New book looks at Disaster Risk Reduction from a multidisciplinary resilience perspective

The book is the first publication under the Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (GADRI) book series where IIASA is in the advisory board. One of the focal areas of GADRI is to contribute to the discussion on disaster risk reduction in accordance to the expected outcomes of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and to improve communication among and engagement by different groups and communities in the disaster field.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction is the successor to the Hyogo Framework for Action, which is a voluntary, non-binding agreement of the Member States of the United Nations. Its main aim is the ‘substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health and in the economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets of persons, businesses, communities and countries’ (United Nations 2015, p. 12). More concretely, it sets out the post-2015 development agenda with seven global targets and four priorities for action.

Given the focus on both resilience and the Sendai Framework, the book chapters are selected and presented following implicitly a matrix approach that separates some important dimensions of disasters and resilience, and which are reflected in the targets and priorities for action of the framework. This includes the type of natural hazard; nature of resilience; scale; type of study; and connection to the Sendai Framework. For example, the focus on five types of a natural hazard that are highly significant in terms of human and economic losses, namely, earthquakes, floods, droughts, volcanic eruptions, and landslides, as well as natural hazards triggered by technological accidents were selected. The nature of resilience looked at in the book includes lifesaving, economic, and social resilience. Regarding the scale, chapter applications range from the household through the community and country and on to the global level. Various dimensions of and approaches to resilience at the different scales are also studied, including frameworks based on natural sciences and engineering to those based on social sciences.

“A discussion of the multi-dimensionality of resilience is needed more than ever before to provide ways forward how to deal with disaster risks today and in the future” says Stefan Hochrainer-Stigler. The book is intended to give some research priorities and to promote directions that will increase the effectiveness of disaster risk reduction efforts using the concept of resilience as the guiding principle.

Last edited: 10 July 2020