Re-Energize Governance of Disaster risk reduction and resilience for sustainable development
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Bartlett Sch of Env, Energy & Resources
Abstract
The proposed research will support developing and developed states to build adaptive governance capabilities that will embed equitable disaster risk reduction and resilience in development planning and development programmes. We emphasize the importance of community involvement in disaster risk management planning and the role of legal principles and institutions in reducing asymmetries in knowledge and power within a society.
In conditions of post-normal science, where facts and indicators are uncertain and values are disputed, there is need for a normative-institutional approach involving diverse stakeholders and the ponderation of legal principles.
Our nexus-informed methodological approach combines artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) within a transdisciplinary research agenda. It will transform qualitative and quantitative data into actionable insights and inspire a new breed of disaster reduction governance. The project will do this by creating and applying an open-access tool, systematically eliciting expert views to contribute evidence to governments' plans for disaster risk reduction, and developing response processes that integrate a normative institutional approach to support the legitimacy of any given intervention of policies intended to enhance the resilience of communities. This project will thereby develop innovative and implementable strategies and technologies to help reduce disaster risk and enhance societal coping capabilities.
Appropriate policies and adaptive governance mechanisms will be discussed and negotiated with disaster planners, vulnerable communities and other stakeholders. International workshops and will ensure that lessons are learnt from case studies and that best practices are identified, maximising knowledge exchange. The transdisciplinary outputs and guidelines will thus support decision-makers and communities to advance equitable disaster risk reduction through effective management of pre- and post- disaster risks placing vulnerable communities at the centre of all efforts.
In conditions of post-normal science, where facts and indicators are uncertain and values are disputed, there is need for a normative-institutional approach involving diverse stakeholders and the ponderation of legal principles.
Our nexus-informed methodological approach combines artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) within a transdisciplinary research agenda. It will transform qualitative and quantitative data into actionable insights and inspire a new breed of disaster reduction governance. The project will do this by creating and applying an open-access tool, systematically eliciting expert views to contribute evidence to governments' plans for disaster risk reduction, and developing response processes that integrate a normative institutional approach to support the legitimacy of any given intervention of policies intended to enhance the resilience of communities. This project will thereby develop innovative and implementable strategies and technologies to help reduce disaster risk and enhance societal coping capabilities.
Appropriate policies and adaptive governance mechanisms will be discussed and negotiated with disaster planners, vulnerable communities and other stakeholders. International workshops and will ensure that lessons are learnt from case studies and that best practices are identified, maximising knowledge exchange. The transdisciplinary outputs and guidelines will thus support decision-makers and communities to advance equitable disaster risk reduction through effective management of pre- and post- disaster risks placing vulnerable communities at the centre of all efforts.
Planned Impact
In line with the Sustainable Agenda and the Sendai Framework, we expect the main beneficiaries to be communities, cities and islands themselves. The research outcomes will benefit further key decision makers, operators, industries and wider society. We expect short-term, mid-term and long-term impacts from Re-Energize DR3: short-term impacts will arise from the research outputs and engagement with stakeholders; mid-term impacts will come from the use of our tools along with partners in Accra/Ghana and Mauritius, and wider dissemination towards the end of the project duration and beyond (five years); long=term will emerge from the capacity generated through Re-Energize DR3 and wider dissemination of findings for five-ten years internationally. The final conference will assemble at least ten more international islands and cities representatives, key international organisations and stakeholders. We have devised a project impact plan to deliver these impacts including close collaborations with stakeholders, capacity building including early career researchers, providing evidence and analysis through accessible models and data designed to meet QA standards, communication strategy through briefings and participation to key events and conferences to show case our research (please see case for support for full description)
Organisations
Publications
Pudaruth, S.
(2021)
The Role of Social Media in Disaster Response in Mauritius
Nowbuth, M. D.
(2021)
State of the art DR3 in Mauritius
in DR3 State of the Art Reports Series
Ponce-López V
(2022)
Social media data analysis framework for disaster response
in Discover Artificial Intelligence
Ponce-López V
(2022)
Social Media Data Analysis Framework for Disaster Response
Ponce-López V
(2022)
Social Media Behaviour Analysis in Disaster-Response Messages of Floods and Heat Waves via Artificial Intelligence
in Computer and Information Science
Boafo, Y.A.
(2021)
Overview of Governance approaches for pre- and post- disasters in Ghana
in DR3 State of the Art Reports Series
Priscila Carvalho
(2023)
Guide for Stakeholder Engagement
Carvalho P
(2023)
Gaps in the governance of floods, droughts, and heatwaves in the United Kingdom
in Frontiers in Earth Science
Carvalho, P.
(2020)
Diagnosis of Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Governance in the UK- Floods, Droughts, Heatwaves
in DR3 State of the Art Reports Series
Akhtar, Z.
(2021)
Diagnosis of Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience (DR3) in the State of Qatar
in DR3 State of the Art Reports Series
Carvalho P
(2024)
Co-designing a just resilience balance scorecard with experts in islands and coastal cities
in Climate Risk Management
Title | The world is an island |
Description | The transformative 90-minute performance into science fact and poetry power, with part performance, part exhibit, part exploratory poetry workshop was part of the Performing Planet Activism, a series of interactions, performances and dialogues at UCL that bring together artists, activists, researchers and communities engaged in climate. |
Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Impact | The poem has been presented by the poets at COP27, the video widely shared. |
URL | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/energy/news/2023/feb/world-island-brings-science-and-poetry-performan... |
Description | From our research the following key findings have been identified: floods have a more robust development framework in terms of law, planning and pre- and post- disasters policies comparing with heatwaves where there is a planning established and recognition that will be more likely to occur, but the impact is not well understood. In terms of indicators, we identified 450 and analysed a series of indicators related to finance and processes, learning and innovation, and beneficiaries. The complexities involving resource trade-offs, sectoral risks and conflicts therein are rising together with an increase in the intensity and frequency of hazards related to climate change. Disaster risk reduction and resilience needs to be multi-hazard, multi-scalar, multi-sectoral and take into consideration the critically interlinked resources across systems of provision of water, energy, food, land and materials. In this context, we conducted a three-round online Policy Delphi study involving 300 participants in SIDS that provides insights useful to promote great economic impacts in these locations. One of the elements of the toolbox focused on resources and sectors is able to fill some of gaps identified regarding cross-sectoral and resource interdependencies. Stakeholders confirmed the need of our toolbox to support systematic assessment of interdependency of risks and cascading failures caused by climate-related disruptions, impact on resources and sectors. Commonly, regulators from different sectors do not consider jointly what are the effective means of supporting long-term investments within and across sectors on resilience, so identifying opportunities as we did where the facilitation of greater coordination and investment across sectors could help minimise costs and improve whole system approach is key to promote economic impact. Cross-cutting activities to improve use of data that can help identify vulnerable consumers is another area of cross-sector resilience duties that we identify could bring improvements to vulnerable consumers facing similar issues across all systems of provision (e.g. accessing sufficient information, resources and services). A prevalent issue identified in our research, which also confirms findings of literature is the absence of sufficient anticipation and prevention strategies in disaster risk management, which disproportionately endangers vulnerable groups. Furthermore, there's a notable lack of detailed and disaggregated vulnerability data across all locations, leaving many unable to effectively recognize and mitigate their risk to disasters. Preparedness measures are hampered by the lack of adequate resources and risk-informed management strategies. Furthermore, existing climate and risk reduction laws overlook the specific needs of vulnerable groups who are most affected by disasters. The framework for disaster preparedness and response does not address planned relocation or disaster displacement across all locations. There is also a gap in data and risk analysis due to uniform or inadequate DRR processes, along with a lack of integrated analysis of multiple hazards. Engaging stakeholders has highlighted that while there is partial knowledge of vulnerabilities, a comprehensive understanding remains elusive, so capacity-building and new processes are needed to form a complete vulnerability understanding. Our recommendations to address shortcomings include updating legislation to enforce disaster risk reduction in urban planning and construction and bolstering the legal and policy framework to clearly define responsibilities for sector ministries. Integrating disaster education into primary school curricula and developing cross-sector resilience standards are also suggested. Agencies should be mandated to execute DRR activities with a gender and vulnerability focus, and protocols for timely evacuation in disasters should be established. Improved data flow and institutional arrangements are essential, with suggestions for a reliable, regular data framework. |
Exploitation Route | The analysis of multi-hazard risk assessments, multi-scale governance structures, legislation, sectoral practice for our case studies can be applicable to other case studies. The Re-Energize DR3 toolbox which was adjusted/validated with views of various stakeholders through a series of engagement activities in the form of workshops in two islands (Mauritius and Fiji) and three coastal cities (Accra, Rio de Janeiro, Maceió); followed by a questionnaire survey with more than 200 stakeholders from 15 islands part of ODA DAC countries, can be applicable to other islands and coastal regions worldwide. Our stakeholder guide can be utilized in other research. The questionnaires we designed for households in Mauritius and Ghana for getting insights into gaps in governance of floods, heatwaves and droughts can also be applicable to other locations. The range of methods we developed and tested can be used by others, the toolbox can be utilised by decision makers to improve the governance of floods, heatwaves, droughts. Our integrated perspective and approach is vital for designing inclusive disaster risk reduction strategies and creating resilient societies that accommodate and adapt to the multifaceted nature of climate risks. |
Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Communities and Social Services/Policy Creative Economy Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Education Energy Environment Financial Services and Management Consultancy Government Democracy and Justice Security and Diplomacy Other |
URL | https://www.islandscoastallab.com/re-energize-dr-3 |
Description | In line with the Sustainable Agenda, Climate Change agenda and the Sendai Framework, the research outcomes informed a variety of stakeholders, including decision makers, operators, industries, governments and wider society. We engaged with more than 400 stakeholders in 19 locations (islands and coastal cities) part of DAC ODA countries, validated the toolbox with stakeholders in 2 islands and 3 coastal cities. We used the findings to build up awareness of gaps identified in governance of floods, heatwaves, droughts among a diverse range of stakeholders through various events (workshops, talks, policy training, communications through various channels). Our tools are able to support systematic assessment of interdependency of risks and cascading failures caused by climate-related disruptions. Commonly, regulators from different sectors do not consider jointly what are the effective means of supporting long-term investments within and across sectors on resilience and adaptation, so identifying opportunities as we did where the facilitation of greater coordination and investment across sectors could help minimise costs and improve whole system approach is key to promote economic impact. |
First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Energy,Environment,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy,Government, Democracy and Justice,Security and Diplomacy,Other |
Impact Types | Cultural Societal Economic Policy & public services |
Description | Policy Training |
Geographic Reach | Africa |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Description | Training |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Impact | The session supported training and enhanced the undergraduate student's knowledge about the following aspects: (i) how to develop a set of indicators by drawing on the SDGs, Sendai and CCA frameworks by first considering information that is already being gathered under national circumstances; (ii) Indicators describing a relation between disaster risk reduction, sustainability and climate change adaptation; (iii) differences between global, national and local indicators |
URL | https://www.summerschoolsineurope.eu/course/13186/climate-change-and-sustainability-in-practice |
Description | Training/educational developments for postgraduates/research users |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Impact | At UCL, we develop an exercise training with postgraduate students and phd students. An extensive list of indicators developed under the Belmont Project was shared with the post-graduate students at UCL part of BENV0075 module to help them develop a comprehensive combination of indicators that would be relevant to monitor national circumstances under their island case study. We focus on Small Islands Developing States as per SDGs knowledge platform list. The exercise supported the postgraduate students and phd students (30) to draw upon three major international frameworks - SDGs, Climate Adaptation and Sendai Framework - to develop their set of indicators and learn how indicators provide quantifiable evidence of impacts, progress and performance towards sustainability, disasters risk reduction and climate change adaptation, applied to the context of their islands. The groups were split according to levels of economic development of the different islands, so that further comparisons could be driven between their reporting on national circumstances. Students analysed the common themes emerging from their case studies, so that indicators could selected for these specific themes as a team effort. In the third and last round, the students developed the list of indicators for their individual case studies, so that further comparison could be driven when split into groups for discussions. Conclusions considered that many national circumstances are not reporting on aspects that students thought would be relevant in light of indicators, while others found that planning and policies analysed at country level consider strategies that are not well reflected in the latest versions of national circumstances. From a research perspective, the students helped us identify some indicators that are potentially missing from our list, most specifically in relation to sectors, so that resource nexus are captured accordingly. In conclusion, the session supported training and enhanced the post-graduate student's knowledge about the following aspects: (i) how to develop a set of indicators by drawing on the SDGs, Sendai and CCA frameworks by first considering information that is already being gathered under national circumstances; (ii) Indicators describing a relation between disaster risk reduction, sustainability and climate change adaptation; (iii) differences between global, national and local indicators |
URL | https://www.islandscoastallab.com/ |
Title | Re-Energize DR3 Toolbox |
Description | Re-Energize DR3 toolbox developed by UCL is an integrated toolbox with research instruments, datasets, modelling, foresight for governance and resource management for disaster risk reduction and resilience for sustainability. Considers a holistic approach for adaptive governance approaches which imperative for equitable DR3. Re-Energize DR3 Toolbox uses nexus-informed methodological approach combined artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing. The goals is to build adaptive governance capabilities by combining quantitative and qualitative scientific approaches to enable equitable disaster risk reduction and resilience in development planning and development programmes. Within an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research agenda this toolbox contributes evidence to governments' plans for disaster risk reduction and resilence. The validation of the toolbox was done with stakeholders from islands and coastal cities via workshops and surveys to ensure applicability . We contacted 600 participants and engaged with a total of 260. The toolbox includes a (i) stakeholder selection; (ii) stakeholder sampling; (iii) stakeholder process; (iv) DR3 indicators; (v) surveys and focus groups; (vi) thermal comfort climate variables via codification of SYNOP records; (vii) sentiment and activity analysis; (viii) machine learning classifiers; (ix) inference approaches in social media data; (x) resource nexus (water, energy, food, land) modelling scenarios; |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2021 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | The toolbox is based on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, validated with stakeholders; potential wide application to a wide range of locations. |
Title | A Global Balanced Scorecard for Climate Adaptation Governance (floods, heatwaves, droughts) (UCL) |
Description | A Global Balanced Scorecard with reporting indicators on Beneficiaries, Processes, Learning and Innovation, Finance, and 6 related phases of disasters management (anticipation, assessment, prevention, preparation, response, recovery), four resource nexus (water, land, food, energy), and environmental justice vulnerability. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | When testing the balance scorecard across different locations, we have assessed and compiled a series of databases at international level and national levels that are relevant to the SDGs, Sendai Framework and Climate Change Adaption, including IMF Climate Finance indicators, Climate Policy Initiative and the OECD Climate Fund Inventory Database. Furthermore, helps to identify barriers when applying to different ODA DAC countries given the existing gaps and measurements. |
Title | A catalogue of legal principles |
Description | A catalogue of legal principles that apply to Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in line with the three agendas, selected from databases of laws in Mauritius and Ghana, which includes high ranking laws (e.g from the Constitution) and low ranking laws (e.g. environmental protection act). |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | The catalogue of legal principles will help assess the implementation and effectiveness of the laws and legal principles in reducing disaster risks and enhancing equitable resilience. |
Title | A stakeholders survey for Islands exposed to risks of climate change |
Description | A survey database collected from 15 Islands part of DAC ODA list. The database contains views of 210 stakeholders on pre-emergency, governance, cross-sectorial resilience for floods, droughts, heatwaves. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | The database enhanced our understanding of governance issues, cross-resilience, cross-sectorial, risks, resilience gaps, levels of awareness and impact of floods, droughts, heatwaves. |
Title | Households Survey and Focus Groups Datasets for Mauritius and Ghana (Floods, Heatwaves, Droughts) |
Description | The questionnaire was to collect information about the perception of the general public to floods, heatwaves, droughts risks, whether mitigation measures implemented at national level were contributing to alleviate the problems, whether they were still facing problems, what actions they had taken to counter the impacts, whether they were satisfied with the support they got if affected by an event, what could be done to improve the situation, in particular whether they were willing to relocate if they live in high risk areas. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | The purpose of the survey was designed to map the exposure, the vulnerability and the coping capacity of the community to events in the selected most vulnerable communities.The survey highlighted what measures should be taken in place to prevent and what once the events happened what facilities are important and what is available. The geographical scale and the in depth surveys taken is the first kind in these locations. |
Title | Social Media Information needs |
Description | Survey in Mauritius and Ghana to gather stakeholders' view on the value of social media indicators for effective response to floods. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | Helps validating taxonomy of information needs split in 4 categories (urgent needs, impact assessment, situational awareness, vulnerability). |
Title | Disaster Response Framework and Web App |
Description | Natural language processing framework for text analysis in social media data related to disaster and crisis management. This code uses Python 3.7.9 running after Miniconda3 environments with a GPU NVIDIA Geforce RTX 2060. |
Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | A novel and rigorous framework to analyze and identify key text information revealed in social media related to disasters. Use of deep bidirectional Transformer neural networks, to train several models from benchmark datasets containing the largest annotated messages of disaster-related categories. A specific categorization strategy for the main disaster categories to train our deep learning models along with their strategy for performance evaluation. Our developed interface shows this combination of deep learning models. We conclude from both methodology and empirical application results that score shows potential to explain informative and influential information in a variety of large-scale data sets. This is worth noticing because such information leads to higher prediction performances, thus helping to improve accuracy of classification methods for message filtering purposes. Finally, we show our web interface to be used for several potential applications in humanitarian response, including management of crisis or natural hazards, needs of resource allocation, or emergency assistance |
URL | https://doi.org/10.1007/s44163-022-00026-4 |
Description | 'Vulnerability, Resilience and Climate Change in Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience'. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | One hr event, with 10 minutes presentation from everyone. The fast pace of climate change and increasing risk levels requires urgent focus on vulnerability to identify and assist the most vulnerable populations. Stakeholder group engagement and Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience research can inform a common UN and regional vulnerability indices. Vulnerability Indices will help identify the most vulnerable and prioritize limited finance for the Race to Resilience support |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Bringing science and poetry performance together to promote climate action |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The 90-minutes event combining poetry, a 3D modelling of a sustainable island, participation and spoken word, in collaboration with Hot Poets and grant Museum of Zoology, explored poetically how islands are affected by climate change, how they need to adapt - focusing on the importance of a systemic approach to water, energy, food, materials and land resources and their use. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/energy/news/2023/feb/world-island-brings-science-and-poetry-performan... |
Description | Climate Change and governance preparing for Glasgow COP 2021 Programme for Friends of Governance Workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Part of the event Friends of Governance for Sustainable Development on Climate change and governance in preparation for COP21, organised by government of Morocco on behalf of the Friends in cooperation UN-DESA Office of Intergovernmental Support and Coordination for Sustainable Development, Prof Spataru has been invited to the session Natural Disasters and the Impact of Climate Change as responder and to talk about Governance of DR3 and the need of an integrated scientific approach and actions should be taken for reducing climate related disasters risks and ways to build up resilience. The session on Natural Disasters and the Impact of Climate Change was moderated by Christian Hannemann, Permanent Mission of the Federal republic of Germany to the United Nations; included Ambassador Liz Thompson, for Barbados to the UN; MS Reena Ghelani, Director OCHA Operations and Advocacy Division, Valeria Drigo member of UNDDR stakeholder engagement mechanism for the Sendai Framework and Meggan Spires, Senior Manager in climate change energy and resilience in ICLEI local government for sustainability Africa office. This led to an invitation for writing a chapter for the Friends of Governance for Sustainable Development book. The chapter entitled "A Re-Energized Scientific approach for Governance of Disasters due to Climate change for sustainable development" will be published in the book in April 2021 (book details are waiting) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | http://friendsofgovernance.org |
Description | Event Transdisciplinary DR3 Research and Innovation for Sustainability in Islands and Coastal Cities |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A 60-minute session on disaster risk reduction and resilience organised by UCL in collaboration with UNC, UoG, UoM, aiming to generate a space for dialogue to highlight the importance of vulnerable communities in the achievement of climate commitments in a context of fair implementation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://sricongress.org/ |
Description | Impacts of Resilience Gaps on UK's Energy Sector |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | A workshop with researchers at UCL to discuss shortcomings in risk assessment and recommendations from the paper published Carvalho P and Spataru C (2023), Gaps in the governance of floods, droughts, and heatwaves in the United Kingdom. Front. Earth Sci. 11:1124166. doi: 10.3389/feart.2023.1124166 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Multi-level, Multi-lateral Governance of DR3 Social-Technological Solutions with Stakeholders' Validation from Islands and Coastal Cities |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A panel session held on June 22nd under the "Science and Diplomacy and Multi-lateral Mechanisms" part of GCSE conference. UCL, UoG, UoM provided insights from the multiple phases of engagement activities in the form of workshops and surveys, discuss challenges and insights from best practice in islands (Fiji and Mauritius) and coastal cities (Rio de Janeiro, Maceió and Accra). Our aim was to generate a space for sharing and dialogue where we highlight the importance of vulnerable communities in the achievement of climate commitments in a context of fair implementation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.gcseglobal.org/event/gcse-2022-annual-conference-0 |
Description | Policy Training Workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | In collaboration with the University of Mauritius, UCL part of Re-Energize DR3 programme hosted a capacity building training workshop for local stakeholders in Mauritius. The event brought together participants from public and private sectors to provide practical training on the policy process that impact decision-making. The aim was to empower local actors with skills and knowledge so that they are well equipped to effectively engage in the policymaking process in Mauritius. The participants represented a wide range of industries, including transport, consultancy, information & communication technologies, etc. They held diverse expertise and roles, ranging from technical experts in statistics and surveying, to legal and gender specialists, disasters response, preparation. The wide spectrum of interests and sectoral coverage presented a unique opportunity for networking, collaboration, and debate. The training involved seminars delivered by UCL and UM researchers; interactive group case study activities; and lively discussions. Topics covered: 1. complexities of decision-making for climate change; 2. scientific strategic planning tool to support decision making; 3. Legal Frameworks, measurement and implementation |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | RE-ENERGIZE DISATER RISK REDUCTION AND RESILIENCE |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Future Earth and the Belmont Forum united leaders, experts, industry and innovators in the world's first transdisciplinary gathering with more than 100 sessions available under the Sustainability Research and Innovation Congress 2021. . Under the themes of integrated action for the SDGs, Resilience and 'Sustainability for Who?', UCL and UNC discussed the collaborative work on stakeholder mapping along power, legitimacy, and urgency dimensions, combining the following methods: criterion-I, snowball and purposeful random. We found that groups we considered to be vulnerable and most impacted by DR3 are often characterized as low power, high urgency, and with varying levels of legitimacy. The Snow Angel method presented by UNC recognizes that further away from the angel's centre, the less engaged stakeholders tend to be on a particular issue, so we attempt to rectify the need for broad stakeholder input while recognizing that those most impacted (or vulnerable) and those with power likely have the deepest stake in the issues at hand. To guarantee diversity among invited stakeholders the teams are also considering multi-gender, multi-ethnicity, inter-sectoral and multi-scalar aspects. For the stakeholder engagement process, UCL presented a mixed method approach that combines multiple rounds of Policy Delphi. Its multiple rounds provide participants with an opportunity to react to and assess differing viewpoints, which will help our work of mapping out experts' judgements and underlying reasoning on complex DR3 issues and indicators. UCL and UNC team organisers: Catalina Spataru & Priscila Carvalho (UCL), Kristen Down, Ranger Ruffins and Felix Dodds (UNC) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.govdisasters.com/post/re-energize-disater-risk-reduction-and-resilience |
Description | Re-Energize DR3 Data management plan |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | I have been invited by Matthew Kurian (the consortium lead for the Belmont Forum project on cyber-enabled disaster Resilience) to their consortium inception meeting on 8th March, to talk about the Data Management Plan I prepared for the project i lead (Re-Energize DR3) and give them insights on the approach i took in my project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Re-Energize DR3 Governance for Sustainable Development: Bringing Perspectives from Islands and Coastal areas to COP26 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | The fair implementation of the SDGs, Climate change agenda and Sendai Framework requires multilevel and multilateral social-technological solutions with tight stakeholders' engagement across governance levels. Re-Energize DR3 is lead by UCL Islands Research Laboratory and aims to take a nexus-informed scientific approach combined with stakeholders ' engagement to identify effective policies and regulations to channel actions and changes and enable equitable disaster risk reduction and resilience in development planning and development programmes. Part of this event, stakeholders hear directly insights on efforts on disaster risk reduction and resilience from experts in islands (The Bahamas and Mauritius) and coastal cities (Marceio and Accra). The event aimed to generate a space for dialogue to highlight the importance of vulnerable communities in the achievement of climate commitments in a context of fair implementation. Organiser: UCL Speakers: Prof Catalina Spataru (UCL), Dr Priscila Carvalho (UCL), Claudia Rivera Escorcia (Director of Planning, Prevention and Risk Reduction in the city of Maceió), Yaw Agyeman Boafo (Centre of Climate Change and Sustainability Studies in the University of Ghana Legon), Prof Manta Devi Nowbuth (Head of Civil Engineering, Mauritius), Smreetee Cyparsade (Disaster Monitoring Office at the National Diaster Risk Reduction and Management Centre (NDRRMC) in Mauritius); Trevor Johnson (Founder of the Bahamas Climate Change Campaign) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.islandslaboratory.com/lab-news/42 |
Description | Re-Energize DR3: Engagement Workshops with Stakeholders in Mauritius |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Applying snowball method, UCL with local partners in Mauritius and Fiji identified key stakeholders locally to support us put together a list of stakeholders for Mauritius and Fiji. We contacted a total of 46 potential participants in Mauritius, and 22 people participated to the workshop; while in Fiji, our local partner contacted 19 people and 10 people participated. 60% of the participants represent governmental institutions, but most people classify themselves under 'urgency' in the context of DR3, followed by legitimacy and power. In Mauritius the integration of Sendai Framework, SDGs, Climate Agenda into policy and planning are seen to reflect equity and respective capabilities by the majority of participants, while a few selected to be neutral and one person considers there is no integration at all of equity and respective capabilities. During the discussions it became clear that the problem is not in developing contingency plan and there is a number of people interested in preparedness campaigns, but the issue is that the government is lacking a lot of resources and there is no budget for disaster, so it is difficult to integrate and implement all these agendas in development planning. In Fiji, the three agendas are considered to be highly integrated in development planning (Figure 11), but majority recognise there are many differences and silos existing between them: institutional settings, mandates, classification of hazard, vulnerability, exposure and risk, different time horizons, funding sources, political interests, levels of stakeholder involvement and means of implementation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.govdisasters.com/reports |
Description | Re-Energize DR3: Solutions for Data Processes and Stakeholder Engagement |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Part of NCSE Drawdown 2021 Conference Research to Action: Science and Solutions for a planet under pressure, UCL and UNC organised jointly an event Under the 'Data and Technology Innovation for Climate Solutions and Sustainability' theme to discuss practices in integrating data technologies, multi-level governance approaches with respect to vulnerability. We discuss how to approach stakeholder identification and engagement process in the context of multi-level governance for DR3 to ensure no one is left behind when implementing machine-based solutions. Prof Spataru talked about her proposed approach to re-energize DR3 multi-level governance by combining stakeholder engagement processes with nexus-informed methodological approach using artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing. Team members Priscila Carvalho talked about stakeholders engagement processes with reference to UK; and members of the partner team at UNC, Prof Felix Dodds, Dr Elizabeth Christenson, and Ranger Ruffins discussed about how to approach stakeholders and engagement process in USA. During discussions, participants provided a substantial amount of useful information on stakeholders engagement and there was tremendous interest on nexus and machine learning methods discussed by Prof Spataru This led to a follow-up workshop Pathways synthesis workshop where Prof Spataru together with Dr Alex Schlichting have been appointed to act as Pathway Leaders and co-lead the Synthesis Workshop on Data and Technology Innovation for Climate Solutions and Sustainability |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.gcsedrawdown2021.org/vision |
Description | Re-Energize Governance of Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience for Sustainable Development |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | The CRA DR3 TPO organised he kick-off meeting of the DR3 project which took place in Brisbane, Australia during SRI (Sustainability, Research & Innovation) Conference (https://sri2020.org/) from June 14 to June 17, 2020. Project PI was invited to provide an overview of the project by pre-recording a video and also by presenting during the meeting. Opportunity to meet other PIs from other Belmont Funded projects and discuss research and research practices. The video was added to the Belmont Forum youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1ndZSbYwx9U-Bj5uheYP1A/videos |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1ndZSbYwx9U-Bj5uheYP1A/videos |
Description | Re-energize DR3 workshops in Coastal Cities: Rio de Janeiro and Maceió |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Applying snowball method, UCL identified key stakeholders locally to support us put together a list of participants for Rio de Janeiro and Maceió. Our local partners in Rio de Janeiro contacted a total of 25 potential participants and 15 participated of workshop, while our local partner in Maceió contacted 20 people and 14 participated of workshop. In Maceió, there were many diverging views with regards to the inclusion of climate change adaptation agenda and Sendai Framework into development planning, while the SDGs are the most integrated of all three. With regards to the differences existing between these agendas at the local level, there were many diverging views between participants, with highest spread in responses for the following points: (i) different means of implementation; (ii) different political interests; (iii) different scientific committees. In Rio de Janeiro, the three agendas are considered by most participants to be taken into consideration in development planning. Nevertheless, the different organisational and institutional settings and mandates pertaining to each of them is seen as one of the main barriers to bringing these agendas together on the ground. The main barrier is financial resources. Adding to the areas of action that could bring improvements, participants suggested the list could be enriched with a specific point on the engagement with local communities, which today represents one of the biggest challenges faced by local planners. The work being developed under the planning unit and strategic plans made this especially evident in Rio de Janeiro. The climate risks require the development of specific types of communication with local communities, as talking to them about carbon and future scenarios would not be productive and the strategy should take in consideration their reality and the impacts they are facing on the ground. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.govdisasters.com/reports |
Description | School Visit (London) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Activities with 31 primary kids, on climate change and its impact on natural resources and islands and coastal areas, which sparked discussions and thinking, with great interest from school and kids in related subject areas. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Session Organization COP28 Climate Action Innovation Zone |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Talk on the groundbreaking research on adaptive solutions to climate change - floating power systems, tapping into the boundless potential of renewable energy, marine mobility, the synergy of interconnections, and nature-based solutions. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/energy/news/2023/dec/ucl-energy-institute-director-unveils-blue-green... |
Description | Stakeholder Engagement in Islands and Coastal Cities |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | We investigated questions about governance and policy, resource allocation to vulnerable communities, and tools for preparedness, response and recovery of disaster, as well as discussions about equitable resilience in islands and coastal cities globally using Policy Delphi technique. The latter method is designed to engage groups of experts (with experts being broadly defined) in dialogue regarding multiple issues related to a particular topic, entailing a series of rounds of iterative, structured dialogues, with each building on the other. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Synthesis Workshop on Data and Technology Innovation for Climate Solutions and Sustainability NCSE Drawdown 2021 Research to Action: Science and Solutions for a planet under pressure |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Prof Catalina Spataru (UCL) together with Dr Alex Schlichting (Energy & Environmental Sciences Group Lead at MITRE) have been appointed to act as Pathway Leaders and co-lead the Synthesis Workshop on Data and Technology Innovation for Climate Solutions and Sustainability for a planet under pressure, Washington USA. Prof Spataru open the workshop and set the context about the overarching pathway theme and share highlights/ideas from the sessions from the NCSE Drawdown 2021, event organised by the National Council for Science and the Environment in Washington, USA. Moderating the participation of other participants who shared their takeaways from the respective sessions on tools for systems-of-systems approaches to environmental security, smart systems for industry; data processes and stakeholders engagement for DR3 governance; aerial hyperspectral imagery for assessing field scale heterogeneity in crops' the digital divide, mapping and UAV image platforms. Both Catalina and Alex facilitate the discussions, which sparked ideas for NCSE agenda. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.gcsedrawdown2021.org/vision |
Description | United Nations High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) 2022 - New York City, NY |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Discussing regional vulnerability indices and indices for vulnerable groups |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://hlpf.un.org/sites/default/files/programme/2022/HLPF%202022%20Side%20Events.pdf |
Description | Workshop with scientists and artists |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Artists and Scientists gathered together at UCL in a workshop to explore through poetry communication of scientific facts about natural resource use, climate change impact on islands, governance. As a result of that, researchers from UCL and University of Mauritius wrote a series of poems. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |