The 2nd Conference (IDRiM2011) of the International Society for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM Society) was hosted at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, USA, on 14-16 July 2011. The conference is co-organized by the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI) of Kyoto University, and partly supported by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the joint Research Centre of the European Commission.

The conference theme, “Reframing Disasters and Reflecting on Risk Governance Deficits,” arises from the analysis of recent events including the Haiti and Chile earthquakes, the volcanic ash disruption to European air space (as well as interconnected airlines, businesses, and people around the world), and the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Furthermore, the devastating Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan on 11 March 2011 which triggered the on-going accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant have shown that even in a country with some of the best earthquake and tsunami construction and disaster preparedness and mitigation systems in place there are gaps in risk management. These events have highlighted several important points: the need to rethink the way we design our infrastructure and protection and mitigation barriers; the need to address/ manage disasters locally, but also the need to consider their potential impacts globally; and the need to identify and address risk governance deficits as well as the need for more transparency in the governance and management of high risk activities. Integrated disaster risk management is needed that uses multi-hazard, interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder, and comprehensive approaches to disaster risk reduction.

Over 10 teachers and 3 students in ESPRE, ECND and ADREM participated in the conference. Professor Shi Peijun delivered a report of “Government’s Role in Integrated Disaster Risks Management and Governance”. Professor Ye Qian, Director of IHDP-IRG introduced content and implementation plans of IHDP-IRG and progress made. Visiting Professor Michael H.Glantz and Adrian Gheorghe also made reports. BNU’s progress made in Integrated Disaster Risks Management and Governance has gained attention from experts and colleagues. Atlas of Natural Disaster Risk of China by Professor Shi was well received by attendees. Professor William Petak praised this book as the first natural disaster risk atlas in the world. Professor Norio Okada, President of IDRiM said this book reflected differentiation law of time and space of China’s natural disaster risks and would be important to China and the world.

Three young scholars acquired the Best Thesis Prize. The thesis by Ph.D candidate Shuai Jibing was awarded silver prize, and that by Dr. Wu Jidong won cooper prize.

On the Committee Meeting of IDRiM, BNU won the bid for holding the 3rd Annual Conference of International Society for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM) in Beijing in September, 2012.

BNU’s disaster risk science has made a long way with the support of State Project “211” and Project “985”. Apart from winning the bid for co-hosting IRGP-IHDP 2009, BNU has won the bid for launching Project under the National Basic Research Program (“973” Program) which is “relationship of global change and environmental risks and its countermeasures”.