ESPREssO: reaching beyond borders to manage natural risks

Borders define modern society. Borders between countries define your nationality, borders between professions define your work life, and borders between properties, your home. Nature, on the other hand, knows no such borders. The 2013 European flooding affected millions of Europeans across 8 European countries. Along with climate change-induced extreme weather, increasing urbanization and ever more dependence on technology and infrastructure, Europe is still more vulnerable to natural hazards. And accordingly, we need to figure out how to work around borders when disaster strikes. The Espresso project wants to enhance synergies in disaster prevention across Europe. We will focus on breaking down three kinds of borders. The borders between countries and how we can improve the framework for preventing disasters affecting more than one European country. The borders between existing efforts, specifically, how to integrate the efforts to adapt to climate change with those reducing impacts of natural hazards. And finally, the borders between research and policy, that is, how we might create better knowledge-based policies and regulations, as well as get researchers to produce more policy-relevant knowledge. Together with experts from all over Europe, we will, in the coming two years, discuss how we can make our home a safer place.