UCL Institute for Risk & Disaster Reduction
Associated UCL Centres
Aon Benfield UCL Hazard
Centre
www.abuhc.org/
EPICentre - Earthquake
People Interaction Centre
www.epicentreonline.com
Development Planning
Unit
www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu
Tropical Storm Risk
www.tropicalstormrisk.com
Rock & Ice Physics
Laboratory
www.es.ucl.ac.uk/ripl
Centre for Ethics & Law
www.ucl.ac.uk/silva/laws/
law-ethics
Statistical Science
www.ucl.ac.uk/Stats/
Mullard Space Science
Laboratory
www.ucl.ac.uk/mssl/
Extreme Citizen Science
www.ucl.ac.uk/excites/
Institute for Sustainable
Resources
www.ucl.ac.uk/sustainableresources/
Centre of Advanced
Spatial Analysis
www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/casa
EngD Centre for Urban
Sustainability & Resilience
engd-usar.cege.ucl.ac.uk
Institute for Global Health
www.ucl.ac.uk/global-health
Environment Institute
www.ucl.ac.uk/environmentinstitute/
School of Public Policy
www.ucl.ac.uk/spp/
UCL Institute for Risk & Disaster Reduction
University College London
Gower Street, London
WC1E 6BT
United Kingdom
web: www.ucl.ac.uk/rdr
phone: +44 (0)20 3108 1101
email: irdr-info@ucl.ac.uk
JOIN: www.ucl.ac.uk.rdr/join
Follow@UCLIRDR
Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction
Director: Professor Peter Sammonds
Deputy Director: Dr Rosanna Smith
www.ucl.ac.uk/rdr
A Global Challenge
Natural disasters destroy lives and
damage economies across the globe;
pandemics have the potential to bring
suffering on an unprecedented scale;
industrial disasters can cause regional
environmental damage; climate change
increases the risks to water and food
security; while multiple hazards may
interact to deliver unforeseen
consequences. How society sees risk,
Research Themes in Risk & Disaster Reduction
how to link understanding of the causative
mechanics to statistical approaches, and
how to increase resilience and reduce the
risk of disasters are common themes
cutting across research in natural,
environmental, health and technological
hazards. Reducing global risks and
disasters presents a colossal challenge
that requires coordinated and
collaborative action.
Institute for Risk & Disaster Reduction
UCL is uniquely well-placed to lead
research and teaching in risk and disaster
reduction (RDR), with 70 academics
across 12 departments and 7 faculties
engaged in world-class research and
practice in the field. We aim to maximize
the impact and value of our activities in
risk and disaster reduction, and to
increase and enhance cross-disciplinary
collaboration and cooperation, by bringing
together individual areas of expertise,
under the umbrella of
the UCL Institute for
Risk & Disaster
Reduction (IRDR)
built around
established centres
across UCL and
contributing to the
UCL Grand Challenges.
The IRDR leads RDR projects, runs an
interdisciplinary RDR doctoral training
centre and organizes a PG Certificate
and MRes in Risk & Disaster Reduction.
The IRDR provides:
• A physical hub for UCL’s RDR
activities, located in the South Wing on
the Main UCL Campus.
• An intellectual hub, organizing IRDR
Forums, the Annual Conference, highprofile public events and exhibitions.
• Expert analysis.
• Knowledge exchange through building
long-term international partnerships,
publishing high-impact reports and
engaging with the media.
• Support for student engagement.
• A gateway to UCL’s broad RDR
activities and teaching portal.
• How does society organize itself in
response to risk?
• Why are the impacts of natural,
environmental and health catastrophes
increasing?
• Can advances in satellite observation
and numerical simulations improve our
ability to mitigate extreme events?
• How can engineers reduce the risk of
disasters?
• Can we link our understanding of the
transmission of infectious agents with
epidemiology to mitigate pandemics?
• What effect will climate change have on
the severity of extreme events?
IRDR at a Glance:
• How are technological risks impacted
by geohazards?
• How do we transfer scientific
knowledge and technical know-how?
• What are our legal and ethical
responsibilities to victims of disasters?
• Can we ever manage disasters?
Arctic risk project
Fracking risk UK
Iceland
Ash cloud report
Haiti Thinking Development
Student engagement
Norway NTNU
PhD Studentship
Russia
Space partnership
Japan
Tohoku report
Partnership
Oceans
Tsunami PhD
Bolivia CAFOD
Water risk project
Italy
Quakes project
Bangladesh
Water risk project
Iran
UCL conference
Greece
PhD Studentships
Partnership