Localising strategies for making cities resilient to disasters (application deadline: 30th September 2017)

Under the British Council’s Researcher Links scheme offered within the Newton Fund, this workshop aims to gather the academia and local stakeholders to identify strategies that can be used to assess and build a city’s resilience to disasters, using the “New Ten Essentials in making cities resilient to disasters (10E; http://www.unisdr.org/campaign/resilientcities/).

These strategies when implemented will give a holistic understanding of a city’s status including their interrelationships, and will guide decision makers in identifying policies and interventions that would improve the city’s resilience, thereby generating solutions that touch multiple aspects of the city and its various communities (e.g., schools, hospitals, business, government units). The participants will identify strategies, future research projects and policies that will be implemented to further compliment the UNISDR "Ten Essentials for Making Cities Resilient".

The workshop (22-26th January 2018) aims to:

1. Improve understanding and mitigate the human and economic impacts of natural hazards towards urban cities by investigating the "Ten Essentials for Making Cities Resilient" in detail to further understand the differences, overlaps and potential synergies, and thereby to develop much needed capacities in the field.
2. Map current research and future potential around the "Ten Essentials for Making Cities Resilient" in making contributions in meeting the targets of the SFDRR 2015-2030.
3. Help validate and further refine the "Ten Essentials for Making Cities Resilient" based on scientific dialogue.

The workshop is being coordinated by Professor Dilanthi Amaratunga (Global Disaster Resilience Centre, University of Huddersfield, UK) and Professor Andres Winston Oreta (De La Sallle University, Manila, Philippines ) and will have contributions from other leading researchers, including Professor Richard Haigh (University of Huddersfield, UK), Professor Renan Tanhueco and Professor Jose Edgar Mutuc (De La Sallle University, Manila, Philippines) and German Velasquez (Green Climate Fund, South Korea).

Early Career Researchers from the UK or the Philippines are now being invited to apply to attend this workshop (deadline: 30th September 2017). All travel and accommodation expenses will be covered by the Newton-Agham Researcher Links Programme, funded by the British Council (UK) and the Department of Science and Technology (Philippines). The application form, with more details on the initiative can be found here.