Advisory Board Member: Professor Norio Okada
An Emiratus Professor at Kyoto University. He is also Advisor to Kwansei Gakuin University, Visiting Professor at Kumamoto University and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam, Germany. Since 2010 Professor Okada has been the President for “The International Society for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM Society)”. From 2009 to 2012 Professor Okada was the Director for the world renowned ‘Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI)’ at Kyoto University in Japan. Professor Okada has long been engaged in scientific support for citizen-led participatory community management, especially in rural areas of Japan. During his time at the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI) he participated in several initiatives to explore a new cross-disciplinary research area called Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM). In the context of leading an extensive international research initiative to promote IDRiM, he has organised a series of international conferences and workshops in collaboration with IIASA. This research initiative resulted in the formation of the International Society for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM Society). Professor Okada is currently attempting to extend the scope of integrated disaster risk management, by taking governance, systemic risks, sustainable management, and climate change into account.