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The overall objective of this study is envisaged to provide decision makers with actionable insights and access to multi-risk maps for the most in-danger stave churches (SCs) among the existing 28 churches at high spatial resolution to better understand, reduce and mitigate single- and multi-risk. In addition, the present contribution aims to provide decision makers with some information to face the exacerbation of the risk caused by the expected climate change.

Material and data collection started with the consultation of the available literature related to: (1) SCs' conservation status, (2) available methodologies suitable in multi-hazard approach and (3) vulnerability leading indicators to consider when dealing with the impact of natural hazards specifically on immovable cultural heritage.

The paper contributes to a better understanding of place-based vulnerability with local mapping dimension also considering future threats posed by climate change. The results highlight the danger at which the SCs of Røldal, in case of floods, and of Ringebu, Torpo and Øye, in case of landslide, may face and stress the urgency of increasing awareness and preparedness on these potential hazards.

The contribution for the first time aims to homogeneously collect and report all together existing spread information on architectural features, conservation status and geographical attributes for the whole group of SCs by accompanying this information with as much as possible complete 2D sections collection from existing drawings and novel 3D drawn sketches created for this contribution. Then the paper contributes to a better understanding of place-based vulnerability with local mapping dimension also considering future threats posed by climate change. Then it highlights the danger of floods and landslides at which the 28 SCs are subjected. Finally it reports how these risks will change under the ongoing impact of climate change.

In the event of a disaster, educational institutions like schools serve as lifeline buildings. Hence, it is crucial to safeguard these buildings for the communities that may depend on the school as a disaster shelter and aid center. Thus, this paper aims to conduct a multihazard risk assessment survey at 50 schools (with 246 building blocks) in Dehradun.

The past few decades have witnessed the impact of multihazard frequency in Uttarakhand, India, due to the geographical features of the Himalayas and its neo-tectonic mountain-building process. Dehradun is the capital of Uttarakhand state and comes under seismic zone IV, which is highly prone to earthquakes.

The hazard assessment is divided into two types of surveys: first, building-level surveys that include rapid visual screening, nonstructural risk assessment and fire safety audit, and second, campus-level surveys that include vulnerability analysis for earthquake, flood, industrial hazard, landslide and wind.

This paper will list several gaps and unrecognized practices in the region that increase the schools’ multihazard risk. The study’s outcome will help prioritize the planning of disaster awareness, retrofitting execution, future construction practices and decision-making to minimize the risk and prepare the school for the upcoming disasters.

Physical data were collected by the author to determine the multihazard risk analysis in 50 schools in the Dehradun District of Uttarakhand, India. The building- and campus-level surveys have been used to generate a database for the retrofit and renovation process for each individual school to use their budget fruitfully and in a planned way. The survey conducted is more effort and a more detailed risk evaluation which necessitates effectively mitigating and ensuring the potential safety of the region’s schools.

This study aims to identify the regions with a high risk of natural disaster, estimate the proportion of households potentially participating in natural disaster insurance and analyze the relationship between disaster risk index and proportion of household potentially participating in natural disaster insurance.

Descriptive and quadrant analysis was applied on the 2019 Indonesia Disaster Risk Index (IRBI) scores and the 2019 National Socio-Economic Survey data.

The results showed there are only two categories of disaster risks in Indonesia based on IRBI categorization: “Medium” and “High.” Some districts in Aceh Province such as Simeuleu, Pidie Jaya and Banda Aceh City were observed to have a high proportion of households potentially participating in the natural disaster insurance while some in Jawa Tengah provinces have fairly low level even though they were categorized as high disaster-prone areas. Moreover, the quadrant analysis showed that 43 districts have high IRBI scores but low insurance participation rates with most discovered to be in Jawa Barat and Sumatera Selatan provinces.

Indonesia does not have a financial mitigation program up to the present time because almost all disaster resolutions are formulated based on emergency funds from the state budget even though it is important to use insurance schemes in all stages of disaster management. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to identify households potentially participating in natural disaster insurance through the National Socio-Economic Survey in Indonesia.

The purpose is to derive the most effective place in the air for an aerial robot, viz., drone to use as an alternative communication system during disasters.

In this technology-driven era, various concepts are becoming the area of interest for multiple researchers. Drone technology is also one of them. The researchers, with interest in drones, are therefore trying to understand the various uses of employing drones in diverse applications which are mind-boggling, starting from civil applications (viz., an inspection of power lines, counting wildlife, delivering medical supplies to inaccessible regions, forest fire detection, and landslide measurement) to military applications (viz., real-time monitoring, surveillance, patrolling, and demining). However, one area where its usage is still to be exploited in many countries is using drones as a relay when communication lines are disrupted due to natural calamities. This will be particularly helpful in rescuing the affected people as the aerial node will enable them to communicate to the rescue team using mobiles/ordinary landline telephones even when regular communication towers are destroyed due to disastrous natural calamities, for example, tsunamis, earthquakes, and floods. Various algorithms, namely, water filling algorithm, advanced water filling algorithm, equal power distribution algorithm, and particle swarm optimization, were therefore studied and analyzed using simulation in addition to various path loss models to realize the desired place for an aerial robot, viz., drone in the air, which will eventually be used as an alternative communication system for badly hit ground users due to any disaster.

It was found that the effective combination of the water filling algorithm and particle swarm optimization algorithm may be done to place the drone in the air to increase the overall throughput of the affected ground users.

The research is original. None of the parts of this research paper has been published anywhere.

The transcript is of one from a number of interviews with disaster risk reduction (DRR) “pioneers” carried out in 2022 as a part of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) project to record the history of the field. It aims to enable one of the “pioneers” to explain his role in the emergence of disaster studies and provide critical commentary on what he considers is wrong with current DRR approaches.

Terry Cannon was interviewed to explain the beginnings of his involvement in disasters research and to comment on his views on progress in the field of disaster risk reduction since his early work in the 1980s. The transcript and video were developed in the context of the UNDRR project on the history of DRR.

The interview provides an account of the origins of the book “At Risk” and why it was considered necessary. This is put into the context of how the field of DRR has emerged since the 1980s. It elicits opinions on what he considers the gaps in both his early work (especially in the book “At Risk” of which he was a co-author) and in the field of DRR recently.

It provides historical context on how early disaster research developed the alternative framework of “social construction” of disasters, in opposition to the idea that they are “natural”. It challenges some of the approaches that have emerged as DRR and has been institutionalised, including its increasing difficulty in supporting the ideas of social construction.

This conversation highlights the need to rethink how we approach disaster risk reduction in different South Asian contexts.

This paper is based on the webinar held as part of Asia Week at the University of Copenhagen which was organised by Asian Dynamics Initiative and Copenhagen Centre for Disaster Research on the September 12, 2023.

The prominent themes emerging from this conversation represents hybridity, self-rule and self-recovery. Along with this we suggest a fundamental turn to ensuring hope, solidarity and empathy is part of a post-colonial future.

The conversation contributes to the ongoing discussions on moving away from colonial practices in disaster risk reduction and disaster studies broadly.

This study explores the relationships among sustainability implementation barriers (resource, managerial and regulatory barriers), sustainability practices (sustainable construction materials, sustainable construction design, modern construction methods and environmental provisions and reporting) and sustainability performance (environmental, economic and social) in hill road construction (HRC).

Primary data were collected from the 313 HRC practitioners with the help of a questionnaire, and research hypotheses were tested employing structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal a mixed effect of sustainability implementation barriers. Resource (managerial) barriers are negatively related to all practices except environmental provisions and reporting (sustainable construction materials), while regulatory barriers only negatively impact modern construction methods. On the other hand, all sustainability practices positively impact environmental performance, whereas economic (social) performance is positively influenced by all practices, except environmental provisions and reporting (modern construction methods), and positively affects economic performance.

In order to transform HRC toward sustainability, the barriers to sustainability implementation, sustainability practices and performance need to be understood by practitioners; however, the relationships have not previously been empirically assessed in extant literature. Besides, past research appears to be predominantly focused on the environmental aspect, thereby neglecting economic and social aspects. This study is a modest attempt to bridge these research gaps.