IDRiM2010 HELD IN VIENNA, AUSTRIA IN SEPTEMBER

15 September 2010

The 1st IDRiM Conference of the International Society for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM Society) was successfully held at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU), in Vienna, Austria from 1-4 September 2010.

The conference was launched with remarks from Professor Martin Gerzabek, Rector of BOKU, and Professor Norio Okada, President of DPRI, as well as Professor Hans Peter Nachtnebel, the local organizer from BOKU.



Photo: Professor Norio Okada, Director of DPRI, and newly elected President of the IDRiM Society.

The theme of the conference was “Sharing IDRiM experiences under different socio-economic and cultural contexts.” In total more than 80 participants were gathered for the occasion and more than 50 speakers, with different backgrounds and from diverse countries including Algeria, Bangladesh, China, Colombia, European Union, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea, Nepal, United States, and Venezuela, shared their research findings in the field of IDRiM.



Photo: Participants to the 1st IDRiM Conference at BOKU, Vienna, Austria, during the closing ceremony on 3 October 2010.

This memorable occasion was the first meeting of the IDRiM Society after it was officially launched at the 9th IIASA-DPRI Forum on Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM Forum) in Kyoto, last year. The IDRiM Society was established based on a series of annual meetings on integrated disaster risk management organized since 2001 by the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI) of Kyoto University, and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). The General Assembly meeting of the IDRiM Society was held at the conference on 2 September. The Board of Directors and the President of the IDRiM Society were elected during the General Assembly. Professor Norio Okada was elected as the first president of the Society.

Successful Launching in Kyoto of the IDRiM Society for Integrated Disaster Risk Management

October 2009

The international Society for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (the IDRiM Society), and its Journal (IDRiM Journal) were launched on October 15, 2009 in Kyoto, Japan, at the 9th IIASA-DPRI Conference on Integrated Disaster Risk Management. The IDRiM Society is an initiative of DPRI – the Disaster Prevention Research Institute of Kyoto University and IIASA- the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and promoted by many national and international organizations including Beijing Normal University, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES, Iran), National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED), Japan Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Research Center (EDM), the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR), and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC/EC). The IDRiM Society was enthusiastically welcomed and its Charter approved by more than 100 international experts, practitioners, and individuals from more than 20 different countries working in the disaster risk management field.

The group of founding members composed of Prof. Norio Okada (Director, DPRI), Dr. Aniello Amendola (IIASA), Prof. Hirokazu Tatano (DPRI), Dr. Mohsen Ghafory-Ashtiany (IIEES and IEEA), Dr. Reinhard Mechler (IIASA), and Dr. Ana Maria Cruz (DPRI) announced that IDRiM Society’s main objective is to promote interdisciplinary research on integrated disaster risk management contributing to the implementation of success models for efficient and equitable disaster risk reduction by people, businesses and governments exposed to the vagaries of nature. A key ambition of the society is foster integration between disciplines, stakeholders, levels of government, and between global, regional, national, local and individual efforts in disaster risk management that fill the gap between theory and practice.

The Society’s International Journal of Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM Journal) will promote knowledge transfer and dissemination of information and concepts on integrated disaster risk management and validated implementation technologies. A prestigious interdisciplinary editorial board has been nominated and will take office in January 2010.

(Add here a quote or nice comment by Prof. Norio Okada, Prof. Shi, Craig Duncan or someone from outside. Does anyone remember?)No: but we could ask them, maybe Duncan would be best as rather neutral?

For more information on the IDRiM Society and Journal contact Dr. Hirokazu Tatano (tatano@imdr.mbox.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp) or Dr. Ana Maria Cruz (cruzanamaria2000@yahoo.com).