Special guest lecture by Dr. Emmanuel “Learning from the past: A historical approach for better resilience?”

We are pleased to announce the special guest lecture by Dr. Emmanuel
Garnier, PhD, CNRS Director of Research, Research Professor, University
of Besancon, France as follows. We would like to welcome all of you to
the lecture.

Venue: DPRI, Kyoto University, Uji Campus (S-519 D)
Date: 28 February 2018　15:30 – 17:00
 

LECTURE:
“Learning from the past: A historical approach for better resilience?”
SPEAKER:
Emmanuel Garnier, PhD, CNRS Director of Research, Research Professor, University of Besancon, France
 

ABSTRACT:
In the aftermath of a new disaster, it is usual in the West to affirm the novelty of such an extreme event. Thus, catastrophe would be a new phenomenon and, consequently, our societies and their governments would be condemned to adapt by promoting new strategies and policies.
The presentation will demonstrate the value of a historical approach to better understanding and preventing disasters. Initially, we will give concrete examples of collaborations with public and private companies in France in the fields of nuclear and insurance. In the second part, we will focus on methods for using historical data in order to improve the statistical knowledge of risks in terms of frequency and intensity, but also to estimate the cost of a historical event today (Paris flood in 1910 v 2017). Finally, we will show how by maintaining knowledge of the risks experienced in the past, current societies and their elected representatives can better anticipate human occupation errors.
 
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Prof. Emmanuel Garnier is CNRS Director of Research and Research Professor at University of Besancon, and Honorary Member of the Institut Universitaire de France. His research focuses on the history of extreme events (climate, health, seismology and geology) and disasters over the past 500 years. In addition to their frequency and intensity, these historical hazards are explored as indicators of social vulnerabilities and to determine adaptation strategies.
 
Prof. Garnier uses a wide range of historical sources in Europe, China, Africa, the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean. Dr. Garnier investigates written records as well as all kinds of images, paintings, and so on, that capture historical extreme events and their impacts. Thanks to these historical records he takes part in multi-disciplinary French and international projects to strengthen and improve climate, hydro meteorological or seismic models. In the case of hurricanes and floods, historical series can considerably reduce the return periods ? the number of years between two extreme events- calculated by models. Prof. Garnier has published extensively, and with his collaborators established a historical database of extreme events in France (http://www.unicaen.fr/histclime/).