Headline: Researching, Preventing, and Dealing with Natural Disasters – Insights from the Potsdam Summer School

"Facing Natural Hazards“

Humans are repeatedly confronted with natural disasters such as storms, floods, and heatwaves. Often the number of victims could have been reduced using current scientific knowledge and modern technology. How we can improve the ways we deal with natural hazards was the topic of the second international Potsdam Summer School, which took place from 14 to 23 September. Forty young professionals from 28 countries came together with renowned experts from both academia and the field to discuss how climate change is increasing the frequency of natural disasters and our vulnerability to them, as well as effective disaster risk reduction and the importance of decision-making structures to increase resilience. “It was particularly important for us to both enable participants to take deep dives into disciplinary aspects and to create a platform for looking at natural hazards from diverse perspectives,” Mark Lawrence, scientific director of the IASS, explained. The summer school alternated between presentations and workshops and creative activities such as role playing.

Disaster risk reduction is prudent, but unpopular

Many of the presentations examined how different natural hazards arise and to what degree they can be predicted. A lively discussion arose around the question of how natural phenomena turn into concrete risks for humans. In the opinion of many of the participants, there is too little awareness of the fact that natural hazards only become disasters as a result of the actions of humans – for example, surface sealing or diverting rivers. David Alexander, Professor for Risk and Disaster Reduction at University College London, considered the consequences of corruption for the implementation of preventive measures. Corruption often leads to the elite in a region profiting from disaster prevention measures at the cost of less privileged groups. For example, more affluent parts of a city may be protected from flood risks by diverting waterways through other areas.

Disaster risk reduction was also the topic of a public talk by risk researcher Ortwin Renn, Professor of Environmental Sociology and Technology Assessment at the University of Stuttgart and director designate of the IASS, which took place as part of the Summer School. In the Hans Otto Theatre in Potsdam he emphasised that many of the most severe effects of natural hazards could be prevented with appropriate preventive measures. However, both politicians and the general public lack the will to invest the necessary sums of money in preparation for a catastrophe that might never happen. “If precautions are successful, the disaster never happens; and because there is an absence of visible damages, people wonder why it was necessary to spend so much money in advance,” Renn explained. In addition, people often incorrectly assess the degree of risk posed by natural hazards. After a flood, for example, they move back to the same location, believing that it will not affect them a second time. Natural hazards are seen as cyclical events, while other types of disasters are thought to be randomly distributed.

Practical exercises give participants new insights

Summer School participants also intensely debated how decision-making structures can be created that would provide more resilience in the face of natural hazards. Also of interest was the question of how to strengthen local aid organisations in particularly high-risk areas. After earthquakes, for example, most people are rescued within the first 24 hours, long before organisations such as the International Red Cross are able to make it to the scene. This topic is also difficult because the aid-giving countries have no vested interest in altering the underlying situation, one participant suggested: these countries see their engagement as an opportunity to assert a geopolitical influence. In general, researchers need to pay more attention to whose interests are served or threatened by various natural hazards, Summer School participants agreed.

Particularly rewarding was a practical exercise in creating evacuation strategies after an earthquake. Guided by Harald Spahn, project manager in Indonesia of the German Agency for International Cooperation GIZ, the participants were divided into groups and given a map of Bali, upon which they sketched their evacuation plans. Each group presented their plans and received feedback from the other participants. Afterwards Spahn described how the evacuation in Bali after the major earthquake in 2011 had actually been organised.

Organisers look forward to next year’s Summer School

The participants praised the variety of forms of presentation and discussion. “I never thought that a summer school could be like this!” said Saadia Majed from Bangladesh, a doctoral student at Monash University in Melbourne. “I applied for it because I am writing my dissertation on disaster risk reduction and the Summer School was simply perfect for my topic. But I hadn’t expected such an interactive program – we had so many options for discussing ideas!” She was also pleased to have made so many interesting contacts, both among the speakers and the other participants, and hopes to stay in touch with them in the future.

Another Potsdam Summer School on a topic of great importance for society will take place next year. In addition to the IASS, organisers include the University of Potsdam, the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam – GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The City of Potsdam supports the event as a partner.

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25.09.2015