WK 41 - Building a Community of Practice for Research and Application in Recurrent Acute Disasters

Session Description: The workshop THEME is that a community of practice that includes diverse ecological perspectives can respond to the emerging societal concern with disasters that increasingly follow one another at short intervals.

The workshop PURPOSE is to use a recently published theory for recurrent acute disasters (RAD) to: 1) Inform ecologists about the growing global importance of RAD; 2) Identify an ecological research frontier; and 3) Better connect ecologists with disaster science and management policy.

Background: Disasters are usually dealt with as individual, unusual events. This view is no longer viable because many disasters are occurring more frequently due to changing climatic drivers. Consequently, the connections among disasters across time are also increasing. Recurrent Acute Disaster theory indicates the importance of legacies of earlier disasters to subsequent disasters. Coupling the increasing frequency of disasters with the spread of urbanization and the migration of people to vulnerable coasts, wildland-urban interfaces, floodplains, or slopes, suggests the relevance of connections among recurrent disasters to society.

Workshop GOALS are to: 1) share RAD theory with ecologists as a tool for research and collaboration; 2) alert ecologists to the opportunity to interact with policy makers and managers in disaster science; and 3) to bring diverse perspectives to bear so that research and application about RADs is equitable and just.

Four OBJECTIVES structure the workshop: 1) Introduce the RAD topic; 2) Share a theoretical structure to guide research and support application; 3) Introduce the need for equity and justice in research and application; 4) Link ecology with disaster science and policy. Small groups will discuss these questions: What are strategies for building a community of practice on RAD? What research is needed? How can disaster science and planning communities be engaged? 4) What collaborative opportunities are there in and beyond ecology? The workshop will summarize future research and interdisciplinary opportunities.

RAD have IMPORTANCE to economics, health, livability, and safety. Thus, exposing how the impacts of a disaster can be mitigated by attending to the legacies of earlier disasters may be a crucial contribution of ecology to interdisciplinary knowledge and practice.

The increasing intensity and frequency of disasters is headline news. Therefore, many ecologists will have an INTEREST in the workshop topic. This workshop gives them an opportunity to consider a new research area of societal significance that can contribute to equity and justice through improved understanding of how extreme events are more frequently linked.