Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Natural Hazards

The CP group research in the area of climate change adaptation and natural hazards aims at providing a deeper understanding of policy options to drive transformative change in disaster risk reduction and adaptation.

In order to develop successful options, our research focuses on the exploration and analysis of effective process designs that take into account stakeholders’ actual needs and problems, in order to identify solutions that represent compromises among different stakeholders’ perspectives. We are not bound to any particular methodological or theoretical paradigm, but search for or develop the most appropriate tools and methods to generate useful interdisciplinary knowledge to solve each single problem.

Moreover one of our key interests is in the science-policy interface. At present, we deal with the benefits and barriers to the introduction of scientific innovation, e.g. multi-risk assessment, in natural hazard management and with the development of principles of scientific advice in risk and emergency communication at national, international and cross-border scales.

Within this research focus, we have received grants for some externally funded projects:

• Adaptive capacity of Switzerland to climate change, which identifies barriers limiting the adaptive capacity of stakeholders and develops measures that can enhance and improve adaptation across sectors
• End-user focused warning systems, which advances processes for stakeholder engagement and designs new frameworks of responsibility distribution for the  development of effective warning systems
• ESPREssO, which aims at contributing to a new European strategic vision for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, thereby opening new frontiers for research and policy making, specifically in transboundary regions