International Group for Wind-Related Disaster Risk Reduction (IG-WRDRR)

The International Group (IG) for Wind-Related Disaster Risk Reduction (WRDRR) was formally launched under the auspices of the United Nations/International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Secretariat (UN/ISDR). This Group is responsible for establishing linkages and for coordinating various communities to serve as inter-agency coordinators with a charter to work with international organizations involving agencies of the UN and involved NGOs, and to embolden their activities that help to serve as a bridge between policy makers and agencies responsible for actually carrying out the DRR at the local community level. This paper first discusses the trends of climate change and disasters based on the global and Japanese data to stress the necessity of DRR, and then introduces several recent wind-related devastating disasters that had significant impacts on our society, especially in terms of the shocking number of fatalities and injuries and the attendant property loss. The necessities for collaboration among multiple academic associations for different natural disasters and among academic societies and non-academic organizations working on disaster risk reduction are emphasized. Finally the process that led to the establishment of the IG for WRDRR, its organization, proposed and recent activities, are described.