The UR+ Vancouver symposium will assemble people from across Southwestern British Columbia to share knowledge and perspective on what it means to live with earthquake and flood risks, and to develop innovative solutions that will help build long-term resilience to future disaster events and the impacts of climate change. Insights and knowledge gained through this process will be shared with planners and policy analysts in the region — and to the broader community through the global Understanding Risk platform.

Some of the questions we will be exploring together include:

• What are the likely impacts and consequences of a catastrophic earthquake in BC ?
• Who and what are most vulnerable to flooding in the Fraser Valley ?
• What is our capacity to withstand and recover from these catastrophic events ?
• How do we work together to increase disaster resilience in the region?
• Which risk reduction strategies are most effective and how do we best implement them ?

The Understanding Risk (UR) Community is the pre-eminent platform for collaborating and sharing knowledge in the field of disaster risk assessment. Created in 2009 by the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, the UR Community convenes every two years at the global UR Forum to showcase the latest innovations and build new partnerships to foster advances in the field. The UR+ Vancouver symposium is a spinoff event that is designed to maintain the spirit of the global UR forum at national, regional and local settings.

Contributors include:

• Becky Denlinger - Deputy Minister, Emergency Preparedness, Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, British Columbia
• Andrea Reimer - Councillor and Chair of the Standing Committee on Policy and Strategic Priorities, City of Vancouver
• Alex Kaplan - Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships, Swiss Re
• Simone Balog - World Bank, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery
• William Adams - Vice-President, Insurance Bureau of Canada - Western and Pacific Region
• Andrew Hannan- Public Safety Canada, Pacific Region
• Fiona Dercole - Manager of Public Safety, District of North Vancouver
  
• Daniel Stevens- Director of Emergency Management, City of Vancouver
• Murray Journeay - Federal Research Scientist, Natural Resources Canada - Geological Survey of Canada
  
• John Sherstobitoff – Principal, Seismic & Structures at Ausenco, Chair of the NBCC earthquake design sub-committee on Performance Based Design and Resilience
  
• Natinas and Kalilah Rampanen - Ahousaht First Nation
  
• Stephanie Chang - UBC's School of Community and Regional Planning, MEOPAR
• Susanna Haas Lyons - Civic engagement specialist
• Tamsin Lyle - Ebbwater Consulting
• and many more!

Program Overview

Wednesday, March 29th

Location: TELUS World of Science (1455 Quebec Street, Vancouver, British Columbia)

4:00-4:30PM: Onsite Registration

4:30-5:30PM: Opening Plenary, Featuring: James Kew, Musqueam First Nation, Natinas and Kalilah Rampanen (Ahousaht First Nation), and Underground Circus

5:30-6:30PM: Ignite Talks: 5 minute presentations by technical session representatives

6:30-8:30PM: Welcome Reception: Catering by Edgeceptional, Cash Bar

Thursday, March 30th

Location: Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, ICBC Concourse (580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, British Columbia)

8:00-8:30AM: Onsite Registration

8:30-9:45AM: Keynote: Beyond Death, Dollars and Downtime: using indicators to highlight risk reduction opportunities: Murray Journeay, Tamsin Lyle, Robert White and Fiona Dercole

9:45-10:15AM: Refreshment Break

10:15-11:45AM: Technical Theme Sessions - Part I

• Mind the Gap: Working together to address gaps in earthquake and flood risk reduction planning.
  
• Communicating Risk Across Communities: Tools and capabilities for transforming knowledge into action.
• Charting a Path Toward Lifeline Resilience: Critical infrastructure interdependencies and opportunities for increased disaster resilience

11:45AM-12:15PM: Lunch

12:15-1:30PM: Keynote Panel: Fast-tracking Resilience from Idea to Reality: bridging the gaps between policy and finance, Moderated by Alex Kaplan (SwissRe &100RC), and including Councillor Andrea Reimer (City of Vancouver) and Bill Adams (Insurance Bureau of Canada)

1:30-3:00PM: Technical Theme Sessions - Part II

• Empowering Communities: Building a framework for neighbourhood resilience.
• Resilient Buildings: A risk-based approach to reducing physical vulnerabilities in the built environment
• We’ve Got Your Back: Increasing disaster resilience through incentives and innovations in risk transfer

3:00-3:30PM: Refreshment Break

3:30-4:30PM: Knowledge Exchange: Overview of insights and actionable strategies gained from technical sessions for disaster risk reduction in the Georgia Basin, Moderated by Susanna Haas Lyons

5:00-7:00PM: Social & Networking, EERI-BC AGM: @ Rogue Gastown (601 W Cordova St, Vancouver, BC)

Friday, March 31st

Location: Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Asia Pacific Hall (580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, British Columbia)

8:00-8:30AM: Onsite Registration

8:30-9:45AM: Keynote Panel: Scales of Governance: what are the resilience challenges and opportunities from the perspective of federal, provincial, regional and local governance representatives?, Moderated by Gord Hoekstra and including Andrew Hannan (Public Safety Canada), Becky Denlinger (Deputy Minister for Emergency Preparedness), Jessica Shoubridge (Fraser Basin Council), Fiona Dercole (District of North Vancouver), Daniel Stevens (City of Vancouver)

9:45AM-10:15AM: Resilience by Design challenge introduction: Navigating Pathways between Knowledge and Action, including presentations from local directors of emergency management

10:15AM-10:45AM: Refreshment Break

10:45AM-12:30PM: Resilience by Design interactive challenge: participants will define policy targets for risk reduction indicators, and weigh promising policy proposals and actionable strategies in view of the local context

12:30-1:30PM: Lunch

1:30-330PM: Policy Dialogue: Prioritizing recommended policies for disaster risk reduction in the Georgia Basin and defining next steps for this work

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Please pass along this invitation to other colleagues in your network who may be interested in contributing their knowledge and/or expertise to this event.

For more information, contact:

• Jessica Shoubridge (EERI Director): jessica@thriveconsulting.me

• Murray Journeay (NRCan): murray.journeay@canada.ca

Check out our website at: https://eeri-bc.wildapricot.org/UR-Vancouver

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This event is eligible for the following Professional Planning CPL units:

Wednesday, March 29 - 2.0 Organized/Structured CPL units

Thursday, March 30 - 6.0 Organized/Structured CPL units

Friday, March 31 - 4.0 Organized/Structured CPL units

TOTAL: 12.0 Organized/Structured CPL units