Increasing impacts from natural hazard events have been observed over the last decades in many regions. In the future, a further rise of losses and damages is expected as a consequence of global climate change and strong earthquakes. Disaster prevention and recovery become the important tools to promote sustainable environment for our common future.

The first focus of this session will be on sharing the experience and expertise from different fields together as well as exploring the environment, geology, mechanism, modeling, forecasting and monitoring system, and risk assessment methodology of the varying natural hazards. This interactive session aims to bridge the gap between science and practice in the prevention of natural hazards.

The second focus of this session aims to learn from the ideas and methods of the international Satoyama. At the 2010 UN Biological Diversity Conference, the Japanese Ministry of the Environment and the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) established the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI) to promote sustainable human-nature relations and develop a global course of action and best practice. The Satoyama Initiative has been promoted in order to improve community resilience, assist in the maintenance of rural agricultural production landscapes, boost sustainable development of rural communities, reconnect the relationship between humans and nature, and allow biodiversity maintenance to coexist with the well-being of local people.