Decades of experience and evidence have shown that natural hazards cause disproportionate impacts on underserved populations, further deepening already existing injustices and inequalities. While this evidence exists, only recently have risk modelers begun to reveal these inequities using quantitative methods in their risk and loss assessments, and lack a shared vision, approach, or process. The goal of this focus day session is to build a community of practice to develop a shared vision of the future of risk modeling that acknowledges disaster-exacerbated inequities, centers community priorities, and ultimately enables more just disaster risk reduction decisions.
This session will be largely interactive, attendees will be guided through a series of discussions to outline key opportunities for developing more equitable risk assessment approaches. The session will begin with examples of how organizations, like the U.S. Geological Survey, the World Bank, and Arup, are thinking about centering equity in their risk models. Following these examples, attendees will have the opportunity to share their own work. Key identified themes from these examples and discussions will then be used to prioritize key areas for future work that require attention. Potential themes include: participatory methods to identify risk, drawbacks of applying socially disaggregated risk metrics, and who would benefit from socially equitable risk assessments. Attendees will discuss these themes through small breakout groups.
By the end of this workshop, the risk modeling and disaster justice community will have a shared vision, agenda, and key next steps for future work that is required by public agencies, private institutions, and academic partners to develop and test equity-centered risk modeling approaches.
Note: this is a closed workshop. Attendees should have technical understanding of traditional risk modeling methods and/or demonstrated experience working on equity and social justice issues. If you are interested in participating, please email Sabine Loos at sloos@usgs.gov.
