Risk management

To be or not to be a ‘natural’ disaster: that is the question

Giulia Roder August 17, 2020

City ruins of an earthquake (unknown location). Source: Pixabay 2016.

The story of science is replete with theories that only become accepted by the scientific community after long and protracted uphill battles, said Howard Wolinsky in his commentary in Science and Society in 2008. Sometimes they are rejected, ridiculed, or they take time to be validated, digested, and likely accepted. However, in my opinion, the scientific discussion over new hypotheses is at the h ...[Read More]

Vitor Silva: 2020 Natural Hazards division medallist story

Giulia Roder April 6, 2020

Seismic risk training workshop for students organized at the EAFIT University in Medellin, Colombia (Photo credits: Vitor Silva)

In today’s interview, we talk with Dr Vitor Silva, who was awarded the 2020 Natural Hazard Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award for his fundamental contributions to the research on earthquake risk assessment. Seismic risk is the probable building damage and the number of people that are expected to be hurt or killed if a likely earthquake on a particular fault occurs. Disaster risk ca ...[Read More]

A coffee with Mr Fujitsuka: Typhoon Hagibis and the recovery process

Giulia Roder December 16, 2019

Typhoon Hagibis. Earthobservatory.nasa.gov

Today I got the chance to grab a coffee with Mr Fujitsuka, an ex-officer of the Ministry of Environment of Japan in charge of disaster preparedness, management and recovery. The reason why I decided to interview Mr Fujitsuka is that he helped in first person to manage the recovery process during Typhoon Hagibis that paralyzed the eastern coast of Japan on the first week of October. But, before exp ...[Read More]

The bad, the good and the unpredictable: living with volcanoes / part 2

Jazmin Scarlett November 11, 2019

1812 eruption of La Soufrière, painted by J.M.W. Turner.

Before continuing, if you haven’t read it yet, catch up with the first part of this blog article by clicking on this link. The good Living with volcanoes is not all bad. Volcanoes provide a wealth of natural resources in the form of building materials, hot springs, freshwater and fertile soil. However, there are more hidden aspects, which was the focus of a recent collaboration with an archa ...[Read More]