Invited perspectives: A research agenda towards disaster risk management pathways in multi-(hazard-)risk assessment

• Published in: Natural hazards and earth system sciences Vol. 22; no. 4; pp. 1487 - 1497
• Main Authors: Ward, Philip J., Daniell, James, Duncan, Melanie, Dunne, Anna, Hananel, Cédric, Hochrainer-Stigler, Stefan, Tijssen, Annegien, Torresan, Silvia, Ciurean, Roxana, Gill, Joel C., Sillmann, Jana, Couasnon, Anaïs, Koks, Elco, Padrón-Fumero, Noemi, Tatman, Sharon, Tronstad Lund, Marianne, Adesiyun, Adewole, Aerts, Jeroen C. J. H., Alabaster, Alexander, Bulder, Bernard, Campillo Torres, Carlos, Critto, Andrea, Hernández-Martín, Raúl, Machado, Marta, Mysiak, Jaroslav, Orth, Rene, Palomino Antolín, Irene, Petrescu, Eva-Cristina, Reichstein, Markus, Tiggeloven, Timothy, Van Loon, Anne F., Vuong Pham, Hung, de Ruiter, Marleen C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Katlenburg-Lindau Copernicus GmbH 26.04.2022; Copernicus Publications
• Subjects: Disaster management; Disaster risk; Disasters; Emergency preparedness; Hazard assessment; Mythology; Research projects; Research proposals; Risk assessment; Risk management; Sustainability; Tradeoffs; Asia; Europe
• DOI: 10.5194/nhess-22-1487-2022
• ISSN: 1684-9981; 1561-8633

Whilst the last decades have seen a clear shift in emphasis from managing natural hazards to managing risk, the majority of natural-hazard risk research still focuses on single hazards. Internationally, there are calls for more attention for multi-hazards and multi-risks. Within the European Union (EU), the concepts of multi-hazard and multi-risk assessment and management have taken centre stage in recent years. In this perspective paper, we outline several key developments in multi-(hazard-)risk research in the last decade, with a particular focus on the EU. We present challenges for multi-(hazard-)risk management as outlined in several research projects and papers. We then present a research agenda for addressing these challenges. We argue for an approach that addresses multi-(hazard-)risk management through the lens of sustainability challenges that cut across sectors, regions, and hazards. In this approach, the starting point is a specific sustainability challenge, rather than an individual hazard or sector, and trade-offs and synergies are examined across sectors, regions, and hazards. We argue for in-depth case studies in which various approaches for multi-(hazard-)risk management are co-developed and tested in practice. Finally, we present a new pan-European research project in which our proposed research agenda will be implemented, with the goal of enabling stakeholders to develop forward-looking disaster risk management pathways that assess trade-offs and synergies of various strategies across sectors, hazards, and spatial scales.