Anticipatory Action to avoid deaths in urban areas

Time

4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. (GMT+1)

Session abstract

Urban areas are often especially vulnerable to disaster impacts, with a high number of disaster deaths among the civilian population. Failure of infrastructure, technological secondary affects, lack of preparedness for specific urban risks are only a few reasons for this. Anticipatory action, early warning and further preparedness measures have strong potential to reduce the number of deaths among the population in urban areas, and also to reduce the suffering. But because of the specific nature of urban environments, measures taken have to be urban-specific.

What is the experience with anticipatory action in urban areas, and where do we find the key gaps?The session will focus on experiences, and also on ways forward in making mass urban areas safer places, also in case of so-called High Impact Low Probability events (HILP).

Input from experts will support the open discussion. Topics like inclusion of minorities and especially vulnerable groups will be adressed, as well as topics like climate adaptation or mass urban area response methodology.

Agenda

Introduction:

Prof. Alois Hirschmugl (Hum. Advisor, Austria & Technical Director, D.M.A.T. Consulting KG)

Panelists:

Luca Rossi (Senior Coordinator, Early Warning for All - UNDRR)

Maria Jose Catala Verdet (Mayor of Valencia, Spain (tbc.))

Malte Schönefeld (Municipalities Crisis Resilience - State of Northrhine-Westfalia, Germany)

N.N. Global Alliance for Urban Crises (tbc)

M. Maruf Yaman (Director of International Relations, AFAD - Türkiye)

Prof. Jörg Szarzynski (Head, United Nations Global Mountain Safeguard (GLOMOS) and Professor, United Nations University UNU)

Dr. Albrecht Beck (Director, Prepared International (PPI) and Specialist for mass urban area preparedness)

Open discussion