Tokyo Conference on International Study for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience

Towards a new science and technology to consolidate disaster risk reduction and sustainable development

This meeting, which takes place prior to the 3rd UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (3rdWCDRR), will bring together decision makers and leading scientists to discuss how science and technology can contribute to disaster risk reduction and foster sustainable development.

Discussions will be based on the following three viewpoints:

1) It is highly likely that global losses resulting from natural disasters will increase in the future. Early action on recognised disaster risks is essential to sustainable development and to building resilient nations and communities. This conference will explore possibilities to collaborate with Future Earth in the field of earth environmental sciences, and with the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), and to contribute to goal-setting for Sustainable Development Goals on disaster reduction.

2) Reducing disaster risks will depend on implementing evidenced disaster preventive measures at regional, national, local and community levels. The conference will demonstrate several 'best practice' examples of disaster risk reduction, and will include transdisciplinary discussions with participants from relevant stakeholder groups.

3) The recovery process following the Tohoku Earthquake has demonstrated the need to take a comprehensive multi-hazards approach in order to implement effective and efficient disaster preventive measures in society. The conference will identify improved methods of scientific collaboration to avoid hazards becoming disaster risks, and to increase disaster risk awareness in decision-making processes. Conference particpants will also discuss common indicators to measure progress, based on the evidence available, and to drive forward the post -2015 Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (HFA2).

An output of the Conference will be a set of proposals for establishing close coordination between sustainable development and disaster risk reduction across all aspects of policy-making and planning relevant to the development of infrastructure and social systems.