Published works

Being able to effectively determine risk ownership is critical for effectively managing natural hazards. This, however, is not a simple task: the risks are systemic, the impacts can resonate across multiple time lines and geographical scales and, in many cases, ownership is shared. As risk ownership is frequently not formally allocated to particular activities, allocation is often a negotiated process. This requires being able to combine expert and local knowledge with economic understandings to support decision making in this area. This type of planning extends beyond surviving an event and rebuilding, to focusing on sustaining the values we treasure most, by planning for the future we want, in the face of changes that go beyond our previous experience. This presentation will explore these different aspects and show how they have been brought together in a risk ownership framework. This framework has been co-designed with end users and provides a companion process that integrates strategic risk into current risk assessment and planning processes. This process uses the identification of values (what is most important), and who owns these, as a premise for assessing risk. Risk ownership provides not only a focus for specific activities, but also acts as a connecting thread that runs through the strategic risk assessment process – binding ownership of values and ownership of assets in a way that supports actions rather than disabling them. Our presentation will explore how the different phases of this process can be used to help communities identify what is most important and to explore risk reduction strategies to protect these. It will also show how valuation methods can provide a pathway for building a more comprehensive understanding of how to make long-term investments aiming to avoid damage and loss. It will show how drawing together the threads of this difficult conversation to a point of consensus, actively supports resilience activities and strategic thinking.