1In the 1990s, researchers published an atlas featuring a map of seismic and volcanic risks in Quito, Ecuador. This founding and seminal work for Latin America failed however to arouse the interest of policy-makers,  which is why the team decided to change their approach. A few years later, they addressed the notion of risk in terms of strategies. The idea was no longer to map out endangered areas but to analyse how the city worked with a view to determining priorities. The objective was to maximise the effectiveness of emergency measures in a context of limited resources. In conjunction with local institutions, scientists highlighted the economic importance of the historical heritage, the protection of which became a priority. Since then, during volcanic eruptions and ash falls, the roofs of historical buildings are cleared as a priority to prevent any risk of collapse.

La Paz, a city exposed to landslides, Bolivia.

 ••• The multidisciplinary approach helps create natural disaster management strategies •••

2Inspired by the example of Quito, in 2010 the city of Lima asked geographers to simulate the impact of a major earthquake on the capital. Once again in conjunction with policy-makers, the team analysed risks, but also the position of areas with vulnerable populations, the location and accessibility of hospitals, the operation of the road network, and access to water, electricity and food. This approach made it possible to identify problems and find solutions in advance, by widening certain roads or targeting critical points for action. This resource mapping methodology was used in 2012 and 2013 to analyse the situation of Port-au-Prince and La Paz, highlighting local characteristics such as the absence of major power companies in Haiti, which increases the number of contact points and changes how the crisis is dealt with. This approach, which examines the links between vital resources, could also be applied to the countries of the Global North.

Cotopaxi volcano in eruption, Quito, Ecuador.

“Since 1988, several research programmes have been developed with the municipality of Quito, including the ‘Information systems and risks of the Quito metropolitan district’ programme (DMQ) from 2002 to 2004, the objective of which was to develop a method based on the understanding of vulnerability. This was a unique contribution to the traditional risk analysis notion, which proved to be a practical tool and helped focus on specific risk reduction actions. There is no doubt that the contribution made by IRD’s cooperation had a positive impact on the planning work of the city of Quito. My own work was directly influenced by this research programme.”
Nury Bermúdez, national risk management coordinator, UNDP, Ecuador, former Planning officer for the Quito Metropolitan District