Partnerships core to disaster mitigation

The insurance industry’s natural disaster mitigation body, the institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR), highlighted the value of research and information sharing between the private, public and scientific sectors at its recent annual general meeting. During 2000, the ICLR formalized a partnership with the University of Western Ontario and the Ontario government to build a team of internationally renowned researchers, says the institute’s chair Terry Squire. “We have assembled one of the most powerful research teams in the world today.”

This partnership also enabled the ICLR to triple funds available for future research, Squire notes. In addition to numerous natural hazard workshops held across the country, the ICLR organized five conferences last year, which drew more than 400 attendees from the insurance industry, researchers to government officials. The institute also published five research papers from “flood management” to “Hurricane Hazel and extreme rainfall in southern Ontario”.

Paul Kovacs, the executive director of the ICLR, says this year’s focus will be on production of quality research arising from the government/university partnership. Formal relations were also struck this year with the U.S.-based Institute for Business & Home Safety and Japan’s Disaster Prevention Institute. These partnerships will further enhance the quality of research produced by the institute, he adds. Furthermore, in September the ICLR will host an international conference on water management on behalf of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Kovacs announced.