Editors: Reporters and photographers are welcome to attend the workshop. For a complete schedule of events, please e-mail caughey@colorado.edu or call (303) 492-4007.
Recovery from the massive Indian Ocean tsunami, the communications revolution and "warning fatigue" will be among the topics addressed by about 400 people attending the 30th annual workshop hosted by the University of Colorado at Boulder's Natural Hazards Center.
The July 10-13 event, which includes invited participants from across the United States and several other nations, also will deal with climate change and unpredictability, disasters and "megacities," and the 2004 Atlantic Ocean hurricanes.
The Hazards Research and Applications Workshop will be held at the Millennium Harvest House at 1345 28th St. in Boulder. The event is not open to public.
For 30 years, the CU-Boulder workshop has attracted academic researchers from a range of social science disciplines, engineers, emergency managers, insurers, planners, government officials and students working toward degrees in the study of hazards, disasters and risk. The workshop is aimed at bringing together researchers, front-line managers and representatives of the public and private sector who deal with the human and economic impacts of extreme natural events such as great earthquakes and tsunamis.
"This year's workshop will give those in attendance an opportunity both to assess 30 years of research and practice and to ponder what needs to be done in the future to reduce losses from future extreme events," said center Director Kathleen Tierney, a CU-Boulder sociology professor.
The keynote address, "The Natural Hazards Center: A Leadership Platform for 30 Years" will be given by William Anderson of the National Research Council of the National Academies at 9:30 a.m. on July 11.
A plenary session on the "Asian Tsunami: Impacts and Sustainable Recovery" will follow from 10:30 a.m. until noon. The session will feature panelists from Sri Lanka and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center.
Natural disasters have a lot in common with large-scale terrorist attacks in terms of physical impacts and the ways in which people and organizations respond, Tierney said.
Tierney is heading one of three main working groups studying terrorism under a $12 million "Center of Excellence" grant awarded by the Department of Homeland Security in January 2005. The group she heads will examine societal issues associated with terrorism in the United States.
The Natural Hazards Center, part of CU-Boulder's Institute of Behavioral Science, is funded by a consortium of agencies including the National Science Foundation and FEMA. The center serves as an information clearinghouse for disaster researchers and professionals, and publishes several periodicals including a newsletter sent to more than 15,000 recipients around the world.
The annual hazards workshop was launched in 1976 by Distinguished Professor Emeritus Gilbert White, founder of the CU-Boulder Natural Hazards Center, and at that time was unique in its interdisciplinary approach to the topic. In providing a model for how to encourage the sharing of knowledge across disciplines, the workshop has had a significant influence on the evolution of the hazards field.
For information visit the center's Web site at .