Conference sessions and abstract submission
We invite abstracts for oral and poster presentations for the conference sessions below. There will also be an open session to cover miscellaneous topics, so if your abstract does not fit with one of the sessions listed you will still be able to present your research.
The deadline for abstracts is 27 August 2022.
Deadline extended to 12 September 2022!
The session organisers will be reviewing all submissions to their session. Abstracts should be no longer than 250 words; please specify whether your preference is for an oral or poster presentation (final decisions will be made by the session organisers).
Sessions
Whose recovery? Recognising and supporting the voices of disaster-affected people
University of East Anglia (UEA)
In responding to disasters, traditional state approaches tend to prioritise economic recovery and the rebuilding of physical infrastructures. The intangible aspects of recovery, such as psychosocial well-being and community coherence, are often overlooked, contributing to the deepening of social and economic inequalities and the perpetuation of environmental and cultural injustices. In this session, we explore how innovative disaster research can create opportunities for disaster-affected people to define their own needs and priorities, how the capacities, knowledge, and skills of such communities can be supported and strengthened, and how their voices can effectively shape decision-making processes.
How can a ‘supporting self-recovery approach’ to humanitarian assistance realise safer and healthier homes after disaster?
Care International UK; CENDEP, Oxford Brookes University
This session will convene discussion on self-recovery and how it can be successfully supported by humanitarian responses to facilitate the rebuilding of adequate, safer and healthier post-crisis housing. The session will introduce ‘Pathways home — guidance for supporting shelter self-recovery’. Abstracts are invited on the themes of community-led projects, respecting people’s agency, the wider impact of post-disaster responses and how self-recovery can achieve disaster risk reduction, preparedness and climate change adaptation in a period of increasing need and limited resources. Abstracts related to WASH and shelter are particularly welcome, as are examples of self-recovery related to urban and conflict contexts.
Managing global uncertainty with effective warnings
University College London
The theme for the session is disaster research and practice for hazards and threats that are global and highly uncertain and complex, by focusing on the role of warnings as part of the innovation required to manage these risks. We aim to explore innovations in warning systems to manage uncertainty around global challenges such as COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, multi-hazard risks, as well as new emerging challenges.
Innovative research to build capacity of East African communities to natural hazard
University of Bristol
This session will focus on integrating resilience to natural hazards into policies for long-term infrastructure development and short-term emergency management. It will also explore methodological synergies for multi-hazard approaches to build community resilience. This session aims to disseminate the results of project PREPARE and SAFER PREPARED operating in East Africa. Furthermore, it will also highlight the research and innovation activities delivered with East African communities in pre-pandemic and pandemic phases.
The use of citizen science to understand societal responses and needs to natural hazard threats
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Citizen science has long been used to engage public in reporting hazards they have experienced. However, it is necessary to explore the utility of citizen science beyond reporting tools, towards better understanding the need of underserved populations as well as their coping mechanisms for natural hazards. This session aims to discuss opportunities, challenges, innovations, and disaster research in using citizen science to understand risk and response efficacy.
Future visioning for risk resilience and development (not open for abstracts)
GCRF Hub, Tomorrow's Cities
This session seeks to explore the ways in which futures are brought into research on risk, resilience and sustainable development, how multiple voices can be incorporated and the ethical challenges of raising future visions that may or may not be connected to actual plans for development and change. The session will share experiences from the GCRF Hub Tomorrow’s Cities and its coproduced work in Kathmandu, Nairobi, Quito and Istanbul.
Innovative governance mechanisms for co-produced risk management and climate change adaptation
University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University
This session aims to explore the scope of action research involving communities, government and academia to develop innovative governance mechanisms which tackle power imbalances and consider the vulnerabilities of socio-environmental systems, driving projects which strengthen community resilience and promote a more equitable distribution of the costs of disaster risk management and climate change adaptation. The session will provide a framework to help explore and understand such co-produced innovation, based on the experience of a series of research projects on disaster risk co-management and climate change adaptation undertaken in Latin America by joint teams from the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University with local partners, which will be presented at the start of the session. It will invite abstracts on relevant experiences of research on, or conducive to, innovative governance mechanisms for co-produced risk management and climate change adaptation from across the Global South and North.
Capturing children's voices in pandemic mitigation and recovery - anticipatory capital for future shocks
UWE Bristol
This session, led by the AHRC funded VIP CLEAR project, will explore children’s perceptions and understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic — both its risk and mitigation strategies — from varied perspectives, including health and wellbeing. Speakers will be asked to share their research/engagement methods for working with children, and their findings from projects in different socio-economic, cultural, st(age) and pandemic contexts. The session will discuss how children can build anticipatory resilient capital from their experiences in preparation for future social shocks, and how evidence can inform policy-scaling out from the child. The session will encourage methodological reflection in the context of interdisciplinary perspectives, the pandemic, and the otherness of children and childhood.
Multi-(hazard)-risk management approaches across disaster risk management and climate change adaptation
British Geological Survey, Cardiff University, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
The recent UNDRR Global Platform highlighted the need for countries to be able to better assess the risk associated with cascading and compounding hazards, and complex crises. The platform called for strengthened assessment of biological, environmental and technological hazards in line with a multi-hazard approach to disaster risk management (co-Chair Summary, UNDRR, 2022). In addition to the complexities arising from interconnected hazards, recent events such as the covid-19 pandemic and the European floods have shown that disaster risk is systemic issue, which necessitates a more holistic approach to understanding and managing risk. However, despite progress in multi-hazard-risk research there remains a gap between research and implementation, and there is insufficient evidence showing how scientific research advances have led to risk reduction. It is therefore timely to consolidate and share learning, set research priorities and ensure the needs of stakeholders and partners are addressed. Within this session, we would like to discuss good practice in the practical implementation of research for risk management. We welcome presentations spanning all elements of disaster risk management and climate change adaptation through a multi-(hazard)-risk lens/approach.