From natural hazard to environmental catastrophe: Past and present

The number of environmental catastrophes is rising, mostly owing to an increase in hydrometeorological hazards. The number of disasters is escalating as the world population grows and people settle in marginal areas. In order to improve preparedness, the geological and archaeological records must be investigated as they hold a wider range of possible events than the much shorter instrumental record. Catastrophes will gain amplitude with rapid onset, long duration, larger affected area, inflexible society and, of cause, convergence of threats. Too often, it seems that today’s societies resist learning from the past and therefore tend to repeat errors. A new field of science is emerging: the science of environmental catastrophes, which requires not only robust chronologies to firmly link cause and effect, but also bridges the crossing between the geosciences and social sciences

SUNSEED — An evolutionary path to smart grid comms over converged telco and energy provider networks

SUNSEED, 'Sustainable and robust networking for smart electricity distribution', is a 3-year project started in 2014 and partially funded under call FP7-ICT-2013-11. The project objective is to research, design and implement methods for exploitation of existing communication infrastructure of energy distribution service operators (DSO) and telecom operators (telco) for the future smart grid operations and services. To achieve this objective, SUNSEED proposes an evolutionary approach to converge existing DSO and telco networks, consisting of six steps: overlap, interconnect, interoperate, manage, plan and open. Each step involves identification of the related smart grid service requirements and implementation of the appropriate solutions. The promise of SUNSEED approach lies in potentially much lower investments and total cost of ownership of future smart energy grids within dense distributed energy generation and prosumer environments

Representation of Interdependencies Between Urban Networks by a Multi-Layer Graph (Short Paper)

The RGC4 (Urban resilience and Crisis Management in a Context of Slow Flood to Slow Kinetics) project aims to develop tools to help manage critical technical networks as part of the management process of crisis in a context of slow kinetic flooding in Paris. This project focuses on cascading models to identify a number of inter-dependencies between networks and to define tools capable of coordinating the actions of managers before and during the crisis. This paper revisits the conceptual and methodological bases of networks approach to study the inter-dependencies between networks. Research that studies the return to service of infrastructure networks often angle it from the perspective of operational research. The article proposes a graph theory perspective based on a multi-layer network approach and shows how to characterize the inter-dependencies between networks at three process levels (macro, meso, micro

Climate-resilient water infrastructure: A call to action

The effects of climate change have put tremendous stress on our existing water infrastructure and necessitate rethinking of how we govern and manage these systems. This commentary is a call to action for placing a holistic understanding of climate resilience at the center of water governance, understanding and approaching the issues as contextual and interdisciplinary in nature. Drawing from experiences from the Netherlands and the United States, this commentary outlines climate adaptation as policy dilemma and the role and characteristics of engineering, nature-based, and community-focused approaches. It concludes with some thoughts on pathways forward and an invitation for future research and dialog

The Global Risks Report 2016, 11th Edition

Now in its 11th edition, The Global Risks Report 2016 draws attention to ways that global risks could evolve and interact in the next decade. The year 2016 marks a forceful departure from past findings, as the risks about which the Report has been warning over the past decade are starting to manifest themselves in new, sometimes unexpected ways and harm people, institutions and economies. Warming climate is likely to raise this year's temperature to 1° Celsius above the pre-industrial era, 60 million people, equivalent to the world's 24th largest country and largest number in recent history, are forcibly displaced, and crimes in cyberspace cost the global economy an estimated US$445 billion, higher than many economies' national incomes. In this context, the Reportcalls for action to build resilience – the "resilience imperative" – and identifies practical examples of how it could be done.The Report also steps back and explores how emerging global risks and major trends, such as climate change, the rise of cyber dependence and income and wealth disparity are impacting already-strained societies by highlighting three clusters of risks as Risks in Focus. As resilience building is helped by the ability to analyse global risks from the perspective of specific stakeholders, the Report also analyses the significance of global risks to the business community at a regional and country-level

A framework for evaluating the effectiveness of flood emergency management systems in Europe

Calls for enhancing societal resilience to flooding are echoed across Europe alongside mounting evidence that flood risk will increase in response to climate change amongst other risk-enhancing factors. At a time where it is now widely accepted that flooding cannot be fully prevented, resilience discourse in public policy stresses the importance of improving societal capacities to absorb and recover from flood events. Flood emergency management has thus emerged as a crucial strategy in flood risk management. However, the extent to which emergency management supports societal resilience is dependent on the effectiveness of governance and performance in practice. Drawing from the extensive body of literature documenting the success conditions of so-called effective emergency management more broadly, this study formulates an evaluation framework specifically tailored to the study of Flood Emergency Management Systems (FEMS) in Europe. Applying this framework, this research performs a cross-country comparison of FEMS in the Netherlands, England, Poland, France, and Sweden. Important differences are observed in how FEMS have evolved in relation to differing contextual backgrounds (political, cultural, administrative and socio-economic) and exposures to flood hazard. Whereas the organization and coordination of actors are functioning effectively, other aspects of effective FEMS are relatively under-developed in several countries, such as provisions for institutional learning, recovery-based activities and community preparedness. Drawing from examples of good practice, this paper provides a critical reflection on the opportunities and constraints to enhancing the effectiveness of FEMS in Europe

Transnational Municipal Networks: Local action on climate change through global networks

Transnational Municipal Networks (TMNs) are prominent networks in the international climate governance arena serving as drivers of and advocates for local action on climate change. The main objective of this exploratory research is to establish the relation between the internal governance structure of the TMNs and their ability to carry out certain types of activities. Internal governance encompasses the means through which a TMN regulates the authority and structure within the organization. External governance refers to interaction of the network with other stakeholders and the ability to respond to external pressures as well as to position the operation of the network in the multi-level climate governance arena. From the examined cases, namely ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI), C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40), and 100 Resilient Cities (100RC), and a networking event, it is clear that there is a considerable amount of similar internal governance practices utilised by networks with different historical backgrounds and structures. The applied analytical criteria, based on a framework developed by Kern and Bulkeley (2009), constituted such arrangements as information and communication, project funding and cooperation, and recognition, benchmarking and certification. These can be seen to be instrumental in delineating internal governance formation of the network. Considering key functional aspirations of TMNs which include learning, advocacy and financing, the examination of their internal governance architecture lead to the suggestion that there are preferred methods of internal governing capable of synergistic relation with the external governance dimensions and, hence, facilitating performance of their functions. Established patterns were evaluated in the context of international climate governance to reveal the importance of collaborative and cooperative interactions, climate negotiations and climate financing mechanisms in determining the factors potentially affecting the internal governance composition of TMNs

Future-proofing the state: managing risks, responding to crises and building resilience

Summary: This book focuses on the challenges facing governments and communities in preparing for and responding to major crises — especially the hard to predict yet unavoidable natural disasters ranging from earthquakes and tsunamis to floods and bushfires, as well as pandemics and global economic crises. Future-proofing the state and our societies involves decision-makers developing capacities to learn from recent ‘disaster’ experiences in order to be better placed to anticipate and prepare for foreseeable challenges. To undertake such futureproofing means taking long-term (and often recurring) problems seriously, managing risks appropriately, investing in preparedness, prevention and mitigation, reducing future vulnerability, building resilience in communities and institutions, and cultivating astute leadership. In the past we have often heard calls for ‘better future-proofing’ in the aftermath of disasters, but then neglected the imperatives of the message. Future-Proofing the State is organised around four key themes: how can we better predict and manage the future; how can we transform the short-term thinking shaped by our political cycles into more effective long-term planning; how can we build learning into our preparations for future policies and management; and how can we successfully build trust and community resilience to meet future challenges more adequately

Crisis Management Beyond the Humanitarian-Development Nexus

In addressing humanitarian crises, the international community has long understood the need to extend beyond providing immediate relief, and to engage with long-term recovery activities and the prevention of similar crises in the future. However, this continuum from short-term relief to rehabilitation and development has often proved difficult to achieve. This book aims to shed light on the continuum of humanitarian crisis management, particularly from the viewpoint of major bilateral donors and agencies. Focusing on cases of armed conflicts and disasters, the authors describe the evolution of approaches and lessons learnt in practice when moving from emergency relief to recovery and prevention of future crises. Drawing on an extensive research project conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency Research Institute, this book compares how a range of international organizations, bilateral cooperation agencies, NGOs, and research institutes have approached the continuum in international humanitarian crisis management. The book draws on six humanitarian crises case studies, each resulting from armed conflict or natural disasters: Timor-Leste, South Sudan, the Syrian crisis, Hurricane Mitch in Honduras, the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia, and Typhoon Yolanda. The book concludes by proposing a common conceptual framework designed to appeal to different stakeholders involved in crisis management. Following on from the World Humanitarian Summit, where a new way of working on the humanitarian-development nexus was highlighted as one of five major priority trends, this book is a timely contribution to the debate which should interest researchers of humanitarian studies, conflict and peace studies, and disaster risk-management