This grant supports the mission of the Disasters Roundtable of the National Academy of Sciences, which facilitates and enhances communication and the exchange of ideas among scientists, practitioners, and policy makers to identify emerging issues related to natural, technological, and other disasters. To meet this objective, the Roundtable convenes 2-3 workshops and other activities a year to stimulate discussion that advances the understanding of disaster-related issues and highlights strategies to mitigate the effects of disasters. The impacts of disasters on world health, environment, and economies are increasing as the number of natural, technological, and human caused disasters, and the losses associated with these disasters, increase. Addressing these issues requires cooperative and collaborative work among diverse stakeholder communities at the national, state and local levels, and between the public and private sectors. The Disasters Roundtable facilitates this type of exchange, providing a neutral forum in which representatives from diverse disciplines come together to examine issues, share perspectives, and further the understanding of the entire cycle of preparedness, response and recovery, and resilience to natural, technological, and human caused disasters. In doing so, the Disasters Roundtable occupies a unique and important niche in harnessing and applying the most current thinking among the disaster research, practitioner, and management communities towards disaster related issues.
The Disasters Roundtable membership is comprised of recognized experts who are academicians, practitioners and others in disaster-related fields, with approximately half being ex-officio members that provide financial support for the Roundtable's activities and participate as full members. The Disasters Roundtable leverages the contributions of the ex officio members to achieve the common goals of both the federal agencies, and the larger disaster community, and to inform policy through advances in science, research and technology. By using the unparalleled convening power of the National Academies to bring together experts from diverse sectors, the Disaster Roundtable can illuminate emerging issues, and move towards finding solutions to disaster related issues through advances in science, technology and policy. Disasters Roundtable sessions are carefully structured to feature appropriate presentations and discussions relevant to scientific developments and timely policy issues related to disasters. DR workshops draw 100 attendees or more per event in person and, reach a wider stakeholder community via webcasts and web archives. The DR uses web based opportunities in all of its open activities to extend its opportunities to share information, interact with and educate a broad stakeholder community and promote exchange of information and ideas across fields. The DR also interacts with key Congressional committees, staffers and other government representatives to engage in discussions relevant to science and policy issues related to disasters and hazards. The Disasters Roundtable was established in 2000 and has held more than 30 workshops, meetings, and activities on timely and important disasters-related issues during its tenure.
(DR) of the National Academy of Sciences examines how these impacts can be mitigated through research and advances in science and technology to create a more sustainable world. The DR emphasizes the exchange of ideas and facilitates working relationships between federal agencies, the private sector and experts in the fields of science, engineering, and other disciplines related to hazards. The Roundtable has covered timely topics such as urban/wildland fire, natural disasters and energy policy, sea level rise and coastal disasters, natural disasters lessons for countering terrorism, impacts of climate change on natural disasters, risk communication, earthquake hazards programs, lessons learned from hurricanes, and emergency management. In DR meetings and workshops, the exchange of ideas is facilitated through carefully structured presentations, small group breakouts and discussions. Activities illuminate disciplinary areas of overlap, integration and opportunity to mitigate the negative effects of disasters through advancements in policy, science, technology and research. In the past year, the DR initiated, organized, and held a public workshop: Disasters Roundtable Workshop #37: Building Resilience to Catastrophic Risks through Public-Private Partnerships The recent National Research Council Report, Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative, revealed a strong community of stakeholders eager to advance the efforts of building resilience to catastrophic risks and disasters in the U.S. and internationally. The National Research Council (NRC) has taken a leading role in convening activities to help increase national disaster resilience, and is also working with international stakeholders to share information and lessons learned to promote a more resilient world. The World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Catastrophic Risks (Catastrophic Risks GAC) aims to enhance understanding of catastrophic risks and highlight innovative ways of managing them by drawing on the practices and experience of the world’s leading public and private sector experts, academics and the Risk Response Network of the World Economic Forum (WEF). For its 2012-2013 term, the Catastrophic Risks GAC explored resilience solutions to catastrophic risks grounded in local realities and promoted inter-regional learning. The NRC and the WEF’s Catastrophic Risk GAC partnered to explore opportunities to further build resilience coalitions among decision makers, experts and the private sector. The day-long meeting and workshop: Explored opportunities for public-private coalition building across jurisdictions and sectors. Discussed the exchange of data, best practices and lessons learned through new networks and partnerships. Identified and assesses current catastrophic risk activities that demonstrate resilience building though public-private partnerships. Set a path forward for future NRC and WEF Catastrophic Risk GAC resilience activities. The DR makes it a priority to enable webcasting of DR workshops, news and other activities to extend opportunities for participation to a diverse group of disaster professionals and other interested people. The DR continues to design and redesign the website to include discussion summaries, presentations, videos of speakers and participants of workshops and meetings and other useful information. Please visit our website at: http://dels.nas.edu/dr and http://nas-sites.org/resilience/. In future activities of the DR, topics and issues that may be addressed include: Resilience to catastrophic events from the federal to local levels; Examining ways to better mitigate disproportionate effects of disasters on vulnerable populations; Ecosystem and other environmental impacts of disasters; Risk management in coastal and other hazardous areas; Improving information resources, information sharing, and risk modeling for improved disaster management; Strengthening linkages among disaster management, recovery, and resilience at the national, regional, and local levels; Identifying ways to integrate research and practice of building materials as a means to increase building and community resilience.
