#38 - IDRiM 2025 - An Introduction (Prof. Miranda Dandoulaki)

Background to the Conference:

The 15th International Conference of the Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM) Society (IDRiM2025), titled “Advancing disaster risk reduction in islands and remote areas”, highlights the distinct risk environments and multifaceted challenges faced by islands and remote areas. In this context, the conference places accessibility (physical, social, economic, institutional, etc.) at the center examining its impact on disaster prevention and mitigation, emergency response, and disaster recovery in the era of climate crisis and globalization.

Remote areas, such as small islands, peninsulas, forest and rural communities, and mountainous regions, are often characterized by their geographic isolation, limited infrastructure, forced self-reliance, and fragile ecosystems. These regions face significant challenges in disaster risk reduction and management, including difficulties in accessing resources and services, and weak connection to emergency management systems. Communication barriers and fragmented governance structures further hinder communication and coordination among stakeholders, and challenge access to critical information. Additionally, the impacts of climate change and globalization exacerbate vulnerabilities, making it essential to develop and implement adaptive, sustainable, and locally tailored solutions to reduce risks and enhance resilience.

Addressing disaster risks in complex and resource-constrained settings often reveals critical implementation gaps. To bridge these gaps, emphasis is placed on the pivotal role of implementation science, which integrates research, policy, and practice to develop adaptive, collaborative, and participatory solutions for disaster risk management. Implementation science enables the systematic identification of barriers to effective action and the development of tailored strategies to overcome them, ensuring that interventions are context-specific and feasible. Additionally, it fosters continuous learning through iterative processes, allowing stakeholders to refine their approaches based on real-time feedback and evolving conditions. By focusing on the practicalities of implementing integrated disaster risk management, the conference invites the scientific community, decision-makers, and practitioners to explore strategies for disaster risk reduction and management in contexts where access to locations, infrastructure, services, resources, funding, information, and knowledge is limited, intermittent, or constrained.

To this end, IDRiM2025 encompasses the following topics, preferably focusing on islands and remote areas although other contributions, for example concerning urban areas, will be also considered.

Guest:

• Prof. Miranda Dandoulaki (Harokopio University of Athens, Greece)

Co-Hosts:

• Dr. Mark Ashley Parry [Northumbria University, United Kingdom]
• Dr. Haris Rahadianto [Lund University, Sweden]

Music: "Sunset" by Kai Engel, available at ⁠Free Music Archive⁠, licensed under CC BY 4.0.