Surveyor’s role in monitoring, mitigating, and adapting to climate change

This publication provides a detailed summary of how the professional skills of the surveyor can be leveraged to help the global community in disaster risk reduction and climate change.

The document elucidates the role of surveyors in disaster risk management - they are able to take a wealth of land, social and environmental data and integrate these into his/her GIS tools, and then model the outcomes of potential disasters under various change scenarios thus producing a range of adaptation options. By virtue of their multi-disciplinary skills, they provide the bridge across the divide that can often exist between those who work in the natural sciences versus those working in the social sciences. Furthermore, the surveyors can also facilitate the political commitment and institutional development needed to support disaster management responses (i.e., good governance so as to elevate disaster risk reduction as a policy priority, integration in development planning and sectoral policies, and the implementation of legal, regulatory and organizational structures). It is thus a document that covers a broad spectrum of thoughts and practice, bringing about the convergence of the spatial and societal aspects of disaster risk management and climate change.