International conference on building resilience: Interdisciplinary approaches to disaster risk reduction, and the development of sustainable communities and cities

With growing population and infrastructures, the world’s exposure to hazards – of natural and man-made origin – is inevitably increasing. This reality reinforces the need to proactively consider disaster risk as a part of the sustainable development agenda.

The international conference on building resilience will encourage debate on individual, institutional and societal coping strategies to address the challenges associated with disaster risk. Central to these strategies is the concept of resilience, which is becoming a core concept in the social and physical sciences, and also in matters of public policy. Resilience refers to the capability and capacity of systems to withstand change.

By encouraging participation from researchers in the social and physical sciences, the conference will explore inter-disciplinary strategies that develop the capacity of a system, community or society potentially exposed to disaster related hazards, to adapt, by resisting or changing, in order to reach and maintain an acceptable level of functioning and structure.

Contributions are welcome from members of the research community that address disaster risk and the need to develop resilience from diverse perspectives, as indicated by the conference themes.

Conference themes

The themes of the conference include, but are not limited to:

- Risk assessment and monitoring
- Detection, warning and evacuation
- Infrastructure planning and design
- Project management
- Sustainable housing 
- Public health 
- Disaster preparedness and response
- National and local governance 
- Poverty and economic support 
- Resilient livelihoods 
- Social protection and vulnerability 
- Development and planning 
- Social support processes 
- People, displacement and security 
- Conflict affected communities 
- Community engagement and development 
- Inter-disciplinary working and partnerships 
- Physical and social integration 
- Disaster research methodologies
- Transition between relief and recovery 
- Resettlement 
- Communication and engagement for community safety 
- Post-disaster reconstruction: The role of NGOs 
- Health aspects of disaster relief preparation, management, and outcomes 
- Social vulnerability and vulnerability assessments, displacement and relocation
- Community organizing 
- Displaced people re-settlement 
- Post-conflict entrepreneurship 
- Enterprise emergence 
- Social capacity building in war-torn areas 
- Development and post-conflict reconstruction 
- Dynamics of conflicts and disasters 
- Social support processes for survivors of conflicts