Managing disaster risk reduction is one of the topics on the agenda at next week’s international forum Climate Change Adaptation and Health: Meeting the Challenges on August 9 and 10.
Hosted by Griffith University’s Climate Change Response Program and CEPH, the forum will examine urgent issues concerning the climate-related human tragedy and extreme public health threats which have confronted millions in recent years.
It will feature a cross-section of the world’s most influential researchers and practitioners across a range of scientific disciplines.
Griffith PhD student with CEPH Febi Dwirahmadi combines study with the job of Disaster and Risk Reduction Manager with the International Red Cross in Indonesia. He will discuss how communities at risk of large-scale disaster can benefit from effective risk reduction and climate change methodologies.
“There is often severe annual flooding in Indonesia and we are attempting to ensure that local communities can easily benefit from the broad scope of scientific research we have here in Australia,” Mr Dwirahmadi said.
“Using an effective combination of the two fields of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, we are aiming to communicate with people in one language about how they can improve their resilience and reduce their vulnerability to these very traumatic events.”
Mr Dwirahmadi will travel to Jakarta next year for fieldwork. This will form part of his three-and-a-half year PhD study culminating in a dissertation called ‘Urban Poor: Climate Change Adaptation in Jakarta’. “My long-term goal is to help people in my homeland with an increased knowledge of how to deal with climate change implications, particularly extreme events such as flooding and typhoons,” he said.
Director of the CEPH Professor Cordia Chu, said the forthcoming international forum would provide the foundation for new international collaborations in climate change and health research.
“It will also ascertain critical factors for successful emergency management, adaptive strategies and management practices that prepare organisations and communities to deal with emergencies and risk reduction,’’ Professor Chu said.
The two-day event will examine the key concepts and common themes that have heightened global awareness of climate change response and adaptation and will identity the strengths and weaknesses of emergency responses.
The forum will also feature a special report on the 2010-2011 Queensland Flood and Cyclone and its aftermath.
MEDIA CONTACTS: Science Communications Officer Louise Durack 07 5552 8654 OR 0419 649516.