GRF Davos is now fostering the integrative risk management approach on a global scale with a new e-journal called Planet@Risk. GRF Davos is glad to announce that the call for proposals for its new e-journal is now open.

In addition to scientific articles, GRF Davos' new e-journal is featuring information gathered from informal ‘grey literature’, governmental, scientific or NGO reports, case studies and reviews – mostly representing data and material which is up to now difficult to access and quality-wise often hard to judge. By swiftly collecting and pooling different types of literature that has not explicitly been prepared for scientific publishing, valuable information is put into use, made accessible and even citable as part of an interdisciplinary knowledge pool for the risk reduction and disaster management community. >>> read more

 

Interested in strengthening your knowledge in the field of Integrative Risk Management?

GRF Davos is organizing a 1.5 day training course in the mountain resort of Davos, Switzerland from 25th to 26th August 2012. Considering the latest research results, the lessons learned from recent major disasters, and the challenges exponents of disaster risks face, this up-to-date training course will deeply immerse you into the complex field of Integrative Risk Management by risk reduction experts. The course will address essentials for tackling the 21st Century’s global challenges like: What trends and developments are underway? How to assess the relationship between adaptation to climate change and Disaster Risk Reduction? Are there mitigation techniques that can adequately address the threats of mega disasters?

At the 4th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC Davos in August 2012 GRF Davos in association with Elsevier Publishers will launch the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. IJDRR will publish high-quality papers on all aspects of disaster risk, impacts, responses, resilience and hazards. We are now seeking papers for the first issue. Further details on the journal and paper submission can be found >>>here
 

At times, the international response to disasters has revealed highly questionable practices in the delivery of emergency medical assistance. This contrasts with a broader tendency in recent years to improve standards of humanitarian intervention.

In collaboration with the AO Foundation, the European Society for Trauma and Emergency Surgery ESTES and the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute HCRI, GRF Davos has addressed this issue in a workshop with over 50 experts from 20 countries. Emergency surgeons have reported their experiences and helped to improve guidelines with their profound knowledge in dealing with such medical emergencies throughout and in the immediate aftermath of large catastrophic events. They have demonstrated efficient treatment methods, and how to take the right decisions under extreme conditions and great pressure. All presentations are available as video stream.>>> See the presentations now

It is through our own experience that we build up the most persistent knowledge. Recent psychological research also indicates that we learn more effectively when we are playing than when we are working (e.g. Peter Gray (2007): The Educative Functions of Free Play and Exploration.) Games are strong educational tools because they empower players and engage them a lot more than reading a text, listening to a lecture or watching a film. They manage to capture our interest and intellect in a very powerful and sustained way. When playing them we have to act, react, and use our imagination to solve problems. This helps us relate to the information we are trying to acquire in a much stronger way. Games immerse us in a new context, raising prolonged and deeper feelings of empathy and mutual understanding. Through the visual, auditory, often social or even physical aspects of games, they can let us live something that comes a lot closer to a real experience than one-way media channels manage to do.
To raise awareness for some of the world’s most pressing issues, such as food scarcity, climate change, resource depletion, poverty and energy shortage, we have added a variety of new games to the already existing compilation on our website:

• SPENT: An online game that guides users through what it feels like to be homeless
• Wildfire: Through a downloadable computer game (free of charge) players learn about volunteerism, social interaction, nonviolent activism. They have to build up grassroots and seek legislation on key Millennium Development Goals.
• Energy City: To create a sustainable future, players need to design a new energy portfolio in order to sustain their city into the future.
• 3rd World Farmer Game: Players have to manage an African farm and are confronted with the difficult choices due to poverty, drought, war and starvation.
• Climate Challenge: A sandbox-style strategy game based on real climate change data, where the players can try out different approaches for themselves, learn about the issues and have fun at the same time.
• White Risk: An interactive learning application covering avalanche accident prevention.
• Swissinfo: Climate-Quiz: Online-Quiz (only available in German)
• Watt für ein Energietyp sind Sie: Online-Quiz (only available in German)

Have a look at the reviews of other games we selected here.