PARADIGM SHIFTS IN GLOBAL DISASTER POLICY 2015-2025: A CHANGING LANDSCAPE FOR THE GEOSCIENCES AND HUMAN WELL-BEING

The year 2015 will bring forth a new policy instrument for managing and reducing disaster risk worldwide. The current protocol, the Hyogo Framework of Action 2005-2015 on Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters (HFA), will be replaced with a successor framework (HFA2) at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, scheduled for 14-18 March 2015 in Sendai, Japan.

The Sendai protocol will generate many provocative questions for the geosciences such as: How will HFA2 change our discipline? What will be our role in shaping the science of disaster risk reduction and our key messages to stakeholders and the public? How can geoscience contribute to the well-being and resilience of people, nations, their infrastructure and environment to natural and anthropogenic disaster? Being ready to address the challenges of human adaptation to Earth's dynamic systems, and to anticipated paradigm changes in global disaster policy, will require active engagement in strategic discussions across and outside the disciplines of our science.

We highlight findings from our literature review of important background documents, initiatives, and activities underway that will inform the outcomes of the HFA2 process. We also discuss selected efforts to translate these emergent trends at the interface of science, society, policy and practice. The focus at this meeting on the science and societal impacts of living with the Cascadia Subduction Zone provides a natural context for exploring how the geosciences can provide essential evidence for disaster risk reduction and integrate HFA2 into regional planning and preparedness for a CSZ disaster.