During the past 30 years, the number of registered natural disasters has more than quadrupled worldwide; in 2011 alone, 440 million people were affected by natural hazards.
NORDRESS - Nordic Centre of Excellence in Resilience and Societal Security will seek ways to increase societal resilience to crises caused by natural hazards. Resilience will be explored from the perspectives of individuals, communities, infrastructure and institutions. By focusing on extreme weather, floods, mudslides, avalanches and volcanic eruptions, NORDRESS will study the impacts of natural hazards on all the Nordic countries, from the local to the transboundary level.
Issues related to societal security and resilience under the impact of natural hazards will be studied from the viewpoints of both natural and social sciences. This is reflected in the strong interdisciplinary approach in the proposal.
GEUS is participating in three workpackages in NORDRESS:
- WP 4.3 Participatory early warning and monitoring systems (WP leader)
- WP 5.3 Risk assessment and prevention for flooding
- WP 6.1 Review and enhance institutional framework for natural hazard management
NORDRESS is co-funded by Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and NordForsk and receive 23 mio NOK from NordForsk. The host institutions will be contributing funding as well. Kick off meeting in January 2015. The project will run for five years 2015-2019.
Project partners:
University of Iceland (coordinator), Icelandic Meteorological Office, Iceland Civil Protection and Emergency Management, Icelandic Coastguard, SAReye Software for Search and Rescue, Center for Crisis Psychology, Bergen, National Center for Psychotraumatology, University of Southern Denmark, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, Swedish Geotechnical Institute, Copenhagen Center for Disaster research / Copenhagen Business School-KU, Finish Meteorological Institute, University of Eastern Finland, Oslo and Akershus University College Of Applied Sciences (NOVA), Malmö University and Aalborg University.
More information about the project NORDRESS:
http://english.hi.is/frettir/substantial_grant_for_research_natural_hazards_and_societal_resilience
More information about the Nordic Societal Security Programme (Nordforsk):
http://www.nordforsk.org/no/programmer/programmer/samfunnssikkerhet
Contact person:
Hans Jørgen Henriksen, GEUS
Phone: +45 91 33 36 12
E-mail: hjh@geus.dk