Forensic Investigations of Disasters (FORIN) report

This document intends to support the research for additional, wider and more fundamental explanations for the on-going rise in disaster losses, through scientific knowledge, planning and design of infrastructure and human settlements, major policy choices, social and cultural practices, beliefs and perceptions, as well as the evolution and proliferation of communication and other technologies or the globalization of the world economy.

It sets out the objectives, concepts and methodological guidelines and suggestions for the design and conduct of a set of internationally organized case studies of disasters, the Forensic Investigation of Disasters (FORIN), as part of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) programme newly launched by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC) and the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR).

The report was prepared by an ad hoc Working Group, set up through meetings in Toronto (February 2010) and Geneva (October 2010) and approved by the Scientific Committee for the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk in Paris, April 2011.