First International Conference on Urban Disaster Reduction

Closing Banquet at the First International Conference on Urban Disaster Reduction, in Kobe, Japan. The conference commemorated the tenth anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, which struck Kobe, Japan, on January 17, 1995 and claimed over 6,000 lives.

Pacific Disaster Center played a key role at the First International Conference on Urban Disaster Reduction (1st ICUDR) in Kobe, Japan in January 2005 by presenting two professional research papers that addressed disaster vulnerabilities and reducing risk to natural hazards. More than 150 professionals from around the world involved in disaster management and research attended the event, which was sponsored by the U.S. and Japanese governments, including the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, U.S. National Science Foundation, and the Japan Institute of Social Safety Science. The 1st ICUDR, which ran concurrently with the United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction, was held during the week of the tenth anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in Kobe, Japan that killed more than 6,000 people.

"As PDC works internationally with governments and businesses to improve multihazard urban risk reduction strategies, it is important to capture and incorporate the lessons learned from the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake," said PDC Senior Manager Jim Buika. "Participating in the First International Conference on Urban Disaster Reduction has served to continue PDC's strong partnership with sponsoring Japanese research institutions, centered at Kobe and Kyoto Universities, as well with the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and National Science Foundation."

Jim Buika, presented a paper titled “A United States-Japan-Philippines Collaborative Planning Process To Implement A Multi-Hazard, Urban Risk Reduction Strategy For Marikina City, Philippines,” co-authored by Stanley Goosby, Sharon Mielbrecht, Dr. Allen Clark, Julie Borje, Tomas Aguilar, Jr., Dr. Haruo Hayashi, Dr. Norio Maki, Dr. Machiko Banba, and Kenneth Topping. Click here to access this paper.

Buika described lessons learned about the successful planning process between the Hawaii-based PDC and the Japan-based Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Research Center (EDM) in collaboration with the Mayor of Marikina City in Metro Manila, Philippines to create a sustained, multi-hazard urban risk assessment. Working with a broad coalition of community stakeholders, PDC and EDM helped city officials create short- and long-term disaster mitigation strategies, as well as provide technical tools, such as a Marikina City Internet Map Viewer (www.pdc.org/marikina). to ensure that these strategies are fully implemented. Marikina City has received international recognition for its good governance and for its proactive stance on disaster mitigation.

Hazard Mitigation Specialist Sharon Mielbrecht, presented a paper titled “Assessing And Reducing The Impacts Of Disasters In The Asia Pacific Region,” co-authored by PDC’s Stanley Goosby, Chris Chiesa, and Todd Bosse. Click here to access this paper.

Mielbrecht explained three components of the PDC’s Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Program, highlighting methodologies for conducting multi-hazard risk assessments at both the community and national levels. She also provided information on how PDC has deployed Internet Map Viewers that allow communities and decision makers to interactively visualize and better understand hazard information via the World Wide Web. These Map Viewers are an important piece of a risk and vulnerability program’s strategy, providing an effective education and outreach tool for disaster managers, decision makers, and land-use planners, as well as students, teachers, and community leaders.

For an abstract of the First International Conference on Urban Disaster Reduction, please click here, and scroll to the tenth workshop entry.