Standing Firm in Danger Zones

Reducing community vulnerability to earthquakes and volcanoes.

Even industrialised societies are not immune to natural hazards - as the devastation caused by the 2011 earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan show. The earthquake in Japan was one of the strongest ever recorded. In the developing world, however, even comparatively small earthquakes can kill thousands of people and wipe out cities. Although the world’s attention has now shifted to Japan, let us not forget that Haiti is still struggling to recover from its earthquake in 2010.

The question is what can be done to increase community resilience to earthquakes and other natural hazards? A new Living With Environmental Change-accredited initiative aims to help communities in vulnerable parts of the world withstand earthquakes and volcanic eruptions more effectively in future.

As well as generating information that improves the capacity of governments, aid agencies and others to predict such events and cope with their aftermath, the Increasing Resilience to Natural Hazards Programme will pinpoint barriers that prevent such life-saving advice being taken up.

“Over the past decade, science has made huge strides in forecasting the timing and impact of eruptions and the location and scale of earthquakes,” says Professor Peter Sammonds of University College London. “But this hasn’t translated into real action that increases resilience on the ground, especially in developing countries that are most vulnerable to natural disasters.”

A key objective, then, is to assess how high-level scientific findings from the initiative can best be communicated and disseminated in order to maximise their value to those who can most benefit from using them. Initially, the programme is undertaking six scoping studies exploring how both natural and social sciences could be harnessed to boost resilience to eruptions and earthquakes. As well as examining generic issues, the studies are focusing on specific ‘hotspot’ locations as diverse as Iceland, the eastern Caribbean and the Solomon Islands.

“According to the World Bank, every dollar spent preparing for a natural disaster saves seven spent dealing with its effects,” says Professor John Rees of the Natural Environment Research Council. “Our programme should ensure that, in future, such investment is even more effective.”