UCL Risk & Disaster Reduction annual report 2025

Introduction: 2024-25 in Review

The ethos of UCL Risk & Disaster Reduction (RDR) is to challenge convention through interdisciplinary inquiry and radical thinking. Disaster risk and humanitarian crises require urgent and decisive action, they cannot be considered a distant concern. The changing digital, political, social, technical and environmental dynamics are transforming humanitarian work and the identities within it, this provides a time of opportunities with big data and AI to support data-informed decision-making together with challenges associated with funding cuts coupled with the rise of nationalism and populism. 

This requires inclusive dialogue, critical self-reflection, collaborative action and critical questioning in driving meaningful change. Our '15th UCL Risk & Disaster Reduction annual conference - Where is the ‘human’ in humanitarianism? Navigating this evolving digital and political world' created an opportunity for colleagues, partners and guests to focus on such topics. Sessions included talks, panels and focus group discussions on 'AI and digital innovation in humanitarian action', 'Knowledge, politics and human relationships in humanitarianism', and 'The triple nexus of conflict, humanitarianism and disaster risk reduction'.

This year, our public event series hosted informative and diverse discussion challenging participants to question their world views and consider how we can do better at reducing disaster risk. Our monthly event series, open to the public, included foci on tackling the climate crisis, financing climate change and disaster resilience, and reflecting on progress, particularly in relation to gender, in the last 10 years of the Sendai Framework. Through his inaugural lecture, we were able to showcase Professor Shamsudduha’s research on groundwater renewability and vulnerability to climate change and risks such as arsenic poisoning and salinity contamination which has led the Bangladesh government to invest £6 million into groundwater monitoring infrastructure to improve water safety.

Research in the department looks at the causes, consequences and catalysing change of disasters broadly around six research themes: climate change and adaptation; conflict and migration; health and social risks; inclusion and politics; natural hazards and risks; and warning, resilience and finance. 

We have had research funding success from UK Research Councils, international funding, as well as pump funding from UCL in topics such as community-level flood protection, engaging art audiences in warning preparedness strategies, food system resilience and decarbonisation, developing climate-resilient urban spaces, peace building for diaspora in exile, citizen science for water well placement, and embedding research culture into research communities. Our researchers continue to make impact and have been invited as authors on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to speak at the House of Commons, and author award-winning papers.

With over 750 student alumni, our education impact continues to grow and we are proud to see taught and research alumni take up positions in organisations such as the the Cabinet Office and sitting in COBRA, Federal Emergency Management Agency, local UK government, the private sector including major insurers and catastrophe modelling firms, the United Nations, NGOs including the Red Cross, secondary education and academia, including at UCL. 

We hosted our first alumni breakfast and made steps towards forming an alumni board. We look forward to more engagement with our wonderful alumni. For our taught students, we have developed new modules focussing on fieldwork and deployment skills at undergraduate and masters level as well as a new Master's-level warnings module in collaboration with UCL Science and Technology Studies. Our student society 'UCL Disaster Risk Reduction and Humanitarian Society' has grown and gone from strength to strength, including being nominated for multiple student union awards.

Enhancing our practice-informed research and education, this year we welcomed Dr Eslam Elbaaly as Lecturer (teaching) in Humanitarian Operations, who brings operational experience in management of health interventions in conflict zones, and Sue Blackwood as our Internships and External Engagement Officer to enhance student employability. We are delighted to have further new staff within our professional services team to support the department’s goals: Sam Talbot as our Operations Administrator and Alex Marshall as Communications and Digital Content Manager.

UCL RDR inspires innovation and evidence-based practice focused on improving disaster risk reduction through our research, education, and partnerships. This creates a better life for many people by reducing the negative impacts of disasters. To stay informed about upcoming events and opportunities and to be part of discussions on critical and developing aspects of risk and disaster reduction, join our mailing list.

Professor Joanna Faure Walker
Head of Department