Networks

After Disaster Network 

‘Growing capabilities for understanding and dealing with the aftermath of disasters’ 

IHRR has launched a new initiative to specifically focus on ’After Disaster’. 

We are interested in the foundations that support psychological, social, institutional, and economic ‘recovering’. We want to learn how to support and manage aftermaths without creating conditions that foster post-disaster crises. The timeframe of the aftermath can be long, with many people ‘living with’ disaster and post-disaster conditions for an extended period of time. 

Our aspirations are to: 

• put communities at the heart of dealing with the aftermath,
• ensure preparedness is about material, social and human capital not plans,
• embrace collaboration with as wide a range of people as possible,
• embrace unpredictability and uncertainty,
• see the aftermath of disasters through a new lens that gets away from disciplinary silos and poorly defined terms and practices.

The After Disaster Network is going to develop a series of activities aimed at exploring challenges of dealing with the aftermath of a disaster and sharing learning about how to support communities at such time. 

The After Disasters Network has been founded by: 

• Professor Louise Bracken, Wilson Chair in Risk Research and Ex-Director of IHRR
• Kate Cochrane, Head of Emergency Management, Falklands Islands and Professor in Practice IHRR
• Neil Denton,Independent Community Mediator and Professor in Practice IHRR 
• Dr Lucy Easthope, Senior Fellow of the Emergency Planning College and Professor in Practice IHRR
• Dr Flora Cornish, Associate Professor at LSE and Professor in Practice IHRR

Action on Natural Disasters (AND)

The focus for this cohort of the Action on Natural Disasters (AND) programme is earthquake-induced landslides in Nepal. Landslides are a perennial hazard in Nepal that pose a particular challenge to post-earthquake disaster response.  

The cohort comprises four PhD research projects, all of which seek to learn from the 2015 earthquakes and build upon ongoing and existing long-term research and collaborations in Nepal. The projects are designed to address pressing questions around landslide risk, use new and innovative approaches, and bring together supervisory teams from multiple disciplines, including Earth Science, Geography, Engineering, Psychology, and Philosophy at Durham University. 

All projects involve an element of fieldwork within Nepal, and time on placements working with local partner organisations to maximise the quality and utility of the research. The projects also seek to benefit directly those at risk from future natural hazards, working at the community level wherever appropriate, and developing outputs that will be applicable in Nepal and beyond. 

The projects bring together students from a range of backgrounds, who interact to build a body of research that aims to reduce landslide risk in Nepal, and beyond.