Developing Disaster Risk Science

By reviewing the disaster reduction implementation science system, the necessity of developing disaster risk science is discussed and its preliminary framework is proposed in this paper. At the third IIASA-DPRI Forum on Integrated Disaster Risk Management, Okada (2003) presented the disaster reduction implementation science system, that is, the Networking of Vitae System, and expatiated on the structure, function, and system dynamic issues of integrated risk management. Influenced by the Vitae System of integrated risk management and based on the disaster system framework proposed by Shi in 1991, the authors examine the three basic components of disaster risk science, that is, disaster science, emergency technology, and risk management. Building upon these discussions, the structure, function, and dynamic system of integrated risk management are further explored, with the understanding that the core of integrated risk management is to optimize development and disaster reduction, to combine governmental and non-governmental disaster reduction actions, to integrate structural and non-structural countermeasures, and finally to form the regional integrated disaster reduction paradigm.