The Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Southeast Asia Disaster Prevention Research Initiative (SEADPRI-UKM), a Centre of Excellence for Integrated Research for Disaster Risk (ICoE-IRDR) of the International Science Council (ISC) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), with support from the Asian Network on Climate Science (ANCST), International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Canada, U-INSPIRE Malaysia and partners convened the Regional Workshop on Youth Innovation in Disaster Prevention and Climate Science in conjunction with the 36th National Geoscience Conference of the Geological Society of Malaysia (NGC 2023) from November 7th – 8th, 2023.
The workshop was held last November 7th, 2023 in Putrajaya, Malaysia, and intended to empower early career geoscientists in disaster prevention and climate science through a more holistic and collaborative approach to understanding and managing risks, with an increased focus on people. The workshop focused on innovative practices for strengthening social entrepreneurship, including utilizing open data and citizen science. The approach encourages participants to identify and study hazards to promote effective communication and collaboration with diverse stakeholders. Providing precise and easily understandable information to those who need it was emphasized. The insights from the event will be channeled to the IRDR, to strengthen implementation of the global research agenda for risk-informed development. Key findings demonstrating contribution to climate-resilient development and the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction and Sustainable Development Goals were documented.
Dr. Joy Jacqueline Pereira, from SEADPRI-UKM and the Co-Chair of Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), provided the introductory remarks on the promotion of social entrepreneurship in disaster risk reduction to build community resilience and welcomed the speakers and participants. Dr. Alfredo Mahar Francisco Lagmay of the UP Resilience Institute served as the keynote speaker and provided insights into how UPRI champions citizen science, open data, and innovation in the Philippines, emphasizing its significant role in helping local government units create their local development plans and provide them with information on international best practices to build community resilience using a systems approach.
One of the panel speakers, Ms. Jolly Joyce Sulapas, a Junior Managing Researcher at UPRI NOAH Center, shared a general overview of the key innovative open science initiatives of UPRI, specifically, the NOAH Website, the Internet-of-Things project with Quezon City LGU, the advocacy for the use of Probabilistic Assessment, the use Citizen Science during Taal’s 2020 eruption and expanding the network of citizen-owned seismometers, and the mapping roles of the youth through YouthMappers.
