MATRIX –New Multi-Hazard and MulTi-RIsK Assessment MethodS for Europe
TT: Extreme natural disasters are typically treated as individual incidents, but scientists are
developing methods to link catastrophic events such as earthquakes and landslides to enable
policy makers to take more effective risk reduction measures.
BT: Overview
Many areas in Europe are at risk from natural hazards that can come in combinations—
landslides triggered by earthquakes or flooding caused by heavy winter storms, for example.
Although engineers and disaster managers usually deal with disasters as individual incidents,
emergency response planning could be more effective if it recognized the links between events.
MATRIX http://matrix.gpi.kit.edu/researchers are developing methods and tools to better cope
with cascading or conjoined natural disasters within a common framework. The project is
analyzing historic data from individual disasters to develop comparisons of the specific risks
from each type of hazard. That will inform an analysis of risks arising from disasters that trigger
or contribute to other disasters. The research also examines how damage from one event
makes a community more susceptible to damage from a second disaster.
MATRIX will base its analysis on hazard data from three case studies: Naples, Italy; Cologne,
Germany; and the French West Indies. Researchers are also creating a virtual city that will allow
them to simulate the effects of everything from flash floods and landslides to volcanic eruptions
and rises in sea level.
IIASA Research
Institute researchers are analyzing how conducting an integrated risk assessment of multiple
hazards compares to single hazard assessments and how decision making might be improved.
They are also examining the unique challenges faced by decision makers who must do multi-
hazard risk assessments.
Image(s):
MATRIX.jpg
Right sidebar boxes:
Contact:
Tony Patt (patt@iiasa.ac.at)
Research Funder/Costs:
Funding Agency: European Commission Seventh Framework Programme
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/home_en.html
Project Cost: €4.3 million
EU Funding: €3.4 million
Time Frame:
January 1, 2010 to September 30, 2013
Publications:
http://matrix.gpi.kit.edu/60.php
Models and Data:
More Information/Related Research:
MATRIX: http://matrix.gpi.kit.edu/
Partners: http://matrix.gpi.kit.edu/28.php
Tags:
Country/Region:
Europe, Italy, Germany, Americas
Keywords:
Extreme natural disasters, earthquakes, landslides, flooding, storms, volcanic eruptions, hazard
assessments, cascading natural disasters, conjoined natural disasters
Research Area:
Poverty and Equity (http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/PAE/index.html)
Research Program
Risk, Policy, and Vulnerability (http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/RAV/index.html)
Acronym explainer:
New Multi-Hazard and MulTi-RIsK Assessment MethodS for Europe