Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) professionals from all over the world have gathered at Central European University (CEU) in Budapest this week for a joint ISEPEI and UNDP "Innovations in Disaster Risk Management" workshop. Rastislav Vrbensky, the Director of the UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub for Europe and the CIS opened the workshop on Monday July 13th along with Margaret Bolter of CEU and course directors Viktor Lagutov (CEU) and Armen Grigoryan (UNDP).
The program offers a variety of sessions, including sharing of global experience on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for DRR as well as hands-on geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing tutorials. Several other ICTs and innovations were covered, including big data, citizen science, smart cities, and open source software solutions for DRR applications.
Workshop faculty include several UNDP representatives from the Istanbul Regional Hub and Country Offices including Milica Begovic and Vasko Popovski, as well as Lorant Czaran of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), Irina Makarenko of the Black Sea Commission, Kirstin MIller of Ecocity Builders, and Matthew Sarsycki of UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), among several others. Participants represent UNDP Country Offices as well as government agencies, environmental organizations, and civil society focused on disaster management and risk reduction.
