Call for papers: Redefining disaster risk: Equity-centered approaches to risk assessment

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A breastfeeding mother knitting a cap while waiting to get her baby attended to at a stabilization center managed by International Rescue Committee in Bama local government area, Borno State, Nigeria
Adedeji Ademigbuji/UNOCHA

Decades of disaster research have consistently emphasized how natural hazards disproportionately affect marginalized groups. Traditional disaster risk modeling frameworks overlook these disparities, hindering the development of more equitable disaster risk reduction strategies. This special issue aims to redefine disaster risk assessment by bringing together studies that explicitly prioritize procedural, recognitional, and/or distributive equity in their risk assessment approaches. Such studies could include new approaches or information that capture disparate impacts, recognize local needs and histories, or include marginalized groups in decision-making.

Guest editors

Sabine Loos, PhD Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Michigan, MI, United States

Robert Soden, PhD School of the Environment, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Jasper Verschuur, PhD Delft University of Technology, Zuid-Holland, Netherland

Nicole Paul, PhD Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, Univ. College London, London, United Kingdom

Kanako Iuchi, PhD Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

Special issue information

Decades of disaster research have repeatedly highlighted how the effects of natural hazards disproportionately impact marginalized groups. Despite this, traditional disaster risk modeling frameworks fail to capture or account for these disparities, preventing the development of disaster risk reduction management strategies that prioritize equity considerations. Moreover,these disparities may widen when the process by which conventional approaches are conducted neglects local needs, values, and perspectives. This special issue aims to bring together studies that explicitly prioritize procedural, recognitional, and distributive justice through new approaches to risk information throughout the disaster risk management cycle (mitigation, preparedness, response, relief, and rehabilitation). Such studies could include new approaches or information that capture disparate impacts, recognize local needs and histories, or include marginalized groups in decision-making.

Questions of particular interest include

  • ​How can the disaster risk assessment process be structured to prioritize the needs of multiple users, especially communities most vulnerable to disasters?
  • Who is and should be involved in disaster risk assessment projects?
  • What are alternative ways of considering risk that move beyond fatalities, losses, or other traditional metrics?
  • How have equity-informed risk assessments been explored for use in planning and decision-making and what barriers exist for their use?
  • How has data been collected to support equity-informed risk assessments, such as disaggregated loss, longitudinal impact, or infrastructure disruption data?
  • Can we reimagine alternative disaster risk assessment methods and applications that differ from historical precedence?

This special issue is open to multiple submission types, including original research and review articles. We hope to include a diverse set of papers from authors of different disciplines and countries represented. To support this goal, the free open access period will be extended to authors from low- and middle-income countries for the first 6 months after publication.For any questions, please direct questions to the special issue email address: [email protected].

Manuscript submission information

Submission deadline: Aug 31, 2025.

Please refer to the guide for authors to prepare your manuscript. Once the manuscript is ready, please submit it through the editorial manager, click "Submit New Manuscript" and select the article type "VSI:Equity and Risk Assessment" from the dropdown list.

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