IRDR’s 12th SC Meeting concludes with strategic plans for the programme

The 12th meeting of IRDR Science Committee (SC) was recently held in ICSU Secretariat Paris, France from 13 – 15 November. Attended by more than 30 participants from IRDR SC, International Centres of Excellence (ICoEs), National and Regional Centres (NCs/RC), and representatives from ICSU, UNISDR, ISSC and other IRDR partners and networks, the meeting discussed IRDR’s working groups review of activities, networking, partnerships and strategic program-wide forward planning.

On the first day of the meeting (13 November), IRDR’s working groups on AIRDR, DATA, FORIN and RIA presented their summary of activities for the past 6 months covering their accomplishments. AIRDR recently completed the “Guide for implementing AIRDR bibliometric analysis”, which will be released soon (Download the presentation).  DATA reported on the revision on Peril Classification and Hazard Glossary incorporating inputs from IRDR Conference, IRDR China (Beijing) and World Risk Forum (London) stakeholders (Download the presentation). FORIN recently concluded the FORIN Assessment, Revision and Update Workshop resulting to a FORIN 2.0 outline.  RIA shared their several RIA sessions with the ISSC fellows and the recently published Paper in Australasian Journal of Trauma Studies by 25 RIA Fellows. The paper reports on the World Social Science (WSS) Fellows seminar on Risk Interpretation and Action (RIA), undertaken in New Zealand in December, 2013 (Download the presentation).

The second day (14 November) of the SC meeting discussed reports from IRDR’s ICoEs including the addition of IRDR ICoE in UK to be based in King’s College London under the Centre for Integrated Research on Risk and Resilience (natural hazards strand).

ICoE-Vulnerability and Resilience Metrics (VaRM) reported on testing the implementation of peril classification on SHELDUS database as part of the working group’s activities. ICoE-VaRM also provided expert feedback to UNISDR’s informal working group on loss and damage (potential outcome indicators for monitoring progress under the Post-2015 Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction) and measuring resilience outcomes in Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 resilient cities project.  Furthermore, three research reviews for UNISDR were completed under AIRDR program (Transformative Development and Disaster Risk Management, Governance in Disaster Risk Management, Incentives for Disaster Risk Management.) Download the presentation

ICoE-Community Resilience shared that they recently completed the Community Resilience: Knowledge Sharing Workshop in Wellington this September and the Resilience Toolbox to collaborate on ideas and tools that build resilient communities. Download the presentation

ICoE-Taipei reported on WSS Seminar on Sustainable Urbanization, which was co-sponsored and organized by ISSC, National Taipei University, and ICoE Taipei at Academia Sinica. This seminar was attended by 18 early career social scientists from 14 countries and combined an interactive workshop approach with the round table discussions on aspects of sustainable urbanization. They also recently published a FORIN report on “Forensic Investigation of Typhoon Morakot Disaster: Nansalu and Daniao Village Case Study” on May 2014, exploring the root causes of the Typhoon Morakot disaster based on the FORIN methodology. Download the presentation

ICoE – Understanding Risk and Safety (UR&S) shared their projects covering disaster risk management programs for Manizales: risk knowledge and information systems, instrumentation, monitoring and early warning systems , and using risk for planning and awareness. Download the presentation

ICoE – Risk Education and Learning (REaL) shared their preparations in  developing an MOU with IRDR and generation of a work-plan that identifies focal areas for collaborative and individual research. Download the presentation

The third day of the 12th SC meeting concluded with discussion on planning 2015 and beyond, preparing for next year’s programme evaluation and needs and roles for potential fundraising activities.

View PHOTOS of the 12th SC Meeting