The workshop will focus on the problem of reducing risk from emergencies from natural hazards, accidents and intentional acts. The workshop is primarily a discussion exercise in which participants will discuss and seek consensuses about a series of scenarios and related questions. The workshop is addressed to public administrators, academics, and anyone who is interested or involved in reducing risk from emergencies.
Synopsis Agenda Presenters Registration Venue More information Related links
This full-day workshop will focus on a major risk problem facing governments at all levels, and particularly local governments - reducing risk from emergencies from natural hazards, accidents and intentional acts. The workshop is intended to bridge the two disciplines to explore a risk-based approach to reduce risks from emergencies.
This workshop will be organized around a discussion exercise. Before the exercise, speakers will describe current experience and practice for risk management and emergency management by local governments. During the exercise, participants will receive an emergency scenario and related questions. They will discuss the questions and agree on answers. As part of the discussion, participants will have to consider the relevance and usefulness of current risk management experience and practice for reducing risk from emergencies.
Following the exercise, speakers will summarize the key findings from the exercise, especially bridges between the risk and emergency management fields. The final speaker will present a collage of case studies that illustrate the consequences of emergencies.
Factors such as urbanization, climate change and technology suggest emergencies will be a more obvious feature for governments to deal with in the future. This is compounded by the fact that we are still struggling to understand and manage conventional natural hazards. Hence hazard and risk managers are facing issues of increased depth as well as breadth.
In this environment, we need to optimize tools to protect what is important to people - their access to goods and services, economic health, human health, human rights, integrity of their relationships and the sustainable natural environment. This workshop focuses on bridging the risk management and emergency management disciplines to explore a risk-based approach to reduce risk from emergencies. The workshop considers the issues from the perspective of both developed and developing nations.
Workshop participants will receive the following:
| Schedule | Title and speakers |
| 09:30 | Arrival and registration |
| 10:00 | Welcome by Gillian Osborne, Due Diligence Management Inc. |
| 10:15 | Presentation : Risk management in local governments key decision processes by Gillian Osborne, Due Diligence Management Inc |
| 10:45 | Break |
| 11:00 | Presentation: The emergency management challenge for city and urban governments: Developing and developed nation perspectives by Neil Britton and Dr. Tony Fernandez, Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Research Centre, Japan |
| 11:30 | Presentation: Indicators for Safer Cities by Kerstin Castenfors and Tom Ritchey, National Defence Research Agency (FOI), Sweden |
| 12:00 | Lunch |
| 13:00 | Exercise introduction by Gillian Osborne, Due Diligence Management Inc. Participants will receive the exercise scenarios and a set of questions. There should be three scenarios that span health, infrastructure and economic threats; different world regions; as well as developing and developed countries. |
| 13:15 | Discussion exercise: Building bridges. Participants will be divided into small discussion groups. Ideally, each group will have a mix of risk management and emergency management practitioners. If not, the workshop speakers will circulate and input their risk/emergency management experience and suggestions as required. |
| 14:00 | Break |
| 14:30 | Discussion exercise continues |
| 15:10 | Exercise summary by Gillian Osborne, Due Diligence Management Inc., Canada. The remarks will summarize the exercise results, highlighting bridges between risk and emergency management. |
| 15:30 | Presentation: The importance of reducing risk from emergencies: Consequences of past events by Dan Lewis, Coordinator - Disaster, Post-Conflict and Safety Section, UN-HABITAT, Kenya |
| 16:20 | Workshop conclusion by Gillian Osborne |
The registration fee is $375 USD before 10 June, and 425 euros on site. You do not need to register for the Congress to attend the workshop. Registration will be handled by
The event will be held 9:30 to 16:30 on Sunday, 22 June 2003, at
The room for the event has not yet been determined; check with the concierge. See tourist descriptions of the hotel at http://www.sheraton.com/brussels and http://www.hotels-belgium.com/brussel-bac/brussels-h-sheratonhotel.htm. To reserve a room at the hotel, call +32 2 2243111 by 22 May 2003. Be sure to identify yourself as a SRA World Congress attendee to receive the following group rates (in euros).
More information can be obtained from Gillian M. Osborne GillianMOsborne@compuserve.com, telephone 613-236-8489, fax 613-730-2765.
World Congress on Risk (flier and registration) http://sra.org/worldcongress9.pdf
World Congress on Risk (other links) http://sra.org/events.htm#world
Society for Risk Analysis www.sra.org