Solving the puzzle: Innovating to reduce risk
This report provides a community perspective on priorities for future collaboration and investment in the development and use of disaster risk information for developing countries. The intended outcome of this report is twofold. First, that through the community speaking as one voice, additional investment in the areas highlighted as priorities can be encouraged. Second, that the consensus embodied in the report will initiate the formation of the strong coalition of partners whose active collaboration is needed to deliver the recommendations.
The "next steps" to promote the use of risks assessments by developing countries are the following (pp. 29-33):
- Support the development of open, high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) for developing countries.
- Develop a suite of reference hazard events that provide examples of historical and hypothetical events for impact analyses in developing countries.
- Support the enhancement of an open exposure dataset with structural data and building valuation.
- Develop open databases of vulnerability functions for a variety of exposures (e.g., structural damage and social vulnerability), spatial resolutions, and hazards.
- Develop an open database of site-specific loss data that includes standards for data collection.
- Support an effort to develop standards to support risk model interoperability.
- Create development modules to provide training for the interpretation and use of risk assessment results.
- Formalise a community of practice for open-source disaster risk assessment.