Disaster risks research and assessment to promote risk reduction and management

This paper reviews and synthesizes the basic knowledge of natural hazards, vulnerabilities, and disaster risks and aims to highlight potential contributions of science to disaster risk reduction in order to provide policy-makers with the knowledge necessary to assist risk mitigation and management, as stated in the address of the Science and Technology Major Group representative at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR). It calls for significant improvements of existing assessment processes by scientific advice on disaster risks to support and catalyze disaster policy development and management across governments.

The paper addresses a lack of a comprehensive assessment of disaster risk, and briefly summarizes the current understanding of disaster risk research, practice, and experience. It provides the initial evidentiary basis for anticipated future impacts of disasters from the perspective of integrated disaster research – the engagement of multiple disciplines and researchers, scales (local to global), methodological approaches, and stakeholders in the co-production of problem-focused, policy relevant research related to disaster risk.