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Istanbul, Turkey | Disaster Resilience | 2-4 March 2020

This Frontiers of Development symposium took place in Istanbul, Turkey from 2-4 March 2020 on the theme of Disaster Resilience.

The symposium benefitted from close links to the GCRF Hub on Disaster Cities and partnered with Boğaziçi University. The event was co-chaired by Dr Cassidy Johnson, Associate Professor at the Bartlett Development Planning Unit, University College London, and Professor Erdal Safak, Professor at the Earthquake Engineering Department of Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute of Boğaziçi University.

The symposium discussed the global challenges posed by a range of disaster threats, as well as the opportunities posed by embedding disaster resilience into international development interventions. The sub themes of the event were as follows:

  • Understanding vulnerabilities and crisis points including systemic vulnerabilities
  • The importance of governance in resilience building and embedding disaster resilience into broader development interventions
  • Efficient post disaster recovery phase that supports wellbeing

Event Chairs

Dr Cassidy Johnson, Bartlett Development Planning Unit, University College London

Cassidy's academic interests are linked by a commitment to improve the quality of life and livelihoods of low-income groups living in urban areas. Her research contributes to the area of disaster risk reduction and recovery and to the role of local governments and civil society in this. Interested in integrating an understanding of disaster-risk into development, her work encompasses issues of resilience, urban planning, housing reconstruction, building code regulations, informal settlements, upgrading, and evictions. Originally from Canada, she has engaged internationally with policy makers as well as with local communities across Asia and Africa, including Turkey, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi. Her PhD looked at the process of housing recovery after the 1999 Kocaeli earthquakes in Turkey. She has a sustained record of research funding from a wide range of funders including UK research councils, multi-donor funded entities, and private foundations. A recent project, Urban Africa Risk Knowledge looked at the interface between poverty, risk and urbanisation across sub-Saharan Africa through an examination of the efficacy of urban planning processes to address disaster risk in Karonga, a small town in North Malawi. Another project, Metrics for Urban Resilience in Informal Settlements, engaged with NGOs, local government and community organisations to develop strategies for addressing everyday risks in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. She is co-Chair of the Urban Planning Advisory Group for the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, which has recently published “Words into Action: Implementation guide for land use and urban planning.”

Professor Erdal Safak

Erdal Safak is a Professor at the Earthquake Engineering Department of Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute of Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey. He received his Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the U.S. and was a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey for 22 years, specializing on structural response to earthquakes, ground motion modelling, structural monitoring, and data analysis. He thought classes at Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado and The George Washington University in Washington, DC.  In August 2006, he joined to Boğaziçi University, and was the Head of the Earthquake Engineering Department until July 2018. He has had 10 Ph.D. and 3 Postdoctoral students supervised, and a large number of completed and ongoing research projects funded by the U.S. Geological Survey, NATO, UNDP, European Union, and various government agencies in Turkey (e.g., Ministries, municipalities, universities), as well as private companies.  He has over 50 papers on referred journals, more than one hundred conference papers, and over 2,500 citations to his publications.

 

Symposium sub-themes

1. Understanding vulnerabilities and crisis points including systemic vulnerabilities 

Session Co-Chairs: Professor Eser Cakti and Dr Jair Torres 

Presentations:

  • Challenges in Understanding, Measuring, and Communicating Emergent Vulnerabilities to Natural Hazards and Disasters. Dr Christopher Burton, Auburn University
  • Understanding systemic vulnerabilities through the social lenses of technologies in warning systems: Case Study from 2018 Palu tsunami in Indonesia. Irina Rafliana, DIE (German Development Institute), LIPI (Indonesian Institute of Sciences).
  • Identifying New Vulnerabilities and Multidisciplinary Solutions for Mass Notification and Hazard Early Warning. Joshua Bashioum, Early Warning Labs.
  • GRAph-based Model (GRAM) to assessment disaster risk of complex systems. Dr Marcello Arosio, IUSS Pavia.         

2. The importance of governance in resilience building and embedding disaster resilience into broader development interventions 

Session Co-Chairs: Dr Max Hope and Shaila Shahid

Presentations:

  • Embedding disaster resilience into broader development interventions and governance. Dr Zakir Hossain, Farmers’ Voice
  • Link between DRR, resilience, adaptation into development: case of floods, earthquakes and refugees in Turkey Dr Berna Burcak Basbug Erkan, Coventry University.
  • Whose disaster and whose resilience? Dr Mark Tebboth, University of East Anglia. 

3. Efficient post-disaster recovery phase that supports wellbeing

Session Co-Chairs: Dr Ebru Gencer and Dr Fatemah Franaz Arefian 

Presentations

  • Recovery process in disaster at local level: The Case Study of Amadora Municipality. Luis Carvalho, Civil Protection of Amadora.
  • The role of women as leaders in disaster recovery and resilience – the Australian Black Summer Bushfires. Amanda Lamont, Australasian Women in Emergencies
  • About ‘ICORP On the Road’ Project. Professor Zeynep Gül Ünal, ICOMOS ICORP International

Visit to the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute

Participants had the opportunity to visit the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute, where weather and earthquake activity across the region are monitored in real-time, offering data for response efforts as well as the Institute’s researchers. The visit helped put the event theme into the local context, where residents of Istanbul expect one large earthquake approximately every 100 years. Staff at the observatory demonstrated equipment in their material testing laboratory, as well as showing participants how monitoring activities are undertaken.

Seed funding

At the end of the symposium participants worked together in new collaborative partnerships to apply for seed funding awards of up to £20,000 that will help to kick-start new interdisciplinary projects that address global challenges, especially those related to disaster resilience. For a full list of awarded projects, visit this page.