Networks & Communities

DIPECHO DRR Partner Platform in SE Africa and the SW Indian Ocean

The European Commission’s Disaster Preparedness/ECHO partner platform in SE Africa and the SW Indian Ocean aims to facilitate coordination and DRR knowledge sharing between the 14 iNGO and UN partners implementing DIPECHO projects in Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique. The platform's website is one of the tools used to achieve this aim, and is accessible in English, French and Portuguese.

On the website you can: Learn about where the DIPECHO II partners in southeast Africa and the southwest Indian Ocean are working and what they are doing to increase the resilience of vulnerable communities in the face of disasters, and find out whom to contact if you’d like more information; Search for and download documents and materials created by the partners and other DRR technical documents according to different search criteria; Read about how partners are making a difference in the lives of people where DIPECHO works through their stories; Read about partners’ news and events, and get informed about the important dates and activities on their calendars; Read about innovations in DRR and donor trends; Members of the site can start or participate in a discussion on DRR technical issues (all users of this site can read the discussions); Members of the site can visit the DRR Questions/Answers page to post a question, a problem or a request related to our DRR technical work and connect up with members who can help; Share your feedback on this site.

Disaster Preparedness Network (DPNet)

Established in 1996, the Disaster Preparedness Network (DP-Net) is envisioned as a loose association of individual organisations within the development sector in Nepal, which are concerned with disaster management. The network aims to assist individuals and organisations to prepare for, and respond to and manage disaster should it strike. DP-Net works closely with Government of Nepal through its agencies, which are concerned with disaster preparedness and management. DP-Net complements the effort of these agencies to inform and prepare organisations and communities to deal effectively with disasters. DP-Net are concerned with natural disasters such as earthquake, floods, droughts and landslide. It will also cover disasters such as epidemic, flood and fire that occur often in towns and villages. DP-Net work closely with the Government institutions but as facilitator to Disaster Preparedness activities in Nepal. Thus, DP-Net allows and encourages promoting effective coordination and communication as well developing knowledge management with its all stakeholders in Nepal.

Knowledge sharing platform on disaster risk reduction

DisasterPreparedness.ICIMOD.org is a Knowledge Sharing Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) practitioners. The website is community driven, and mainly serves as a dynamic online repository for materials such as publications, reports, articles, links and news related to DRR.

For more information, visit: http://www.disasterpreparedness.icimod.org/dipecho-list.php We welcome you all to join our Group Mail which facilitates knowledge-networking among more than 400 DRR practitioners.

Probability, uncertainty and risk in the environment (PURE)

What is Probability, Uncertainty and Risk in the Environment (PURE)?

PURE has two elements: the PURE Network and the PURE Programme:

PURE Network

The PURE Network is a research and knowledge exchange network, which will run for four years (2011-2015) to stimulate good practice guidance and the standardisation of the assessment and quantification of uncertainty and risk across natural hazards science. The network will achieve this by bringing together researchers, industrialists and policy-makers through collaborative working and knowledge exchange. The network will help to shape the direction of future research and provide valuable information to practitioners in environmental risk management.

The network is hosted on the Technology Strategy Board's Connect-me platform which is open to all to join.

PURE Programme

The PURE Programme is a four year research programme which will run from 2012 until 2016. The aim of the programme is to improve the assessment and quantification of uncertainty and risk in natural hazards by developing new methods and demonstrating their applicability to enhance the uptake of natural hazards science.

A consortium group will deliver the programme and will focus on the following priority hazards:

Flooding hazards
Multi-phase fluid flow hazards such as avalanches, landslides, rockslides and pyroclastic flows
Earthquake hazards
Hydro-meteorological non-flooding hazards such as storms, droughts and heatwaves.

Who will Benefit?

- Academia, industry and government will benefit hugely from the sharing of techniques and methods used to quantify risk and uncertainty in natural hazards science.

What will PURE achieve?

Outputs:

- Enhanced interaction between industry, academia, Government Departments and Research Councils.

- The opening up of new commercial opportunities for UK businesses in the financial services and insurance sectors.

- Good practice user guidance for flooding.

- A web-based Knowledge Portal which willact as a directory of research and data for users of research. The Knowledge Portal may also contain an experimental zone where techniques and knowledge can be shared.

Outcomes:

- Good practice guidance and standardisation of uncertainty and risk assessment and quantification across the natural hazards community.

- Greater clarity and consensus about the most appropriate methods to quantify uncertainty and risk in natural hazards science.

- New and improved methods, tools and benchmarks for quantifying and assessing uncertainty and risk in natural hazards developed, accepted, disseminated and used.

Impacts:

- Improved assessment and quantification of uncertainty and risk in natural hazards science and also in other scientific areas.

- Improved communication of uncertainty and risk in natural hazards science increases public confidence in natural hazards information.

FACTS AND FIGURES

Start and End dates: 2011-2016