Studies from Singapore National University Reveal New Findings on Disaster Risk Reduction (Can the risk of coastal hazards be better communicated?)

Politics & Government Week

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Politics & Government Week -- Researchers detail new data in Disaster Risk Reduction. According to news originating from Singapore, Singapore, by VerticalNews correspondents, research stated, "Destructive coastal hazards, including tsunami inundation and storm surges, periodically affect many of the world's coasts. To quantify the risk of such events and to identify premium levels for such hazards, the insurance industry commonly uses the available scientific literature, coupled with probabilistic modelling."

Funders for this research include Singapore National Research Fellowship, National University of Singapore Start-up Grant.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Singapore National University, "Often, communicating the results of the modelling to clients is difficult, as it involves world or regional scale risk maps and complex statistics of recurrence intervals and exposure. Risk maps are particularly problematic because they necessarily generalise the information conveyed to the mapping scale, thereby reducing detail. As a result, entire coastlines can be labelled as 'high risk', discouraging clients from investing, and/or leading to inappropriately high premium levels. This raises the question: What is the best way to communicate risk at a regional scale without broad generalisations? in our study, we have used historical events as case studies via the pedagogical premise of 'Concept, Example, Consequence', and created a novel multifaceted poster map."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "Our approach will encourage reinsurance industry practitioners and clients to reconsider their communication of risk, re-evaluate localised risk, and provide a detailed alternative to the broad generalisations found in many products in the marketplace."

For more information on this research see: Can the risk of coastal hazards be better communicated? International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2018;27():439-450. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Bv, PO Box 211, 1000 Ae Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction - www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-disaster-risk-reduction/)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from C. Gouramanis, Singapore National University, Dept. of Geog, Singapore 119260, Singapore. Additional authors for this research include J. Pile, A.D. Switzer, B. Rush, I. Reynolds and J.L.A. Soria.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.11.008. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Keywords for this news article include: Singapore, Singapore, Asia, Disaster Risk Reduction, Singapore National University.