The winter floods have again alerted us to the vulnerability of the UK's infrastructure to natural hazards. The IRDR will host a panel discussion of invited experts to interrogate how to reduce our vulnerability to future events and how to increase the resilience of critical infrastructure, from hospitals to nuclear power stations.
Session 2: Cascading Crises
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described the disasters of conflict, refugees, rising food and fuel prices and drought as a cascading crisis sweeping the Sahel. But cascading crises are not new: the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, with fire sweeping the city fanned by an ill-timed cyclone, caused unprecedented damage but also political change as police assignation squads eliminated political and trade union leaders under the cover of the disaster. This session examines the interaction between physical phenomena and society, emphasis cross-boarder and international aspects of cascading crises.
Lunch
Session 3: Keynote address
Session 4: In Conversation session
Dougal Goodman, Chief Executive of the Foundation for Science and Technology, former head of safety at BP and former Deputy Director of the British Antarctic Survey, will be interviewed by Pallab Ghosh, a BBC Science Correspondant, on "Managing Risks in Business and Government".
Session 5: Poster Session on "Building resilience of communities and infrastructure to single and multi- hazards". This will be accompanied by the IRDR Summer Party.
Gower Street, WCE BT, Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre on the Main UCL Campus