakayama.
We learned about the role of ICH, such as Japan's
traditional techniques and festival mechanisms, in
supporting the restoration of tangible cultural heritageand disaster recovery. Simultaneously, we gained
insights into Japan's unique and advanced initiatives on

Professor Sato's lecture on an ICH “Gion Festival”
and its emerged community at “Ofuneboko
Chokaisyo”

Exerciseof
Hiwadabuki roof
installment at the
Kyoto
City
Cultural Property
Building
Conservation
Technology
Training Center

disaster prevention measures, including preserving
disaster memories and preparing for future disasters
through pre-recovery plans.

On the final day of the international training program,
we hosted an international expert panel discussion titled"Good Practice to Disaster Risk Management ofCultural Heritage”. In July of 2023, our ITC teamsuccessfully published a book as series of the
Routledge Studies in Hazards, Disaster Risk andClimate Change. This panel discussion was also
conducted as a book launch event of the book. During
this panel discussion, we deliberated on the future
direction of capacity building program ITC withpanelists. Details are available in our website https://rdmuch-itc.com/category/events/.
The training course is organized by the Institute ofDisaster Mitigation for Urban Cultural Heritage,
Ritsumeikan University in collaboration with ICCROM,
contributed by UNESCO, ICOM & ICOMOS/ICORP,
and relevant institutions of the government of Japan.
We will continue these outreach activities anddissemination of our research outcomes to theinternational society.
The annual proceedings are available in our website
https://rdmuch-itc.com/resources/

Sharing good practices with our former participants

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —107

GADRI Annual Report — Japan

National Research Institute for Earth Scienceand Disaster Resilience (NIED),Japan
http://www.bosai.go.jp

The objective of this conference was toexplore the role of science and technology
in advancing various efforts to achieve thegoals of the Sendai Framework for Disaster
Risk Reduction, Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs), and the Paris Climate
Agreement through close coordination of
stakeholders and measures to transform ourcurrent societies to be more sustainable,
resilient, and inclusive for effective recovery
after catastrophic disasters.
The discussions of the conference weresummarized in the Tokyo Statement 2023,
in which four key recommendations were
stipulated as below.

Group photo from the International Conference on Science andTechnology for Sustainability 2023

(1) Elucidating disaster risk
The National Research Institute for Earth Science andDisaster Resilience (NIED) has been functioning as thesecretariat of the Japan Hub of Disaster Resilience
Partners (JHoP), a research network established in2019 consisting of 17 partners including universities,
research institutes, and other organizations in Japan,
involved in disaster risk reduction (DRR) for building aresilient and sustainable society based on scientificknowledge. In 2021, with the approval from the
Scientific Committee of the Integrated Research on
Disaster Risk (IRDR), JHoP established IRDR ICoECoherence to promote international DRR research for
issues including sustainable development and climatechange.
2023 has been a significant year for JHoP/ICoECoherence because of several milestone events
implemented to promote its agenda. NIED played anessential role in the success of these events as thesecretariat. For example, on 7 and 8 September, the“International Conference on Science and Technology
for Sustainability 2023 – Transforming Society to
BecomeResilientandSustainablebeyondCatastrophic Disasters” was jointly organized by
Science Council of Japan, JHoP and NIED tocommemorate the 100th anniversary of the Great
Kanto Earthquake and to reflect on Japan’s
experiences and its accumulated knowledge over the
past century, together with the lessons learned byother countries and regions.

•

To establish science and technology for
improvingdisasterresilienceandthesustainability of societies with three ultimate
goals: 1) maintaining and improving the physical,
mental, and social well-being of individuals, 2)
reinforcing the capacity for mutual support incommunities; and 3) the coherent realization ofdisasterrisk
reduction,
climatechangeadaptation, and sustainable development insociety.

•

To develop a disaster management system withanall-hazards
approach,conversing
multidisciplinary knowledge covering all phasesof disaster management, including forecasting,prevention/mitigation, early warning, emergency
response, and recovery/restoration.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —108

Prof. Kaoru Takara
Pesident
E-mail: takara@bosai.go.jp

GADRI Annual Report — Japandevelopment programs to further respondto disasters more efficiently and effectively
utilize digital transformation (DX).

(4) Establishing proactive measures toenable "Build Back Better"• To
reinforcethetransformative
capacity to further build a new society aftera disaster with the awareness that "in an
emergency, we can only do what wenormally do," as well as a system that
promotes proactive measures using DX.

1st Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) Meeting of ICoE-Coherence•

To realize the consilience of knowledge for disaster
resilience using information infrastructure todisseminate to society according to the
Recommendation titled "Developing an Online
Synthesis System (OSS) and fostering Facilitators
to realize consilience" from the Science Council ofJapan in 2020.

(2) Establishing new governance to manage disasters•

To establish the governance contributing to thetransition to an autonomous, decentralized, andcooperative society as suggested by theirreversible changes caused by the COVID-19
pandemic.

•

To ensure transnational resilience, where multiple
countries cooperate in improving the national
resilience of land and sea, sovereignty, and thepeople of each country.

•

To stimulate risk communication on catastrophic
disasters nationally and globally, starting withdiscussions at the Science Council of Japan.

• To present a vision of society after acatastrophic disaster (sustainability, green
energy/zero carbon, national spatial planning,transition to an autonomous decentralized andcooperative community in terms of finance,
economy, industry, international cooperation, etc.)
On 5 September, ICoE-Coherence held its first Science
Advisory Board (SAB) meeting to discuss topics
including IRDR Phase II (2022-2031) and multi-year
action plan for ICoE-Coherence from 2023, inviting
IRDR IPO and overseas SAB members. The action
plan suggested consists of 4 pillars: (a) to provide
policy/strategic recommendations, (b) to support
standardizing DRR measures, including disasterdatabases, (c) to build the capacity of disaster
researchers and practitioners, and (d) to facilitate
international alliances and partnerships, such as with
ICoE- Taipei.
Link to reports and videos of the International
Conference on Science and Technology for
Sustainability 2023 can be seen here: https://www.scj.go.jp/ja/int/kaisai/jizoku2023/index.html(3) Ensuring investment in financial expenditure,
capacity development, and technological development
during disasters•

To establish the role of investment in reducing
human activities and asset accumulation at risk
exposed to disasters such as medium to long-term
spatial reorganization plans and maintenance of
critical social infrastructure.

•

To promote the concentrated investment in (1)improvement of qualitative and quantitative
enhancement of market services to improve selfhelp
capacity and (2) enhancementand diversification of
insurance
andmutualaid
programs
toprovide mutual assistance aid
based on thesystem.

•To enhance individual and grassroots community
resilience capabilities to deploy strategic capacity

Brochure for International Conference on Scienceand Technology for Sustainability 2023 –Transforming Society to Become Resilient andSustainable beyond Catastrophic Disasters

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —109

GADRI Annual Report — Japan

International Research Institute of Disaster
Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University, Japan
http://www.irides.tohokuu.ac.jp/eng/

New Director of IRIDeS, Tohoku
University, Prof. Shinichi Kuriyama
Professor Shinichi Kuriyama became the Third
Director of the IRIDeS as of April 2023. He is aphysician specializing in disaster public health.
Public health is the science and practice ofpreventing disease and promoting the health ofgroups of people. In the aftermath of the 2011
disaster, he was engaged in relief activities indisaster areas. He has also led large-scale, medium- to long-term surveys on the disaster. Those study
results have shown that people affected by thedisaster still face adverse health issues. IRIDeS willcontinue to address the problems in the affectedareas, including those revealed by these studies.

The goal of Public Health is to encourage people tolead healthy lives. He would like to apply its
methodology to disaster risk reduction to encourage
citizens to actually practice disaster mitigation
measures. Public health has contributed to anational health movement using various means,such as epidemiological surveys on health status,
learning, legislation, and the establishment ofhealthy behaviors as part of public culture. Also, indisaster risk reduction, he aims to advance people’s
disaster preparedness and response with similar
methods, including reaching out to those indifferent
to disaster risk reduction and those who have not
yet put disaster risk reduction into practice despite
being aware of its importance. With the keywords“prepare, evacuate, and recover,” he wishes toconnect IRIDeS’s varied undertakings to thebroader disaster risk reduction movement.
IRIDeS researchers attended the High-Level
Meeting of the General Assembly on the Midterm
Review of the implementation of the Sendai
Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030
from 18-19 May 2023 at the United Nations
Headquarters in New York. Having reached thehalfway point of implementation of the Sendai
Framework, City of Sendai and IRIDeS haveconducted a joint assessment of the progress of
implementing the Framework in the case of the Cityof Sendai. Mayor, Ms. Kazuko Kohri was invited to
be a speaker.

Prof. Yuichi Ono
E-mail: yono@irides.tohoku.ac.jp

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —110

GADRI Annual Report — JapanOf the seven 'Global Targets', for the reduction
targets (Targets A-D), there has been a decreasing
trend in disaster damage from the first half of theassessment period (2005-2014) to the second half(2015-2021), confirming that the targets have beenachieved for all assessment indicators. By type ofdisaster, damage caused by earthquakes andtsunamis peaked after the Great East Japan
Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011 and has been on
a downward trend. Although no tsunami damage
has occurred since the Great East Japan
Earthquake and Tsunami in Sendai, damage has
been kept to a minimum despite the fact that thecountry has been hit by several magnitude 7-class
earthquakes, and it is considered that the initiatives
in the four 'priority actions' play an important role inachieving the reduction targets (targets A to D).
Steady progress on the increase target (Targets EG) was also confirmed through quantitative analysisof the status of the formulation of Sendai's disastermanagement strategy and evacuation center
operation manuals, the number of foreign visitors

and trainees, and changes over time in access toearly warning and disaster risk information fromamong the four priority actions. Based on the above,
the Global Targets are assessed as being in theprocess of being achieved at the turnaround point of
the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Moving forward, City of Sendai and IRIDeS willcontinue to cooperate with each other and otherrelated parties to disseminate information on
disaster risk reduction efforts from Tohoku andSendai. Working with others, our aim is to consider
ways of responding to new disaster-related risks,
accumulate knowledge, and make a contribution todisaster risk reduction on a global level.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —111

GADRI Annual Report — JapanGADRI Annual Report — Japan

Earthquake Research Institute (ERI)The University of Tokyo, Japan
http://www.eri.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/

Tsunamis are mainly caused by large submarine
earthquakes, but submarine volcanic processes canalso trigger tsunamis, as highlighted by recent tsunami
events related to the 2022 eruption of Hunga Tonga–
Hunga Haʻapai volcano in Tonga, or the 2018 eruptionof Anak Krakatau volcano in Indonesia.

It has been known for long that peculiar moderatesized volcanic earthquakes only with a seismic
magnitude M < 6 that took place every decade in asubmarine volcano in Japan, called Sumisu Caldera,
generated notable tsunami waves. Despite themoderate earthquake sizes, the maximum wave
heights of the tsunamis were about a meter, which has
made it challenging to forecast tsunamis based onearthquake observations. Their source mechanism
has been controversial for the last four decades since
the first recognition of the earthquake and tsunami in
1984.

Although the trapdoor faulting had been previously
found only at a subaerial caldera in Galapagos
Islands, the study (Sandanbata et al., 2022)
suggested, for the first time, the occurrence of
trapdoor faulting under the ocean and its high potential
for tsunami generation. The decadal recurrence of
trapdoor faulting reflects active volcanism of thesubmarine caldera, indicating its potential forsubmarine eruptions in the future. Furthermore, similar
tsunami events due to submarine trapdoor faulting
were also suggested for two other submarine
calderas: Curtis Caldera in New Zealand (Sandanbata
et al., 2023) and Kita-Ioto Caldera in Japan(Sandanbata & Saito, in press). These new and global
findings suggested that trapdoor faulting is a more
universal phenomenon in calderas, which underscores
our needs to examine and monitor submarine calderas
for assessing volcanic tsunami hazards.

•
Sandanbata et al. (2022) analyzed tsunami waveform
data recorded by ocean bottom pressure gauges andlong-period seismic waveform data by regional
seismic networks of a recent earthquake at Sumisu
Caldera in May 2015. Through the interdisciplinary
approach combining tsunami and seismic data, wesuggested that the submarine caldera caused brittle
rupture of the fault system within the caldera structure
every decade, due to overpressure of magma
accumulating in a shallow magma reservoir (Figure a).
This so-called “trapdoor faulting” mechanism abruptly
uplifted its caldera floor by meters and excited large
tsunamis. The trapdoor faulting model (Figure b–c)
explained the tsunami and seismic waveform data wellat the same time. We also revealed that the complex
source mechanism that occurred at a very shallow
depth of < ~3 km can efficiently cause tsunamis
without significant seismic wave radiations, explaining
the gap between the tsunami and earthquake sizes.

Prof. Takashi Furumura
Director
E-mail: director@eri.u-tokyo.ac.jp

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —112

GADRI Annual Report — JapanGADRI Annual Report — Japan

Reference•https://doi.org/10.1029/2022gl101086•

Sandanbata, O., Watada, S., Satake, K., et al.
(2022). Sub‐decadal volcanic tsunamis due tosubmarine trapdoor faulting at Sumisu caldera in the
Izu–Bonin arc. J. Geophys. Res., [Solid Earth], 127(9),e2022JB024213.
https://
doi.org/10.1029/2022jb024213•

Sandanbata, O., & Saito, T. Quantifying Magma
Overpressure Beneath a Submarine Caldera: A
Mechanical Modeling Approach to Tsunamigenic
Trapdoor Faulting Near Kita-Ioto Island, Japan. J.
Geophys. Res., [Solid Earth], 129(1), in press•

Sandanbata, O., Watada, S., Satake, K., et al.
(2023). Two volcanic tsunami events caused bytrapdoor faulting at a submerged caldera near Curtis
and Cheeseman Islands in the Kermadec Arc.
Geophys. Res. Lett., 50(7), e2022GL101086.

Source mechanism of volcanic earthquakes causing disproportionately large tsunamis: Trapdoor faulting inthe submarine Sumisu caldera, south of Japan
https://www.eri.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/research/5323/

Figure. (a) Schematic illustration of the trapdoor faulting mechanism proposed
for the 2015
earthquake and tsunami at Sumisu caldera, which involves a large reverse
slip of an intra-caldera fault
and deformation of a horizontal crack filled with magma, driven by highmagma pressure. This uplifts
the caldera floor and the seawater by several meters, causing
tsunamis. (b–c) Source model of the 2015 earthquake viewed from (b) southwest, and (c) above. This
trapdoor faulting model, composed of the reverse-slipping ring fault and deformation of a magma reservoir,
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —113

GADRI Annual Report — Oceania

Oceania

Australia

Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University (ANU)

Australia

College of Health & Human Sciences, Charles Darwin University

Australia

Humanitarian Response & Disaster Management Studies, School of Health, Charles
Darwin University

Australia

Centre for Disaster Studies, College of Science and Engineering, James Cook
University

Australia

Humanitarial Enegineering Lab, RMIT University

Australia

Centre for Infrastructure Performance and Reliability, School of Engineering, The
University of Newcastle

Australia

Sustainability Research Centre, University of Sunshine Coast

Australia

Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology

Australia

Humanitarian & Development Research Initiative (HADRI), School of Social Sciences
and Psychology, Western Sydney University

Australia

School pf Earth and Environmental Sciences/ SMAH, University of Wollongong

New Zealand

GNS Science

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Humanitarian Engineering Lab, RMIT University
Australia
https://www.rmit.edu.au/

Prof. Matt Duckham presenting on theworkshop goals, which includes a discussion of the Capability statement

2023 Outcomes
Brief Profile
The Disaster Research Network (DRN)at RMIT University is dedicated to disaster management at the local, national
and international levels. Coordinated byProfessor Matt Duckham, A/Professor
Erica Kuligowski and Dr Spyros
Schismenos, the RMIT DRN connects
over 80 researchers and across diverse
disciplines, who collaborate with communities and emergency practitioners tostrengthen disaster resilience in Australia
and internationally.

2023 proved to be a fantastic year for the DRN! Its
members actively organised and participated inworkshops and conferences related to disastermanagement. A standout event was the ‘Natural
Hazards Research Forum’, that was held from May 1
to May 3, 2023, organised by NHRA (Natural Hazards
Research Australia) and hosted at RMIT University.
The Forum attracted a diverse group from research,government, industry, and communities, and created
opportunities for knowledge sharing and insights into
the natural hazards research. The Forum was a mixed
event that included keynotes, presentations, panel
discussions, and active workshops tailored for natural
hazards researchers and industries. For more
information, visit: https://www.naturalhazards.com.au/
nhrf23Dr. Spyros Schismenos
E-mail: spyros.schismenos@rmit.edu.au

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Prof. Erica Kuligowski capturing the larger
themes/challenges by breakout groups

The DRN also organised a number of researcher
workshops through the year. On July 10, 2023, theDRN hosted the ‘RMIT Disaster Research andResponse Network Capability and Collaboration
Workshop’ to further enhance collaboration anddiscuss future directions. The event was led byProfessor Matt Duckham and A/Professor Erica
Kuligowski.
The Workshop helped to solidify three main goals
that are shaping the DRN's future directions:
1. The completion of the RMIT Natural Hazards andDisaster
Resilience
Research
Capability
Statement, which summarises the Network's
identity and capabilities.
2. The exploration and co-design of larger
collaborative research projects and proposals tostrengthen cross-disciplinary initiatives involving
different
RMIT departments and external
stakeholders.

3. The discussion and planning of next steps for the
Network, including leadership of Victorian andnational initiatives in disaster resilience, enabling
coordinated actions for disaster management at
local and state levels.
The first of these goals, the RMIT Natural Hazards
and Disaster Resilience Research Capability
Statement, was completed and recently released,
which highlights three interlocking capabilities acrossthe Network:•

Resilient Infrastructures and Environments,
focusing on understanding, designing, andmaintaining environments that support disaster
resilience, including digital and cyber-physicalsystems.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —116

GADRI Annual Report — Oceania•

ResilientCommunities
andGovernance,
concentrating on factors contributing to individual,family, and community resilience, reducing disaster
risk, and empowering decision-makers.

•

Whole-of-Society Resilience, emphasising the
integration of diverse methodologies, technologies,
and approaches for sustainable and community
resilience.

Dr Spyros Schismenos, Lecturer in HumanitarianEngineering(DRN’s point of contact for GADRI Members)
spyros.schismenos@rmit.edu.au
Example Past Projects by DRN researchers:•

Cost-effective mitigation strategy for flood pronebuildings
https://www.bnhcrc.com.au/research/floodpronebuildings

Notable research projects within these themes are
mentioned below. Please visit the following link for
additional information:•

Enhancing resilience of critical road infrastructure:https://www.bnhcrc.com.au/research/roadinfrastructure

https://www.rmit.edu.au/research/centres-collaborations/disaster-research-and-response-network/capabilities•

Enhancing the Australian Gridded Climate Dataset
rainfall analysis using satellite data https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-25255-6•

Preparing emergency services for operations in a
climate-challenged
world:
https://
www.bnhcrc.com.au/research/understanding-andmitigating-hazards/8023

Reaching out to engage in new opportunities!
The DRN has a rich history of innovation andpartnership in disaster resilience research. It includes
various expertise areas, such as green infrastructure,satellite mapping of bushfires, evacuation modelling,resilient recovery design, and humanitarian engineering.
Please contact us if you want to know more about ourwork and wish to collaborate.

Larger group and breakout discussions on how theDisaster Research Network can support RMIT
researchers in the future

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —117

EuropeAfricaGADRI Annual Report 2023 —118

GADRI Annual Report — Europe

Austria

Center for Digital Safety and Security, Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT)Austria

Disaster Competence Network Austria (DCNA)

AustriaInternational Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, (IIASA)

Belgium

One Health Platform

Bulgaria
Croatia

Department of Information Technologies and Communications, University of National and World
EconomyCroatian Centre for Earthquake Engineering (CCEE), Faculty of Civil Engineering, University ofZagrebFranceBRGM (Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres)FranceCouncil of Europe

FranceInstitut Des Sciences de la Terre (ISTerre), Grenoble University

Germany

Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology (CEDIM)

Germany

Disaster Research Unit, Department of Social and Political Sciences, Freie Universitat Berlin

Germany

Research Institute for Sustainability - Helmholtz Center Potsdam (RIFS)

Germany

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

Iceland

Earthquake Engineering Research Centre, University of Iceland

Italy

European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC)

Italy

Department of Earth Sciences, University of Florence (Universita degli Studi di Firenze)

Italy

Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation

NorwayNord University

PolandThe Main School of Fire Service (SGSP)

Slovakia

Faculty of Security Engineering, University of Zilina

SwedenStockholm Environment Institute (SEI)

SwedenRisk and Crisis Research Centre (RCR), Mid Sweden University

Switzerland

Global Risk Forum GRF Davos

Switzerland

Faculty of Geosciences and the Environment, University of Lausanne

UK

Bournemouth University Disaster Management Centre (BUDMC)

UK

British Geological Survey

UK

Cabot Institute, University of Bristol

UK

Evidence Aid

UK

National Centre for Resilience (NCR), University of Glasgow

UK
UK

Global Disaster Resilience Centre, School of Art Design and Architecture, University of
Huddersfield
School of Business, Dept. Management, Innovation and Technology Division, University ofLeicesterUK

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

UK

Water Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC), Loughborough University

UK

Disaster and Development Network (DDN), Department of Geography, Northumbria University

UK

Overseas Development Institute (ODI)

UK

Global Disaster Risk Reduction, UK Health Security Agency

UK

Research Centre for Disaster Resilience, University of Salford

UK

Swansea University
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —119

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Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT)Austria
https://ait.ac.at

In 2023 AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
GmbH continued and increased its scientificactivities in the fields of civil protection
exercise evaluation, management of disaster
relief volunteers, and decision-support forcrisis management.
Civil Protection Exercise Evaluation
This field focusses on the validation andtesting of emergency response capabilities,
to increase national and international
resilience. Two projects were conductedwithin this thematic field:

INEGMA-E² developed a standardized
approach for Civil Protection Exercises,
mainly within the Union Civil protection
Mechanism. This includes:•

AIT contributed by identifying user requirements ofexercise evaluation staff and developing an online
platform to match planned EU civil protection exerciseswith competent evaluators.
INEGMA-E² was funded by Directorate-General for
European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid
Operations (DG ECHO). The project was finished in
2023.

More information can be found here: https://civilprotection-knowledge-network.europa.eu/projects/
inegma-e2
MEASURE is a national Austrian project, specializing on
the validation of emergency exercises in the context of
ambulance and fire services. Its approach is to increase
objective and valid evaluation, by supporting evaluation
staff through technological means (sensors, dashboards,
data models) The project includes:•

Conceptualization and prototyping of a model-based
toolboxdeveloping a strong and versatileevaluation methodology to address therange of exercises.

•

Identification of ethical and legal circumstances•

Evaluation of sensor technologies and algorithms•

exploring the existing tools used for datacollection throughout the exercises.

••

creating an international pool of
evaluators which can be accessed by all
relevant institutions.

Analysis of potential for adaptation

Development of a proof-of concept of a planning andevaluation toolWith MEASURE (Monitoring Exercises using AI-Support
for Reliable Evaluation), AIT coordinates a national
project, which sets the goal to develop an intelligent,technical support tool for easier planning, implementationand evaluation of exercise scenarios for emergency
services. This tool enables faster, more objective
evaluation and more individualized feedback with higher
validity.

Mr. Bernhard Bürger
E-mail: Bernhard.buerger@ait.ac.at

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GADRI Annual Report — Europe

With an integrated development of sensors, data
modelling mechanisms and artificial intelligence, it
provides technical support for the observation during
the exercise as well as subsequent evaluation
afterwards. In this manner the tool facilitates
sustainable objective comparison and thus, at best,enables emergency services to improve. Theinteraction of the individual project partnerorganizations ensures user-oriented technology
development and insight into application processes
for science and technology.
MEASURE is funded by the security researchfunding program KIRAS, through the Ministry of
Finance and will end in Oct 2024.

systems within volunteer management.
The project CERTIFIER is promoted or financed
within the framework of the KIRAS program by theFederal Ministry of Finance and is managed by theAustrian Research Promotion Agency. It will run
until Oct 2024.

More information can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/certifier-oesterreich/Decision-Support for Crisis Management

TeamAware•

More information can be found here: https://at.linkedin.com/showcase/measure-monitoringexercises-using-ai-support-for-reliableevaluation/?trk=affiliated-pages

Management of Disaster Relief Volunteers

CERTIFIER
In 2023 AIT started project CERTIFIER. The project
aims to improve the inclusion of informal volunteers
in crisis and disaster response through digital
certification of competencies of volunteers. It
includes demands of authorities and first relief
organizations in the context of civil protection andprovides volunteers with the opportunity for selfpresentation and verification of their profiles.

The Project aims to develop an integrated and costefficient situational awareness system for first
responders
fromdifferent
sectorswithheterogeneous and hardly interoperable sensor
units including drone mounted, wearable, andexternal sensor systems.
TeamAware has received funding from theEuropean Union’s Horizon 2020 research andinnovation program under grant agreement No
101019808. The project will run until May 2024.

More information can be found here: https://www.teamaware.eu/index.html

It applies a holistic approach to the competencebased inclusion of volunteers. CERTIFIER develops
a proof of concept which utilizes digital innovations
like self-sovereign services to document, validate,and verify volunteers’ competencies and coordinate
them in the context of disaster response. Innovativetechnologies will be examined for the use of easy
registration. The project builds upon previous
findings, solutions and concepts, such as theAustrian “Freiwilligenpass” (volunteer pass) andincludesinterfaces
toexisting

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Disaster Competence Network Austria (DCNA)
Austria
https://dcna.at/index.php/en/home.html

Mobile Research Infrastructure

Bridging the gap between research and practice: The
Disaster Competence Network Austria (DCNA)
continued its unwavering commitment to this mission,
and we take pride in announcing that we are firmly oncourse. Our events successfully brought together adiversespectrumofprofessionals,
includingresearchers, emergency responders, civil protection
agencies, policymakers, and industry practitioners.
Furthermore, our podcast has resonated withthousands of individuals keen on disaster research,offering insights into topics ranging from earthquakes
and disaster robotics to drones, industrial hazards, VR,
and digital transformation in emergency responseorganizations. Additionally, we are dedicated tonurturing the next generation of researchers throughour DCNA Young Scientist program.

now comprising 15 members with diverse expertise,
actively engaged in over 20 national and international
disaster and security research projects throughout theyear. Notably, our international involvement extended
to UCPKN projects such as INEGMA-E2, COLLARIS,CREXDATA, and COVALEX.

In 2023, the DCNA experienced significant growth,with 22 ordinary members and 9 associate members,
including 8 new additions to the network. Our team,GADRI Annual Report 2023 —122

Dr. Christian ReschManaging Director
E-mail: christian.resch@dcna.at

GADRI Annual Report — Europe

analysis workstations, and advanced
technical
equipment,
empowers
researchers at Graz University ofTechnology and the University of
Natural Resources and Life Sciences
Vienna to swiftly provide their expertisein the event of disasters or in high-riskareas. Additionally, a ground-based
robot with cameras and fire sensors("Husky" robotics platform) and an
unmanned aerial vehicle with a laser
scanner and regular and thermal
imaging camera ("Matador" drone)enhance the capabilities of theinfrastructure.

International events
DCNA mobile research infrastructure
The milestone of our five-year anniversary in 2023 wascommemorated with a groundbreaking initiative—thelaunch of our innovative mobile research infrastructure.
Made possible through the Higher Education
Infrastructure Funds project, funded by the AustrianFederal Ministry of Education, Science, and Research,and developed in collaboration with our founding
universities, this infrastructure is designed to facilitate
on-site research directly at disaster sites. The mobile
research infrastructure, featuring a laboratory bus, apick-up truck, and a trailer equipped with essential
technology, was unveiled at our annual disaster andsecurity research conference with about 130
participants, more than 30 presentations, two panel
discussions and countless insightful conversations. The
event and the presentation of our mobile research
infrastructure garnered significant attention, withesteemed guests including the Austrian Minister of
Education, Science, and Research Martin Polaschek,
Governor of the Federal State of Styria
Christopher Drexler, and the presidentsof Montanuniversität Leoben, Graz
University of Technology, and the
University of Natural Resources andLife Sciences Vienna as well as the
University of the Bundeswehr Munich.

The DCNA actively participated in numerous national
and international events centered around disaster risk
reduction and management. A notable highlight was
our presence at the Humanitarian Networks andPartnerships Week in Geneva in April, the annual
CERIS-DRS event, and the UNDRR Stakeholder
Groups Roundtable – both in December.
At the CERIS-DRS event our managing director
Christian Resch moderated a panel discussion on“Tools and technologies for monitoring, surveillance
and rescue”, bringing together experts to talk about
innovation and technology in disaster management andemergency response.
He also took part in the UNDRR Stakeholder Groups
Roundtable which resulted in a set of recommendations
for the policy makers for 2024 EFDRR. Representing
the European Science and Technology Advisory Boardof UNDRR, he was a panelist in an interactive session
discussing good practices in managing risks related toindustrial and chemical hazards.

This mobile research infrastructure,boasting
information
communication modules,

lab

and
and
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —123

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INEGMA-E2 – evaluation standards
protection exercise evaluation

for

civil

INEGMA-E2 was an EU-funded research initiative
focused on standardizing civil protection exercise
evaluation and building a community of experts
dedicated to further improve exercise evaluation. The
project was wrapped up in 2023 and we are happy topresent the results: Market research was done toassess the availability of IT solutions that could be used
for exercise evaluations. With these results, a webbased tool was designed and later tested during the
Host Nation Support Tabletop Exercise in Moldova.
Furthermore, a training concept for exercise evaluators
was developed and tested during the FORMATEX23
project and applied during the UCPM full-scale exercise
in Austria in September 2023. Finally, a web-based
pool of evaluation experts that can be used by the EU
civil protection community when organising andconducting exercises was built and experts as well as
aspiring evaluators can register to be part of the pool of
evaluators. The INEGMA-E² outcomes have beengathered in a guidance booklet for exercise organisersand evaluators.
As we reflect on the accomplishments of 2023, we
extend our gratitude to all those who have contributed
to our endeavors. The DCNA remains steadfast in its
commitment to advancing disaster competence,
promoting collaboration, and driving impactful researchthat enhances global resilience. Together, we lookforward to even greater strides in the years to come.

Links:•

DCNA on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/
company/disaster-competence-network-austria/•

Video of the 2023 annual disaster and security
research conference: https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=z5pFIsCV4rU•

INEGMA-E2:
https://civil-protection-knowledgenetwork.europa.eu/projects/inegma-e2

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Science Research Center for Disaster Risk
Reduction (SRCDRR), University of National andWorld Economy (UNWE), Bulgaria
http://www.unwe.bg/en/

1. SMART RISK MANAGEMENT FOR BUSINESSFROM ADVERSE EVENTS AND NATURALDISASTERS, (2021-2025), funded by the
National Science Fund of Bulgaria
The project develops an innovative methodology for
integrated risk assessment, which includes new andmodified classical and smart methods and models.
Each method and model is adapted to the specifics ofthe specific business at the level of economic sector
and individual company, taking into account the
specific impacts of potential adverse events andnatural disasters in the specific region. The main
result of the project will be the developed generalframework for smart risk management of adverse
events and natural disasters based on an innovative
methodology for integrated risk assessment.
So far the following developments have beenachieved:•

An approach is proposed to analyze thevulnerability (an element of risk analysis) ofvarious businesses and the associated criticalinfrastructure to adverse events and natural
disasters.

•

An approach is proposed for analyzing the impactof adverse events and natural disasters on theeconomic
efficiency
andprofitabilityofbusinesses (specifically, businesses in thesphere of production, trade and services).

•

An approach is proposed to manage businessrisk from adverse events and natural disasters byadapting amortization methods. The idea is to
use the funds accumulated through depreciation
to repair or purchase new fixed tangible assets.

•

The characteristics and applicability of Cloud
Computing, Social Networks, Internet of Things,
Big Data, 5G technologies, Artificial Intelligence,
VirtualandAugmented
Realityareanalyzed, as
well as theintegration ofmodern information technologies with 5G insmart risk management for businessadverse events and natural disasters.

from

•

The proposed approaches and analyses can be
successfully used by managers to make informed
decisions about adequate measures to adapt
business to climate change and reduce negative
consequences.

2.

RESEARCHON
THE
APPLICATIONPOSSIBILITIES OF THE METAVERSE IN
BUSINESS AND EDUCATION, (2023 - 2024),
funded by the University of National and World
Economy.

The SRCDRR organized the 13th INTERNATIONALCONFERENCEON
APPLICATIONOFINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONTECHNOLOGY AND STATISTICS IN ECONOMY
AND EDUCATION (ICAICTSEE-2023), December 15– 16th, 2023, UNWE, http://icaictsee.unwe.bg/. The
conference was coorganized together with 20
international universities and it is officially registeredas an International Federation for Information
Processing (IFIP, https://ifip.org/) event. The
conference covered topics, such as Biomedicine, Big
Data, IoT, AI, VR, etc. More than 70 papers were
presented.

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Prof. Dimiter Velev
Director
E-mail: dgvelev@unwe.bg

GADRI Annual Report — Europe

The SRCDRR director, prof. Velev, took part in
the annual conference of the Resilience Platform RESILabex - Enhancing the Resilience toDisasters for Sutainable Development - a project
co-financed under Venezia Guilia Regional funds(L.R.18/2011) - CEI-FVG operative programme
756/2021. The SRCDRR is a member of the
RESILabex. The event took place at theInternational Centre for Mechanical Sciences(CISM) at the University of Udine, Italy, November
6 - 7, 2023. The participants in the project arefrom 11 European countries.

The Director of SRCDRR, Prof. Dr. Dimiter Velev,
took part in 8 international conferences, in which
he has delivered 2 keynote an 2 invited speeches.
The topics covered different aspects of theapplication of advanced ICT, as well as in disasterrisk management.

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Croatian Centre for Earthquake Engineering (CCEE),
Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Zagreb
Croatia
http://www.hcpi.he/

CCEE committee members (left) and PhD students and researchers with the head of the CCEE (right)
Croatian Center for Earthquake Engineering (CCEE), a
new scientific branch of the Faculty of Civil Engineering(FCE), University of Zagreb, in 2023 had a committee of
20 members (full professors, associate professors, andassistant professors), two researchers and seven PhD
students. The CCEE is forefront in Croatia in mostactivities related to earthquake engineering, especially inseismic risk assessment, reconstruction process after
the 2020 earthquakes and earthquake risk management.
CCEE collaborates with numerous researchers fromother universities and institutes in the region, Europe
and worldwide.
One of the objectives of CCEE is to support authorities
and decision-makers in disaster preparedness and to
reduce the seismic vulnerability of buildings andinfrastructure, improving the response capacity todisaster events and making the community more
resilient. To achieve these objectives, nine projects werelaunched in 2023, funded entirely by the government/
CCEE. The topics that are being covered by the projects
are:•

Structural health monitoring,•

Development of program packages and standards
for out-of-plane mechanism calculations according
to Eurocode 1998-3,•

Development of a tool based on VR (virtual reality)
to train engineers for efficient and rapid damage
assessment using,•structural analysis ofbuildings in aggregates,••

Damage assessment
vehicles (UAV),•

Development of an improved digital form for visualdamage assessment, considering experience frompast earthquakes,•

Development of form for damage assessment ofbridges,•

Seismic risk assessment of educational buildings in
Croatia.

using

unmanned

aerialAchievements:•

One of the research achievements of the CCEE
team in 2023 is the successful completion of the
project "Seismic Risk Assessment of the City ofZagreb" (2021 – 2023), funded by the European
structural and investment funds. The project's
primary goal was to develop methodology for all
seismic risk assessments in Croatia (a pilot project)including a detailed exposure model createdthrough building-by-building collection of data andseismic risk analysis for City of Zagreb. The results
were presented to the city authorities andemergency services and were recognized as thefoundation for reducing seismic risk and planning
immediate response and recovery.

Advanced numericalmodelling
andmasonry

Preliminary and rapid analysis of the seismic
resistance of existing structures using visualprogramming,
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Dr. Josip Altić
Professor and Head
E-mail: josip.altic@grad.unizg.hr

GADRI Annual Report — Europe•

The CCEE team created the document "Report on
Seismic Risk Assessment of Emergency Response
Facilities in Croatia – Supporting disaster resiliencein Croatia", with the World Bank, 2023.

•

Two days after the devastating earthquakes in
Turkey in February 2023, two members of the
CCEE participated in search and rescue
operations. Our experts
provided
expertiseondamagedbuildings,
especially initial judgmentof the stability of the•

From 9 September to 16th, 2023, the CCEE’s
research group visited Japan including the Tokyo
Disaster Prevention Centre, attended a meeting at
the Earthquake Research Institute (ERI), Disaster
Prevention Research Institute (DPRI) at Kyoto
University, and Kansai University. They also toured
the E- Defence and E-Isolation laboratories andvisited the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake
Memorial Museum.

Members of CCEE in
Turkiye 2023

• CCEE organized invited lectures forexperts and engineers held by eminentscientists and experts such as Paulo Bazzuro(University School for Advanced Studies IUSS
Pavia), Dimitrios Vamvatsikos (National Technical
University of Athens), Ljupko Perić (MWV
Bauingenieure AG). We also have to mention theorganization of the Training school: Assessment ofexisting masonry and timber structures with several
lectures.

buildings/elements, possible safe entrances/exits
etc.
•

In April 2023 research team attended theEarthquake Engineering Research Institute EERI
annual meeting held in San Francisco. Main goal
was knowledge transfer but in the framework of themeeting, they also participated in the Early Carrer
Workshop and Reconnaissance Training Workshopthat included lessons and a full-day field exercise.

•

Collaboration with the Department of Civil
Protection in the "Towards Disaster Risk
Reduction" project resulted in the set up of thevirtual laboratory – a truck trailer containing
actuators for earthquake shaking simulation withvisual effects.

Organization of conferences, symposiums, andworkshops:•

Organization of the 2nd Croatian Conference on
Earthquake Engineering (2CroCEE), 22 - 24 March
2023, Zagreb, Croatia. The conference was acomplete success, with over 300 participants from26 countries worldwide. While the first conference
had gathered all stakeholders in Croatia and many
experts from abroad (over 700 participants) withintention to support post-earthquake activities; withthis conference, we wanted to establish a new
tradition where earthquakes are not forgotten (evenif they do not occur very often) and whereknowledge is passed on to new generations. This
was a unique opportunity for technical visits to theOrganization of lecturers and training forexperts and engineers in 2023:

earthquake-affected areas and reconstruction sites
in Zagreb and Petrinja.
•

In September 2023, the Global Earthquake Model(GEM) team visited CCEE and held a fruitfulworkshop on the seismic hazard and risk
assessment using the OpenQuake.

New post-graduate program:•

In 2023, a new post- graduate specialist study
entitled "Earthquake Engineering" began for
the first time, with 15
students
enrolled.
Study is created toraise the level ofknowledge
andtocreate specialists in the field of

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The chair of theconference giving aspeechattheopening ceremony(left)
andtheorganizationcommittee (right)

Most significant publications in 2023:•

The December 2020 magnitude (Mw) 6.4 Petrinja
earthquake,
Croatia:seismologicalaspects,
emergency response and impacts, Bulletin ofEarthquake Engineering•

Seismic Retrofitting of Dual Structural Systems—ACase Study of an Educational Building in Croatia,
Buildings•

Vulnerability assessment of historical building
aggregates in Zagreb: implementation of amacroseismic approach, Bulletin of Earthquake
Engineering(3CroCEE), scheduled from March 19th to 22nd,
2025, in Split, one of Croatia's most astonishinghistorical cities. More information on the event will beavailable on the conference's web page: https://
crocee.grad.hr/.

•

Professor Amr Elnashai (University of Illinois at
Urbana Champaign Illinois / University of Houston)will held a Specialist course ’’EARTHQUAKEENGINEERING’’, in Zagreb in April.

•"Seismic Risk Assessment of City of Zagreb" projectis intended to be a pilot project for the seismic risk
assessment for the entire Croatian territory.
Knowledge and experience gained through thisproject will be disseminated in the framework of
future projects planned to start in 2024.

•

Main focus will be on the development of the 9
projects that started in 2023 to support authorities
and decision-makers in this critical period for Croatia.

Professional projects of seismic performance andretrofitting of damaged buildings in 2023:•

Zagreb Cathedral; National Theater Building; Palaceof Justice, etc.

Plans for 2024:•

Organization and planning of the following 3rd
Croatian Conference on Earthquake Engineering

Workshop in progress and Zagreb
cathedral construction site visit

Students visits to construction sites

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French Geological Survey (BRGM)

Francehttp://www.brgm.eu/

BRGM is a French public institution in Earth Science,
employing over 700 engineers and researchers. BRGM
research brings practical responses to the major
challenges facing society and arising in particular fromclimate change, increasing mineral resource scarcity,
new energy needs, natural risks and soil and waterpollution.
BRGM was involved in the PHUSICOS projet (20182023) together with 14 other instituts from 7 differents
countries. The ojective of this H2020 project is todemonstrate that Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) or
inspired by nature to reduce the risk of phenomena
inducedbymeteorologicalevents(flooding,avalanches, land movements, etc.) are technically
viable and profitable, as well as applicable at theregional scale. The objective is to show that thesesolutions increase the ecological, social and economic
resilience of local communities. This project is designed
for vulnerable areas, such as mountainous and rural
areas. A lot of documentation and inventory work on
NBS was carried out. This work was published in a web
platform dedicated to the evaluation of NBS.
Furthermore, the project enabled the realization of 15
experiments implemented on three large-scaledemonstration sites (Serchio River basin in Italy, thePyrenees in Spain and France and the Gudbrandsdalen
valley in Norway) or conceptualized for two other sites(Isar basin in Germany and Kaunertal valley in Austria).
Eleven experiences correspond to the construction of
SFN works while four experiences correspond toeducational and awareness-raising activities (serious

games, consultations, etc.). At the end of the project,
the project partners addressed the issue of thesustainability of certain products developed within theframework of the project and the main obstacles to theimplementation of NBS (lack of regulations for this typeof solution, unsuitable financing methods, need to
document the aging of the structures, etc.). A review ofadditional research and actions to be carried out tofacilitate the use of NBS was proposed. The web
plateform is available here: https://phusicos.brgm.fr/
The PHUSICOS website is available here: https://www.phusicos.eu/
Waste from old metallurgical sites (old aggregatedmaterials with a high metal content, white and blackslag, etc.) are considered sources of pollution, costly to
manage and eliminate. The NWE-REGENERATIS
project transforms this fact into an opportunity, bydeveloping tools facilitating the recovery of materials
and metals on former steelworks sites using urban
mining techniques, thus promoting the reduction ofrehabilitation costs. BRGM contributed to many key
stages of this project, including:•the evaluation of the most relevant geophysicaltechniques for mapping the materials and metals
disseminated on the project study sites (3 pilot sites
and 6 additional sites distributed between France,
the United Kingdom and Belgium) ;Dr. LEVY Clara
Figure: PHUSICOS database and home page (https://phusicos.brgm.fr/). The “Add a solution” button (top right)
provides access to the form to suggest new entries
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —130

E-mail: c.levy@brgm.fr

GADRI Annual Report — Europe•

the development of a new strategy forcharacterizing volumes and types of materials,
including geophysical field measurements andgeochemical analysis of samples, on former
metallurgical sites, in collaboration with the
University of Liège;•

the development of an open source decision
support tool NWE-SMARTX, which offers
innovative recovery solutions for materials present
on old metallurgical sites and deposits, dependingon the characteristics of the site.

All these developments were carried out incollaboration with the University of Liège, IXSANE,SPAQUE and the Technical University of Cologne. The
recovered materials can be minerals, metals andecocatalysts. For more information, the project website
is https://vb.nweurope.eu/projects/project-search/nweregeneratis-regeneration-of-past-metallurgical-sitesand-deposits-through-innovative-circularity-for-rawmaterials/#tab-1
The closures of coal mines in Europe and the floodingof these underground works are at the origin of seismic
activity described as post-mining. This seismicity, often
felt by local populations, sometimes causes damage tovulnerable structures and critical infrastructure,sometimes threatening the safety of people. The
PostMinQuake project made it possible to develop

methods to better characterize and manage thisseismic hazard. The most notable outcome of the
project is the development of transnational guidelines
on how to address and mitigate this hazard. BRGM
actively contributed to the project by providing anddeveloping its expertise on (i) hydromechanicalmodeling of microseismicity (ii) quantification of surface
deformations by satellite radar interferometry, (iii)methods for characterizing seismic hazard and theassociated risk (study of seismic sources, seismic
movement attenuation relationship, ground movement
mapping, risk scenario). The published guidelines areavailableathttps://delibra.bg.polsl.pl/dlibra/
publication/86577/edition/77017/content.
The BRGM published in the American journal PNAS,
with French scientists from LSCE and Japanesescientists from NIES and IER, a study to quantify theradioactive elements still present in the environment
surrounding the former Fukushima plant following thenuclear accident in March 2011, after one of the largest
decontamination programs in the world. The study
showed that post-disaster decontamination efforts
were very effective in removing cesium-137, but muchof this radioactive contaminant persists in forests thatwere not treated. The PNAS publication is available
here:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/
pnas.2301811120

Figure. Example of a restitution page for the evaluation of an NBS fromPHUSICOS web plateform (https://phusicos.brgm.fr/).
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —131

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Center for Disaster Management andRisk Reduction Technology (CEDIM)
Germany
http://www.cedim.de/english

As part of its near-real time Forensic Disaster Analysis(FDA), CEDIM investigates the dynamics andinterrelations of disasters, identifies major risk drivers,
estimates the impact (damage, fatalities, displaced), andinfers implications for disaster mitigation.

In 2023, CEDIM produced several reports on hazards
and disasters around the world. Tw major catastrophic
events were considered in more detail: The
Kahramanmaraş & Elbistan earthquake in Turkey and
Syria in February, and the Northern hemisphere heatwave during the summer. For the former, the rapid
damage estimates from the CATDAT model of CEDIM/
Risklayer estimate the possible fatalities to be expectedwith a range of 11,800 to 67,010 (about 60,000 two days
later). The model projects total damage (including
buildings and infrastructure) to exceed USD 10 billion.
Looking at the event in a historical context, the CEDIM
FDA Task Force estimates that it might be one of the 20
deadliest earthquakes (globally since 1900; as of 8 Feb.
2023). In addition, we provided an outlook of the weather
conditions in the days following the EQ because peopleon site suffered from the low temperatures aroud thefreezing zone, which complicated relief measures. We
found that a large number of aftershocks additionally
increased the damage and further increased the overall
intensity. Pre-damaged buildings from the mainearthquake could also collapse as a result of weakeraftershocks.

Prof. Dr. Michael Kunz
the updated CEDIM flyer is here:
Flyer_CEDIM_2022_english_web.pdf (kit.edu)

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CEDIM Spokesperson
E-mail: info@cedim.deGADRI Annual Report — Europe

The early summer and summer of 2023 CEDIM’S FDA
task force investigated were characterised by a series ofheat waves of varying length and intensity, some ofwhich occurred simultaneously in different regions of thenorthern hemisphere. In some areas, previous all-timetemperature records were clearly exceeded, while
elsewhere new daily or monthly records were set. A
consideration of the exposure of the population to theheat shows that in Germany around 7 million people
were affected by daily maximum temperatures of over 25°C (around 40 % more than the average 1980 – 1999).
The number of people exposed to daily temperatures of
35 °C and more also doubled (to about 206,000 people).
Compared to the summers of 2000 to 2019, the average
daily heat exposure was only slightly above average. In
the additional examined, such as Italy, Greece, Spain,
the USA, China or India, a significant increase in heat
exposure during the summer months compared toprevious decades is also generally observed.
A short report was released for the heavy rain andflooding events in Greece and Libya in October 2023.

• Impact of recent and future drought events on riverdischarge and fluvial transport sector for the Rhine Riverin Germany;• Potential and feasibility study on the extension of theuse of reservoirs in the federal State of BadenWürttemberg (SW Germany) for real-time managementof heat, drought and flood.
The new real-world lab ERNIE (Real-time decisions in
the presence of risky ignorance in the impact predictionof extreme events) including a tandem of two
professorships is currently being established at KIT inclose collaboration with CEDIM. ERNIE focuses on
forecasts and analyses of the impact of short-term
extreme events as well as long-term climate changes
and their interactions with society, economy, and theenvironment in urban areas. The way society deals withrisks and uncertainties is of particular importance here.
The CEDIM news page can be found here: CEDIM About CEDIM - News archive - since 2017 (kit.edu);

CEDIM scientists were involved in the “Risk sharing for
Loss and Damage: Scaling up protection for the Global
South” report, which was presented during the climate
conference COP28.
CEDIM researcher were also present in the media withinterviews in newspapers, radio, or TV. Details can befound in the news archive: : CEDIM - About CEDIM News archive - since 2017 (kit.edu)
CEDIM’s current research focus program, which
provides funding for PhD students, is on "Impacts ofheat waves and droughts in Central Europe on society,economy, and ecology" and currently addressing thefollowing topics:• Capturing the effects of drought and heat waves onforests in Central Europe;• Perception of hot spells in public spaces: Discrepancy
of measurement and subjective perception in a societal
context;

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Earthquake Engineering Research Centre
University of Iceland, Iceland
https://www.eerc.hi.is

The EERC completed the second year of a grantof excellence funded by the Icelandic Centre for
Research. It also completed a research project onstrong ground motion related to volcanic eruptionsin the Reykjanes Peninsula. An importantmilestone in sharing strong motion data wascompleted by preparing methods and protocols fortransferring Icelandic strong motion data to a large-scale data repository (https://esm-db.eu/#/home).
Most of the Icelandic data is now freely available
for download through this repository.

Researchers from the EERC attended andpresented their research at many international
conferences such as SAHC 2023 (https://sahc2023.org/),
COMPYDYN
2023(https://2023.compdyn.org/) , ICSID 2023 (https://
icsid2023.fsb.hr/) and EURODYN 2023—(https://eurodyn2023.dryfta.com/) .

Source: website—https://sahc2023.org/

Source: website—https://eurodyn2023.dryfta.com/

Prof. Rajesh Rupakhety
Director
E-mail: rajesh@hi.is

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European Commission
Joint Research Centre, Italy
https://www.joint-research-cente.ec.europa.eu/index_en

The increasing complexity of the disasterlandscape today calls for continued cooperation,
investment and innovations in science andtechnologies. The Disaster Risk Management unitof the European Commission’s Joint ResearchCentre continues to lead the way in offering
provision of early warning systems, risk models,situational awareness tools, guidance, and bestpractices for risk assessment covering both naturaland man-made hazards. These initiatives are
aimed at assisting Member States and preparing
for potential impacts of future and emerging risks,
ultimately contributing to the progress of disaster
research, resilience, and risk reduction.

The
Copernicus
Emergency
Management
Services, a key component of the JRC's proactive
efforts, provide early warning services andsituational awareness such as the Global andEuropean Flood Awareness Systems (GloFAS /EFAS), the European Forest Fire Information
System (EFFIS) and the Global Wildfire
Information System (GWIS), the Global andEuropean Drought Observatories (GDO /EDO),
the Global Human Settlement Layer project(GHLS) and the on Demand Mapping service.
Relevant achievements of 2023 include:• The upgrade of GloFAS with enhanced spatial
resolution (from 5Km to 10Km) allowing a sharper
precision and the production of more detailed maps
for assessing the impact of predicted flood eventsand designing long-term flood management
strategies.

GloFAS 4.0 system upgrade.

•

The European Drought Risk Atlas that offers adetailed and disaggregated view on the risks posedby droughts to our societies and ecosystems, as wellas the underlying drivers of these risks, thanks to an
innovative approach, combining expert knowledge
and machine learning.
Dr. Tom De Groeve
Head of Unit
E-mail: tom.de-groeve@ec.europa.eu

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Data are without any doubt the essential building
block of any risk assessment. the Disaster Risk
Management Unit blends open-source intelligence,
innovative AI applications, statistical analysis of
official statistics, geospatial information and social
media to monitor risks of humanitarian crisis(INFORM suite), forecast armed conflicts (Global
Conflict Risk Index) and for assessing risks to publichealth (Epidemics Intelligence from Open Source).
Acknowledging the importance of moving from global
to local, the GHSL project produces data on
population and built-up at unprecedented scale andwith a fully automated satellite image processing,supporting the monitoring of international frameworks
such as the 2030 Development Agenda. In addition,
the Risk Data Hub acts as the central hub for EUwide risk information and a repository of damage andloss data. The most recent development in that
context is the implementation of a cross-scale
vulnerability composite indicator, which provides
insights into regions’ susceptibility to disasters at
different administrative levels and allows monitoringchanges over time.

Caption: Historical risk trends and climate change: a comparison of risk trends over the last 10 years
from the INFORM Risk Index with the vulnerability gap in 2050 from INFORM Climate Change (getmore results here and navigate the data in the new Map Explorer)

As evident from these examples, the emphasis on
innovation and the harnessing of AI potential wasa central theme in 2023's work, and will continue tobe a driving force in 2014. This focus was particularly
pronounced in the activities of the European Crisis
Management Laboratory (ECML), where newtechniques for collecting, analyzing, and making
sense of vast amounts of data from various sources
are explored and trialed. The ECML also serves as
the gateway to the JRC’s extensive capabilities for
anticipatingcrises,providingcomprehensive

analyses of their effects and for situationalawareness technology, including the Global Disaster
Alert and Coordination System (GDACS).

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Caption: The case of the Nova Kakhovka dam breach as an example of scientific support to situationalawareness and disaster preparedness (read full story here)

The impact of these activities and data would not havebeen possible without a robust knowledge
management strategy. In a recent paper published in
Springer, we outlined the role of the Disaster Risk
Management Knowledge Centre (DRMKC) hosted in
our unit and its networked approach to the sciencepolicy interface in disaster risk management. It brings
together various European Commission services, EU
countries, and the disaster risk community to apply the
all-hazards, multi-stakeholder approach emphasized
by the Sendai Framework. The DRMKC acts also as

theScience Pillar of the Union Civil Protection Knowledge
Network, and in this capacity promotes awarenessinitiative and events such as the successful 7th
DRMKC Annual Seminar, co-organized with DG
ECHO. The last seminar highlighted existing strategies
for disaster resilience, reinforced partnerships, andraised awareness on solutions and tools for achieving
the Union Disaster Resilience Goals, setting the stage
for future research priorities.
I leave you with some interesting reports produced in
2023, enjoy the reading!

Caption: Selected JRC
publications: Anticipatory analysis of the El Niño – Southern Oscillation (here),
Advance Report on Forest
Fires in Europe, Middle East and North Africa 2022 (here), Exploring anapproach for monitoring the implementation of the European Union’s disaster resilience goals (here), Cross-border
impacts on Networks due to natural hazards (here).

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Department of Earth Sciences
University of Florence, Italy
https://www.unescogeohazards.unifi.it

Group photo of the adoption of Florence declaration at Sixth World Landslide Forum (WLF6)

The Department of Earth Sciences of the University of
Florence (DST-UNIFI; https://www.dst.unifi.it) is arecognized center for international research andhigher training in Italy, with an Engineering Geology
group counting almost over than 60 persons amongprofessors, researchers, technicians, post-doc fellows,
PhD students, collaborators and visiting fellows.
The Civil Protection Centre of the University of
Florence(CPC-UNIFI
https://
www.protezionecivile.unifi.it) is part of the National
Italian Service of Civil Protection, as it is Centre ofCompetence for Civil Protection in the field ofgeological risk prevention. The Center promotes thedissemination of the culture of civil protection,
information and knowledge on natural andanthropogenic risks, and the improvement ofcommunity resilience in line with the objectives of theUnited Nations Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk
Reduction 2015–2030. In 2023 the activities of CPCUNIFI continued by organizing dissemination andtraining events, and by the involvement with the
National Civil Protection Service in several emergency
operational activities for the technical support in thegeo-hydrological hazards treating human life andinfrastructures.

Management of Geo-hydrological Hazards (UNESCO
Chair
https://www.unesco-geohazards.unifi.it),
established in 2016 and renewed in 2020 has themission of carrying out research and development(R&D) for the prevention and management of geohydrological hazards, in order to support policies andactions of risk reduction. The Chair has been
signatory and promoter of the Kyoto 2020
Commitment (KLC2020) for global promotion ofunderstanding and reducing landslide disaster risk.
The Kyoto 2020 Commitment is a duty to the Sendai
Landslide Partnerships 2015-2025, the Sendai
Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030,
the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals, the
New Urban Agenda’ and the Paris Climate
Agreement.

The UNESCO Chair on Prevention and Sustainable

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —138

Prof. Nicola Casigli
E-mail: nicola.casagli@unifi.it

GADRI Annual Report — Europe

The UNESCO Chair, formerly as DST-UNIFI, wasentitled in 2008 as a World Centre of Excellence(WCoE) by the Global Promotion Committee ofInternational Programme on Landslides (GPC/IPL).
This recognition after the first triennium (2008-2011)
was reaffirmed five times 2011-2014, 2014-2017, 20172020, 2021-2023 and for 2024-2026. The research
activities carried out as a WCoE were performed in theframework of the project ATLaS (Advanced
Technologies for LandSlides) project, which objective isto develop new methodologies and advanced
technologies for landslide risk reduction.
The UNESCO Chair has organized the 6 th World
Landslide Forum, which was held in Florence from the14th to the 17th of November 2023 (https://wlf6.org).
The Forum was entitled “Landslide Science for
Sustainable Development” and was jointly organized by
the International Consortium on Landslides (Kyoto,
Japan), the International Programme on Landslides(IPL) and the UNESCO Chair on Prevention andSustainable Management of Geohydrological Hazards.
The aim of the Forum was to provide a common
platform to foster cooperation among scientists,
practitioners and policy makers concerned withlandslides, to define shared priority actions for landslide
risk reduction at the global level.
More than 1,200 participants from 69 different
countries, representing the global landslide community,
discussed the latest advances in research, technology,
and policies for risk mitigation, from monitoring andearly warning systems, to modeling, risk assessmentand mitigation techniques, as well as relationships withclimate change.
The General Conference on Landslide Risk Reduction,at the Opening Plenary Session on 14 November,addressed the latest strategies to help achieve theglobal targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster
Risk Reduction.
The High-Level Panel Discussion on the same day
adopted the Florence Declaration on Landslide Risk
Reduction, to share information and best practices,support research and development of newtechnologies, and build capacity at all levels to improvelandslide preparedness and response.

hydrological hazards with special
landslides, subsidence, and floods.

emphasistoFurthermore, the UNESCO Chair has been involved inresearch, development and cooperation activities forthe prevention and reduction of geo-hydrologicalhazards in view of conservation of UNESCO World
Heritage List sites in Italy, as well as in many othercountries around the world. In this context the membersof the Chair have promoted and participated in manynational and international projects and joint missions
with official partners for the protection and conservationof cultural heritage threatened by geo-hydrologicalhazards in, among the others, Madagascar (high Cityof Antananarivo), Georgia (Rock cut sites of Vardzia,
Uplithsikhe and David Gareja), Saudi Arabia (AlUla Old
Town, Dadan, Hegra), providing technical support,
capacity building and scientific dissemination to local
authorities, agencies, and research centers.
In 2023 the UNESCO Chair has organized for the
UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa (ROSA)
an introductory course on landslide risk assessment,
monitoring and forecasting to equip DRR experts andresearchers working in the Biosphere Reserves inSouthern Africa.
More than 40 scientific papers were published on peer
reviewed ISI international scientific journals, dealing
with landslide analysis, mapping, monitoring, modellingandprediction,
remotesensing,geophysics,
geotechnics, volcanic flank instability, subsidence,natural risk assessment, resilience to natural disasters,
hydrogeology, and environmental geology.
In 2023 the UNESCO Chair, as member ofInternational Consortium on Landslides (ICL), has
contributed to the Open Access book series “Progressin Landslide Research and Technology” published by
Springer (https://www.springer.com/series/16796). The
series provides a common platform for the publicationof recent progress in landslide research and technology
for practical applications and the benefit for the society
contributing to the Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020.
The contributions include original and review articles,
case studies, activity reports and teaching tools for thepromotion of understanding and reducing landslidedisaster risks.

From 15 to 17 November parallel scientific sessions
have taken place with 853 scientific contributions,
including
643 oral reports and 210 posters,
divided into 47 scientificsessions.
In 2023, the UNESCO
Chair
has
participated to several research
projects
funded by national and international organizationsin the field of prevention and management of geo-

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Global Earthquake Model (GEM)
Foundation, Italy
https://www.globalquakemodel.org

Launch of the new Global
Earthquake Hazard and Risk
maps and other products in
Bergamo, Italy.

The year 2023 was marked by significant milestones
and achievements for the Global Earthquake Model(GEM) Foundation, reflecting its ongoing commitment
to seismic hazard and risk reduction worldwide.
Leadership Transition
A pivotal moment came in August 2023 when John
Schneider handed over the leadership reins to Helen
Crowley, who assumed the role of Secretary General.
Helen Crowley brings with her a vision for a resilient
future, guiding GEM towards its mission with renewed
vigour.
Product Releases
June 2023 witnessed the unveiling of the updated
Global Earthquake Hazard and Risk Maps inBergamo, Italy, offering important seismic hazard andrisk information for disaster risk management
agencies and professionals. Subsequently, onInternational Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR),
October 13, 2023, GEM released the underlying data,
including seismic risk profiles and exposure andvulnerability models. Moreover, a new products page
was launched, enhancing stakeholder accessibility tovital hazard and risk resources.

Additionally, the METIS project concluded with aworkshop presenting the progress in site-specificseismic hazard assessment for the safety of nuclear
power plants (NPP), while other projects focused on
training a new generation of seismic hazard scientists
to tackle the challenges of earthquake forecasting(TREAD),andenhancing
multi-hazard
risk
assessment in Malawi. Collaborative efforts inearthquake risk assessments in Bangladesh andAlbania were also carried out.
Partnerships
GEM welcomed Gallagher Re as a new sponsor andcelebrated the return of Zurich, alongside renewals
from Geoscience Australia and SERI-Switzerland,
underscoring sustained support for GEM's mission.
PartnerRe also upgraded its sponsorship from
AdvisortoPrivateGovernor,emphasisingcommitment to GEM's strategic objectives. Further
strengthening its network, GEM partnered withdClimate to advance transparent earthquake risk
assessment, while NERC (UK) and NIED (Japan)
renewed their respective sponsorships, reaffirming
theirdedication
toGEM's
initiatives.

Project Highlights
Throughout the year, GEM spearheaded various
projects aimed at advancing seismic hazard and risk
assessment. Notable endeavours included thesuccessful activities of the FORCE Project technicalworkshops and training sessions on the OpenQuake
Engine and tools in collaboration with El Salvador's
MARN.

Prof. Helen Crowley
Secretary-GeneralE-mail: helen.crowley@globalquakemodel.org

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OpenQuake Engine v3.18
Helen Crowley welcoming Iwan Stalder, Zurich official
representative to the Governing Board
OpenQuake Engine

Publications

A series of milestones were achieved with therelease of OpenQuake Engine versions 3.16 LTS,
3.17, and 3.18, signifying continued progress inseismic hazard and risk modelling. To support user
engagement and proficiency, an online OpenQuake
Training course for beginners was conducted,
complemented by the release of the OpenQuake
Engine Online Manual with support from USAID
BHA.

GEM contributed to the body of knowledge on
seismology and earthquake engineering through the
publication of 14 peer-reviewed papers covering
diverse aspects of earthquake risk assessment andmitigation. Topics ranged from fault source models
and earthquake early warning systems to
infrastructure seismic risk assessment andinnovative approaches to building damage detection.

Webinars

Additional Highlights

GEM participated in a series of international
webinars addressing critical topics in earthquake risk
reduction, climate risk assessment, and seismic
hazard and risk reduction. Noteworthy events
included discussions on seismic risk management inTurkey, as well as the role of geological surveyorganizations in risk reduction actions, fosteringknowledge exchange and collaboration among
stakeholders.

Insights gained from the 2023 Turkey-Syria
Earthquake Reconnaissance Mission and GEM's
recognition by WFP as one of ten innovators for ahunger-free and resilient world underscored theorganisation's impact and leadership in the field of
disaster risk reduction.
In summary, the year 2023 epitomised GEM's firm
dedication to advancing seismic hazard and risk
reduction globally, paving the way for a more
resilient and safer future for all.

FORCE project training in El Salvador
GEM leadership handover June 2023 Governing
Board meeting.

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Fire University, Poland
https://www.apoz.edu.pl. Ground robots tested during
Australian pilot in SILVANUS project

3. Comprehensive Hazard Identification, andMonitoring systEm for uRban Areas (CHIMERA),
Horizon Europe.
4. Developing resilience against extreme weather
threats caused by climate change at local level inCentral Europe (LOCALIENCE), Interreg Central
Europe5. Civil Protection Mechanism in case of a Wildfire,
Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

In accordance to scientific promotion the Main Schoolof Fire Service (Szkola Glowna Sluzby Pozarniczej,
SGSP) changed its formal name on Fire University(Akademia Pożarnicza, APoż). The university
organizational units actively participated in disasterrisk reduction (DRR) due to natural hazards and man-made events. There were the Institute of Safety
Engineering, the Institute of Internal Security, theFaculty of Safety Engineering and Civil Protection
and the Firefighting Rescue Unit of APoż.
Consequently, during the fourth full year ofparticipation in GADRI, APoż covered research,educational and operational areas of the reduction,
also considering societal tensions related to situation
on Polish-Belarus border and military conflict in
Ukraine.

Doctoral dissertations were carried out in security
studies(insocialsciences),
environmental
engineering, mining and power engineering (intechnical sciences), and safety engineering (intechnical sciences).
As regards to SILVANUS project, APoż participatedin set of international pilots for technologies usedregarding to wildfire risk reduction. The pilots wereorganized in Australia, Indonesia, Czech Republic,
France, Slovak Republic, and Greece.
APoż, as an organizational unit of the State Fire
Service, actively supported Ukrainian refugees on
Ukrainian-Polish border and in refugee centers in
Poland. University also helped Ukrainian emergency
services as an international hub for delivering rescue
equipment from European countries and entity which
co-organised common scientific events.

In the period reported, APoż was conducting
research in following international projects related to
DRR aspects:

1. Integrated

TechnologicalandInformation
Platform for wildfire Management (SILVANUS),
Horizon 2020.

2. Protection System for large gatherings of People
in Religious Sites (ProSPeReS), Horizon 2020.

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Prof. Pael Gromek
E-mail: pgromek@apoz.edu.pl

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Faculty of Security Engineering, University of Žilina
Slovakia
https://www.fbi.uniza.sk/en/

In 2023 the University of Žilina wasundergoing accreditation and the study
programmes at the Faculty of Security
Engineering
were
upgraded(crisismanagement, emergency management
and security management). In addition tothese significant changes, the Departmentof Crisis Management continued to
implement innovative forms of educationin selected courses. Virtual and mixed
reality scenarios are available for students
and practitioners based on collaboration
with the private sector and scientificresearch activities (FightaARs project https://fight-ar.com/ and the new SAFAR
project - situational awareness training offirefighters within an immersive XR
training site).

We also organized conference “Crisis situations solution
in specific environment”, from 17th to 18th of May 2023.
It was to present new trends, prevention procedures,experience and good practice, current knowledge gainedfromscientific research and practicalexperienceincrisismanagementincompanies and public
administration,
as well as current issues related
to the current
security situation.

Dr. Katarina Holla
Associate Professor;
Vice-Dean, International Relations
and Marketing
E-mail: katarina.holla@fbi.uniza.sk

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From 09 to 14 July 2023, the FBI UNIZA civic
association organized a residential camp called"Summer School Young Rescuer". The residential
camp was held in the beautiful surroundings of the eco-resort Vendelín in Podskalí. 19 children aged from 8
to 13 years participated in the Summer School Young
Rescuer. Selected activities were also provided for
disadvantaged children from other residential camps .
The residential camp was closed with a graduation
ceremony attended by parents, family members andother guests, at which the children received the Young
Rescuer award.
ISEM Institute in cooperation with UNIZA madesuccessful completion of other training modules forcolleagues from India within the EU project called
ESIWA. Practical exercises in the area of sampling
CBRN materials, as well as the use of virtual reality incrisis management, and modelling the spread ofcontamination were among the other training modules
implemented by ISEM Institute in cooperation with theus. The training is part of the ESIWA project
implemented by the German GIZ and ExpertiseFrance and co-funded by the European Union.

Experts from the National Center for Disaster
Prevention Mexico (CENAPRED) visited UNIZA on 26-27 September 2023. During their two-day stay, theyshared with our staff their experience in crisis
management and risk management in Mexico andSlovakia. Among other things, the discussion included
selected topics in the field of crisis management in
Slovakia and the EU, risk management of industrial
processes, application of methods and techniques in
the process of risk management and otherprofessional topics covered by the Department of
Crisis Management.

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Stockholm Environment Institute
Swedenhttps://www.sei.org/

SEI’s work on disaster risks is always embedded in
our overall mission of providing integrated knowledge
for bridging science and policy. It is highly relevant to
the key impact areas for the current (2020-2024) as
well as the coming SEI Strategy (2025-2029): i)
reducing climate risks; ii) sustainable resource use
and resilient ecosystems; and iii) improved health andwell-being. Our research recognizes that disaster risk
and development are closely linked: it is development
processes that largely determine who and what is
exposed to risk as well how much, and how effectively
they can respond. SEI works to integrate disaster risk
reduction with equitable, sustainable, and resilient
development.

the CrisAct project - Science for a secure society:Hydro-climatic hazard, risk, and crisis management in
Sweden, aims at providing a comprehensive sciencebased framework for monitoring and managing
hydroclimatically driven natural hazard crisis anddisaster response, in order to protect society against
droughts, floods, and heat waves, occurring
separately or in combination or sequence.

Focusing on compound, cascading impacts frommultiple hydro-meteorological hazards in Sweden andimplications for resilience of critical infrastructure andsocial groups, the HydroHazards project contributes
to Swedish DRR policies and practices with a specificfocus on the management of multiple water hazards
Below are only a few examples to show a wide array and potential mitigation and adaptation strategies.
of ongoing activities during 2023.
Right- and equality-based approaches are essential
The Adaptation Without Borders partnership is for SEI’s work on disaster risks. For example, infounded on the belief that the global effects of climate collaboration with the Youth Innovation Lab, Nepal,
change require solutions beyond the adaptation efforts the Integrating rights and equality in land-use planningof any single government. The partnership brings for risk-informed development amid COVID-19 in
together the research capacities and convening Bharatpur Metropolitan City, Nepal, that examined
powers of a range of partners to explore the global ways to undertake inclusive urban development to
implications of transboundary climate risks, create reduce biological hazards and disaster risks.
opportunities to strengthen international cooperation
Lastly, I would like to draw your attention to ‘a (love)and pave the way towards genuine global resilience.
letter to disaster risk reduction’, a perspective piece
Examples of publication and events include
written by Ms. Minh Tran, a Research Fellow at SEI
Understanding 10 transboundary climate risks: theAsia, right before the UN SFDRR midterm review
need for global adaptation and a related webinar on
meetings in NY.
20 April 2023 - Understanding transboundary climate
risks: the need for global adaptation
SEI is part of the EU-funded Horizon Europe project,
DIRECTED (Disaster resilience for extreme climate
eventsthrough
improved
data
accessibility,communication and risk governance), which seeks to
reduce vulnerability to extreme weather events, and tofoster disaster-resilient societies. The project aims todesign a new system that integrates climate riskassessment tools, disaster-warning systems anddisaster-communication approaches. The goal is tohelp emergency agencies better prepare for andrespond to such crises.
Led by the Water, Coast and Ocean Team at SEI HQ,GADRI Annual Report 2023 —146

Dr. Guoyi Han
E-mail: guoyi.hn@sei.org

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Evidence Aid, United Kingdom
https://www.evidenceaid.org/

Evidence Aid has continued to expand their resources
this year, thanks to the work of a core team of staff
and volunteers.
In June 2020, we started working with the Pan
American Health Organization on the evidencecollection relating to Resilient Health Systems with aparticular focus on low and middle income countries.
At the end of December 2023, we had worked on
three phases of the project and the collection now
contains more than 270 summaries of systematic
reviews. All summaries have been translated into
French, Portuguese and Spanish. We are planning towork with them again in 2024 to work on Phase 4 ofthe collection. This project ended with a webinar titled:
Strategic Approaches to Implementing Resilient
Health Systems Frameworks in the Context ofEmergencies and Disasters: insights from
Advisors of the Resilient Health System evidencecollection. The webinar featured an insightful panel
discussion with advisors of the Resilient Health
Systems collection, led by Xavier Bosch-Capblanchfrom Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. The
panelists included Verônica Abdala and Juan Pablo

Pagano from PAHO, Felipe Cruz Vega from the
Mexican Institute of Social Security, and Jesse Uneke
from Ebonyi State University. The webinar is available
here.
We are working on translating the summaries in all ourcollections from English into Arabic, Chinese, French,
German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
Continuing our work from June 2021, throughout 2022
and 2023, we worked with the World HealthOrganization, Kobe Centre to develop new
dissemination materials which are included in a
dedicated Knowledge Hub. The work centred aroundthe online book ‘WHO Guidance on Research
Methods for Health Emergency and Disaster Risk
Management’. In 2022 and 2023, a small teamensured all chapters of the book had slideshows withvideo and podcasts and a webinar was held topromote the existence of the materials.
In September 2023, Evidence Aid was represented at
the Cochrane Colloquium in London, UK by Claire
Allen, and Ana Pizarro. They presented two posters
and took part in the ‘Library of People’ event.

Ms. Claire Allen
Operations Manager
E-mail: callen@evidenceaid.org

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In October, Evidence Aid took part in two webinars –the first titled ‘Summarising systematic reviews for
decision-makers in the humanitarian sector’ and thesecond ‘How evidence can help urban healthpreparedness’. Given that urban settings are vital for
prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery
before, during, and after health emergencies. As
highlighted in the WHO Framework for strengthening
health emergency preparedness in cities and urban
settings, evidence is one of the key areas of focus forstrengthening health emergency preparedness in cities
and urban settings. Available evidence can be used to
guide efforts to improve preparedness and healthsystem resilience. It can also help monitor impact andassess the effectiveness of response measures.

the African Community for Systematic Review
Methodology titled ‘Translating systematic reviews toplain language summaries’.

In May 2023 Evidence Aid took part in two further
webinars, both with similar content. The first was inpartnership with Evidence Synthesis Ireland titled‘Summarising systematic reviews for decision-making
in the humanitarian sector’ and the second alongside

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all ourinterns and volunteers without whom we would nothave had such a successful year.

We were lucky to have 3 interns from McMaster
University who worked on business development andfunding opportunities. We have had other interns who
have worked with us throughout the year and details
can be found here. We aimed to publish a newsletterand a bulletin each month which can be read here.
In June 2023, we recruited Epa La Bella, Sumra Ali,
Cristian Mansilla, Ana Pizarro, Jane McHugh, Jawaria
Karim, and Yasmeen Saeed to work on Phase 3 of the
PAHO project. They have been supported by hardworking volunteers.

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Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction (IRDR)
University College London, United Kingdom
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/risk-disaster-reduction/

IRDR Centre for Gender andDisaster visited the Institute
Women
of
the
Amazon(IMAMeeting with the trainees
from the course in project
management, Rio Branco –Acre, credit: IMA

2022–2023 has been an exciting year for the Institutefor Risk and Disaster Reduction with our research,engagement and impact, and education agendas
focussed on providing evidence-based criticalreflection, education and inspiration to ask and tackle
the pertinent questions and challenges facing risk,
disaster and humanitarianism today and in the future.
Over the past year, we have collectively
published over 135 peer-reviewed research papers in
topics spanning the full breadth or risk and disaster
reduction from so many angles, including a paperonquantified
freshwater
capturein
Bangladesh featured on the front page of Science.
Our engagement and impact has included public
events such as the IRDR Annual Conference 'Risk
Without Borders' and Humanitarian Summit 'Doing
Even more with Even Less', our monthly
seminars, industry-focused events,and studentfocused
events, media engagement,
policy-focused initiatives,
as well as several

impact-focused projects ranging from supporting
the Women of the Amazon midwives projectsto haveautonomy, to developing risk calculation data andtools for use by practitioners in industry. 2022-2023
has seen success for the Department in the UCL andFaculty Education Awards and we hope to build on thisgoing forward into the 2023–2024 academic year as
we move to having the full complement of taught
students with our inaugural BSc Global HumanitarianStudies cohort entering their third and final year.

Prof. Peter Sammonds
Director
E-mail: irdr-enquiries@ucl.ac.uk

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The IRDR Annual Conference 'Risk Without
Borders' and Humanitarian Summit 'Doing Even
more with Even Less', have highlighted that the risk
reduction and humanitarian sectors need optimism
and to keep trying if progress is to be made, for if we
do not try then we will not achieve. Panellists
reflected that there may be initiatives that need tostop and change, and we need to act on these.
However, we may need to reconcile that it may be
the right decision to continue with some imperfectinitiatives if still good and able to make a positive
difference. This prompts a continued need for dataand evidence with appropriate analysis to allow
learning from history, with independent monitoringand evaluation, to make informed decisions onpractice in the present and future. Furthermore, weneed to utilise technology, encourage and support
engagement and collaboration with local actors, andto get through geopolitical and funding barriers.
Such topics and their interdependencies are
discussed, researched and taught within our PhD,
Master's and undergraduate programmes. We hope
our current students, alumni, staff, partners,
members and all those in the IRDR community willanswer the plea from one of the panellists to provide
new voices and new thoughts, particularly to large
national and international organisations. We can ask
the right questions ready to be tackled with aninterdisciplinary perspective. Thus, although thecontinued call to do more with less and theexistence of borders and barriers does not seem tohave an end date, the IRDR will continue strive totackle these issues, learning with our partners andcommunities to achieve this – please join in
and work with us.

Response), Sarah Dryhurst (Risk Perception andCommunication) and Stefan Leeffers (Disaster andCrisis Risk Finance), bring new research expertise inhistory, psychology and economics respectively;
these new staff are adding new perspectives on ourtaught programmes as programme leader for the
MSc Risk, Disaster and Resilience, programmeleader for the MRes Risk and Disaster Reduction,
and Deputy Ethics Chair. We have two new
Associate Lecturers (teaching) in Risk, Disaster andHumanitarianism, Myles Harris and Caroline (Caz)Russell, who have been focussing on our taught
programme assessments and digital accessibility
respectively, as well helping to implement new
initiatives around fieldwork safety and research
ethics. We have welcomed Susannah Fisher, whoholds a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship in Climate
Change Adaptation, and several staff on various
grant-funded projects. This year we have further
benefitted through a significant strengthening ofour professional services team to meet the demands
and aspirations of a growing department. New
members include Department Manager Nidhi
Rathod, Engagement, Networks and Partnerships
Manager Sian Rees-Jones, Senior Research and
Finance Officer Kamariyah MBamba, Senior
Education Administrator Paula Ktorides, Education
Administrator Jose Delgado, and Operations
Administrator Dhashvini (Dhash) Ramanathan.

From the IRDR Annual Report ‘Welcome’ by Prof
Joanna Faure Walker
www.ucl.ac.uk/risk-disaster-reduction/about-irdr/irdrannual-report-2023/welcome

To help achieve this, we have welcomed several
new academic, research and professional services
staff who have helped broaden and strengthen ourcollective expertise. Mark Pelling, Professor ofDisaster Risk Reduction, and Fatemeh Jalayer,
Professor of Geophysical Hazard Risks, have joined
our professoriat helping to drive our research
agenda and taking the lead in our impact andinclusion
strategies
respectively.
Our
newlecturers
Dan
Haines(Disaster
Risk

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Water Engineering and Development Centre(WEDC) Loughborough University
United Kingdom
https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/wedc/
BhutanDuring the year, several noteworthy events unfolded in
the domain of multi-hazard risk reduction collaboration. A
pivotal face-to-face project dissemination workshop in
Bhutan facilitated valuable stakeholder feedback for the
FLASH project, enhancing local and national government
insights into challenges and solutions. The inaugurationof the UNESCO Chair in Informatics and Multi-hazard
Risk Reduction at Loughborough University marked asignificant milestone, with international experts offering
profound perspectives on disaster risk reduction. The
launch of the Global Partnership for Smart Informatics
and Multi-hazard Reduction (SIMR) marked anothersignificant milestone in the collective endeavours ofglobal academics to tackle the challenges presented by
the evolving multi-hazard risks and climate change intoday's world. The 23rd Annual General Meeting of the
UK China Association of Resources and Environment(UK-CARE) provided a dynamic platform for academics,
fostering exchanges and discussions on disasters andthe environment. Collectively, these events showcased
our commitment to advancing knowledge, fostering
partnerships,
andaddressing
challenges in the realm of
multi-hazard
risk
reduction.

In February 2023, a face-to-facedissemination workshop took placein Bhutan, an ODA-eligible country,
toshowcaseandreceivestakeholder/user feedback for our
FLASH project outputs. The local
and national governments of
Bhutan benefited directly from theenhanced
understanding
andbetter awareness of the challenges
and potential solutions, andrecommendations for the current,
future development of Amochhu
Basin and Phuentsholing Township
Development (PTDP) area (FLASH
study area).
Furthermore, theworkshop provided training for incountry partners to use the latest
data and modelling tools to support
theirongoing
research
andpractice in multi-hazard risk modelling andassessment. In addition, the UK team has held faceto-face meetings with the Vice Chancellor, Registrarof the Royal University of Bhutan, and Presidents of
its eight subordinate schools, to explore continuous
collaboration through joint programmes for PhD
research, training and staff exchange, and the
exploration of further funding opportunities from UKRI
and other funders (e.g., EU/WB/ADB). Fieldwork has
also been conducted in typical landslide and debris
flow areas to help the UK team gain a better
understanding of the practical challenges associatedwith rainfall-induced multi-hazard risk management in
Bhutan. This information can inform future researchcollaborations and provide additional material tosupport joint publications.

Events•Prof. Qiuhua Liang
E-mail: q.liang@lboro.ac.uk

Face-to-face project dissemination workshop in

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Loughborough University and UNESCO launched the
UNESCO Chair in Informatics and Multi-hazard Risk
Reduction

On August 18, 2023, a momentous online gathering brought
together approximately 300 participants from 23 countries as
Loughborough University and UNESCO joined forces toinaugurate the UNESCO Chair in Informatics and Multihazard Risk Reduction. Professor Qiuhua Liang assumed theesteemed role of chairholder. Additionally, the event featured
three keynote speeches from internationally renowned
scientists who provided profound insights into the current andfuture landscape of global disaster risk reduction researchand practice.

•

The Launch of Global Partnership for Smart
Informatics and Multi-hazard Reduction(SIMR)On September 24, 2023, the Global Partnership for
Smart Informatics and Multi-hazard Reduction (SIMR)
was officially launched during the XIV Congress of theInternational Association for Engineering Geology andthe Environment (XIV IAEG Congress 2023). Thisinitiative is a joint effort between the UNESCO Chair
in Informatics and Multi-hazard Risk Reduction(IMRR) at Loughborough University and the State Key
LaboratoryofGeohazard
Prevention
andGeoenvironment Protection (SKLGP) at Chengdu
University of Technology, China. Over 40 worldleading experts in informatics and multi-hazard risk
reduction from more than 20 countries, including the
UK, China, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands,

New Zealand, Japan, India, Nepal, Malawi etc, wereinvited to participate in the launch meeting, to discuss
the future development of SIMR. The event has
garnered extensive coverage in national media
outlets, evidenced by the news reports below:
1)http://home.china.com.cn/txt/2023-09/26/
content_42537440.htm
2)https://news.sciencenet.cn/
htmlnews/2023/9/509309.shtm
3)https://www.163.com/dy/article/
IFKT3SC905561JOC.html

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The 23rd Annual General Meeting of the UK-CAREof topics centered around disasters and theenvironment. The conference served as an
exceptional platform for Chinese academics engaged
in relevant fields, whether working or visiting the UK,
to exchange experiences, expand their professional
networks, and explore potential collaboration
opportunities.

On December 9, 2023, the 23rd Annual General
Conference of the UK China Association of
Resources and Environment (UK-CARE) took place
at Loughborough University in the UK. The event
witnessed the active participation of 50 academics
who delivered 21 speeches, covering a diverse array

Research grant project (funded in 2023)

1694. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2023.129588.

•‘Standardising
High-Performance
Integrated
Hydrodynamic Modelling System (HiPIMS) for floodmodelling and RIsk managemenT (SPIRIT)’ fundedby The EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA)(Professor Qiuhua Liang as PI and Dr Huili Chen as
CoI)•

Hill, B, Liang, Q, Bosher, L, Chen, H, Nicholson, A(2023) A systematic review of natural flood
management modelling: approaches, limitations,and potential solutions, Journal of Flood Risk
Management, 16(3), e12899, ISSN: 1753-318X.
DOI: 10.1111/jfr3.12899.

•

Representative Journal publications••

Xia, X, Jarsve, KT, Dijkstra, T, Liang, Q, Meng, X,
Chen, G (2023) An integrated hydrodynamic model
for runoff-generated debris flows with novel
formulationofbederosionanddeposition, Engineering Geology, 326, ISSN: 00137952. DOI: 10.1016/j.enggeo.2023.107310.

Cui, Y, Liang, Q, Xiong, Y, Wang, G, Wang, T,
Chen, H (2023) Assessment of Object-Level Flood
Impact in an Urbanized Area Considering Operationof Hydraulic Structures, Sustainability, 15(5),pp.4589-4589, DOI: 10.3390/su15054589.

•

Chmutina, K and Von Meding, J (2023) Editorial:
Introduction to the Special Issue on “Conversations
with Disasters: Deconstructed”, Disaster Prevention
and Management: An International Journal, 32(3),pp.381-383, ISSN: 0965-3562. DOI: 10.1108/DPM06-2023-422.

•

Chmutina, K and von Meding, J (2023) Guest
editorial: Introduction to the special issue on“conversations with disasters: deconstructed”,
Disaster Prevention and Management: An
International Journal, 32(3), pp.381-383, ISSN:
0965-3562. DOI: 10.1108/dpm-06-2023-422.

•

Wang, H, Wang, G, Zheng, J, Liang, Q, Tao, A(2023) Advancements in nearshore wave modeling:
A unified one-layer nonhydrostatic approach,Physics of Fluids, 35(7), ISSN: 1070-6631. DOI:
10.1063/5.0159266.
•

Tong, X, Lai, X,
Liang, Q (2023) An
improved
non-pointsource pollution
model for catchment-scalehydrologicalprocesses and phosphorus loads, JournalofHydrology, 621, pp.129588-129588, ISSN: 0022-

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Cheek, WW, Chmutina, K, von Meding, J (2023) In
the arena: contesting disaster creation in cities,
Disasters, ISSN: 0361-3666. DOI: 10.1111/
disa.12588.

•

Colvin, V, Prokosch, ML, von Meding, J, Chmutina,
K, Smith, CT (2023) Individual differences in
psychological rigidity and beliefs about systemfitness predict attitudes about social determinants ofdisaster risk, International Journal of Disaster Risk
Reduction, 95, 103876, ISSN: 2212-4209. DOI:
10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103876.

•

von Meding, J and Chmutina, K (2023) Fromlabelling weakness to liberatory praxis: a newtheory of vulnerability for disaster studies, Disaster
Prevention and Management, 32(2), pp.364-378,
ISSN: 0965-3562. DOI: 10.1108/DPM-10-20220208.

•

Chmutina, K, Lizarralde, G, von Meding, J, Bosher,
L (2023) Standardised indicators for ‘resilient cities’:
The folly of devising a technical solution to apolitical problem, International Journal of Disaster
Resilience in the Built Environment, ISSN: 17595908. DOI: 10.1108/IJDRBE-10-2022-0099.

•

Chmutina, K, von Meding, J, Williams, DA, Vickery,J, Purdum, C (2023) From pity to fear: security as amechanism for (re)production of vulnerability,
Disasters, 47(3), pp.546-562, ISSN: 0361-3666.
DOI: 10.1111/disa.12568.

•

Alcantara-Ayala, I., Gomez, C., Chmutina, K., vanNiekerk, D., Raju, E., Marchezini, V., Cadag, J.R.,
Galliard, JC., 2022. Disaster Risk. London:
Routledge.

•

Briggs, KM, Helm, PR, Smethurst, JA, Smith, A,
Stirling, R, Svalova, A, González, YT, Loveridge,
FA, Glendinning, S (2023) Evidence for the weather-driven deterioration of ageing transportation
earthworks in the UK, Transportation Geotechnics,
43, 101130, DOI: 10.1016/j.trgeo.2023.101130.

•

Li, S and Smith, A (2023) Acoustic emission andenergy dissipation in soils during triaxial shearing,Computers and Geotechnics, 162, 105639, ISSN:
0266-352X. DOI: 10.1016/j.compgeo.2023.105639.

•

Wang, H, Barone, G, Smith, A (2023) A novel multilevel data fusion and anomaly detection approach
for infrastructure damage identification andlocalisation, Engineering Structures, 292, 116473,
ISSN:
0141-0296.
DOI:
10.1016/
j.engstruct.2023.116473.

•

Morsy, A, Helm, P, El-Hamalawi, A, Smith, A,
Hughes, P, Stirling, R, Dijkstra, T, Dixon, N,
Glendinning, S (2023) Development of a multiphase
numerical modeling approach for hydromechanicalbehavior of clay embankments subject to weatherdriven deterioration, Journal of Geotechnical andGeoenvironmental Engineering, 149(8), 04023062,
ISSN: 1090-0241. DOI: 10.1061/JGGEFK.GTENG11213.

•

Wang, H, Barone, G, Smith, A (2023) Current andfuture role of data fusion and machine learning ininfrastructure health monitoring, Structure andInfrastructure Engineering, ISSN: 1573-2479. DOI:
10.1080/15732479.2023.2165118.

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Global Disaster Risk Reduction (GDRR)UK Health Security Agency
United Kingdom
https://www.gov.uk/

UK Health Security
Agency's (UKHSA)
annual report andaccounts for thefinancial year 2022
to
2023,
laid
before Parliamenton 25 January
2024. The remit for
the Agency is toprovidestrongnationalandinternational
professional
leadershipofpublichealthsecurity and healthprotection
andgrow the scienceon which these capabilities are founded. This includes
developing a cohesive health protection response incommunities
acrossEnglandincludingclosecollaboration with our devolved partner agencies
across the UK; supporting and embedding effective
clinical, scientific, and operational functions andcapabilities in the public health system; and helping
other countries to improve their own defences to better
tackle health threats to the public which affect us all.
The COVID-19 pandemic shone a light on the criticalimportance of effective health protection systems.
The hazards to health which UKHSA protects againstare:•infectious diseases (covering the main routes oftransmission which can give rise to epidemics or
pandemics: gastrointestinal; respiratory; sexual /blood-borne; touch; and vector-borne;)•chemical,hazards•other environmental hazards, such as weather
eventsbiological,

radiological•that arise from disasters
fires or accident

and

The UKHSA science strategy 2023-2033 – securing
health and prosperity shares our vision of how, throughscience, we will secure health and prosperity. It
describes how we can develop our current scientificdisciplines and infrastructures to meet the current andfuture health threats both nationally and globally. The
UKHSA protects our communities from infectious
diseases and the impact of chemical, radiological andother environmental health hazards. Our work depends
on generating and applying the best scientific evidence.
Through investment in scientific workforce and deeper
partnerships with industry and academia, the strategy
sets out UKHSA’s ambitions to:•predict and anticipate health threats, throughinvesting in genomics, data science andsurveillance, including disease vector (such as
mosquitoes and ticks) surveillance•create a more secure environment, by enhancing
our understanding of the threats in the environmentand building scientific defences against thesehazards•

reduce and eliminate health threats, bystrengthening the scientific evidence underpinning
health protection programmes – at home andabroad•act on the scientific evidence, translating data,
knowledge and insights into practical actions•

unlock the potential of scientific assets, and secure
the legacy from the pandemic to increase theimpact of our science on health and economic
prosperity, strengthening vaccine and diagnostic
development and evaluation and data science

nuclearhealth hazards
such as major

Prof.. Virginia Murray
E-mail: Virginia.Murray@phe.gov.uk

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UKHSA is a research active organisation. Research,and the translation of its findings into innovations bothinform and support public health policy, practice andservices. Over 300 members of UKHSA staff
undertake R&D within internal / external networks
and in 2019 published almost 900 articles in the peerreviewed scientific and clinical literature using £17
million of external research funding. the UKHSA
Research Portal has details on our research,expertise and outputs.
As an example of research outputs, the UKHSA has
published its first Health Effects of Climate Change(HECC) report, drawing together the latest evidence
on how our changing climate is already impacting on
the nation’s health and publishing future projections
based on a plausible worst case scenario. The reportcontains 15 chapters written and peer-reviewed by awide range of experts from academia, industry andgovernment, providing detailed analysis on climatechange issues that will inform further research, publichealth practice and policy decisions going forward. It
demonstrates that the evidence base on the healtheffects of climate change has grown significantly, withhealth threats from heat, mosquitos, flooding andfood security becoming more significant in the near
future. Both at home and across the world, the healtheffects of increasingly extreme weather are being
seen. In the summer of 2022, the UK saw
temperatures reach above 40°C for the first time onrecord, with nearly 3,000 excess deaths recorded
across the period, while many other countries haveexperienced bouts of intense and prolonged heat inrecent months.

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Global Disaster Resilience Centre (GDRC)
University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom
http://www.hud.ac.uk/gdrc

Technology-based
community
knowledge;
achieving disaster resilience in urbanised areas
The aim of the project is to accelerate the integrativeand collaborative approach between researchers andpractitioners from various disciplines, including social
scientists,
appliedtechnology,
construction
management, and structural engineers. This is
expected to be achieved through a series of activities
that help raise awareness of the importance of disastercommunity-based knowledge in the digital era and to
Identify innovative ideas for technology-based disastercommunity knowledge.
Scheme : RAENG Frontiers Champion grant
HUD Role : Project lead (Dr Ezri Hayat)
Countries: UK and Indonesia , 4 partners
A Projects:
GDRC has been successful with the following
funded projects during 2023:

Disability inclusive higher education for disasterrisk reduction in Indonesia
This project will strengthen disability inclusion in DRR
by promoting equal access and opportunity for learners
withdisabilitiesonrelatedundergraduate,
postgraduate, research and continuous professional
development programmes in Indonesian HE. In doingso, it will help persons with disabilities to be active
participants and not overlooked in disaster
preparedness, relief and response actions
Scheme:UK-Indonesia
Partnerships Grant

Disability

Countries: UK and Indonesia
HUR Role : project lead

Inclusion

Raising awareness and understanding of nature
inspired solutions (NIS) for disaster risk reduction(DRR)
It focuses on raising awareness among built
environment professional bodies, of the potential forusing nature inspired solutions to reduce disaster risk. It
also as a component which is focused on two casestudies to understand how nature’s forms, processes,
and ecosystems have helped to reduce disaster risk
related to tsunamis and landslides. These will be used
as a basis to inform/inspire the development ofsolutions in the built environment to address the same/
similar hazards in other contexts.
Our role : Project lead
Funder: ASRI Projects 2021
HUD role: Project leadPartnership: 12 partners from 5 countries

Partners: ITB, Indonesia, 4 partners

Prof. Dilanthi Amaratunga
HeadE-mail: d.amaratunga@hud.ac.uk

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B ) Events
There have been a large number of events organised/partners by GDRC during 2023. [Moderator/panelists
of international in 29 instances ; 28 international
workshops delivered as facilitators/organiser ; and 8international conferences (co-organiser/partner)]Some
key examples are listed below :International Symposium on Tacking Climate
Change as an Underlying Disaster Risk Driver,
University of Huddersfield, UK
This international symposium was organised as part of
the Research Training Network on Tackling Climate
Change as an Underlying Disaster Risk Driver (CCADRR). CCA-DRR is a European Commission funded
Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility (ICM) project
which supports student and staff mobility to and fromcountries outside Europe. Accordingly, this researchtraining programme and Symposium was designed asa research capacity-building and awarenessprogramme targeting the climate change and disastermanagement researchers in 8 higher education
institutions in Sri Lanka. The Symposium programme
was designed with the expectation of developing aroadmap that reviews the current state of CAA andDRR and sets out the work required and major
challenges and opportunities to advance the dialogue
between the CAA and DRR communities.
Organised by: Global Disaster Resilience Centre,
University of Huddersfield UK & DRR CAA Network
Our role: conference organiser, Conference co-chairs
Dates: 27-28 June 2023

United Kingdom Alliance for Disaster Research(UKADR)
2023
Conference,
Universityof
Huddersfield, United Kingdom.
UK Alliance for Disaster Research (UKADR) Annual
Conference 2023: 2030 and beyond: Risk-informed
decision making, investment, and behaviour. Special
features: Posters and abstracts presentations, Keynote
speeches, Panel discussions on selected topics, Early
career development pathways, UKADR Annual
General Meeting, Networking session and drinks
reception. The conference is inspired by the Mid-term
Review of the Implementation of the Sendai
Framework 2015-2030 (MTR SF), which emphasizes
the importance of disaster risk management. While
progress has been made since its implementation in2015, our planet's increasing instability carries
significant risks.
Organised by: Global Disaster Resilience Centre,
University of Huddersfield UK
Our role: Conference Co-chairs, overall organisation
Dates: 18th – 19th December 2023

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Official launch of the Research Brief on the Key
Insights and Recommendations: Public Health
Information Sharing among UnderprivilegedGroups and Vaccine Hesitancy during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Sri Lanka
Richard Haigh (moderator), Dilanthi Amaratunga,
Thushara Kamalrathne and Lahiru Kodituwakku(“Panellists)

in Sri Lanka, especially with regard to public
response to the vaccination programme, vaccine
hesitancy, vaccine preference and status of publichealth information sharing among communities.
Organised by: Sri Lanka Medical Association
Date: 25th July – 28th July 2023

An international study was carried out to: investigatesocial factors that affected vaccine hesitancy during
the COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka; and, explore
the challenges of public health information sharing
during an epidemic or pandemic among
underprivileged groups in Sri Lanka.
This study
involved a survey covering 26 divisional secretariats
in 9 districts in Sri Lanka. The field study was
designed to cover estate, rural, urban, semi-urban
and urban sectors. A total of 3,330 households werecovered by the study. This research provides deep
insights into the vaccination programme conducted

These events were conducted in response to therequests from school principals view clearly that theeducation system in Sri Lanka is ill prepared torespond to natural hazards. There are opportunities
to involve existing safety committees in school
preparedness and in the development of evacuationplans; and to exploit existing regular teacher
curriculum training events to develop capacities inemergency response and evacuation. Importantly,
experiences from a past tsunami drills in particularwith Sri Lankan communities emphasise theimportance of holding regular school practice drills
Training of school children, first responders andother public and private stakeholders relevant to
the early warning dissemination.

Organised by: Disaster Management Centre of Sri
Lanka
Facilitator: Ravi Jayaratne

Colombo International School training and Maharaja
Institute training

Days: January and February 2023

a 2 week international CCA-DRR Staff Exchange
Programme for 24 academics representing 8
universities in Sri Lanka

events. CCA-DRR is designed to develop capacities
amongst academic staff members of UK and Sri
Lanka, in “tackling climate change as an underlying
disaster risk driver”

This staff exchange was organised as part of the

Our role: Organiser and host ( Chamindi Malalgoda,
Thanya Weerasinghe, Dilanthi Amaratunga, Richard
Haigh)The training schedule
included:seminars, workshops, Symposium and panel
discussions, guest lectures, field trips, and social

Dates: 26th June to 7th July 2023, University of
Huddersfield

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What comes next after you're done with yourresearch?
Workshop in scientific writing and publishing for
researchers in disaster risks and related subjects
Why publish, publication or article type, selecting ajournal, writing philosophy, publishing ethics, Q & A
Organised by: National Building Research Organisation(NBRO), Sri Lanka
Our role : workshop facilitators (Dilanthi Amaratunga andRichard Haigh)Date: Tuesday 24th July 2023
C) key notes

Sustainable National Anticipatory Actions: South
Asia Perspectives

In 2023, GDRC members were invited to deliver, 9high profile key note speeches and 33 invited taks . Sisira Madurapperuma
Some examples are listed below:
Title of the event: Regional Launch “Sustainable National
The Midterm Review of the Sendai Framework for Anticipatory Actions through Preparedness (SNAP) in
Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 - 30: Progress, South Asia
Challenges, and Opportunities
Organised by: Asian Disaster Preparedness Center
Richard Haigh(ADPC) in collaboration with the USAID Bureau for
Humanitarian AssistanceTitle of the event:Conference on Disaster Risk
Reduction and Management in Sri Lanka: Science, Policy Date: 13 December 2023
and Practice
Organised by: General Sir John Kotelawala Defence
University, Ratmalana, Sri Lanka
Date: 25th July 2023
Disasters and public health nexus: Protecting at risk
communities
Dilanthi Amaratunga
Title of the event: Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA)
136th International Anniversary Medical Congress
Organised by: Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA)
Date: 25th – 28th July 2023, BMICH, Colombo

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Expert Committee on Disaster Management andResilience, and Planetary Health and Climate
Effects at the Sri Lanka Medical Association

Lahiru Kodituwakku

There have been 40 appointments to national/
international organisations and committees, andstrategic advisory bodies. Some examples arelisted below:

Working Group member, MCR2030 - RCC thematic
semesters Risk Financing Working Group on
Financing a Transition towards Climate Resilience”,
UNDRR

Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA )is the country's
premier professional body for doctors, aiming to leadthe medical community to achieve the highest
standards of medical professionalism and ethicalconduct, and to be an advisory body on health policy to
the Sri Lankan government and community. It was
initially the Ceylon Branch of the British Medical
Association, which was started on 26th February,
1887, with
with 65 members and by 1898 themembership had almost doubled with 113 members. It
was one of the largest branches in the British colonies.
Steering Committee Member for Commonwealth
Youth for Sustainable Urbanisation - CYSU
Malith Seneviratne

Exchange of experiences from cities, financial service
providers and investors and stakeholders on theimplementation of disaster resilience plans andprojects.
Making Cities Resilient 2030 initiative:
Challenges and opportunities in mobilising funding forbuilding resilience to shared and contextual challengesof cities in the region. Practical solutions for project
development and implementation

Appointed as a steering committee member for CYSU Commonwealth Youth for Sustainable Urbanisation.
Led by young professionals from across theCommonwealth countries, CYSU aims to Empower
Youth and Young Professionals to support, collaborate
and contribute to, and advocate for sustainableurbanisation. We want to look at ways in which cities
and human settlements can better reflect the needs ofyoung people and of diverse communities. CYSU
believes in communities empowered to design theirhomes and cities.

Honorary Assistant Secretary, Convener of the

http://commonwealthsustainablecities.org/youth

Appointment to the Advisory Council of Asian
Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC)

related needs of countries and communities
throughout the region and to provide strategic
guidance in support of ADPC's institutional growth.
Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) is anautonomous international organization for cooperationin and implementation of disaster risk reduction andbuilding climate resilience in Asia and the Pacific. As
of January 2020, ADPC is operating as anautonomous international organization governed by
the Board of Trustees. (https://www.adpc.net/igo/
Default.asp )Dilanthi Amaratunga

Dilanthi Amaratunga
Advisory Council engages eminent individuals in DRR
and CR to provide advice to ADPC in support of its
strategy, policy and activities. This includes
identification of future priorities and opportunities to be
pursued by the Center, and the development of clear
plans of action to address these priorities andopportunities, integrating activity across thematic
areas and cross cutting issues. In so doing, theadvisory council will advise on the partnership(membercountries, development partners
and other stakeholders),
requiredto
implement ADPC's
programandprojects in accordance with its
strategy. The
Advisory
Council
identifies
disaster-GADRI Annual Report 2023 —161

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E). Publications•

Amaratunga,
D.,
Haigh,
R.,
Senevirathne, M. &and Clegg, G. (2023).
(Ed.)Book of Abstracts:
UnitedKingdom
Alliance for Disaster
Research - Annual
Conference 2023 2030
AND BEYOND: Riskinformed
decisionmaking,investment
andbehaviour:
Universityof
Huddersfield, UK•

Malalgoda, C., Amaratunga, D. and Haigh, R.
(edited.) (2023). Book of Abstracts. International
Research Symposium on Tacking Climate Change
as an Underlying Disaster Risk Driver. ISBN. 978-1-86218-222-6•

Contributor, UNDRR Regional Assessment Reporton Disaster Risk Reduction 2023 for Europe andCentral Asia – Nov 2023•

Amaratunga, D., Haigh, R., Hemachandra,
K. & Kamalrathne, T., 20 Feb 2023, 17 p. Disaster
Risk Reduction new dimensions: COVID-19
Preparedness at local level. https://pure.hud.ac.uk/
en/publications/disaster-risk-reduction-newdimensions-covid-19-preparedness-at-l

Like with the previous years, there have been a large
number of publications written by our members during2023, including: 7 Books/edited books; 9 bookchapters; 12refereed research papers; 3 conference
proceedings; 13 Research reports, and are available at:https://pure.hud.ac.uk/en/organisations/global-disasterresilience-centre
Some examples are listed below :••Hamza, M., Amaratunga, D., Haigh, R., Malalgoda,
C.,Jayakody, C., & Senanayake, A. (Eds.)(2023).
Rebuilding
Communities
After
Displacement:
Sustainable
andResilience
Approaches. (1st ed.) Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21414-1

Kodituwakku, L. & Amarasekara, J. (2023).
Scenario based training on multi hazard situations
and complex emergencies : A handbook forgrassroot level public health workers and first
responders. A joint publication of National Dengue
Control Unit of Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka,
Disaster Preparedness and Response Division of
Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka, nd World Food
Programme. ISBN: 978-624-5719-67-9. https://reliefweb.int/report/sri-lanka/scenario-basedtraining-multi-hazard-situations-and-complexemergencies-handbook-grassroot-level-publichealth-workers-and-first-responders

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GADRI Annual Report — Europe• Kamalrathne,T., •Jayasekara,R.,
Kodituwakku,
L.,Ariyasinghe,U.,
Ranaweera, P., Herath,
H.,
Rupasinghe,C.,
Rathnayake,S.,
Amaratunga, D., Haigh,R.,
Siriwardana,
C.,
Fernando.,N.,
Jayasinghe, N. (2023),
Key
Insights
andRecommendations: Public
Health Information Sharing
among Underprivileged Groups and Vaccine
Hesitancy during COVID-19 Pandemic in Sri Lanka:
Sri Lanka Medical Association and University of
Huddersfield,
UK.http://www.pandemic-mhew.org/
images/2023/08/11/_spmedia_thumbs/
Covid2Book_V2.pdf

Contributors - Research Roadmap on Building
Resilience to the Impacts of Climate Change andOther Disaster Risks in Sri Lanka, July 2023. This
Research Roadmap on Building Resilience to the
Impacts of Climate Change and Other Disaster Risks
in Sri Lanka was compiled based on the proceedingsof the International Staff Exchange and Training
activity : ‘CCA-DRR Erasmus+ ICM programme’
conducted and led by the Global Disaster ResilienceCentre (GDRC), University of Huddersfield, United
Kingdom.Participating Institutions are: University of
Huddersfield (HUD), UK – Project Lead; University of
Moratuwa (UOM), Sri Lanka; University of Colombo(UOC), Sri Lanka; University of Peradeniya (UOP) ,Sri Lanka; University of Ruhuna (UOR) , Sri Lanka;
South Eastern University of Sri Lanka (SEUSL), Sri
Lanka; University of Sri Jayewardenepura (USJ), Sri
Lanka; University of Kelaniya (UOK), Sri Lanka;
Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka (SUSL), Sri
Lanka.

F). Awards•

There have been 9 awards for recognition of
excellence by GDRC members in 2023. Some
examples are provided below:•

Shavindree Nissanka has been named as one of
the Women of the Future 50 rising stars in ESG(Environmental, Social and Governance). Womenin ESG: 50 Stars Changing the World seeks tocelebrate the talented female trailblazers and rolemodels aged 35 and under from around the world
who are at the forefront of ESG. Each year, thecampaign will showcase 50 rising stars acrossdifferent aspects of ESG who have made a lastingand positive impact on their organisations,environment, and wider society.

Dilanthi Amaratunga is a 2023 Award Winner 2023
Kindness & Leadership, one of the fifty Leading
Lights in the UK, supported by KPMG.
•

Kindness & Leadership, 50 Leading Lights
campaign seeks to shine a great big spotlight onleaders who are impacting others throughkindness. We see this campaign as a uniquechance to build a new status quo, sharing advice
and expertise from leaders and recognising thecontribution of kind leaders to business, theeconomyandsociety.
https://
www.kindnessrules.co.uk

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Lahiru Kodituwakku - Global award for Education
at the International Society for Neglected Tropical
Diseases (ISNTD) Festival, London 2023 for the
handbook on scenario based learning for grassroot
level health care workers and first responders on
multi hazard situations and complex emergencies.

•

Lahiru Kodituwakku, Sudath Samaraweera,
Indika Weerasinghe, Vinya Ariyaratne, Thushara
Kamalarathne,
Richard
Haigh,
DilanthiAmaratunga- Best Poster Presentation at the
UKADR Research Conference for the poster titled,“Engaging Communities for Prevention of Climate
Sensitive Disease Outbreaks: A Sri Lankan
Experience” .This poster was based on acommunity driven dengue prevention campaign
conducted collaboratively by the National Dengue
Control Unit, World Health Organization (WHO) ,country office Sri Lanka and Sarvodya Shramadana
Movement.

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Disaster and Development Network (DDN)
Northumbria University
United Kingdom
https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/ddn

The Disaster and Development Network (DDN) spans
research, enterprise and teaching orientated by thedisaster management and sustainable development
nexus. Operating from Northumbria University’s
Department of Geography and Environmental
Sciences since 2000, the network engages the work of
the Disaster and Development Centre (DDC)(20042012), Disaster and Development Postgraduate
programme of study (2000-present), Disaster,Development and Sustainability (DDR) research group(2012-present), affiliated student led Disaster andDevelopment Society (DDS)(2015-present), and aninter-Faculty Geographies of Development andDisaster (DDG) Research Excellence Framework(REF) cluster (2018-present).
The predominant effort of the DDN is to progress theknowledge and skills that engage hazards, disasters
and complex emergencies from the perspective ofintersecting disasters and development experiences
and narratives spanning science, practice and policy
environments. It is committed to delivering impact on
future survivability and resilience of people andsystems facing critical levels of rapid and slow onset
environmental, economic, and political change. Someachievements and updates for 2023 include:•

Francis Massé – “Identifying and mitigating theimpacts of COVID-19 on legal and sustainablewildlife trade in LMICs”. This includes a new PhD
Scholarship, Mridula Paul, supervised by Francis
and Andrew.

•

Becky Richardson’s research focusing on “childcentred approaches to health risk communicationin Nairobi schools” involved a further period of fieldresearch in Kenya during the Autumn”.

•

Mark Ashley Parry, working as an Associate
Lecturer of the wider Department and for theDisaster and Development Network is developing
a new initiative on climate and disaster educationin the UK.

•

Kevin Glynn – progressed aspects of the UKRI
GCRF project “Ixchel: Building understanding of
the physical, cultural and socio-economic driversof risk for strengthening resilience in the
Guatemalan cordillera”.

•

Richard Kotter - advanced new initiatives for local
and external engagement within UK and South
Asia based Emergency Services focussed oncollaborations in Pakistan.

A process initiated by the DDN to gain accreditation of
Northumbria University to the UNFCCC COP series
has led to Northumbria gaining COP28 andsubsequent rounds observer status.
Northumbria DDN has been re-elected by the GADRI
membership to serve a further term as part of the
GADRI board of directors. This will be represented byAndrew, but who expects to engage another full-timemember of Northumbria staff to support this work. The
DDN also remains active in the United Kingdom
Alliance for Disaster Research, providing a x1
Advisory Board role and x1 Early Career Researcher
role..

Indicative research:•

Katie Oven – UKRINERC GCRF “SajagNepal–Planningandpreparednessforthemountainhazard and risk chain in
Nepal”. This
includes one full time researcher, Amy Johnson, a
PhD Researcher, Bina Limbu and new Research
Fellow, Katherine Arrell.
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Prof. Andrew Collins
E-mail: andrew.collins@northumbria.ac.uk

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The collaboration of the DDN with allied areas ofresearch at Northumbria University that contributed to
Northumbria’s achievement of highest increase in
Research Power across all UK universities in the REF
exercise of 2021 has led to mergers internally. The
Geographies of Disaster and Development theme isrepresented as an amalgam of interests at the university,
most prominently focused in the Department ofGeography and Environmental Sciences which produced‘World Leading’ research impact case studies linked tothis theme. One example we wish to build upon further isthe work on “embedding a people-centred approach tohealth in Disaster Risk Reduction at the Local andInternational scales”. A summary version of that impact isat:https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/research/researchimpact-at-northumbria/societal-impact/new-peoplecentred-global-policies-prepare-communities-better-fordiasasters/•

Pelling M., Amaratunga, D., Bucher, A., Buller, S.,
Collins, A.E, Dawson, R., Deshpande, T., Donovan
A., Heintz, M., Intepe, D., Marsden, K., Morin, J.,
Murray, V., Phillips, J., Sargeant, S. (2023) Editorial:‘International Development and Disaster Risk
Reduction Research: A UK research practitioner
stocktake’, International Journal of Disaster Risk
Reduction, pp. doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103981 .

•Alam, E., Collins, A.E., Islam, Md. A.R.T., Paul, A.
and Islam, Md. K. (2023) ‘Change in cyclone disaster
vulnerability and response in coastal Bangladesh’,
Disasters, pp. doi.org/10.1111/disa.12608•

Kadia, R.S, Kadia, B.M and Collins, A.E. (2023)‘Usefulness of disease surveillance data in enhanced
early warning of the cholera outbreak in Southwest
Cameroon’, Conflict and Health, 17:1, pp.
doi:10.1186/s13031-023-00504-1 .

Andrew has been in Southern Africa following up further
on past research investments during the Autumn term insupport of this objective.

•

Richardson, R. and Collins, A.E. (2023) ‘Infectious
disease risk communication and engagement using
puppetry and related approaches for improving
handwashing with soap in an informal settlement of
Nairobi’, International Journal of Disaster Risk
Reduction, 84, pp. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103477 .

•Enns, C., van Vliet, N., Mbane, J., Muhindo, J.,
Nyumu, J., Bersaglio, B., Massé, F., Cerutti, P., Nasi,
R. (2023) ‘Vulnerability and coping strategies withinwild meat trade networks during the COVID-19
pandemic’, World Development•

Kincey, M., Rosser, N., Densmore, A., Robinson, T.,
Shrestha, R., Pujara, D., Horton, P., Swirad, Z.,
Oven, K., Arrell, K. (2023) ‘Modelling post‐
earthquake cascading hazards: Changing patterns oflandslide runout following the 2015 Gorkha
earthquake, Nepal’, Earth Surface Processes andLandforms.

•

Taylor, S., Booth, D. and Irudayarajan, R. (2023)‘Diasporic Engagement and the Climate Crisis in
Kerala:Inclusive
DisasterReliefandReconstruction ?’, South Asian Diaspora, 15: 2.

The wider merged activity includes our now integrated
teaching programmes and research interests with theCentre for Global Development. Full details of the work of
the wider grouping can be followed at the three web sites
provided in the heading of this report. The collaborative
working across the University in multidisciplinary
research themes is likely to have contributed to theachievement of the Times Higher Education (THE) Awardof UK University of the Year in 2022 that the University
has considered running into 2023!
Developments in Research and Practice based
Teaching and Learning:
The MSc Disaster Management and Sustainable
Development (MSc DMSD) established 24 years ago(2000), has research a recruitment of 500 postgraduatesfrom all over the world. Whilst postgraduate studies inthis field aims as small groups, a significant number ofthe students now also select the additional “Advanced
Practice” route, which increases their final credits to 240
instead of 180 and involves a 2 nd year of registration. The
range of modules on offer is also expanding with thecollaboration of a further Masters programme ininternational development that came to us with thetransfer of allies subject staff into the Department from adifferent Faculty.
Some indicative 2023 publications:•Tatano H. and Collins A.E (eds) (2023)
Proceedings of the 4th Global Summit of ResearchInstitutes for Disaster Risk Reduction: Increasing
the Effectiveness and Relevance of Our Institutes.
GSRIDRR 2019. Disaster and Risk Research:
GADRI Book Series. Springer. 330 pages. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-19-55662 ISBN: 978-981-19-5565-5
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —166

GADRI Annual Report — Europe

Disaster Resilience Research Group
University of Salford
United Kingdom
https://www.salford.ac.uk/uprise-centre-for-disaster-resilience/
Planning & Training Division, National Building
Research Organisation, Sri Lanka. The title of theseminar was “TRANSCEND Seminar: The groundreality of success in resettlement projects”

In 2023 we continued to expand our research work
on climate change and disaster risk reduction throughthe TRANSCEND project. This project is fundedthrough the UK Research and Innovation Global
Challenges Research Fund and we thank them forcontinuous support for our investigative work into
socio-technical systems that help risk-sensitive urban
development. Our partners in Sri Lanka, Pakistan,and Malaysia continue to collaborate with local
stakeholders to implement our research and create
an impact.

Another TRANSCEND seminar titled “City/Science
Intersections: A Scoping Review of Science for Policy
in Urban Contexts: was conducted by Prof. MarieChristine Therrien. This scoping review was focusing
on identify the existing research on urban science forpolicy, specifically the context for its emergence, theactors involved, the structures and mechanisms used
to strengthen links between researchers and decision-makers, its challenges, and results.
We welcomed Assoc. Prof. Sr. Dr. Noralfishah from
our Malaysian TRANSCEND partner UTHM at the
THINKLAB, University of Salford, United Kingdom as
a visiting scholar that participated specifically in the
research activities associated with the MOBILISE andTRANSCEND projects. Discussions were based on
Commercialisation meeting, licencing agreement andlearning MOBILISE System, Platform Application in
the UK at THINKLab, University of Salford.

During this year, the group has been working onstrengthening our publication profile, implementing
our research in local settings and enhancing ourpartner relationships.

One of the first seminars we conducted in 2023 as apart of our TRANSCEND seminar series was by Mr.
Kishan Sugathapala, Director, Human Settlements

Prof. Kaushal Keraminiyage
E-mail: andrew.collins@northumbria.ac.uk

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TRANSCEND seminar series continued with apresentation from Prof. Md. Anwarul Abedin at
Bangladesh Agricultural University, The seminar titled,“Climate change impacts on agriculture” organised by
THINKLab, University of Salford.
Prof Terrance Fernando from Thinklab recently
contributed to a special episode of the WeatherPod. In
Episode 26: Anticipatory Action, the panel, including
Irene Amuron from the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate
Centre and Paul Davies from the UK Met Office, joined
forces with Terrence to tackle the question: "How do we
improve outcomes for everyone at risk from the impact
of hydrometeorological hazards?
We expanded our research to investigate the disasters
beyond physical vulnerabilities and looks into thevulnerabilities created by the digitalization. Prof Kaushal
Keraminiyage received funding in 2023 to research on
Digitally Sustainable Communities in the face of Risks to
Digital Infrastructure.
We congratulate Dr Devindi Geekiyange, Dr Pavithra
Ganeshu,and Dr Ahmed Farhan, our prominent
researchers for completing the Doctoral studies in 2023.
We continue to make impact nationally andinternationally, and we are delighted to feature in a
recent Ordnance Survey article: “Building resilience torespond to extreme weather events”. This article givereference to our MOBILISE platform and the work
carried out by the THINKlab team with the Greater
Manchester
Resilience
Forum,
Ordnance

Survey, Salford City Council, the Environment Agency,
and other partners.
We continued to disseminate our research throughacademic publications. Following are some of the
publications for year 2023:•

Ganeshu, P., Fernando, T., & Keraminiyage, K.
(2023). Barriers to, and enablers for, stakeholder
collaboration in risk-sensitive urban planning: asystematised literature review. Sustainability, 15(5),
4600.

•

Geekiyanage, D., Fernando, T., & Keraminiyage, K.
(2023). Modelling interrelationships of the factors
impeding community engagement in risk-sensitive
urbanplanning:
evidencefrom
SriLanka. Sustainability, 15(20), 14662.

•

Munasinghe, D., Fernando, T., Keraminiyage, K., &Karunawardena, A. (2023). A Review of the Disaster
Risk Assessment Perspectives. Progress in
Landslide Research and Technology, Volume 2
Issue 2, 2023, 323-340.

•

Ganeshu, P., Fernando, T., Therrien, M. C., &Keraminiyage, K. (2024). Inter-Organisational
Collaboration Structures and Features to Facilitate
Stakeholder
Collaboration.
Administrative
Sciences, 14(2), 25.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —168

GADRI Annual Report — Africa

AfricaGADRI Annual Report 2023 —169

GADRI Annual Report — Africa

AfricaGADRI Annual Report 2023 —170

GADRI Annual Report — Africa

AfricaAlgeria

Faculty of Civil Engineering, Built Environment Research Laboratory (LBE), University of
Science & Technology Houari Boumediene (USTHB)

Egypt

Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University

Egypt

Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Assiut University

Egypt

German University in Cairo (GUC)

Egypt

Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI), National Water Research Center（NWRC),
Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation

Ghana

University for Development Studies (UDS)

Ghana

Department of Geography & Resource Development, University of Ghana

Ghana

Hydrology and Water Resource Engineering,
Water Research Institute, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

MoroccoFaculty of Sciences and Technics of Mohammedia, University of Hassan II of Casablanca

South Africa

Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa (DiMTEC), University of theFree State

Sudan
Zimbabwe

UNESCO Chair in Water Resources
Geography Department, Bindura University of Science Education
African Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (AADRI)GADRI Annual Report 2023 —171

GADRI Annual Report — Africa

Africa Alliance for Disaster Risk Institutions (AADRI),
Bindura University, Zimbabwe
https://www.aadri.org.zw/

This report provides a summary ofdisastermanagement
activities
undertaken in Southern Africa during2023. AADRI does not take responsibility
for owning these projects but wants torecognise that its members are taking
part in these sponsored projects in theircapacities. The report focuses on key
areasofemphasisindisastermanagement efforts across the region
that are being executed under thevarious projects.

Figure 5: Since the onset of the tragedy, the UN in Malawi, including
60 agencies, has worked with the Government to provide immediate
life-saving assistance. Photo: © UN Women/ Faith Mvula

Enhancing Early Warning Systems
2023 saw considerable advancements in strengthening early
warning systems across Southern Africa. The focus was on improving the accuracy and timeliness of alerts, particularly forfloods, droughts, and cyclones. This involved:•

Installation of advanced monitoring technologies•

Strengthening meteorological and hydrological services•

Establishing community-based early warning systems

The Road Ahead:
The recovery process will be long, but
the collective spirit of Malawi and the
support of international organizations
offer hope for a more resilient future.
This
examplehighlights
themultifaceted approach Southern Africancountries are taking to rehabilitation
and recovery, focusing on immediateneeds,
long-termsolutions,andempowering communities.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —172

Prof. Desmond Manatsa
Acting President, AADRI
Email: dmanatsa@gmail.com

GADRI Annual Report — Africa

Ongoing projects in Southern Africa in which
AADRI members are taking part:

1. Strengthening Early Warning Systems for Disaster
Risk Reduction in Southern Africa Project(Executing Agency: SADC Regional Early Warning
Centre)2. Community-Based Flood Early Warning System
Project(Executing
Agency:National
Meteorological and Hydrological Services incollaboration with local communities)
3. Regional Climate Services Enhancement Project(Executing Agency: SADC Regional Climate
Services Centre)
Strengthening Disaster Preparedness Structures
and Systems in Southern Africa: Case of Zimbabwe
This project is bolstering preparedness systems in
districts prone to disasters across Manicaland,
Mashonaland Central, and Matabeleland provinces.
Funded by the European Union Civil Protection
Operations
incollaboration
with
Zimbabwe's
Department of Civil Protection, the initiative aims to:•Strengthen Civil Protection Structures: The
project works to improve the efficiency andeffectiveness of Zimbabwe's Civil Protection (CP)structures, leading to a more coordinated and impactful
response during disasters.

•

Cash Preparedness and Stockpiling: The project
establishes sustainable systems for cash assistanceand stockpiling essential supplies in disaster-prone
areas. This ensures communities have immediate
resources to meet basic needs during emergencies.

•

Evacuation Center Management: The project
enhances the safety, security, and overall managementof designated evacuation centers, creating safe havens
for displaced communities.

•

Early Warning Systems: The initiative prioritizes
rolling out inclusive, community-led early warning andearly action plans, particularly in locations vulnerable torapid-onset disasters like floods and cyclones.
By working closely with key stakeholders like the Civil
Protection Unit, Meteorological Services Department(MSD), and Zimbabwe National Water Authority(ZINWA), the project fosters a collaborative approach todisaster preparedness, empowering communities andstrengthening Zimbabwe's overall disaster response
capabilities.
Community Preparedness and Education
Extensive efforts were made in 2023 to improve
community preparedness and education regarding
disaster management. Initiatives included:•

Awareness campaigns on disaster preparedness,
evacuation procedures, and first aid techniques•

Training programs to empower communities withthe skills and knowledge for effective emergency
response
Strengthening Disaster Preparedness in Southern
Africa: Case of Muzarabani Zimbabwe
A pilot project using the Anticipatory Response Program(ARP) was implemented in Muzarabani, Zimbabwe.
This initiative aimed to enhance disaster preparedness
at the local level.

•

Emergency Non-Food Items (NFIs): Improved
access to essential non-food items like blankets, sheltermaterials, and hygiene kits is a key focus.

Figure 1: Installation of the automatic weather station at Cloudland in Ward 33, situated within the Vumba area of
Mutare Districts in Manicaland, Zimbabwe in 2023, under the project entitled Strengthening Disaster Preparedness
Structures and Systems in Southern Africa. (photo by Pauline Huringudo)
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GADRI Annual Report — Africa

Figure 2: For the project Strengthening Disaster Preparedness in Southern Africa.Caritas Zimbabwe, a local NGO,
was identified as a crucial partner for generating data and maps for disaster preparedness in Muzarabani. The
pictures show a group of dedicated participants in Muzarabani District, marking the culmination of rigorous training
during the workshop. . Photo Courtesy of Rachel Chinyanga, Caritas Zimbabwe

Data Collection and Multi-Hazard Contingency Plans
The project involved data collection and analysis,
resulting in the creation of Multi-Hazard Contingency
Plans (MHCPs) for each ward in Muzarabani. These
plans serve as a valuable resource for ward leaders,
partners, and first responders.

•

Risk Assessment: The MHCPs identify potential
hazards in each ward, including strong winds, droughts,
floods, and diseases. The plans also consider vulnerable
populations like women, children, and the elderly.

•

Actionable Strategies: The plans outline specificstrategies to address these hazards. For example, theKairezi Ward plan tackles flood risks by proposing theconstruction of evacuation centers, infrastructure
improvements, and water harvesting structures.

•

Decentralized Approach: The MHCPs align with
Zimbabwe's
National
Development
Strategy,emphasizing resource decentralization and inclusivity.
Enhancing Community Awareness

The MHCPs also raise awareness among community
members about potential hazards. This empowers themto anticipate risks and participate in disaster response
efforts.

geospatial tools for data collection and mapping. This
improves their disaster preparedness capabilities.

•

Digital Shift: The project facilitated a shift towards
using digital maps and data, offering improved
accessibility and a safer repository for informationcompared to paper maps.
Despite these successes, the program identified someareas for improvement:•

Program Expansion: Stakeholders suggested
utilizing learnings from Muzarabani in other districts.

•

Community Engagement: Greater involvement oflocal communities in identifying evacuation centers anddata collection was deemed crucial.

•

Capacity Building: More training for local residents
on using digital maps for disaster response wasrecommended.

•

Communication:
Clear
communication
withcommunities before deployments regarding personnel
and purposes was emphasized.

•

Secondary Hazards: The project highlighted theneed to consider secondary hazards like waterborne
diseases triggered by floods.

Successes and Challenges

Looking Ahead: Building Regional Resilience

The Muzarabani pilot project yielded positive results:

The success of the Muzarabani pilot paves the way for
expandingthe
ARP acrossZimbabweandotherdisaster-prone
regions. In a world
facingincreasingclimatechangechallenges,
data-driven approaches like the
ARP will be critical for building
resilience and protecting vulnerable communities.

•

Improved Data and Maps: The project generated
detailed hazard maps with more information than
traditional paper maps. This data supports contingency
planning and decision-making.

•

Increased Capacity: Caritas Zimbabwe staff andvolunteers gained valuable skills in using open-source

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —174

GADRI Annual Report — Africa

Infrastructure Development• Features include recreation parks, solar

Significant investments were made to enhancedisaster resilience through infrastructure development.
This included constructing flood-resistant buildings,
bridges, and roads in vulnerable areas. The emphasis
was on incorporating climate-resilient design principles
and technologies to minimize the impact of disasters
on critical infrastructure.

energy farms, and artificial lakes.

• Phase 1: Attract a population of 7 million.
5. Konza Technology City (Kenya):• A smart city project modeled after Silicon
Valley.

Africa's Mega Infrastructure Projects: Transforming aContinent• Aims to create jobs in IT, business services,

Here we highlight nine transformative infrastructure
projects currently underway across Africa that are ofinterest to AADRI. These ambitious initiatives aim toaddress critical needs, boost economic growth, andposition Africa for a brighter future.

• Estimated cost: US$14.5 billion.
6. Standard Gauge Railway (Kenya):

1. Grand Inga Dam (Democratic Republic of theCongo):• Total cost: US$9.9 billion.

•

World's largest proposed hydropower projecton the Congo River.

•

Goal: Provide power for nearly half of Africa(40,000 MW).

•

Estimated cost: US$80 billion,
continent-wide transmission lines.

requiring

2. Dangote Oil Refinery (Nigeria):•

On track to become the world's largest single
oil refinery (650,000 barrels per day).

•Expected to boost economic growth and create
jobs.

•

and research.

• One of Africa's largest infrastructure projects:
a 969-kilometer railway from Mombasa to
Malaba.

• Phases completed: Mombasa-Nairobi and
Nairobi-Naivasha.
Future extension planned: Nairobi to Kisumu.
7. New Railway: Lagos-Calabar (Nigeria):•

A major 1,400-kilometer railway
connecting key Nigerian cities.

•

Estimated cost: US$10 billion.

•

Project currently under US management after
initial Chinese involvement.

8. Mambila Hydroelectric Power Project (Nigeria):•

One of Africa's largest construction projects: amega dam on the Donga River.

•

Goal: Increase Nigeria's energy production(3,050 MW).

•

Estimated cost: US$5.8 billion.

Estimated cost: US$14 billion.

3. Bagamoyo Port (Tanzania):• Set to become East and Central Africa's
largest port.

• Collaboration between Tanzania, China, andOman.

9. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Ethiopia):•

Africa's largest planned hydroelectric power
plant (6,000 MW) on the Blue Nile River.

•

Currently 70% complete, facing water fillingand downstream country concerns.

• Estimated cost: US$10 billion, with fullpotential expected in 30 years.

• Capacity: Handle twenty times more cargo
than
4.

New

Tanzania's
largest port.

Capitalcurrent

City (Egypt):project

These projects showcase Africa's commitment toprogress and development. By overcoming challenges
and fostering regional collaboration, Africa can unlock
its full potential and emerge as a global powerhouse.

• A "smart city" underconstruction
east of Cairo to address overcrowding issues.

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GADRI Annual Report — Africa

Rehabilitation and Recovery
Post-disaster rehabilitation and recovery efforts were a
key focus in 2023. Initiatives aimed to support affected
communities in rebuilding their lives and infrastructure.
This included:• Reconstruction of homes, schools, and healthcare
facilities• Implementation of livelihood restoration programs
to help communities recover economically fromdisasters

Southern Africa's Rehabilitation and Recovery
Efforts: A Case Study of Malawi's Response to
Cyclone Freddy
Cyclone Freddy's devastation in Malawi serves as a
powerful example of Southern Africa's ongoing efforts
in rehabilitation and recovery. Here's a breakdown of
the key actions undertaken:

Immediate Relief:• Coordinated Response: The UN Resident
Coordinator, alongside over 60 agencies andNGOs, led a collective effort to support the
government's response.

• Emergency

Assistance: The UN Central
Emergency Response Fund provided US$5.5
million for immediate needs like shelter, food, andmedical care.

• Reaching Isolated Areas: Helicopters were used
as a lifeline to deliver aid to remote communities.
Education Amidst Crisis:• Temporary Learning Spaces: Collaboration with

provided nutritious meals to over 38,000 children
in affected districts.
Protecting the Vulnerable:• Psychological Support: Providing PsychologicalFirst Aid (PFA) to help survivors cope with theemotional impact of the cyclone.

• Child Protection: Setting up community-basedchildcare centers and promoting awarenessprograms on child protection issues, including
sexual exploitation and abuse, early marriage, andchild education rights.

• Psychosocial Support: Implementing programs
to address the mental health toll of the disaster.

Building Long-Term Resilience:• Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA): A
comprehensive assessment conducted by thegovernment, UN, and partners identified criticalareas for recovery and resilience building.

• Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR): Increased
focus on DRR measures and early warning
systems to improve preparedness for futuredisasters.

• Community Training: Empowering communities
throughtraining
programs
preparedness and response.

ondisaster• Resilience Building Policies: Implementing
long-term policies on sustainable land and water
management, climate adaptation strategies, andinfrastructure improvements. This includes
building resilient housing, improved drainage
systems, and reinforced community shelters.

local partners ensured nearly 1.3 million affectedchildren could continue their education throughtemporary learning spaces and school supplies.

• School Feeding Programs: The Home-Grown
School Feeding initiative (supported by the EU)

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GADRI Annual Report — Africa

Conclusion
The year 2023 marked significant progress indisaster management activities across Southern
Africa where several members of AADRI participatedin their capacities but riding on the funding provided
by international and local support bodies. In this way,concerted efforts were undertaken to strengthen early
warning systems, conduct risk assessments,
enhance community preparedness and education,
develop resilient infrastructure, establish efficient
emergency response mechanisms, and support post-disaster rehabilitation and recovery. These activities,
carried out by various stakeholders including
government agencies, international organizations,and local communities, demonstrate a collective
commitment to building resilience and reducing theimpact of disasters in the region.

Figure 3. Left The Grand Inga
Dam is the world's largest
proposed hydropower project,and it is being built on theCongo River in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo. (Image :MARC JOURDIER/AFP) Right
Artist impression of the Konza
Technology City project that will
be built Kenya’s country's east.

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —177

Geographical Distribution of

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —178

Members of GADRI as of 31 March 2024

GADRI Annual Report 2023 —179

GADRI Secretariat, Disaster Prevention ResearchInstitute (DPRI), Kyoto University, JapanGADRI SECRETARIAT
Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI)
Kyoto University
Gokasho, Uji-shi, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
Tel: +81-774-38-4651
E-mail: secretariat-gadri@dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Home page: http://gadri.net/
GADRI Annual Report 2023 —180