Research Unit on Climate Adaptation, Disaster and Sustainable Development

The core principle of the SDGs, leaving no one behind, is the most important issue in socio-economic development and requires improving the situation of socially vulnerable groups, such as developing countries, the poor, women and persons with disabilities, and reducing disparities. For these vulnerable groups, climate change has a significant unequal impact, contributing to the vicious circle of poverty and widening disparities. As the risk of water-related disasters increases due to climate change, climate adaptation measures such as flood control are expected to not only mitigate disasters, but also contribute to solving poverty and inequality. It is therefore expected to be a means of promoting the transformation of socio-economic systems. Therefore, this unit promotes research and development to advance the transformation of socio-economic systems in the Global South through climate adaptation as a response to water-related disasters that require urgent action.

This unit addresses the global issues of climate change, disaster risk, poverty reduction, and disparity reduction in the context of the SDGs, the UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in an interdisciplinary manner. We aim to contribute to practical problem solving in countries of the Global South through climate adaptation and water-related disaster risk reduction. We integrate knowledge and methods from the humanities and social sciences on poverty and inequality, as well as the latest results on climate change from the natural sciences, with a focus on quantification, simulations and modeling, and conduct research, analysis and system development in an integrated manner.