Risk and Resilience Program

The major risks facing the world—from extreme events, to food and water security, to climate change—are complex, systemic, and far-reaching. Building on a history of ground-breaking research, the Risk and Resilience Program is well positioned to take an interdisciplinary, systems perspective on risk policy problems. The program aims to help transform the way societies manage risks while confronting the global trends amplifying them. There is also a strong emphasis on enhancing the resilience of vulnerable communities, countries, and regions.

Objectives
  • Develop the next generation of the Risk and Resilience Program’s Catastrophe Simulation Model to incorporate interdependent risks and longer-term scenarios, with applications to flood resilience, the Loss and Damage Mechanism, UN Sustainable Development Goals, and other risk topics.
  • As part of the Flood Resilience Alliance, co-develop innovative resilience measurements and management methods and tools.
  • Expand into new areas of risk research exploring contributions to the energy-water-nexus and how to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
  • Further develop and apply the Risk and Resilience Program’s participatory process design incorporating the heterogeneity of stakeholder views, multi-criteria analysis, and social media applications.
  • Initiate and develop an extensive research network informing policymakers on how to address the loss and damage associated with the impacts of climate change, particularly in vulnerable developing countries.
  • Establish a broad, capacity-building platform on disaster risk management and resilience to serve relevant institutions in IIASA member countries.