Risk-based Management of Natural Hazards
29 Jan | Prof Hans Heinimann, PI and director of the FRS programme will address the implications for the Palu Earthquake and Tsunami at this lunch talk.
Population development and economic growth in the 20th century resulted in a continual accumulation of assets in geographical areas of the world, which have been exposed to a whole set of natural hazards, such as flooding, mudflows, earthquakes, tsunamis, avalanches, or rock fall. Traditionally, the management of natural hazards has been event-based, implementing protection measures case-by-case is a direct response to hazardous events. In the early 1990s, Swiss experts concluded that event-based approaches were not cost-effective and should be transformed into a risk-based management approach, which takes a more preventive point of view.
Stemming from the Swiss experience, the purpose of the presentation is (1) to introduce a risk-based natural hazard management framework, (2) to illustrate some recent developments in the characterization of natural hazards with extreme value theory, (3) to explore the implications of a risk-based framework on the management of earthquake/tsunami hazards and (4) to discuss some normative aspects of risk assessment.
The presentation will address questions, such as (1) how safety safe enough?; (2) how to transfer outcomes of risk assessment into spatial planning and land-use?; (3) how to handle the rift between expert-based, quantitative risk assessment and layperson-based, integrative risk perception?
About the speaker
Prof Hans Rudolf Heinimann is professor of Forest Engineering at ETH Zurich since 1991. He started office as faculty member with the former Department of Forest and Wood Research at ETH Zurich, where he was promoted to full professor in 1997. He was visiting professor at the Forest Engineering Department at the Oregon State University in US from 1999 to 2000; Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Tokyo, Japan in summer 2009; and Centre for Higher Education, Learning and Teaching (CHELT) at the Australian National University in 2013. From 2004 to 2009, he was a fellow at the Collegium Helveticum, a centre of advanced studies jointly sponsored by ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich, focusing on cross-disciplinary research.
Prof Heinimann has been actively involved in the international scientific community, and coordinated the Forest Operations Engineering and Management division of the International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO). In 2017, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the IUFRO in recognition for his outstanding and valuable services to the organisation.
Prof Heinimann held various leadership positions in university bodies, such as head of department, director of studies, head of institute, and head of faculty recruiting committees, among others. He was the Pro-rector for Education of ETH Zurich from 2007 to 2013 and is founding member of the ETH Risk Centre, of which he was the chairman from 2011 to 2013. He is a member of several scientific and professional societies, including member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW).