In response to the increasing incidence of serious natural disasters around the world, IFIP has proposed the establishment of a Domain Committee on Information Technology in Disaster Risk Reduction (ITinDRR).

The aim of the group is to:

  • promote disaster risk reduction (DRR) within the IT community;
  • provide an additional opportunity for IFIP members to work with external specialized bodies such as UN, UNISDR, ICSU, ITU and ISCRAM;
  • coordinate the efforts of member societies as well as different Technical Committees and Working Groups of IFIP in its specific disaster-related field.

Chaired by Yuko Murayama (Chair of IFIP TC11), the Committee also includes Diane Whitehouse (Chair of IFIP TC9 – ICT and Society), Erich Neuhold, Plamena Zlateva and Dimiter Velev with IFIP General Secretary Eduard Dundler providing liaison support.

Professor Velev, who acts as Secretary for the new group, recently attended the UNISDR “Science and Technology Conference on the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030” in Geneva, where he presented an abstract of IFIP’s work in this area.

That conference brought together a broad cross-section of the science and technology community, policy makers, practitioners and researchers from all geographical regions, at local, national, regional and international levels to discuss how the science and technology community could best support the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.

“Modern information and communication technologies can facilitate significantly the decision-making processes from the point of view of disaster risk reduction,” Professor Velev explained.

IFIP plans to stage its first Conference on Information Technology in Disaster Risk Reduction (ITDRR) from November 16-18 in Sofia, Bulgaria. For more information, visit http://itdrr.unwe.bg/
About IFIP
IFIP, the International Federation for Information Processing, is the global professional federation of societies and associations for people working in Information and Communications Technologies and Sciences. Established under the auspices of UNESCO in 1960 and recognised by the United Nations, IFIP represents ICT professional associations from more than 50 countries and regions with a total membership of over half a million. It also brings together more than 3,500 scientists from industry and academia, organising them into over 100 Working Groups and 13 Technical Committees to conduct research, develop standards and promote information sharing. Based in Austria, IFIP organises and supports over 100 conferences each year, fostering the distribution of research and knowledge to academics and industry practitioners alike.


Website: http://ifip.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ifipnews
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ifip—international-federation-for-information-processing


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