Improving risk knowledge for planning purposes: Critical issues and hints for enhancement

Abstract

The growing exposure and vulnerability of cities to hazardous events and the ineffectiveness of urban planning in providing adequate responses to the need of risk reduction exacerbate the impacts of natural hazards, leading more and more often to disasters. The most recent international documents on disaster risk reduction (DRR) largely emphasize the urgency to review current approaches to risk knowledge, by overcoming the widespread fragmentation and segmentation of data, information and competencies, to better support a risk-informed urban development and to provide more adequate information on risks to different users, including citizens. Thus, starting from a brief analysis of the most critical issues that affect risk knowledge in Italy and according to the objectives of the first priority area of the Sendai Framework 2015–2030, this contribution outlines a methodological frame for building up an integrated risk knowledge base, specifically tailored to planning purposes. Furthermore, based on the outlined methodological frame, three main research questions will be specifically addressed: how to identify the main gaps in existing knowledge; how to shift from a single hazard/risk perspective to a multi-risk perspective, capable of taking into account the potential interactions among different hazard sources; how to improve current knowledge on vulnerability of exposed assets.