UCL INSTITUTE FOR RISK & DISASTER REDUCTION

Research themes

Risk society

• public perception of risk
• how diverse societies deal with disaster

Understanding natural hazards: Geological and meteorological

• field and satellite observations
• laboratory simulations
• computational and statistical modelling

Understanding health risks and pandemics

• transmission characteristics of the infectious agents
• epidemiology of pandemics

Technological hazards

• risks to radioactive waste and CO2 repositories
• complex engineered systems

Understanding climate change and natural hazards

• extreme weather
• climate forcing of geological hazards

Engineering for hazards and disasters

• planning and design codes
• innovative design and construction

Managing hazards and disasters

• disaster risk reduction
• resilience and recovery

Research questions

The following are some of the questions we might ask in risk and disaster reduction research. However this is by no means an exhaustive or prescriptive list:

• How does society organise itself in response to risk?
• Why are natural, environmental and health catastrophes increasing?
• Can advances in satellite observation, numerical modelling and simulations improve our understanding and our ability to forecast or mitigate extreme events?
• Can we link our understanding of the transmission of infectious agents with epidemiology to mitigate pandemics?
• What effect will climate change have on the frequency and severity of extreme events?
• How can engineers reduce the risk of disasters?
• How are technological risks impacted by geohazards?
• How do we transfer scientific knowledge and technical know-how to those who need it?
• What are our legal and ethical responsibilities to victims of disasters?
• Can we ever manage disasters?