The ASEAN Capacity-Building Forum on Risk Assessment gathered experts on disaster risk management from ASEAN member countries, representatives from civil society groups, scholars, scientists and researchers from the region as well as partners from Europe, Australia, and the United States.

Representatives of three ASEAN sectoral bodies, including the ASEAN Committee on disaster Management (ACDM), the ASEAN Committee on Science and Technology (COST) and the ASEAN University Network (AUN) also attended the event, the ASEAN Secretariat said on March 26.

Opening the function, Suporn Ratananakin, Advisor to the Director General of Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation of Thailand, representing the ACDM Chair, described the event as a unique opportunity for ASEAN to discuss measures to bridge the gap between science and practice.

The move aims to enhance the synergy between these two communities and foster greater interaction and systematic collaboration in support of disaster risk reduction, he said.

The participants debated the development of a framework for dialogue between disaster risk management and science community in ASEAN, science-based risk communication and accountability in disaster risk management.

Selected risk assessment tools such as Comprehensive Approach for Probabilistic Risk Assessment (CAPRA), Indonesia Scenario Assessment for Earthquakes (InaSAFE) and Open Source Software for Seismic Hazards and Risk Assessment (OpenQuake) were also discussed.

VNA