Center for Climate Change and Transformation - INQUIMUS 2024
INQUIMUS 2024
The upcoming INQUIMUS 2024 edition will take place in Eurac Research, Bolzano, on 04-06.12.2024.
- English
Eurac Research is proud to announce the upcoming INQUIMUS 2024 on Climate and Disaster Risk storylines – an approach to embrace complexity of risks and heterogeneity of evidence in risk science, risk management and risk communication.
The event will take place between December 4th and December 6th at Eurac Research, in Bolzano, Italy.
Workshop Theme: In an era marked by increasing climate extremes and intensifying disaster events with cascading impacts and risks throughout environmental and human systems, the need for risk management approaches that embrace the complexity of risk pathways is more pressing than ever. Climate and disaster risk storylines offer a powerful narrative framework that can foster a comprehensive and holistic understanding of complex risks and improve decision-making processes across diverse sectors and scales.
The objectives of the workshop are:
- Exchange experience on developing and applying climate and disaster risk storylines.
- Illustrate, how quantitative and qualitative elements and evidence can be integrated through risk storylines.
- Discuss, how risk storylines can be extended towards the dynamics of non-climatic risk drivers (exposure, vulnerabiltiy, underlying drivers) and social aspects.
- Understand to which extend and under which conditions storylines can support risk managers in challenging their current risk management practice and adapting them to future conditions.
- Conclude on elements and aspects that constitute a good standard in developing risk storylines.
Format: The workshop will feature a dynamic blend of high-level keynote talks, case studies, practical sessions, and poster presentations. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in thought-provoking discussions, share experiences, and collaborate on hands-on activities aimed at developing actionable risk storylines. We aim to summarize the findings of the workshop in a peer-reviewed position paper.
Who Should Attend? This workshop is tailored for scientists and researchers from different disciplines (including, but not limited to, climate, engineering, social science and humanity, natural sciences, economics) policymakers, disaster risk managers, emergency responders, planners, and practitioners involved in climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and resilience-building efforts. We welcome participants from diverse backgrounds and disciplines to actively contribute their expertise and insights to the discussions.
Registration for the workshop will cost 150€. Lunch and coffee breaks are covered. Participants are invited to bring a poster and submit an abstract as part of the registration. Since space is limited, we encourage interested participants to register early to secure their spot. Details regarding registration and the workshop agenda will be provided by the end of summer.
You can download the INQUIMUS 2024 agenda below:
INQUIMUS 2024 Keynote Speakers
Veronica Casartelli
Session: practitioner corner
Veronica Casartelli is an Environmental Engineer with a PhD in Urban Policy and Planning, and a Master's degree in Geopolitics and global security. She became an officer of the Italian Civil Protection Department in 2005 (currently on leave), contributing to activities covering the entire DRM cycle. Fully trained within the UCPM, she is part of the Italian pool of deployable experts. She was seconded to the Civil Protection Directorate of the Veneto Region from 2018 to 2022. Since 2019 she has been a scientist at CMCC, leading a research unit focused on risk governance and participating in several European projects.
Ted Shepherd
Session: Climate Risk Storylines
Ted Shepherd is Grantham Professor of Climate Science in the Meteorology Department at the University of Reading, and Senior Scientist at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre. Ted is a specialist in large-scale atmospheric dynamics. His recent research has pioneered a ‘storyline’ approach to representing the deep uncertainty in aspects of climate change related to atmospheric circulation, including extreme events. This has motivated him to begin engaging with stakeholders (e.g. on drought risk), and in inter-disciplinary collaborations. He currently co-chairs the World Climate Research Programme’s Lighthouse Activity ‘My Climate Risk’.
Simona Pedde
Session: Social Science and Humanities in Risk Storylines
Simona Pedde is a scenario analyst, focusing understanding future conditions to achieve resilience, both short and long term. In line with today's environmental research priorities and needs, she develops, combines and applies a range of methods which stem from both natural and social science. Co-designing and co-developing research with those using our scientific findings facilitates impact of her research in the real world. She focuses on European and regional analysis, particularly connecting SSP scenario communities between WUR, SEI and other institutes. She is also part of the Archetype of Sustainability network and Scientific Advisor in several EU Research Projects.
Julia Crummy
Session: DRR-oriented Risk Storylines
Julia Crummy is a volcanologist specialising in explosive volcanic eruptions and associated hazards. Her main interests lie in volcanic (multi-)hazards and impacts of volcanic eruptions on all scales, from local communities to national and global. Julia’s research primarily focused on quantitative hazard analysis; however, Julia has been exploring qualitative methods to understand hazard impacts on people and assets. Julia leads a task to develop multi-hazard multi-risk storylines for the EU HORIZON2020 MYRIAD-EU project. Storylines and narratives are being developed with stakeholders for disaster risk management to support planning and decision-making for multi-hazard, multi-risk events.
Special guest Anna Violato
The INQUIMUS 2024 edition will feature the participation of Anna Violato, who will present a discussion on "How science journalists use narrative storylines".
In their work, journalists employ narratives and storylines to make sense of current events and create a connection with readers. Choosing the right characters and narrative arcs helps convey meaning and lets readers understand why issues like climate change and extreme events matter – or how they could be impacted in the future. However, using narratives is not risk-free: bias, stereotypes and the force of habit can lead us to misuse stories. Using narratives consciously (and effectively) requires keeping an open mind!
Anna Violato is a science and environmental journalist covering climate change, air and water pollution, biodiversity loss and other global issues that impact people's lives. After a Bachelor in Philosophy and a Master in Science Communication, she has worked in publishing and now works as a freelance journalist, podcast producer and editor. Her stories have been published on RADAR Magazine, Nature Italy, Le Science (Italian edition of Scientific American) and more.
ABOUT
INQUIMUS is latin for WE SAY. a workshop series aiming to provide exchange, new inspiration and generative dialogues.
There is growing demand by policy- and action-oriented users for operational and integrative assessments of complex, multidimensional phenomena such as vulnerability and resilience. In recent years, quantitative and qualitative assessment methods as part of targeted efforts to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation have been pushed towards operational levels. Whilst the scientific progress regarding the development of theoretical frameworks and associated definitions has been remarkable, further attention needs to be given to coherent assessment methods. Therefore, we need a critical scientific discussion on assessment methodologies that evaluates and benchmarks approaches and intervention options. In the context of social-ecological systems and complex and multi-dimensional phenomena, a key issue is the relevance of spatial and temporal monitoring and how it can effectively support decision making.
Against this background, the Department of Geoinformatics – Z_GIS at the University of Salzburg, Austria and the European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano (EURAC) initiated in 2014 a series of INQUIMUS workshops (lat. “we say”) – Integrating quantitative and qualitative assessment methodologies for multi-dimensional phenomena. The purpose of these highly interactive workshops is to identify common achievements and methodological challenges, which will enable us to identify insights and future ways ahead. Additionally, these workshops will provide the possibility to exchange with practitioners who are active in this field and interested in the application and operationalization of assessments.
More information about our past workshops are available here.
For inquiries, please contact inquimus@eurac.edu.
Suggested readings
[1] A. Ciullo, O. Martius, E. Strobl, and D. N. Bresch, “A framework for building climate storylines based on downward counterfactuals: The case of the European Union Solidarity fund,” Climate Risk Management, vol. 33, p. 100349, 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.crm.2021.100349.
[2] B. J. J. M. Van Den Hurk et al., “Climate impact storylines for assessing socio-economic responses to remote events,” Climate Risk Management, vol. 40, p. 100500, 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.crm.2023.100500.
[3] J. Sillmann et al., “Event‐Based Storylines to Address Climate Risk,” Earth’s Future, vol. 9, no. 2, Feb. 2021, doi: 10.1029/2020EF001783.
[4] G. A. Riddell, H. Van Delden, H. R. Maier, and A. C. Zecchin, “Exploratory scenario analysis for disaster risk reduction: Considering alternative pathways in disaster risk assessment,” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, vol. 39, p. 101230, Oct. 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101230.
[5] J. G. March, L. S. Sproull, and M. Tamuz, “Learning from Samples of One or Fewer,” Organization Science, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1–13, Feb. 1991, doi: 10.1287/orsc.2.1.1.
[6] Y. C. Lin, S. F. Jenkins, J. R. Chow, S. Biass, G. Woo, and D. Lallemant, “Modeling Downward Counterfactual Events: Unrealized Disasters and why they Matter,” Front. Earth Sci., vol. 8, p. 575048, Nov. 2020, doi: 10.3389/feart.2020.575048.
[7] T. Kunimitsu et al., “Representing storylines with causal networks to support decision making: Framework and example,” Climate Risk Management, vol. 40, p. 100496, 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.crm.2023.100496.
[8] K. Strong, O. Carpenter, and D. Ralph, “Scenario Best Practices: Developing Scenarios for Disaster Risk Reduction.” Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School and Lighthill Risk Network, 2020.
[9] G. Woo and N. F. Johnson, “Stochastic Modeling of Possible Pasts to Illuminate Future Risk,” in The Oxford Handbook of Complex Disaster Risks and Resilience, 1st ed., J. M. Shultz and A. Rechkemmer, Eds., Oxford University Press, 2023, p. C12P1-C12S11. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190466145.013.12.
[10] H. R. Young et al., “Storylines for decision-making: climate and food security in Namibia,” Climate and Development, vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 515–528, Jul. 2021, doi: 10.1080/17565529.2020.1808438.
[11] T. G. Shepherd et al., “Storylines: an alternative approach to representing uncertainty in physical aspects of climate change,” Climatic Change, vol. 151, no. 3–4, pp. 555–571, Dec. 2018, doi: 10.1007/s10584-018-2317-9.
[12] C. M. Albano, M. I. McCarthy, M. D. Dettinger, and S. A. McAfee, “Techniques for constructing climate scenarios for stress test applications,” Climatic Change, vol. 164, no. 3–4, p. 33, Feb. 2021, doi: 10.1007/s10584-021-02985-6.