Enhancing Disaster Resilience: Climate Hub Rio Hosts Workshop on Integrating Climate Risk into Disaster Management

Climate Hub Rio hosted the workshop “Integrating Climate Risk to Enhance Disaster Management and Resilience” in Rio de Janeiro on January 21-22 in partnership with the City of Rio Rio Operations and Resilience Center (COR). The event, co-led by Professors Andrew Kruczkiewicz and Walter Baethgen, from the Columbia Climate School, convened Brazilian scientists, policymakers, and disaster management professionals to assess disaster risk reduction strategies and explore opportunities for co-developing new and more effective approaches. 

The workshop was part of Professors Kruczkiewicz’s and Baethgen's research project, which aims to assess and improve risk reduction strategies while exploring opportunities for a safer and more sustainable future for Rio. The research project was convened by the Columbia Global Center in Rio de Janeiro, as part of its partnership with the City of Rio.

Strengthening Disaster Resilience in Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro is known throughout the world for its significant strides in disaster resilience, with COR playing a crucial role in integrating data and coordinating crisis responses across the city government. However, as climate change accelerates with disproportionate impacts on the most vulnerable populations, more effective strategies are needed to save lives and ensure equitable disaster management. The Workshop fostered collaboration among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to evaluate disaster risk strategies and identify gaps in climate information systems, including risk forecasting tools. A central focus was promoting justice- and equity-based approaches to disaster management while defining key priorities for future engagement between science, policy, and practice. 

Key Insights from Experts 

Climate Hub Rio’s Director, Thomas Trebat, opened the event by emphasizing the urgency of climate resilience efforts, citing Rio’s recent extreme heat waves as pressing examples. 

Marcus Belchior, CEO of COR, traced the Center’s origins to the devastating 2010 floods that claimed 67 lives. He underscored COR’s evolution into a vital integration hub for municipal agencies and a model for resilience for cities throughout Brazil. Belchior emphasized that resilience must be a long-term state policy rather than a government-specific initiative and called for national engagement in disaster preparedness, particularly to assist smaller municipalities. He also highlighted COR’s partnerships with institutions such as Columbia University, NASA, Waze, Google, and Amazon, which enhance public management through a decision-making framework incorporating climate data, traffic patterns, accidents, and public sentiment analysis. 

Professor Walter Baethgen then stressed the importance of ensuring that climate research is accessible beyond academia, and particularly in Global South countries where knowledge exchange with peers facing similar climate realities is often most effective. He described the mission of Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) to integrate scientific knowledge at multiple scales while developing user-friendly, open-access tools for planning and decision-making. 

Professor Andrew Kruczkiewicz emphasized the need for climate information to drive early warning systems and anticipatory action. He engaged participants in discussions on trust in climate data sources and prioritization of risk assessments. Drawing from case studies on the 2015 Malawi floods and Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh, Kruczkiewicz led an interactive exercise where participants positioned themselves within the academia-policy-practice spectrum, fostering cross-disciplinary discussions. 

Perspectives from Brazilian Experts 

Fabricio Polifke, adjunct professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and coordinator of the University’s Short-Term Forecasting and Extreme Eventatory, advocated for a two-way exchange of information between scientists and practitioners, ensuring that research is informed by real-world needs. He highlighted the role of operational meteorology and nowcasting in decision-making and stressed the need for policymakers to provide the public with clear communication. 

Cinthia Avellar Martins, Hydrometeorological Information Manager at the State of Rio Institute for the Environment (INEA), and participant in Climate Hub Rio’s climate leadership exchange program, detailed the challenges of hydrometeorological monitoring, emphasizing the need for enhanced probabilistic forecasting and modernization of risk assessment protocols. 

Maria Fernanda Lemos, an urban resilience professor from PUC-Rio, cautioned against “maladaptation”— resilience policy responses that inadvertently create residual risks. She called for transformative adaptation strategies that continuously reassess vulnerabilities and integrate new actors, including insurance companies, to address both immediate and long-term challenges. 

Community-Led Climate Adaptation Initiatives 

Luize Sampaio, researcher and data coordinator at Casa Fluminense, a think tank in Rio de Janeiro, highlighted civil society’s role in disaster resilience. She presented a Climate Justice Guide documenting grassroots adaptation efforts and shared case studies, including a green roof initiative in the Arará favela to mitigate urban heat islands and a campaign that led to the creation of a new green public space (Parque Realengo) to increase vegetation and provide heat relief for residents. 

Lennon Medeiros from Visão Coop discussed recurring floods in the Queimados region of Rio de Janeiro, which have led the community there to develop autonomous disaster response mechanisms. He emphasized the need for better internet access in peripheral communities to improve access to climate information and called for standardized adaptation efficiency indicators. 

Inclusion and Long-Term Resilience 

Clement da Cruz from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction in Brasiliaunderscored the long-term benefits of integrating inclusion into disaster resilience planning. He emphasized the importance of embedding accessibility measures and adaptive infrastructure from the outset rather than treating these issues as secondary concerns. His remarks aligned with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reinforcing the need for equitable emergency response strategies. 

Addressing Misinformation, Housing Deficits, and Community Resilience 

Discussions highlighted key challenges such as combating misinformation, ensuring public access to reliable climate data, and addressing the lack of risk assessments for informal settlements such as the huge Complexo da Maré in Rio. Breakout sessions allowed participants to explore fundamental questions on disaster management, key challenges, and how Columbia University could contribute to strengthening resilience efforts in Rio. At the end of the breakout session, each group presented a summary of their insights and proposals to the other participants, fostering a collaborative and energetic exchange of ideas. 

The Role of Data in Disaster Preparedness 

On the second day, Anthony Bezerra and Michele Ribeiro from Brazil’s National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters (Cemaden) provided an in-depth overview of Cemaden’s role across disaster management phases—from prevention and preparedness to response and recovery. They emphasized the need for continuously updated protocols and highlighted Cemaden’s multi-source forecasting tools, including radar-based pluviometry, lightning monitoring, satellite imagery, and synoptic charts. Their presentation also covered the new extreme weather alert system, which delivers emergency notifications via mobile phones in collaboration with Civil Defense authorities, fostering behavioral change and climate education. 

Looking Ahead: Priorities for Future Action 

In the workshop's final session, participants engaged in small group discussions to identify key priorities for future action. Several important themes emerged, including the need for better integration, disaggregation, and translation of climate data; addressing the intersection of climate justice and housing deficits; strengthening coordination between civil society and government agencies; standardizing communication protocols for disaster response; and expanding the use of collective intelligence in decision-making. These themes reflect the critical areas for advancing disaster resilience and fostering more inclusive, effective responses to climate challenges.

Participants emphasized that effective resilience planning must bridge the gap between research and implementation, ensuring that policies are actionable and context-specific. Moving forward, Climate Hub Rio and its partners will continue advancing research, policy, and practice to build a more resilient Rio de Janeiro based on policies informed by science and best global practices. The expectation is that further refinements of the interactions between research and policy in Rio de Janeiro serve as a model for other urban resilience centers globally. Through local and international knowledge exchanges and involvement of civil society and vulnerable communities, the new initiative would seek to drive meaningful, lasting change in urban climate resilience.