GCRF Urban Disaster Risk Hub

Lead Research Organisation: University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Geosciences

Abstract

The Hub will reduce disaster risk for the poor in tomorrow's cities. The failure to integrate disaster risk resilience into urban planning and decision-making is a persistent intractable challenge that condemns hundreds of millions of the World's poor to continued cyclical destruction of their lives and livelihoods. It presents a major barrier to the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals in expanding urban systems. Science and technology can help, but only against complex multi-hazard context of urban life and the social and cultural background to decision-making in developing countries. Science-informed urbanisation, co-produced and properly integrated with decision support for city authorities, offers the possibility of risk-sensitive development for millions of the global poor. This is a major opportunity - some 60% of the area expected to be urban by 2030 is yet to be built. Our aim is to catalyse a transition from crisis management to risk-informed planning in four partner cities and globally through collaborating International governance organisations.
The Hub, co-designed with local and international stakeholders from the start, will deliver this agenda through integrated research across four urban systems - Istanbul, Kathmandu, Nairobi and Quito - chosen for their multi-hazard exposure, and variety of urban form, development status and governance. Trusted core partnerships from previous Global Challenge Research Fund, Newton Fund and UK Research Council projects provide solid foundations on which city based research projects have been built around identified, existing, policy interventions to provide research solutions to specific current development problems. We have developed innovative, strategic research and impact funds and capable management processes constantly to monitor progress and to reinforce successful research directions and impact pathways.
In each urban system, the Hub will reduce risk for 1-4 million people by (1) Co-producing forensic examinations of risk root causes, drivers of vulnerability and trend analysis of decision-making culture for key, historic multi-hazard events. (2) Combining quantitative, multi-hazard intensity, exposure and vulnerability analysis using advances in earth observation, citizen science, low cost sensors and high-resolution surveys with institutional and power analysis to allow multi-hazard risk assessment to interface with urban planning culture and engineering. (3) Convene diverse stakeholder groups-communities, schools, municipalities private enterprise, national agencies- around new understanding of multi-hazard urban disaster risk stimulating engagement and innovation in making risk-sensitive development choices to help meet the SDGs and Sendai Framework.
Impact will occur both within and beyond the life of the Hub and will raise the visibility of cities in global risk analysis and policy making. City Partnerships, integrating city authorities, researchers, community leaders and the private sector, will develop and own initiatives including high-resolution validated models of multi-hazard risk to reflect individual experience and inform urban development planning, tools and methods for monitoring, evaluation and audit of disaster risk, and recommendations for planning policy to mitigate risks in future development. City partnerships will collaborate with national and regional city networks, policy champions and UN agencies using research outputs to structure city and community plans responding to the Sendai Framework and targeted SDG indicators, and build methods and capacity for reporting and wider critique of the SDG and Sendai reporting process. Legacy will be enabled through the ownership of risk assessment and resilience building tools by city and international partners who will identify need, own, modify and deploy tools beyond the life of the Hub.

Planned Impact

The Hub will reduce disaster risk for the poor in tomorrow's cities. It will catalyse a step change in the relationship between science, decision-making and planning for pro-poor, risk-sensitive development in expanding urban systems worldwide and has been built entirely in response to this GCRF call. It has been co-produced with trusted city teams to provide research support for identified, existing policy implementation initiatives: Istanbul [the Istanbul Urban Transformation Master Plan]; Kathmandu [the National Strategy for Resilient Urban communities]; Nairobi [the Nairobi City Disaster Management Plan and Mukuru Special Planning Area]; Quito [the Risk Management Directorate and Quito Resilience Strategy]. The Hub is precisely tailored to the needs of our partners and their cities. Guided by the Hub Theory of Change and Pathways to Impact, interdisciplinary and coproduced research delivered through partnerships and aligned capacity building programmes will deliver evidence and experience based outputs including high resolution, multi-hazard risk assessment, associated governance frameworks and management decision-making capacity. This theory of change will enable cities to meet their SDG and Sendai Framework commitments. Through partners involved in global SDG and SF processes the Hub also aims to influence global policy.

Management: A Hub Impact Committee (HIC) chaired by Hub Co-Director and including a partnership advisory team will meet every six months to review Hub performance against a MEL framework including milestones confirmed by City teams and Hub Research Colleges in the Inception period, it will review applications and output reports for Impact Acceleration Fund and for Exchange Fellowships.

City level impact will be coordinated by the City Impact Lead (CIL) including work in secondary small cities and other regional collaborations and interactions with other Hub cities and their networks. The CILs (see Case for Support) are responsible authorities, ensuring access to official decision-making and targeted impact on City Risk, Adaptation or Resilience Plans and planning processes. Wider impact and the promotion of city level ownership of the Hub will be delivered through city partnerships including city government, research, civil society and private sector interests. Each city Research Inception Project will include a City Conference to gain early stakeholder involvement, with the CIL coordinating engagement, collaboration, exchange, training and dissemination to maximize Hub integration and uptake of output tools and analysis. This will be supported by the City Hub Office.

City evidence, tools and their champions will be promoted and shared widely with other cities and networks as demonstration cases; and with national agencies to build monitoring and reporting capacity for the Sendai Framework (SF) and SDGs. Each city will lead a network of like-cities to extend impact through tool exchange, training and testing. This will be supported in each city, by annual workshops for city administration and civil society with scope for international participation. Beyond city legacy, global civil society and UN partners will facilitate legacy impact past the Hub's life-time. Enhancement of procedures and metrics for SF reporting (with direct influence on monitoring for SDG urban and resilience indicators) will be enabled by partnership with UNISDR. GNDR and ADPC provide worldwide networks influence to test and deploy tools for community led resilience planning and advocacy (including women and children). International partners and the Advisory Board members will collaborate on side-events, policy briefs and through bilateral meetings to ensure the Hub science and impact outputs are fed into the mid-term reviews of the SF, the New Urban Agenda, the Global Platforms for DRR in 2019, 2021 and 2023, and the High Level Political Forum for the SDGs. Research provides multiple entry points to the IPCC process.

Organisations

People

ORCID iD
John McCloskey (Principal Investigator)
Gabriel Bernal (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3826-0188
Eliana Fernanda Jiménez Alvaro (Co-Investigator)
Margarita Segou (Co-Investigator)
Simon Marius Mudd (Co-Investigator)
MABEL CRISTINA MARULANDA FRAUME (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0228-8012
Mark Pelling (Co-Investigator)
Hugh Sinclair (Co-Investigator)
Hediye SIBEL Kalaycioglu (Co-Investigator)
Colm Jordan (Co-Investigator)
Andrew Maskrey (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0007-0853
Kezban Çelik (Co-Investigator)
Joel C. Gill (Co-Investigator)
Maxwell John Hope (Co-Investigator)
Andrew Forbes Bell (Co-Investigator)
Iain Simpson Stewart (Co-Investigator)
Maria Teresa Armijos Burneo (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1020-6056
Basanta Raj Adhikari (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8156-0875
Gordon McGranahan (Co-Investigator)
Joanes Atela (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5794-7658
Alexandra Alvarado (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4901-8175
Romanus Opiyo (Co-Investigator)
Alistair George Borthwick (Co-Investigator)
Alex Barbat (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3649-8053
Jeremy Charles Phillips (Co-Investigator)
Omar Dario Cardona (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8233-5450
Maria Alejandra Escovar (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2724-2379
Elizabeth Ann Holcombe (Co-Investigator)
S. Daniel Andrade (Co-Investigator)
Susanna Kathryn Ebmeier (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5454-2652
Jonathan Edward Ensor (Co-Investigator)
Siân Bayne (Co-Investigator)
Murat Nurlu (Co-Investigator)
David Dodman (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1304-3283
Tiziana Rossetto (Co-Investigator)
Emily Clare Wilkinson (Co-Investigator)
Vedat Ozsarac (Co-Investigator)
Eser Cakti (Co-Investigator)
Noel Gourmelen (Co-Investigator)
John Ross Elliott (Co-Investigator)
Garima Jain (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7991-4865
David Rush (Co-Investigator)
Sezin Yilmaz (Co-Investigator)
Mark Naylor (Co-Investigator)
Timothy John Wright (Co-Investigator)
Lars Otto Naess (Co-Investigator)
Daniel Weru Ichang'i (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8208-812X
John Twigg (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4910-8090
UFUK HANCILAR (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9180-7816
Allan Michael Lavell (Co-Investigator)
Bruce D Malamud (Co-Investigator)
Karin Sesetyan (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5109-6477
Alfredo Miguel Santillán (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9823-7396
Ian Graham Main (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7031-6746
Dina Francesca D'Ayala (Co-Investigator)
Philip Osano (Co-Investigator)
Robert Michael Baxter (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3693-8725
Tri Ratna Bajracharya (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3364-0488
Bhola Nath Sharma Ghimire (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7862-031X
Carmine Galasso (Co-Investigator)
Mikael Attal (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8639-6090
Sangeeta Singh (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3334-4390
Christine Susan Grimmond (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3166-9415
Musyimi Mbathi (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3720-099X
Erdal Safak (Co-Investigator)
Ramesh Guragain (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3852-2483
Netra Prasad Timsina (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0157-8878
Juan-Carlos SINGAUCHO-ARMAS (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6959-8109
Arabella France Fraser (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3869-328X
Peter Ngau (Co-Investigator)
Nagendra Raj Sitoula (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7113-700X
RAJANI PRAJAPATI (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2142-0162
Amy Rosamund Donovan (Co-Investigator)
Aromar Revi (Co-Investigator)
Andrew Elvin Collins (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3274-3311
Jane Marina Apgar (Co-Investigator)
Jennifer Barclay (Co-Investigator)
Elisa Sevilla (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7268-8973
Francesca Medda (Co-Investigator)
Ekbal Hussain (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6921-2843
Paul Joseph Vardanega (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7177-7851
Deepak Chamlagain (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5603-6921
Sophie Blackburn (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1959-5465
Martha Liliana Carreno Tibaduiza (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1914-2992
Brian William Golding (Co-Investigator)
Ryerson Christie (Co-Investigator)
Ganesh Kumar Jimee (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8580-3678
 
Title Tree of Emotions 
Description Currently the tree of emotions has been transferred to San Luis de Miravalle where we will begin to work with photographs and other simultaneous activities to build the memory of the neighborhood. The purpose is to engage the public and understand people's emotions to their sense of place and the idea of disaster risk 
Type Of Art Artistic/Creative Exhibition 
Year Produced 2020 
Impact none yet 
 
Description Key findings are now beginning to emerge or are on track. Across cities we have completed future scenario workshops. These are now published on the Hub website. Findings show in each city government officials share a desire for improved resilience, which requires change in governance regime. Two general strands have emerged.
• Associations with stronger governance and more decentralised government will allow technological advances in risk informed planning to build risk out of future development for the urban poor.
• Desk based studies of legislation and urban form together with Interviews with policy actors in Hub cities highlight the gap between formal institutional structure (organisational mandate, legislation) and ability to act further defining special governance limits of resilience and helping to define impact pathways.

COVID-19 has caused a delay to community and household level work. City reports on the experience of COVID-19 have been an unexpected outcome for the Hub and are disseminated as comments pieces on the Hub website. This allows the Hub to begin to consider how COVID-19 may have changed the ways in which risk is understood by city actors and how far Hub research and impact needs to consider this.

Continuous interaction with city stakeholders, even during COVID-19, together with continuing research on risk under analysis, has led to the Hub's first strategic output. This is a theoretical and research design product that helps to prioritise the next stages of Hub research. This includes:
1. A focus, not to the reduction of existing risks, but to the reduction of risk in future development.
2. Current assessments of risk focus on loss of asset value. This undervalues the experience of the poor, who have little asset, but who suffer disproportionately from disasters. Instead, we extend these evaluations to include the livelihood consequences of systems disruptions resulting in more inclusive urban planning and action.
3. Rather than a single hazard view, multi-hazard scenarios cover a wide range of scales from single high-magnitude events through to repeated small disruptions, connecting intensive risk to extensive or even every-day multi-hazards, and bridging the near-real-time priorities of the urban poor with longer-term strategic planning.
4. Physical aspects of future risk are visualised and quantified by impacting virtual cities modelled on plans for future development using high-resolution physics-based hazard models customised in the Hub to assess risk building-by-building. Plans can then be modified to reduce risk.
5. Multiple perceptions of risk, assessed using participatory methods from the social sciences, are codified and combined with physical modelling in semi-quantitative risk measures.
6. Rather than using black boxes in which the assumptions behind risk assessments are inaccessible, we co-produce descriptions of risk with key stakeholders foregrounding assumptions and elucidating uncertainty. Risk assessment is inclusive and collaborative.

One example of an early stage outcome where high-resolution physics based simulation meets decision support is a novel approach to communicating earthquake risk by advanced simulations of earthquake impact. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHRwUXot2jI. This innovative interface is actively leading to collaborations with a global software company.
Exploitation Route We can appreciate (and have lightly evidenced) early signs of progress along the first two pathways (see below). In spite of restrictions related to COVID19, trust has built with local and city level stakeholders as a result of the interdisciplinary and participatory approach to bringing multi-hazard science to ongoing processes of understanding dynamic risk in order to inform urban planning (pathway 1) - in Kathmandu a strengthened Ward Disaster Management Committee in Khokana facilitated by the hub is paving the way for development of a risk sensitive land use plan, while in Nairobi facilitated virtual dialogues and data and institutional inventories led to the opportunity to review the 2015 Disaster Management Act. Such opportunities for supporting impact at the city level are underpinned by building the capacity of hub researchers and development partners in LMIC for interdisciplinary research and co-production (pathway 2) - in Quito during COVID19 restrictions, virtual facilitated dialogues have built an interdisciplinary mindset that is now manifest in greater engagement of impact partners in co-production, for example drone images are used not just as a visualization tool for hazards assessment but also as a participatory tool through which research participants can express their feelings and emotions and critically reflect on their area and the city in a way that has never been experienced before, while in Istanbul, similar workshops across diverse partners in the team are leading to novel interdisciplinary approaches such as fire hazard analysis combining both physical modelling and historical disaster analysis.

In Nepal, the Ministry of Urban development are seconding one of their staff to work with the Hub in the co-production of novel locally-referenced assessments of risk for using in reducing risk in future urban planning across Nepal. The National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Authority have expressed interest in this work are now archiving Hub risk data and methods in their Bipad portal.

Notable progress along pathway 3 includes the development of novel approaches to risk assessment and communication to reduce risk in future development are engaging key stakeholders. This is presented in a recent editorial in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction: Risk-Based, Pro-Poor Urban Design and Planning for Tomorrow's Cities. This output has provided an opportunity to engage with key global development actions, including the World Bank and UNDRR.

Using the concept of the experiential simulation in the communication and assessment of multi-hazards risk for future development has generated interest in Adobe Systems whose toolkit 'Substance' is used in producing the VR demonstration above. We are discussing the use of their global reach to help develop a immersive digital technology both to address influential stakeholder groups and in the virtual city approach to risk assessment.
Sectors Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Environment,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Transport,Other
 
Description Impact The language and framing of 'impact' in the recent ODA Researchfish Guidance conflicts with our conceptualisation and operationalisation of 'impact' and 'outcomes'. We are also only 2 years into a 5 year programme, as mentioned in the 'key findings' question. Therefore, what we describe below is our understanding - based on our Theories of Change and only superficial evidence - of how our current achievements are setting us up for future impact. Progress along impact pathway 1: Interdisciplinary research contributes to creating conditions that will support reduction of disaster risk for the poor in tomorrow's Kathmandu, Quito, Nairobi and Istanbul. Our main evidence for progress here comes from outcome case studies for each of our focus cities; partners' responses to internal reporting questions on impact activities and opportunities; learning and review workshops carried out with each City Team; and feedback from each City Team on progress with local stakeholder engagement. Note that our critical assumptions for this impact pathway are that 1) Working in equitable research partnerships, city-level impact opportunities, our large network of researchers and practitioners (with links to policy makers) will learn and strengthen capacity through implementation; and 2) our learning and enhanced capacity from the first phase of research will directly feed into the second phase of research to deliver impact in shifting the culture of risk and urban planning. Istanbul Our project in Istanbul has seen meaningful progress in building an understanding of interdisciplinary research in their local context - which typically operates in disciplinary siloes on the issue of disaster risk reduction, in academia, policy and practice. A focus on facilitating deeper levels of interdisciplinary working was identified and acted upon as a need, following learning workshops in August 2020. As a result, we anticipate that strengthened interdisciplinary research will contribute to a shift in the culture of risk towards a multi-hazard approach amongst city stakeholders. For example, one of our lead social science researchers, Sibel Kalaycioglu of Middle East Technical University, was invited to give a presentation to the Parliamentary Commission on Earthquake Research - a space which has typically only sought expert input from physical science experts. We are also seeing early outcomes emerging in stakeholder engagement workshops with urban planners and local media, which are providing rich discussions on urban risk from multiple perspectives, leading to mutual learning by both researchers and practitioners. These workshops are also building relationships with influential media outlets that often struggle with access to relevant experts on issues of disaster risk. Significant progress has also been made through a focus on interdisciplinary interactions in the design of a Resilient Urban Development Decision Support Environment - a reference tool that will provide relevant risk information for stakeholders. Quito Our team in Quito took a highly interdisciplinary approach from the start, and responded to the limits to fieldwork presented by the pandemic as an opportunity to deepen interdisciplinary learning. As a result, the team has seen a shift in the way they design, develop and implement their activities, and are now showing signs of moving beyond interdisciplinarity towards transdisciplinarity (i.e. including non-academic stakeholders within the full research process). This is shown by a marked increase in engagement with local actors, including inhabitants of the case study sites, schools and their students, artists, local museums and institutions, and the Municipality of Quito. We believe this is resulting in the production of actionable knowledge that is more salient, credible and legitimate in the eyes of those who will use and benefit from it. One key example is the integrated 'public history' approach the team is taking, involving strong educational and communication strands by working with schools and museums. Earlier methods originally intended for public interventions are being adapted and implemented at the neighbourhood level as a way to discuss risk and bring together at-risk communities with the wider city and its decision makers. It also pieces together work on co-produced exhibits with museums to incorporate concepts around risk and resilience in their permanent exhibits, and the team has developed an online 'digital humanities platform' (currently in beta version) to be used for education in risk awareness and reduction from an interdisciplinary perspective. Nairobi Our Nairobi team have focused a lot of effort on building relationships with local stakeholders from the start, including government, civil society and community partners, through regular dialogues. Through these relationships, the team has been able to identify city-level impact opportunities, see below. At the start of the project, the Nairobi team did not have relationships with any community-based organisations (CBOs) and now they are engaging with 150 of them, and building trusted relationships with key communities in their case study area of Mukuru. This has led the communities informing research on factors that increase their vulnerability and proposing solutions, because they trust their input will be heard. It has also led to key linkages between locally salient issues (e.g. water and sanitation) with concern for disaster risk reduction. Other key relationships include building a close working relationship with the Nairobi City County Government (NCCG) and the Red Cross. In particular, the relationship with the NCCG has led to a request from them for the Nairobi team to lead a review of City Disaster Risk Management Act (2015, to finalise a draft DRM policy and Plan (2019) & to integrate community led Disaster Risk Management into the informal settlements Special Planning Areas (SPAs) plans. A finance officer from NCCG has also requested training in multi-hazard disaster risk reduction from our researchers. Kathmandu In Kathmandu the hub team has built strong relationships both at the community level - in the case study site of Khokana in Lalitpur district and with national stakeholders. Trust built with decision makers in Khokana at ward level, in particular with the Ward Chair, is the result of sustained and intentional engagement over time. A combination of intentional engagements with a clear multi-hazard offer have enabled the hub to listen to the needs of the Ward Chair and to open up the possibility of developing a new risk informed land use plan. In particular, the Ward Disaster Management Committee is now newly reformulated and is more inclusive (including women and lower caste groups). The opportunity to work towards a new risk sensitive land use plan in Khokana is now real and the results of physical science feeding directly in. The hub team has also facilitated an interaction between the Ward level engagement and city and national level stakeholders, building confidence of the Ward Chair that he has a platform to discuss the planning needs of his ward at the national level as well as national stakeholders seeing the hubs approach as novel and promising. The Steering Committee is now operational and includes nine city and national stakeholders and is chaired by the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Urban Planning (MoUD), paving the way for the risk assessment developed by the hub to directly influence urban planning. The MoUD has seconded a ministry researcher to liaise directly with the Hub around risk sensitive urban planning. Progress along impact pathway 2: The Hub contributes to enhanced capacity in LMIC and the UK to deliver interdisciplinary and impactful research on multi-hazard risk Our main evidence for progress here comes from recently gathered outcome case studies on interdisciplinarity and our Early Career Network; partners' responses to internal reporting questions on capacity strengthening; learning workshops carried out with each City Team; and recent feedback from each City Team on capacity strengthening activities. Our critical assumptions for this pathway are that 1) equitable partnerships, co-produced research and co-owned outputs are necessary for creating these conditions; and 2) taking an adaptive approach to planning, funding and research management, which leverages flexible funding reserves, is required to identify and accelerate activities that show demonstrable traction on short-term outcomes. The description of progress along impact pathway 1, above, involves significant enhancements to capacity strengthening. Details are described further in the GCRF Collective Fund sections of researchfish on equitable partnerships, interdsiciplinarity and capacity strengthening, so we won't repeat that here. Progress along impact pathway 3: The Hub's global engagement contributes to implementation of global DRR policy (Sendai Framework) and specific SDG targets. Our critical assumptions for this pathway are 1) that the Hub will engage with international policy stakeholders around specific opportunities for influence, which will, in the short-term, contribute to an increase in sensitivity to and awareness of multi-hazard risk as central to urban planning and development trajectories; and 2) through ongoing engagement with specific policy opportunities and sharing evidence and learning the hub will enhance broader capacity and build strong relationships to implement the Sendai Framework and contribute to specific SDG targets, ultimately contributing to a culture of risk reduction amongst typically disconnected scientists, planners, policy makers and community organisers. Our work on this pathway has only recently become a focus of our activities. A major driving piece of this work is the a recent (currently in press) editorial in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction: Risk-Based, Pro-Poor Urban Design and Planning for Tomorrow's Cities. This proposed new approach to risk reduction provides a framework - based on the novel conceptualisation of multi-hazard, pro-poor future risk developed by the Hub - to engage global partners to co-produce the practical details for implementation. This risk concept note has provided a catalyst for our global engagement strategy which is now underway and being led by our partner with established expertise in engagement on disaster risk reduction on the global stage, the Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction. We are also leveraging pre-existing relationships we have through the Hub's network with UNESCO, UNDRR, UN-Habitat, the World Bank and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre. Gender equality Measures to ensure equal and meaningful opportunities for people of different genders to be involved throughout the Hub's lifetime We monitor gender identity in all management structures we put in place to ensure meaningful gender balance is met, according to context (i.e. recognising that we are starting from different baselines in each of the countries we work in). Summary of gender balance across the Hub: (Here we present a table which does not display properly on this site. We will include this table displayed properly in our Annual Report). Part of the Hub Total number of people Number of Women Number of Men % Female Whole Hub 181 78 103 43% Early Career Researchers 81 40 41 49% Advisory Board 14 6 8 43% Hub Executive Committee 7 3 4 43% Senior Management Team 4 2 2 50% Edinburgh Project Management Team 5 2 3 40% City Executive and Project Management Teams Quito: 6 Kathmandu: 5 Istanbul: 9 Nairobi: 4 Total: 24 Quito: 4 Kathmandu: 1 Istanbul: 6 Nairobi: 1 Total: 12 Quito: 2 Kathmandu: 4 Istanbul: 3 Nairobi: 3 Total: 12 Quito: 66% Kathmandu:20% Istanbul: 66% Nairobi: 25% Total: 50% Hub Impact Committee 17 7 10 41% Hub Research Committee 20 8 12 40% Hub Operations Committee 11 7 4 64% Ethics and Safeguarding Group 31 20 11 65% Any impacts of the Hub (benefits and losses) on people of different genders and any impacts on gender relations Within our research and impact activities, we understand gender as existing in intersection with age, disability, social class, race, place and religion - among others. Gender features prominently in our approach to cross-city social science work that grounds our understanding and enables a nuanced exploration of power relations within and between communities and the formal and informal governing institutions that shape opportunity. Our approach to Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning explicitly takes a gender and intersectional lens. For example, our impact evaluation design will use the Gender and Disaster Risk Reduction Intersectionality Framework that is being developed by the Nairobi team to inform the final contribution analysis. We also monitor gender disaggregated data in our LogFrames and Management Information System. Our approach to the impacts of the Hub on people of different genders and on gender relations is also addressed through our safeguarding policy, which explicitly seeks to embed an intersectional understanding of vulnerability and power relations within all activities carried out by members of the Hub. We are currently developing a concept note on the 'Ethics of Impact', which draws on feminist and decolonial scholarship to reflect on the everyday ethical and safeguarding implications of doing challenge-led international development research. We have built a relationship with the Gender Responsive Resilience and Intersectionality in Policy and Practice (GRRIPP) project, through engagement with Professor Maureen Fordham (an internationally recognised scholar on gender and disaster risk) who presented at a cross-Hub webinar on gender responsive recovery and resilience, and convened the plenary session on gender in our 2020 cross-Hub conference. Discussions focus on scope for a joint call from the Hub and GRRIPP flexible funds to focus on gender and intersectionality. Our conception of risk includes risk assessments particularly designed to include the perspectives of marginal groups, including women and children, via participatory methods from the social sciences leading to the proposed semi-quantitative measures of disaster risk. How any risks and unintended negative consequences on gender equality have been avoided or mitigated against and monitored. Risk of harm - broadly defined - are addressed through our safeguarding policy, its implementation and resources being put in place for ongoing training and capacity strengthening. Our team in Quito are currently trialling gender bias training as part of their commitment to equitable partnerships, interdisciplinarity, ethical research and safeguarding. We have plans to replicate this across the Hub. As noted above, we are embedding a gender and intersectional lens within our MEL systems, which helps us to monitor and mitigate emerging negative consequences on gender equality. Any relevant outcomes and outputs being measured, with data disaggregated by age and gender (where disclosed). The gender and early career status of participants is monitored for all of our internal and external engagement activities. Our LogFrames included data disaggregated by gender. All of our work plans - including outputs - are recorded in our online management information system. Everyone contributing to each element of the work plans are tagged within them, and the system also holds disaggregated data on all members of the Hub (by gender, early career status, disciplinary expertise and more). In this way, we are able to record the contributions to each output by gender and early career status. Any other equality, diversity and inclusion impacts NA Report on any secondary impacts on UK / non-DAC list countries. NA
 
Description Convening and speaking at Nepal Urban Dialogues, which is a key space for engagement between policymakers, academics and practitioners
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a national consultation
URL https://www.greeninstitute.institute/event/nepal-urban-dialogue-monthly-series/
 
Description Earthquake Advisory Board and Scientific Committee for the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a advisory committee
 
Description Input to the Nepal Draft Urban Development Act
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Gave evidence to a government review
 
Description Integration of community led Disaster Risk Management into the informal settlements Special Planning Areas (SPAs) plans
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Gave evidence to a government review
 
Description Invited Comment for House of Lords Special Inquiry Select Committee on Risk Assessment and Risk Planning
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a advisory committee
 
Description Member of BEIS ODA MEL Advisory Group
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a advisory committee
 
Description Nairobi City Council Government requested a review of the City Disaster Risk Management Act (2015)
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Gave evidence to a government review
 
Description Providing evidence to Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality for the production of Earthquake Loss Estimation Booklets
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health
URL https://www.ibb.istanbul/News/Detail/36942
 
Description Report for Urban Planning Department in Quito with results from workshops
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Gave evidence to a government review
 
Description Request from Nairobi City Council Government for training on multi-hazard risk
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
 
Description Supporting ward level Disaster Management Committee, required by DRRM Act (2017) of Nepal, and the DRRM Act of Lalitpur Metropolitan City (2019)
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a advisory committee
 
Description Workshops with students, teachers and museum staff on multi-hazard risk
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
 
Description Capacity Strengthening and Managing Risks in LMICs
Amount £88,000 (GBP)
Organisation University of Edinburgh 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 05/2019 
End 06/2019
 
Description College of Science and Engineering internal GCRF fund
Amount £34,705 (GBP)
Organisation University of Edinburgh 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 02/2020 
End 07/2020
 
Description GCRF Global Impact Accelerator
Amount £15,029 (GBP)
Organisation United Kingdom Research and Innovation 
Department Global Challenges Research Fund
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2020 
End 06/2020
 
Description Taylor F, Malamud B, Pelling M, Borie M, Mulligan J, Bukachi V Mapping the Spatial Distribution of Covid-19 Social Interventions in Slums, King's College London Faculty Research Fund,
Amount £4,500 (GBP)
Organisation King's College London 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2020 
End 04/2021
 
Description Transforming Political Capabilities for Equitable Resilience
Amount £869,726 (GBP)
Funding ID ES/T00259X/1 
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2019 
End 10/2022
 
Title A timeline of intensive (disaster) events in Quito from 1535 to 2019 
Description A timeline of over 1000 intensive events in Quito, from 1535 to 2019 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact None yet 
 
Title Database of key Disaster Risk Reduction actors in Nairobi. 
Description Database of key Disaster Risk Reduction actors in Nairobi. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact None yet 
 
Title Database on Nairobi risk loss data on floods & fire incidences, city population, building development and vulnerability. 
Description Database on Nairobi risk loss data on floods & fire incidences, city population, building development and vulnerability. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact None yet 
 
Title Digital Elevation Models for each City 
Description Data base extracted from the Sentinel and SPOT satellite databases for use of various teams working across the Hub Cities. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact 3D models of each city have been produced and will be used in upcoming launch of the Quito Hub and the Annual All-Hub conference planned for May in Istanbul. 
URL https://comet.nerc.ac.uk/tomorrows-cities/
 
Title Expansion of Quito 1986-2019 
Description Digital models of the urban expansion of Quito. Data extracted from Landsat imagery processes using LandTrendr 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact These images have been used in study site selection and in communication with the city authorities. 
URL https://comet.nerc.ac.uk/tomorrows-cities/
 
Title National Disaster Risk Management politics for Quito 
Description Database of documents relating to DRM for the city of Quito 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact None yet 
 
Title Pleaides and Hexagon DEM and imagery for KAthmandu 
Description Point cloud, DEM (1 m), hillshade (1 m), panchromatic (0.5 m), multispectral (2 m), and pansharpened multispectral (0.5 m) orthoimages generated from tri-stereo imagery. DEM (30 m), and panchromatic (4 m) orthoimage generated from three declassified HEXAGON images. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact None yet 
URL https://comet.nerc.ac.uk/tomorrows-cities/
 
Title SPOT-6/7 DEM and Imagery of Quito 
Description Point cloud, DEM (3 m), hillshade (3 m), panchromatic (1.5 m) and multispectral (6 m) orthoimages generated from stereo imagery. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact None yet 
URL https://comet.nerc.ac.uk/tomorrows-cities/
 
Description Collaboration with College of Architects of Ecuador 
Organisation College of Architects of Ecuador (CAE-P)
Country Ecuador 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We will we will co-produce and deliver workshops and training courses aimed at different audiences, on urban hazards (e.g. landslides) and risk. We will also produce new insights on green spaces from Earth observation data, which has been requested by the College.
Collaborator Contribution They have important data for the investigation (e.g. socioeconomic datasets) and provide access to key audiences for our engagement activities.
Impact No outputs or outcomes yet, but a series of activities are planned. This is an interdisciplinary collaboration involving geology, geography, anthropology, history and participatory action research.
Start Year 2020
 
Description Collaboration with UKRI GCRF Hub managers 
Organisation Coventry University
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Monthly online meetings, regular email exchanges and occasional in-person meet-ups to share experiences, perspectives and lessons learned with respect to managing the UKRI GCRF Hubs.
Collaborator Contribution Monthly online meetings, regular email exchanges and occasional in-person meet-ups to share experiences, perspectives and lessons learned with respect to managing the UKRI GCRF Hubs.
Impact xxx
Start Year 2019
 
Description Collaboration with UKRI GCRF Hub managers 
Organisation Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Monthly online meetings, regular email exchanges and occasional in-person meet-ups to share experiences, perspectives and lessons learned with respect to managing the UKRI GCRF Hubs.
Collaborator Contribution Monthly online meetings, regular email exchanges and occasional in-person meet-ups to share experiences, perspectives and lessons learned with respect to managing the UKRI GCRF Hubs.
Impact xxx
Start Year 2019
 
Description Collaboration with UKRI GCRF Hub managers 
Organisation London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Monthly online meetings, regular email exchanges and occasional in-person meet-ups to share experiences, perspectives and lessons learned with respect to managing the UKRI GCRF Hubs.
Collaborator Contribution Monthly online meetings, regular email exchanges and occasional in-person meet-ups to share experiences, perspectives and lessons learned with respect to managing the UKRI GCRF Hubs.
Impact xxx
Start Year 2019
 
Description Collaboration with UKRI GCRF Hub managers 
Organisation London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Monthly online meetings, regular email exchanges and occasional in-person meet-ups to share experiences, perspectives and lessons learned with respect to managing the UKRI GCRF Hubs.
Collaborator Contribution Monthly online meetings, regular email exchanges and occasional in-person meet-ups to share experiences, perspectives and lessons learned with respect to managing the UKRI GCRF Hubs.
Impact xxx
Start Year 2019
 
Description Collaboration with UKRI GCRF Hub managers 
Organisation Newcastle University
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Monthly online meetings, regular email exchanges and occasional in-person meet-ups to share experiences, perspectives and lessons learned with respect to managing the UKRI GCRF Hubs.
Collaborator Contribution Monthly online meetings, regular email exchanges and occasional in-person meet-ups to share experiences, perspectives and lessons learned with respect to managing the UKRI GCRF Hubs.
Impact xxx
Start Year 2019
 
Description Collaboration with UKRI GCRF Hub managers 
Organisation United Nations (UN)
Department UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Monthly online meetings, regular email exchanges and occasional in-person meet-ups to share experiences, perspectives and lessons learned with respect to managing the UKRI GCRF Hubs.
Collaborator Contribution Monthly online meetings, regular email exchanges and occasional in-person meet-ups to share experiences, perspectives and lessons learned with respect to managing the UKRI GCRF Hubs.
Impact xxx
Start Year 2019
 
Description Collaboration with UKRI GCRF Hub managers 
Organisation University of Oxford
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Monthly online meetings, regular email exchanges and occasional in-person meet-ups to share experiences, perspectives and lessons learned with respect to managing the UKRI GCRF Hubs.
Collaborator Contribution Monthly online meetings, regular email exchanges and occasional in-person meet-ups to share experiences, perspectives and lessons learned with respect to managing the UKRI GCRF Hubs.
Impact xxx
Start Year 2019
 
Description Kathmandu City Steering Committee 
Organisation Government of Nepal
Country Nepal 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution The Tomorrow's Cities team in Kathmandu has worked to form this Steering Committee based on interest from the Government of Nepal in how our research can inform the development of a new satellite city in Khokana.
Collaborator Contribution The partners have so far provided their time, interest and commitment - which have provided much needed legitimacy for this group to be formalised.
Impact While still in the formation stages, this group has already provided important access to people in key official positions in Kathmandu, relationships with whom will be impactful for our work. This was realised through the Kathmandu launch event, in which the following people attended and gave presentations: - Mr. Anil Pokharel, CEO of Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority - The Honourable Tara Devi Bhatt, Chair of the Sustainable Development and Good Governance Committee - Mr Rabindra Maharjan, Chair of Ward 21 (Khokana) - Ms Sarita Maskey, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development
Start Year 2019
 
Description Kathmandu City Steering Committee 
Organisation Government of Nepal
Country Nepal 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution The Tomorrow's Cities team in Kathmandu has worked to form this Steering Committee based on interest from the Government of Nepal in how our research can inform the development of a new satellite city in Khokana.
Collaborator Contribution The partners have so far provided their time, interest and commitment - which have provided much needed legitimacy for this group to be formalised.
Impact While still in the formation stages, this group has already provided important access to people in key official positions in Kathmandu, relationships with whom will be impactful for our work. This was realised through the Kathmandu launch event, in which the following people attended and gave presentations: - Mr. Anil Pokharel, CEO of Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority - The Honourable Tara Devi Bhatt, Chair of the Sustainable Development and Good Governance Committee - Mr Rabindra Maharjan, Chair of Ward 21 (Khokana) - Ms Sarita Maskey, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development
Start Year 2019
 
Description Kathmandu City Steering Committee 
Organisation Government of Nepal
Country Nepal 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution The Tomorrow's Cities team in Kathmandu has worked to form this Steering Committee based on interest from the Government of Nepal in how our research can inform the development of a new satellite city in Khokana.
Collaborator Contribution The partners have so far provided their time, interest and commitment - which have provided much needed legitimacy for this group to be formalised.
Impact While still in the formation stages, this group has already provided important access to people in key official positions in Kathmandu, relationships with whom will be impactful for our work. This was realised through the Kathmandu launch event, in which the following people attended and gave presentations: - Mr. Anil Pokharel, CEO of Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority - The Honourable Tara Devi Bhatt, Chair of the Sustainable Development and Good Governance Committee - Mr Rabindra Maharjan, Chair of Ward 21 (Khokana) - Ms Sarita Maskey, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development
Start Year 2019
 
Description Kathmandu City Working Group 
Organisation Ward of the Lalitpur Municipality, Kathmandu
Country Nepal 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution The Kathmandu team have convened this group around the community level work of the Hub, in order to include and legitimise community perspectives amongst national stakeholder (mainly decision makers). While this was initiated by Tomorrow's Cities, provisions for such a group was laid out in the DRRM Act 2017 and Local Government Act 2017 (as a "Ward level Disaster Risk management Committee").
Collaborator Contribution The Ward of the Lalitpur Municipality are coordinating the activities of this group.
Impact The Kathmandu team has built strong relationships with decision makers in Khokana at ward level, in particular with the Ward Chair, through sustained and intentional engagement over time. A combination of intentional engagement in Khokana which facilitated listening to the needs of the Ward Chair, with a clear multi-hazard offer have enabled trust to be built. The agreed collaboration with local leaders has supported the operationalisation and the reorientation of the Ward Disaster Management Committee towards greater inclusion in the development of a local risk informed land use plan. This progress at the Ward level is now opening up opportunities for engagement with policy makers at national level.
Start Year 2019
 
Description Partnership between the Quito City Museums Foundation and Tomorrow's Cities Quito 
Organisation Quito City Museums Foundation
Country Ecuador 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution As part of the partnership between the Quito City Museums Foundation and Tomorrow's Cities Quito, a series of activities have been planned with museums across the city, aimed at co-producing knowledge and generating educational activities for diverse audiences. Tomorrow's Cities is providing new insights and novel interdisciplinary and participatory approaches to public engagement.
Collaborator Contribution The Quito City Museums Foundation is providing museum space and practitioner public engagement expertise to work with Tomorrow's Cities to engage the public on disaster risk.
Impact This partnership has just begun but a series of workshops are planned, as well as museum exhibits. This collaboration is interdisciplinary, involving: geology, geography, anthropology, history and participatory action research methods.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Partnership with Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality 
Organisation Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality
Country Turkey 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution We have been contributing to their capacity in terms of multi-hazard risk analysis and risk reduction. Bogazici University has taken the responsibility of representing the Istanbul Hub in general and of coordinating research activities between other collaborators with the IMM, especially for data exchange. In order to ensure its credibility and transparency, Istanbul Hub Office has been working with the Bogazici University's legal adviser to create data request forms.
Collaborator Contribution IMM and its departments are very responsive to our meeting calls and knowledge exchange requests. They have been sharing the data with Bogazici University directly, and Istanbul Hub's collaborators indirectly. They have been taking part in the research and been willing to enhance their capacity with Istanbul Hub's outputs.
Impact No completed outputs or outcomes yet, aside from relationship building and collaboration on research outputs. This is an interdisciplinary collaboration with contributions from hazard science, seismology, engineering, sociology, science and technology studies.
Start Year 2020
 
Description Partnership with Kenya Red Cross Society 
Organisation International Committee of the Red Cross
Department Kenya Red Cross Society
Country Kenya 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Development and implementation of research Stakeholder engagement, partnerships and networking
Collaborator Contribution Linkages to the Mukuru Spatial Planning Area (SPA) - the study area
Impact Participation in policy and community dialogues This has been an interdisciplinary collaboration, involving: community engagement, policy analysis, gender integration, hazard science and risk modelling.
Start Year 2020
 
Description Partnership with Nairobi City County Government 
Organisation Nairobi City Council
Country Kenya 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Advice on policy relating to disaster risk reduction (e.g. reviewing of the Disaster Risk Management Act (2015)
Collaborator Contribution Participation in research on disaster risk reduction, including sharing of data.
Impact NCCG participation in policy and community dialogues NCCG sharing inventories of hazards in Nairobi, DRR institutional mapping, and risk loss data NCCG sharing fire and flood modelling spatial metrics and aerial images of Mukuru NCCG sharing river flow data, historical flood dynamics data, and data on fire incidents in Nairobi This has been an interdisciplinary collaboration, involving: community engagement, policy analysis, gender integration, hazard science and risk modelling.
Start Year 2019
 
Description Partnership with Quito City Municipality 
Organisation Municipality of Quito
Country Ecuador 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Advice and evidence on disaster risk aspects of urban planning. Involvement in research.
Collaborator Contribution Access to data, participation in research and impact meetings and dialogues.
Impact Participation in key workshops. Interdisciplinary: anthropology, geology, Earth observation, hazards science, history.
Start Year 2020
 
Description Partnership with Turkish Republic Presidency - Strategy and Budget Department 
Organisation Turkish Republic Presidency
Country Turkey 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution We initiated initial talks with the Strategy and Budget Department because they've been monitoring and evaluating public funds, which are relevant to our research.
Collaborator Contribution They have been contributing to the Istanbul Hub as a representative of the State and providing inputs for our research (mostly social science).
Impact Participation in workshops and meetings. This is an interdisciplinary collaboration involving: sociology, science and technology studies, hazards science, engineering.
Start Year 2020
 
Description 25 minutes of coverage in Kathmandu news programme 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The Nepali news network, News24Nepal, took part in the Kathmandu launch event in order to record footage for their Development Forum programme.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Cities and Resilience Seminar: Imagining future African cities in the post-COVID-19 world 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact On Thursday 3 September 2020, the Africa Research and Impact Network (ARIN), in collaboration with the Nairobi Risk Hub, hosted a seminar on the theme Resilient African cities beyond COVID-19.The Resilient African cities beyond COVID-19 seminar brought together a wide spectrum of stakeholders from diverse fields of urban planning, policy and governance, transport, architecture, disaster risk management and resilience, among others. The discussions were centered on three contexts:

The context of COVID-19 and African cities
How research can be used to influence resilience post-COVID-19, with empirical evidence being drawn from the following three projects; A systems approach to air pollution (ASAP), Governance of Socio-technical Transformation (GoST) and the Nairobi Risk Hub, all supported through ARIN
Current trends in building resilience in African cities and how researchers can respond to the impacts of COVID-19.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.tomorrowscities.org/cities-and-resilience-seminar-imagining-future-african-cities-post-c...
 
Description Current Risk Management approaches in Kathmandu 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Blog highlighting Current Risk Management approaches in Kathmandu
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.tomorrowscities.org/current-risk-management-approaches-kathmandu
 
Description Current risk management approaches in Istanbul 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Blog highlighting insights into risk management approaches in Istanbul
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.tomorrowscities.org/current-risk-management-approaches-istanbul
 
Description Current risk management approaches in Nairobi 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Blog highlighting insights into Current risk management approaches in Nairobi
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.tomorrowscities.org/current-risk-management-approaches-nairobi
 
Description Current risk management approaches in Quito 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Blog highlighting insights into current risk management approaches in Quito
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.tomorrowscities.org/current-risk-management-approaches-quito
 
Description Dr Sophie Blackburn (OBU) on social contracts and climate adaptation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact An interview by Cimpatico Studios of one of our Co-Is, Sophie Blackburn, where she discusses her work for Tomorrow's Cities

Cimpatico Studios produces live-stream talk shows about complex global challenges, featuring professionals from around the world who are working on these issues. All of Cimpatico Studios' episodes are streamed directly to cimpatico.tv, an invite-only professional network designed to help professionals share knowledge and coordinate their efforts to improve outcomes of common interest.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaGVYcX91OU
 
Description DwD-UKADR-DRG-UKCDR International Conference 2019 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact This was an international event, led by one of our Co-Is (Andrew Collins, Northumbria University) and included a session dedicated to Tomorrow's Cities and the UKRI GCRF Deltas Hub. This was an important networking event for reaching into the global NGO community looking at DRR, and sparked much interest in the Hub.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL http://gadri.net/events/2019/04/dwd-ukadr-drg-ukcdr-international-conference-2019.html
 
Description Eco Communities workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The purpose of this event was to explore the concept of Ecocities as means of addressing the the complex relationship between the human environments with the natural ecosystem, in the context of the Lalitpur Metropolitan city area. The outome of this has been to create link with the Mayor of the Lalitpur Municipality and other stakeholders that are key to Tomorrow's Cities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Flood meeting in Nepal 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact This was the first meeting that was specifically dedicated to the flooding issue in Kokhana (Kathmandu), the site chosen for the development of a new smart city. The meeting involved researchers from Tribhuvan University, University of Edinburgh, University of York, as well as partners such as Practical Action and NSET. We visited the site in Kokhana, met local representatives (including the Ward Chairman), exchanged knowledge of the current physical and social "setup" in the Kathmandu basin, and discussed available tools (monitoring modelling) and strategy for the coming year.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Frontiers of Development symposium: Disaster 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 Members of our Istanbul Team and Advisory Board were invited to lead the following sessions:
- The importance of governance in resilience building and embedding disaster resilience into broader development interventions
- Understanding vulnerabilities and crisis points including systemic vulnerabilities

One of our Istanbul Co-Is, Professor Erdal Safak, was event co-chair.

The primary purpose of the symposium was to bring together academicians and experts from different disciplines focused on disaster studies, to encourage the establishment of new research and project networks and partnerships, and to support multifaceted and multifaceted projects.

As a result, a new multi-hazard research group has formed, and a grant was awarded for a project involving one of our Co-Is, Dr. Max Hope, on 'Investigating Approaches to Encourage Seismic Retrofitting in Less Developed Countries'.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://twitter.com/RAEngGlobal/status/1284073006600527874
 
Description Geoportal of the Quito Urban Information Centre launched 
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 On 9 September Tomorrow's Cities Quito participated in the launch of the College of Architects of Ecuador's Geoportal of the Quito Urban Information Centre. This innovative digital tool allows users to access georeferenced data for the entire metropolitan district of Quito.

The Geoportal will provide access to information on types of soil and mechanical properties useful for hazards modelling, urban growth data, environmental services and relevant information for risk management (e.g. public and open spaces, immediate aid units, community police stations, medical centres and other relevant services).

Daniel Andrade, Tomorrow's Cities Quito City Lead, said: "We hope to provide scientific information that will be co-produced with our strategic partners. The existence of this geoportal is extremely useful for scientific research".

The College of Architects of Ecuador has been a strategic partner of Tomorrow's Cities Quito since 2019. The partnership with the College of Architects of Ecuador will provide key information for Tomorrow's Cities Quito's research, as well as generating data jointly for the city.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.tomorrowscities.org/geoportal-quito-urban-information-centre-launched
 
Description High Level Political Forum on the Sustainable Development Goals 
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 Hub Co-I, Lucy Pearson (GNDR) attended this event in New York in September. She had conversations with UNDP, UNDRR and INGOs about the work of the Hub, pointing them towards future updates on the website, and talked about the focus of urban risk and the combination of local and scientific knowledge at an event during this conference.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description High Level Political Forum side event 'A post-COVID world where global impact for resilience is achieved with local action' 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The COVID pandemic highlights the importance of local action. How can we bolster it in a coherent manner, to ensure global impact? During this event we will discuss what hinders effective localisation of resilience and what actions can UN, governments and society take to support local action. GNDR and partners have developed a set of recommendations for how local actors can lead risk-informed development. This event will expand on this work and engage participants in an online discussion that will inform the development of concrete policy recommendations for all of society to accelerate implementation of the SDGs through local action.

As a result, international development actors were made aware of how critical local action on multi-hazard issues is, and of Tomorrow's Cities plans to address this through research.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Interflam conference 
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 Hub Co-I, David Rush (University of Edinburgh) attended this conference in London in September. It brought together engineers, scientists, practitioners and regulators from around the globe to discuss fire disaster risk. As a result of networking and presenting on the Hub's work, David has been Invited to participate in Development of Urban FRAME - a tool on Urban Fire Risk Assessment and Mitigation Evaluation - with the World Bank.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Twitter campaign aimed at raising the profile of the Tomorrow's Cities project amongst DRR and development actors at local, national and international levels. KPIs = new followers on Twitter and visits to website.

As a result:
IDDRR video views: 1,297

Average monthly impressions (how many people see our tweets each month): 5,976
Average impressions per day in previous 28 days: 420
IDDRR impressions: 4,801

Average engagement rate (how much people like, reply, retweet or click links on our tweets): 1.29%
IDDRR engagement rate: 4.1%

Average new followers per month: 28
IDDRR new followers: 16

Average daily visits to website 13 October 2019 - 12 October 2020: 18
Largest amount of visits to website on one day 13 October 2019 - 12 October 2020: 209
IDDRR visits to website: 100
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWrXPw_9ePUNYCUKdUMgGT2FkH55oNqXZ
 
Description Interview with the Technical Secretary of Planning, Ecuador 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact An interview carried out by the Technical Secretary of Planning for Ecuador with members of the Tomorrow's Cities team in Quito. They discussed in detail the mission of the Hub and their contributions to it, and, in particular, how this relates to the role of risk management in land use planning.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.planificacion.gob.ec/la-secretaria-tecnica-de-planifica-ecuador-dialogo-sobre-la-importa...
 
Description Istanbul City Partners meeting 
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 This was the first formal meeting of Istanbul partners, including the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and the National DRR authority (AFAD). The purpose was to introduce the Hub to key partners (for the first time since being awarded funding), build relationships and develop a shared understanding of what the Hub's work in Istanbul should aim to achieve and initiate co-production of work plans.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Istanbul MEL workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact This was an early engagement aimed at co-producing the first draft of the Istanbul Theory of Change diagram. It included key researchers from across the Istanbul team, as well as participants from the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and the National Disaster Risk Reduction Authority (AFAD). This was a key moment of engagement between these stakeholders, planting the seeds of shared understanding and building relationships, which we have drawn on many times since then. Another key outcome was that the impact agenda of the Hub was understood and accepted by all stakeholders.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Earthquake Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The purpose of this event was to... The main outcome was that new connections were made with key stakeholders, with the potential for future collaboration in the Istanbul work plan.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality signing protocols with Bogazici University 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A press release about the signing of two important protocols with Bogazici University, related to the work of Tomorrow's Cities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.ibb.istanbul/News/Detail/37330
 
Description Istanbul workshop on earthquakes 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The purpose of this event was to work towards making Istanbul more resilient to earthquakes. The outcomes have been to raise awareness of and interest in Tomorrow's Cities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Istanbul workshop to build capacity on communication and engagement 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This was a capacity building workshop funded through the additional GCRF capacity building funding we received from the Scottish Funding Council via the University of Edinburgh. The purpose was to build understanding of and capacity for communication within a challenge-led research programme. The participants included key researchers from the Istanbul team, as well as members of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, and involved engagement with the community leader from a local case-study site, during a site visit. Beyond increasing understanding of the role of communication as a process (i.e. not merely an output) within challenge-led research, participants reported a shift in perspective on the impact that their research and co-production activities were aiming to achieve. We also believe that a key relationship was formed with the community leader, who could play a strong role in the community engagement activities of the Hub. Strong relationships were also formed with two experts in risk communication, who helped deliver the workshop, which provides potential access to global networks in this area as well as potential collaborations on risk communication in Nepal and Kenya.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Joint thematic session on Earthquake Risk Reduction and Management in Nepal with national stakeholders 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact On the occasion of the 23rd Earthquake Safety Day in Nepal, NSET Jointly organized a Thematic Session on "Earthquake Risk Reduction and Management in Nepal" with the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC) and Madhyapur Thimi Municipality on 20 Jan 2021. In the event, Prof. John McCloskey (PI) and Ms. Sangeeta Singh (City Research Lead, Kathmandu) presented on the project, its overall goal, specific impact objectives and the project's goal of focusing on engagement and impact with interdisciplinary research.

It was a good platform to discuss and showcase the project's objectives and to highlight the focus of the project on Tomorrow's scenario of Risk. This event was co chaired by the chief of National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) and Mayor of Madhyapur Thimi Munincipality. It had international attendance by academicians from universities, professionals working in DRR and from government bodies including many municipality personnel, Development Organizations and Funding organizations . Therefore, it was a great platform for more exposure and to spread out the word on the project to a wider range of audience, discussing on the pertinent issues and challenges associated. It also provided Hub personnel to engage and discuss with other researchers associated with other ongoing research projects in the DRR sector in Nepal.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Kathmandu launch event 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The Launch event was attended by a range of people from the policy and government sectors. The main speaker was the Honourable Tara Devi Bhatt, Chair of Sustainable development and Good Governance Committee, Government of Nepal; Mr Anil Pokhrel, Cheif Executive of National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Authority, Government of Nepal; Mr. Rabindra Maharjan, Mayor of Khokana District Authority; Ms Sarita Maskey, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development. There was a wide and deep commitment to the aims of the Tomorro's Cities Hub. The meeting was followed by discussions leading to plans for further engagement and specific actions.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7JJlvIvkLM
 
Description Kathmandu partners meeting 
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 xxxx
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Membership of the Disaster Risk Reduction Executive Committee, Nepal 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact One of our Nepali Co-Is, Dr. Netra Prasad Timsina, has become a member of the Disaster Risk Reduction Executive Committee, which is the second highest DRR related decision making body in Nepal. Having a researcher working in the Hub project at high level decision making spaces will help generate policy impact that are conducive to the urban poor in tomorrow's cities. It will also help the project to leverage the power to reach to the policy makers, and share insights from the research through policy briefs.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Nairobi DRR Stakeholder Meeting and Dinner 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact To review the Nairobi hub work plan, providing useful advisory to the work plan, and discuss any strategic and constructive next steps for the hub. The Chief Officer, Disaster Management & Coordination department in the Nairobi City Government, attended the dinner on behalf of the Governor. The Hub Directors, UK based researchers, Nairobi based researchers and DRR stakeholders got a chance to sit together and collectively reviewed the Nairobi work plan.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Nairobi Hub initial partners meeting 
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 Held on 17th January in Nairobi and attended by 19 partners including a team from the UK; the Hub directors (John & Mark), Eliane (Hub operations manager) and Gordon (UK coordinator for Nairobi), Nairobi based partners including ACTS, KDI, UoN, NCCG, UNHabitat, UNISDR, Torchlight Group and World Bank. The meeting aimed at introducing the Tomorrow's cities project to the Nairobi partners and conducting an initial institutional analysis for the Nairobi research plan.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Nairobi Hub launch and policy workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact This event was aimed at discussing the plans for the project in line with the policy direction to transition from a crisis management towards urban planning for risk reduction, understand the Nairobi DRR policy landscape, to officially launch the project and to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between ACTS the Nairobi City County Government (NCCG).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.ash-net.org/nairobi-disaster-risk-hub-signs-an-mou-with-the-nairobi-city-government/
 
Description Nepal Urban Dialogues 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Our City Lead, Sangeeta Singh, has been engaging with (including convening) regular research-policy-practice dialogues on urban development in Nepal. This are productive forums which provide a space for expert and practitioner input to government policies on urban development.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.greeninstitute.institute/event/nepal-urban-dialogue-monthly-series/
 
Description News artcile: Bogazici University works for tomorrow's Istanbul 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Interviews with a local media outlets, including online print and radio. The purpose was to raise the profile of the Hub's work in Istanbul amongst the public.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.arkitera.com/haber/bogazici-universitesi-yarinin-istanbulu-icin-calisacak/
 
Description Newsletter for stakeholders in Istanbul 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Regular newsletters (8 sent so far) in Turkish sent to 428 non-academic stakeholders, with the purpose of raising awareness, building relationships and influencing key actors in the city. Content is integrated with website content and posts on twitter.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020,2021
 
Description Newspaper article: COVID-19 shows why Kenya needs to move from emergency response to integrated risk preparedness 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Article published in Kenyan Newspaper, The Standard, highlighting insights and the approach of the Nairobi City project, and its relevance to the implications of Covid-19. Our blog describing this is here: https://www.tomorrowscities.org/covid-19-shows-why-kenya-needs-move-emergency-response-integrated-risk-preparedness
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/opinion/article/2001395777/we-need-to-step-up-our-disaster-preparedn...
 
Description Physics based simulations of earthquake shaking 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Blog highlighting the novel research of Tomorrow's Cities and its relevance to planning of future urban development.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.tomorrowscities.org/physics-based-simulations-earthquake-shaking
 
Description Presentation to UK Ambassador and Mayor of Quito 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact This was a workshop requested by the UK Ambassador as a result of their involvement in the Quito initial partners meeting, in order to provide further information on Tomorrow's CIties.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Presentation to UK Ambassador to Quito 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact This was a workshop to explore ways in which the British Embassy in Quito can support Tomorrow's Cities, through interactions with the private sector. As a result, we have built a closer relationship with private sector and maintainted a continuing relationship with the Embassy.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Prof Rossetto Interview with Turkish New Channel NTV 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Interview with Turkish News Channel NTV. The purpose was to raise the profile of the Hub's work in Istanbul. As a result, NTV are following progress of the HUB in Istanbul and wish to be informed of any developments and invited to future events. They have also made contact with our local partners Bogazici University (KOERI)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB3wxD_I
 
Description Quito partners meeting 
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 This was the first official meeting of Quito partners, which included participants from Quito municipality, the Minister of the National Secretariat of Risk Management, the Ward Ambassador of the UK in Quito, the Commercial Officer of the British Embassy in Quito, and community members from the neighbourhood San Fransisco de Miravalle. The purpose was to build relationships and start the process of co-producing the Quito work plan. Some key outcomes were a meeting was set-up to present the project to the newly elected Mayor of Quito, and a better understanding of the community perspective of DRR in Quito.
- Separate out - number of discrete meetings were held.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Resilient Quito: a vision of the future 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The purpose of workshop was to facilitate a consensus on the future resilience of Quito among the key actors involved in the development and implementation of public policies, the identification of obstacles and opportunities to enable this transition and the determination of how science, history and art could contribute to this process. From the collective discussions of the workshop, a trajectory of urban development in Quito has been characterized. Obstacles and opportunities to enable an urban transition were identified, including how science, history and art could contribute to this process. In particular, participants highlighted that universities can become key actors for generating knowledge and mediating between governments at all levels, as well as with the public. This has informed the development of research and engagement activities for our Quito team, and build key relationships with city stakeholders.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Royal Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Development Symposium 
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 The Istabul team worked closely with RAE from October 2019 to plan contributions to this event, with members of our team organising and co-chairing two out of the three sessions, as well as co-chairing the whole event. The purpose was to bring together researchers, innovators and practitioners from across disciplines and the globe to discuss disaster resilience. This has resulted in new and strengthened relationships with private and practitioner communities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Strengthening Community-based Disaster Management Institution To Tackle COVID - 19 And Local Disasters 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Article in Nepal national online newspaper highlighting the importance of community-based disaster risk management in relation to Covid-19 and referencing the work of Tomorrow's Cities
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.spotlightnepal.com/2020/04/26/strengthening-community-based-disaster-management-institut...
 
Description The Visioning of a Future Resilient Nairobi 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact On 7 August 2020 the Nairobi Risk Hub hosted a consortium of stakeholders at the The Nairobi Visioning Workshop. The workshop brought together key policy actors drawn from the National and County Governments, civil society, UN agencies, professional societies, the private sector and academia. This workshop facilitated the stakeholders to identify a shared vision for a future resilient Nairobi.

The participants first identified potential challenges and opportunities towards building resilience for the urban poor. Largely private sector driven development with minimal government regulation stood out as a key impediment to urban poor resilience. While acknowledging the critical role played by the private sector in service provision, participants thus advocated for government regulation of private sector service provision and the need for a balance in both government and private led development to enhance resilience of the urban poor. Secondly, they established the role of science in integrating disaster risk management in urban planning and development processes as a key contributor towards a more resilient Nairobi.

By creating a shared vision of a future resilient Nairobi, this workshop was the first step in establishing a Community of Practice around Disaster Risk Reduction. Going forward, this Community of Practice will guarantee continuous contribution to the city's resilience building by either helping guide the research or as participants in the research itself.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://tomorrowscities.org/visioning-future-resilient-nairobi
 
Description To protect the world's most disaster vulnerable cities, we need storytelling, says Iain Stewart, not numbers 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Article in a UK national newspaper on the importance of risk communication, which highlights the work of Tomorrow's Cities
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18305940.protect-worlds-disaster-vulnerable-cities-need-storytel...
 
Description Tomorrow's Cities and Covid-19: a discussion 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Blog reflecting on how Covid-19 has changed the context for working and will likely change the local and policy landscape for the Tomorrow's Cities Hub.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.tomorrowscities.org/tomorrows-cities-and-covid-19-discussion
 
Description Tomorrow's Cities researchers interviewed on BBC World Service 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The magnitude 7 earthquake which took place off Turkey's Aegean coast on 30 October 2020 left 178 buildings collapsed or damaged in Izmir province and on the Greek island of Samos. 113 people are known to have died as a result of the disaster.

Professor Eser Çakti, City Research Lead of Tomorrow's Istanbul, and Professor Tiziana Rosetto, UK Coordinator of Tomorrow's Istanbul, were interviewed by BBC World Service's Science in Action show about the impact of the earthquake, how urban areas can be prepared for seismic activity and what measures Turkey is taking to reduce disaster risk in its cities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.tomorrowscities.org/tomorrows-cities-researchers-interviewed-bbc-world-service
 
Description UK-Kenya Research Symposium - Healthy Cities: Affordable Housing and Sustainable Infrastructure 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Co-hosted by the Kenyan and UK governments, drawing upon and including the Nairobi team of Tomorrow's Cities, the Symposium aimed to showcase how strong partnerships between the UK and African stakeholders are delivering innovations that will benefit all - from understanding the challenges that restrict housing from meeting socio-economic needs of the poorest urban residents, to innovations in materials and sustainable building technologies that use locally available resources. This has led to the empowerment and engagement of academics researchers, civil society and private sector organisations to broker dialogue and create a platform towards the adoption of housing policies that promote sustainable development.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.ukcdr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Technical-Report-UK-Kenya-Research-Symposium-on-...
 
Description Ways to minimise flood risk in Kathmandu 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Blog describing ways forward to address flood risk in Kathmandu
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.tomorrowscities.org/ways-minimise-flood-risk-kathmandu
 
Description Web page for Cabot Institute for the Environment 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This article was intended to increase the viability of the Hub across the Cabot Institute's network of stakeholders and its advisory board that includes the Government Office for Science.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cabot/what-we-do/tomorrows-cities/
 
Description World Cities Day: Co-producing research to reduce disaster risk in Tomorrow's Cities 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Online engagement to showcase Tomorrow's Cities and the relevance of our work to co-producing research to reduce disaster risk.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.tomorrowscities.org/world-cities-day-co-producing-research-reduce-disaster-risk-tomorrow...