This document discusses the need for a common language around disaster resilience. It notes that solutions to increasing disaster losses require a transdisciplinary approach. Virginia Tech has numerous centers focused on disaster resilience research. The Global Forum on Urban and Regional Resilience (GFURR) aims to establish a holistic characterization of disaster resilience to bridge gaps between disciplines. GFURR will facilitate global conversations between scholars and encourage new theoretical approaches to further understanding of resilience. An interdisciplinary graduate program in disaster resilience will take a transdisciplinary case study approach to improve resilience.

1. Building A Common Language
Around Disaster Resilience
Mohsen Ghafory-Ashtiany
Christopher W. Zobel
C. Guney Olgun
Yang Zhang
Robert Weiss
Margaret Cowell
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

2. Integrated Disaster
RISK MANAGEMENT
Human, Economic
and
Social Losses
Disaster
Risk
Built Environment
Vulnerability
Hazard
Potential
Risk Reduction
Sustainable Development

3. Key Concept in IDRiM: Working Together
SUCCESS IN Risk Reduction
Geoscientist
Geotechnical
Failure in Risk Reduction
and
Foundation
Engineers
Socio-economist
Planners,
and Managers
Architectural,
Structural and
Mechanical
Engineers
Professionals,
Government,
and End USERS
FACT:
No Scientist or Organization Can Solve
The Problem by Working Alone
Geotechnical
and Foundation
Engineers
Architectural,
Structural and
Mechanical
Engineers
Geoscientist
Professionals,
Government,
and End USERS
Socio-economist
Planners
and Managers

4. Motivation
 Unsustainable rise in global disaster losses
 New kinds of threats and vulnerabilities are emerging -
presenting new resiliency challenges
 Solutions require
From This Approach To This
a transdisciplinary
approach: problems
are too complex for
a single entity or
discipline on its own

5. Disaster Related Centers & Institutes at VT
• Center for Community Security and Resilience
• Center for Extreme Load Effects on Structures
• Center for Geospatial Information Technology
• Center for Geotechnical Practice and Research
• Center for Technology, Security and Policy
• Coastal Hazards and Engineering at
Environmental and Water Resources Engineering
Program
• Critical Infrastructure Modeling and Assessment
Program at the Center for Energy and the Global
Environment
• Disaster Risk Reduction Program at the Advanced
Research Institute
• Emergency Communications and Disaster
Recovery Research Focus of eCorridors Program
• Institute for Society, Culture and Environment
(Social Complexity and Individual Risk, Global
Issues Initiative)
• Interdisciplinary Graduate Education
Program in Disaster Resilience
• Metropolitan Institute
• Office of International Research,
Education, and Development
• Real-time and Automated Monitoring and
Control Lab
• The Institute for Policy and Governance
• Virginia Cooperative Extension
• Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine
International and Appalachian Outreach
• Virginia Tech Global Seismological Lab
• Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory
• Virginia Water Resources Research
Center

6. Resilience and GFURR
 Resilience is one of the key research areas in Virginia
Tech’s strategic plan
 The Global Forum on Urban and Regional Resilience
(GFURR) at Va. Tech has been established to bring experts
from Virginia Tech and partner organizations to expand
concepts of resilience and fulfill Va. Tech Strategy.
 Objective: To establish a holistic and integrated
characterization of disaster resilience that can bridge the
gaps between disciplines, and thus provide a common
language through which new and innovative perspectives
may develop to find solutions to the growing impacts of
disaster events

7. Resilience and GFURR
 Resilience has become an important concept in planning and
policy globally in response to new vulnerabilities resulting
from climate change; economic, social and political
instabilities; and population expansion into places where the
potential for human disruptions from natural events is
heightened.
 The conceptual complexity of resilience and its relevance to
constructing places that enhance the social well-being of
citizens in a future of increase uncertainty and vulnerability,
requires integrating physical, social and behavioral
perspectives in ways that put fresh lens on and new critiques
in order to increase our knowledge base on the concept.

8. Resilience and GFURR
GFURR aims to add to the knowledge base on resilience by:
 Facilitating global conversations by scholars and
practitioners with significantly different perspectives and
responsibilities on resilience to explore new conceptual and
methodology dimensions
 Facilitating multi-disciplinary research on under- and
unexplored dimensions of resilience for the purpose of
expanding our understanding of resilience in a global
context
 Encouraging the establishment of trans-disciplinary
educational and training curriculum in resilience to ensure
that future practitioners and researchers have a wide-reaching
viewpoint of resilience

9. Resilience and GFURR
GFURR aims to add to the knowledge base on resilience by:
 Connecting research and practitioner communities through
the establishment of living lab environments in both urban
and rural settings in ways that define new approaches
 Encouraging new theoretical and analytical approaches to
the study of resilience and its translation to practice
globally

10. Resilience and GFURR
GFURR believes a resilience research and practice focus should
include address the following questions:
 What are the normative and ethical issues associated with
creating socially equitable resilient environments?
 What are the major barriers to creating socially equitable
resilient places given differences in socio-cultural contexts across
the globe?
 How might new analytics, big data approaches, contribute to
building socially equitable resilient places?
 What are the appropriate roles for technology in constructing
socially equitable resilient places?
 What are the appropriate roles for governments, non-profits and
the private sector in constructing socially equitable resilient
places?

11. Project Team
• Faculty from four colleges at Virginia Tech + international faculty
collaborator
– Science - tsunami impacts
– Business - decision support systems
– Architecture and Urban Studies - community resilience
– Engineering - earthquake engineering / policy
• Project sponsors:
– Graduate School at Virginia Tech
– Institute for Society, Culture and Environment
– Global Issues Initiative
– Global Forum on Urban and Regional Resilience
• http://www.gfurr.vt.edu

12. Approach / Methodology
Step 1: Identify discipline-specific approaches to quantifying
disaster resilience
Step 2: Compare and contrast disciplinary approaches to find:
– Areas of overlap
– Gaps where important aspects are not defined
Step 3: Leverage overlaps and fill gaps to develop shared
terminology and context (i.e., a common language)

13. Initial implementation
Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program in
Disaster Resilience
• Interdisciplinary Study: Principles of Disaster Risk Management
– Team-taught course
– Case-study-based approach
• Focus on transdisciplinary approaches for improving resilience -
will expose students from the social sciences to basic risk analysis
skills, and those in natural sciences and engineering to key social
and cultural impacts
(http://www.czobel.bit.vt.edu/resilience-IGEP/)

14. Questions?
Thank you!
mohsen.ashtiany@gmail.com
mgha57@vt.edu