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4th Meeting of UNU-EHS Expert Working Group on Measuring Vulnerability took place at the UN Campus Bonn, Germany

From 19-21 November 25 international experts have taken part in the Fourth Meeting of the Expert Working Group on Measuring Vulnerability at the UN Campus in Bonn. Unlike the last meeting with many participants the session in Bonn was conceived as a focused meeting with only a few participants. The EWG hopes to provide a platform for brainstorming and in-depth discussion, rather than formal presentations. The meeting focused mainly on vulnerability to climate change, the integration of gender aspects in measuring vulnerability and different measurements of vulnerability before, during and after a disaster of natural origin.

The three day meeting encompassed selected short presentations to be used as a basis for longer discussions afterwards. The presentations covered four main topics: Vulnerability and Resilience; Measuring Vulnerability before, during and after Disasters; Measuring Vulnerability to Climate Change and Assessing Adaptive Capacities; Assessing Response Capacities and Linking Vulnerability and Migration.

The host, Prof. Janos Bogardi, Vice-Rector a.i. and Director of UNU-EHS, commenced the meeting with a statement on the challenges and gaps of measuring vulnerability and resilience. The Chairholder of the Chair on Social Vulnerability, Prof. Anthony Oliver Smith (University of Florida) focused on the the challenges inherent on recovery and vulnerability reduction, using Hurricanes Katrina and Mitch as case studies; Dr. Jörn Birkmann's (UNU-EHS) statement on measuring vulnerability - before, during and after disasters- on the other hand, clearly concentrated on the assessment of measuring vulnerability.

Other presentations addressed the vulnerability to climate change and ways of assessing adaptive capacities. Dr. Fabrice Renaud's (UNU-EHS) presentation on the environmental component of vulnerability and Prof. E. Plate's (University of Karlsruhe) on how to cope with the hydrological hazards of large cities were only two presentations of many.

The participants were asked to provide a paper after the meeting in order to prepare a journal or book aiming to present the subject to scientific community. The publication will be announced here in a corresponding notice as soon as it is published. Moreover, the publication aims at serving as basis for a larger audience such as at the international conference on Environment, Forced Migration and Social Vulnerability (EFMSV), which will be held in October 2008 in Bonn.