Rethinking natural risk decision-making:
an interdisciplinary perspective for more effective management.
The mission
The SAFER project — Sustainable Approaches For the Effective management of natural Risks — was established at Politecnico di Milano to address a critical challenge: how to make more informed, equitable, and sustainable decisions in natural risk management.
Funded by Fondazione Cariplo through the ‘Young Researchers’ grant, SAFER applies interdisciplinary tools to the study of decision-making processes in natural risk management. We analyze the ethical and epistemological limits of these decisions to develop alternative guidelines and tools that can enhance our collective risk management efforts.
The approach
The project is characterized by a strongly interdisciplinary approach.
The critical tools of philosophy contribute to bringing to light the fundamental theoretical issues in risk management practice.
Sociology allows for exploring the perspective of the various actors involved in the decision-making process, providing necessary elements for a truly informed study of the phenomenon.
Hydraulic engineering and seismic engineering connect abstract reflections with the concreteness of practice, thanks to direct knowledge of the tools involved in the management of various natural risks.
The goals
- Map the decision-making tools available for risk management, describing the landscape of practices and approaches in use today.
- Evaluate the suitability of each tool in relation to different contexts, types of risk, and decision-making needs, recognizing that every decision presents different levels of uncertainty and ethical and political priorities.
- Build systematic connections between tools and situations to foster more effective decisions and a more sustainable relationship between human action and natural risk.