MOVE

MOVE will create knowledge, frameworks and methods for the assessment of vulnerability to natural hazards in Europe. It will use indices and indicators to help improve societal and environmental resilience. Emphasis will be placed on clear, capable measurement and accounting for uncertainties. MOVE will identify gaps in existing methodologies. It will produce a conceptual framework that is independent of scale and hazard type. It analyses physical (technical), environmental, economic, social, cultural and institutional vulnerability. These will be measured for specific hazards and at different geographical scales. Floods, temperature extremes, droughts, landslides, earthquakes, wildfires and storms will be studied. Methodologies will be tested in seven case study regions in Europe on vulnerable elements and appropriate hazard types.

MOVE is a three year research project funded by the European Commission. It is an interdisciplinary research that is conducted in cooperation with 13 partners.

Please visit the official project website.

MOVE flyer

Time Span

3 years: 1 October 2008 – 31 December 2011

Key Goals

The overall goal of the MOVE project is to provide policymakers, public administrators, researchers, educators and other stakeholder with an improved generic framework and methods for the measurement and assessment of vulnerability to natural hazards in Europe:

• create knowledge, frameworks and methods for the assessment of vulnerability to natural hazards in Europe

• use indices and indicators to help improve societal and environmental resilience placing emphasis on clear, capable measurement and accounting for uncertainties

• identify gaps in existing methodologies

• produce a conceptual framework that is independent of scale and hazard type

• analyse physical, technical, environmental, economic, social, cultural and institutional vulnerability measured for specific hazards such as floods, temperature extremes, droughts, landslides, earthquakes, wildfires and storms at different geographical scales

• test the usefulness of the framework in 7 different case studies in Europe by integrating stakeholders and end users

Working Methods

• Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing

• Statistical analyses

• Empirical social research

The Role of UNU-EHS

The role of UNU-EHS includes a gap analysis which will show new challenges as well as missing links between different disciplines using the concept of vulnerability. In a next step UNU-EHS closely works together with CIMNE, KCL, UNIFI, EURAC and Z_GIS regarding the development of a conceptual framework. Furthermore, the development and the identification of adequate methods and indicators to assess vulnerability in the City of Cologne in terms of floods, earthquakes and heatwaves using the MOVE conceptual framework was done.