Open Mapping to Address Donor-Driven Risks

Summary:

Open Knowledge Kit (OK Kit) is a free and open-source tool kit to empower local communities with digital employment through geospatial data collection, analytics and monitoring toward the stewardship of their economic, climate, and social prosperity. Surveys, disaster and climate change modeling and 3D reconstruction are now possible at much lower costs, training local and non-technical communities. OK Kit Addresses the key barriers to achieving the SDGs: 1. Short-term and uncoordinated donor projects led by community outsiders 2. Expensive, proprietary and closed technology systems 3. The gender gap 4. Decent Work. https://celinaagaton.com

Speakers:

Carolyn Florey
Celina Agaton
Mahar Lagmay
Stephen Mather
Ivan Gayton

 

Urban Heat: Causes and Solutions

Summary:

Asian cities are impacted at an unprecedented speed by climate change and urbanisation. Since the mid-1970s, Singapore has warmed at a rate of 0.25 degrees Celsius per decade, which is higher than the global average rate of 0.17 degree Celsius. Developing nature, design, and engineering-based strategies to tackle urban heat risk at high density urban areas should be at the core of every urban climate resilience plan. Through the session, our expert panellists will discuss the main factors that cause urban heat risk, from global climate change to air conditioners at each household, and highlight the consequences on energy consumption and wellbeing. Our expert panellists will share potential solutions, i.e., climate a digital urban climate twin, user-friendly modelling tools, climate sensitive urban planning, as well as experience in Singapore and other cities and climate zones. Better understandings on urban heat risk will motivate city planners, policymakers and the industry to work together and develop strategies for hazard adaptation in our cities. Join the session and develop crucial capabilities to assess and reduce heat-related risks in the urban context.

Speakers:

Jonas Jörin
Wen Tung Chiu
Chao Yuan
Jan Carmeliet

 

From Space to Community

Summary:

Satellite and distributed data gathering hold enormous potential to improve disaster risk management, leading to leaps in the ability to forecast, respond and recover. However, getting the information into the hands of decision-makers at the community level at the time and in the form they need it is beset with challenges. Drawing on experience with droughts, floods and earthquakes in urban and rural settings, the panellists will discuss the steps that need to be taken to link people and data.

Speakers:

Andrew agaton
Futong Chen
Peeranan Towashiraporn
Jan Jaap Brinkmann

 

Post-COP26 Climate Risk Landscape

Summary:

Regional experts including Melissa Low (Energy Studies Institute, NUS) will give a round-up of the impact of the latest climate summit on the regional risk landscape.

Speakers:

Chan Ghee Koh
Melissa Low
Lutfey Siddiqi
Koh Lian Pin

 

Is it Really Risky? Why Experts and the Public Disagree about Risks

Summary:

The public and experts are sometimes closely aligned in terms of what they consider to be a high risk. But there are also many cases of divergence, cases when experts and the public seem to disagree about what is risky. Sometimes it is experts who consider the public to be underestimating risks and behaving irresponsibly – of eating a high-fat diet, or not completing a prescribed course of medicine, for example – but in other cases, it is the public that is more worried about risks – of getting children vaccinated, or living near to a hazardous waste disposal site – leaving them frustrated that experts do not appear to be taking their concerns seriously. When these gaps go unresolved, people fail to take protective actions which would benefit them or, conversely, experience needless anxiety, and distrust builds up. This session focuses in on these Risk Perception Gaps, identifying domains and types of risks where the gaps are most profound, considering what drives them and possible approaches to bringing experts and publics closer together. We will hear from researchers at leading academic institutions in China, Korea and Singapore and invite the audience to contribute to the debate in their roles of both experts and members of the public.

Speakers:
Olivia Jensen, Peng Zongchao,
Kalenzi Cornelius, Leonard Lee,
Kim So Young

 

Master Lecture: Risk Telling or Risk Listening?

Summary:

If we look at COVID-19 or climate change, we see lots of good scientific/analytical/expert evidence presented to the policy community yet policy responses are often somewhat dilatory or dismissive. There are many reasons for this – part is the societal response and a lot about climate change and indeed COVID-19 is about distrust of experts and elites, part is about the narrative being distant in time and space. But if we look at the policy response we need to look at both cognitive biases and political biases. The issue is the presentation of risk in a way that it will be heard, made more complex by the cacophony of different narratives fueled by misinformation. Lessons from science advice and from narratology may inform how best we inform risk listening and take action.

Speakers:
Lesley Cordero
Peter Gluckman

 

Science, Trust and Society (part 1)
(Part Two available here)

Summary:

This panel will dig deeper into the critical role of trust in understanding and communicating risk, drawing on experience in emergencies, including the continuing COVID pandemic, as well as the long-running challenge of raising confidence in vaccines. Panellists will consider the roles of government, media and civil society in building trust and confidence, helping the public develop the critical tools they need to filter information and take better decisions in the face of risk.

Speakers:
Heidi Larson, David Reid, Leesa Lin,
David Chan, Julian Tang, Tang Tong

 

From Science to Society via Trust

Summary:

This interactive session will spark thinking on the central role of public trust in understanding risk and taking the right actions to reduce risks through a serious game.

Speakers:
Pablo Suarez

 

Next Generation Flood Modelling for Financial Resilience: Learning from the SEADRIF Experience

Summary:

Following the successful placement of the first flood insurance product for Lao PDR this session will initiate discussions regarding future design requirements for the flood model and platform in support of additional insurance products for SEADRIF member countries. The session will start with a small number of presentations covering what SEADRIF Insurance Company and its client countries require from a model along with an overview of the first flood model. Following this, the session will explore the market’s requirements for developing a future flood model ensuring technical feasibility and acceptability by the insurance industry.

Speakers:

Gary Rynsard
Soo Hoon Hauw-Quek
Somxay Keovandy
Justin Ward
Alastair Charles Norris
Hang Thu Vu

 

Are You Prepared? Communicating Risk in the Face of Disasters

Summary:

The Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll 2021 interviews more than 150,000 people around the world to find out how prepared – or not – they feel in the event of a disaster. The results will highlight their worries and experiences of disasters to date and whether early warning signs were received in advance to help them prepare sufficiently. The Poll will ask people’s views on whether governments and local community infrastructure can keep them safe from harm – and shine a light on who people turn to, and trust, for information when it’s needed most. Join this session to see how you could play in part in the World Risk Poll 2021, working with the Foundation to help engineer a safer world for people everywhere. https://www.lrfoundation.org.uk Twitter: LR_Foundation LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lloyd’s-register-foundation

Speakers:
Sarah Cumbers
Wandi Bruine de Bruin