Issues pertaining to urban risks are a pressing concern for people involved in disaster mitigation, particularly in developing countries.

ICTP organized, under the auspices of the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea, a conference on "Seismic Risk Mitigation and Sustainable Development", that ran from 10 to 14 May 2010. The conference, promoted by ICTP's Structure and Non-linear Dynamics of the Earth (SAND) group, aimed to help developing countries prepare for earthquakes through careful planning. SAND has developed methods for this that have been supported by the Civil Defense of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and by the Italian Space Agency.

"Development of effective mitigation strategies requires sound seismic hazard information and strict interaction between the scientific geophysical community and disaster managers," said Roberto Menia, Undersecretary of the Italian Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea, who officially opened the conference.

"There is an urgent need for society to develop effective strategies and policies to reduce seismic risk and to prevent earthquake disasters," said conference organizer Giuliano Panza, who leads the SAND group. "Recent destructive earthquakes made issues pertaining to urban risks a pressing concern for people involved in disasters mitigation; in fact, with the emergence of mega-cities around the world, disasters of all kinds become an inevitable consequence of uncontrolled urbanization, particularly in less developed countries," he said. The conference was one of the first international forums where top scientists from more than 20 countries discussed observations and lessons from the recent Haiti and Chile earthquakes. Topics included seismology, engineering and decision-making issues.

Recognizing the need for international knowledge and practice exchange in civil defense actions, several of the conference's organizers, along with Israeli participant Efraim Laor, humanitarian coordinator for the Government of Israel and chair of the Fast Israeli Search and Rescue Team, met with Aldo Primiero from the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region Civil Defense in Palmanova.

The ICTP conference was co-sponsored by UNESCO's International Platform for Reducing Earthquake Disasters (IPRED), Central European Initiative, Gruppo di Lavoro Isolamento Sismico (GLIS, Working Group on Seismic Isolation), ASSISi (Anti-Seismic Systems International Society) and the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA).

Details of the conference are here.