JSP11 "Geophysical Risk and Vulnerability: The Population-Hazard Interaction"
(IAPSO, IAGA, IAHS, IAMAS, IASPEI, IAVCEI)
Sapporo, Japan, 29 June to 11 July 2003

Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, floods, droughts, tsunamis, storm surges, wildfires, tropical cyclones, tornadoes and extreme space weather events become major societal risks when they impinge on vulnerable populations. The growth in world population, its urbanization, and the possibility of climate change and global climate change exacerbate the vulnerability. Factors increasing vulnerability also include increased resources in newly developing areas, increased cost and complexity of urban infrastructure, and the technical and social interdependencies of infrastructure systems. There is thus an urgent need to understand the present and future vulnerability of populations to geophysical hazards and to ascertain the best ways to mitigate physical, social and economic impact.

Convener:
Tom Beer, CSIRO Environmental Risk Network, Australia

Co-Conveners:
G. Heiken (Earth and Environmental Sciences Div., Los Alamos National Lab., USA),
A. Ismail-Zadeh (International Inst. of Earthquake Prediction Theory and Math Geophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia),
V. Gusiakov (Tsunami Lab., Inst. of Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Geophysics, Russia),
A. Jayawardena (Dept. Civil Engineering, Univ. of Hong Kong, Hong Kong),
C. Yong (State Seismological Bureau, PRC),
D. Boteler (Geomagnetic Lab., Natural Resources Canada, Canada),
E. Kontar (P.P. Shirsov Inst. of Oceanology, Russia),
J. Schneider (Geohazards and Risk Research Group, Geoscience Australia, Australia),
W. Hooke (Atmospheric Policy Program, American Meteorological Society, USA)

Program of the JSP11 Session.