INTRO | HIGHLIGHTS | FEATURES | INTERVIEWS | PERSPECTIVES
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Welcome to Issue 3
of Hazard Risk Resilience
Research highlights
A roundup of research findings in hazard, risk, and resilience from Durham University
Features
WE ARE DELIGHTED to present this
special issue of HRR which reports on
exciting research linked to the Institute of
Hazard, Risk and Resilience at Durham
University. This issue illustrates the scale
and scope of research in risk carried
out by individuals and research teams
throughout the university, which IHRR
seeks to encourage and promote. The
examples reported here represent very
diverse perspectives, which contribute to
the ‘big picture’ of hazards in the natural
and socioeconomic environment, and
the risks they present. This issue also
addresses how we can effectively build
resilience, enhancing our capacity to face
the challenges and maximise the potential
benefits involved in ‘living with risk’.
Articles in this issue discuss various
aspects of potential hazards and risks
faced by people in different parts of
the world, especially research on risks
associated with earthquakes, landslides,
and other geohazards. In the UK and
many other countries coastal erosion is
a major risk that many communities live
with. A new Durham research project
on coastal behaviour led by Dr Nick
Rosser is helping to enhance methods
of predicting landslide risk and thereby
build resilience. Also, in our interview with
Durham PhD student Hanna Ruszczyk, who
is generously supported by an individual
donor to Durham University, we present
her postgraduate research on mitigating
earthquake risk and building resilience
in Nepal.
While much geohazard research in Durham
relates to present day conditions, there is
much we can learn from the past about
how societies can build resilience to risk.
Professor Chris Gerrard and Professor
David Petley have researched evidence
from historical and archaeological records
showing how communities in England
managed to live with risk and build
resilience to disasters in the Middle Ages.
Many important and desirable areas of
human activity do carry significant risks
which we are increasingly concerned
about managing and mitigating. A striking
example is provided here by the work
of Dr Francisco Klauser and Dr Richard
Giulianotti on security measures for Sport
Mega Events such as the Olympic Games.
Their work is how social, political and
commercial interests are bound together in
our present day attempts to anticipate and
manage risks, and how successfully living
with risk is essential, even for the most
productive, engaging and enjoyable aspects
of modern life.
We also feature perspectives on risk in the
UK financial sector from Durham financial
historian Professor Ranald Michie, our
guest contributor, Steven Kershaw, Head
of Research and Development for the
Coal Authority, explains their approach
to managing environmental risks from
Britain’s mining legacy and how current risk
management depends on historic records of
past mining activity.
For those interested in following up on the
research presented in this issue, we provide
references to a number of peer-reviewed
publications discussing the research
presented in this special issue in more
detail. Readers may like to follow up on
our research via the Durham Research
Online depository (http://dro.dur.ac.uk/
readers/ ), which is now bringing to the
wider public all the wealth of content in
new publications from Durham University
in a free, open access format. This is a
great resource and is open for readers to
search on many different topics, including
research on hazard, risk, and resilience.
PROFESSOR SARAH CURTIS
Executive Director
Institute of Hazard, Risk and
Resilience, Durham University
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EDITORS
Sarah Curtis and Brett Cherry
COPY EDITOR
Solid yet unstable:
Monitoring UK coastal cliffs
Risk society in the
Middle Ages
Krysia Johnson
Research into the complex
Exploring how living with risk is far
from a modern concept
behaviour of coastal cliffs in the UK
Hazardous winds a’blowin’
Coastal impacts of wind-blown
sand in Medieval Britain
PROOFREADERS
Krysia Johnson, Brett Cherry
CONTRIBUTORS
Peter Brown, Brett Cherry, Ranald
Michie, Steven Kershaw
IHRR MANAGEMENT BOARD
Prof Sarah Curtis,
Executive Director of IHRR
Prof Lena Dominelli, Co-Director
Dr Claire Horwell, Co-Director
Andrew Baldwin, Co-Director
Prof Dave Petley, Wilson Chair in
Hazard and Risk
Dr Andrew Baldwin, Co-Director
Prof Nicholas Saul, Co-Director
Dr Nick Rosser, Board Member
Dr Graham Coates, Board Member
DESIGN
wearewarm.com
PRINTER
Alphagraphics
Interviews
Mitigating earthquake risk and
building resilience in Nepal
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Interview with Hanna Ruszczyk
Our food, our future: GM dilemmas
in the developing world
34
Interview with Dr Susana Carro-Ripalda
Perspectives
Securitising Sport
Mega Events
Findings on Sport Mega Events
reveal that these are far more
complex and dynamic than is
normally realised
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42
Managing environmental
risks from Britain’s
mining legacy
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Reputational risk in the
UK financial sector
with Professor Ranald Michie
Steven Kershaw explains the risks
left by coal mining in Britain and
how they can be managed
Institute of Hazard,
Risk and Resilience
Durham [