UCL INSTITUTE FOR RISK & DISASTER REDUCTION

Fieldtrip on Organising Post Disaster Reconstruction

Fri, 28 Jun 2013 10:28:50 +0000

Even though it is important to understand how reconstruction programmes are organised in order to reduce future disaster risks, there is a gap in theory in that it lacks a conceptual model or analytical framework for understanding and analysing the reality of organising post-disaster reconstruction programmes. I am addressing this gap in theory my PhD [...]

Two NGOs set up by the young people of Rikuzentakata, Iwate, Japan

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 11:47:05 +0000

Dr Joanna Faure Walker visited Rikuzentakata, one of the worst affected towns in the Iwate Prefecture, as part of the Great East Japan Earthquake EEFIT return mission. While there, she and her associates met with two NGOs: ‘Save Takata’ and ‘Sakura Line’ that were set up following the disaster. In March 2011, Okamoto Shoma was [...]

Arctic Field Training in Svalbard (Spitsbergen)

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:09:30 +0000

Arctic sea ice cover has had a high profile in the media over the last few years. There has been a growing interest in the region from across the scientific community, such as oceanographers and marine engineers in particular. The Arctic ice cover has reduced, allowing increasing access to the natural resource base in the [...]

Tohoku University Research Visit and Japan Field Mission: March 2013

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:47:58 +0000

In March 2011, a Mw 9.0 earthquake occurred off the coast of Tohoku in northeast Japan. This earthquake triggered one of the largest tsunamis Japan has ever seen and devastated much of the coast. Three months after this historic event, EEFIT (the Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team) began their Tohoku field mission. On the anniversary [...]

Fieldwork in Abruzzo: Four years on from L’Aquila

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:29:06 +0000

With the 4-year anniversary of the devastating L’Aquila earthquake occurring in the middle of my first PhD fieldtrip to Italy, the importance of studying active faults in the Abruzzo region remained at the front of my thoughts throughout my trip. The aim of the trip was to use Laser scanning (LiDAR) and ground penetrating radar [...]

Water Risk and its Management on the Bolivian Altiplano: Field Trip February 2013

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:59:22 +0000

In February I made my second trip to the Bolivian Altiplano to visit the Lake Poopó Basin, which is adjacent and south of the city of Oruro. This basin was identified in June 2012 as the region for the project I’ve worked on for a year, which aims to assess water risk and hazard over [...]

Gender and Disasters – What causes the risk gap?

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 21:04:30 +0000

On Friday 8th March 2013, the UCL Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction hosted an open panel discussion on ‘Gender and Disasters’.  The panel was chaired by Dr Ellie Lee (Reader in Social Policy and expert in gender issues from the University of Kent), and comprised: Paula Albrito (Head of the Regional Office for Europe [...]

IRDR sponsored UCL conference on “Urban Change in Iran” inspires the next generation of researchers

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:00:58 +0000

UCL conference on “Urban Change in Iran” on Thursday 8th and Friday 9th November. This conference, sponsored by the UCL Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, was initiated and led by Fatemah (Farnaz) Arefian, an academic, practitioner and director of Civitas Phoenix (an urban design company), who has been on a doctoral programme at the [...]

Forum for International Research Collaboration at The Great East Japan Earthquake Memorial Day

Tue, 01 May 2012 09:33:09 +0000

Hello, and welcome to the UCL Risk and Disaster Reduction Blog. I’m afraid this first post, about my attendance at a forum for international research collaboration and a related international disaster research symposium to mark the 1st anniversary of the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami that occurred on 11th March 2011, is a little [...]