Resilience to Severe Weather

Sir Mark WalportChief Scientific Adviser to HM Government

Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser

• Health, wellbeing, security & resilience

• Knowledge translated to economic advantage

• The right science for emergencies

• Underpinning policy with evidence

• Advocacy and leadership for science

Credit: iStockphoto

National Risk Register

Climate Change consequences for likelihood and impact

Focus on prevention and mitigation

5 Speech Title

Prevent Mitigate

RecoverRespondCredit: iStockphoto

Credit: iStockphoto

Credit: iStockphoto

Credit: US Navy/Chad Zenthoefer

What can science contribute?

Innovation: Managing Risk, Not Avoiding It, 27th March 2015

From Data to Knowledge

Credit: US NOAA/PD Credit: Met Office Credit: Met Office

Linking data-sets

Importance of international collaboration:

e.g modelling ocean currents

So what can we do?Better forecasting

So what can we do?Better data visualisation

So what can we do?Better long-term planning

So what can we do?Better communication

Conclusion

• Focus more on preventing and mitigating risks

• Investigate the potential of cascading risks and impacts

• Use this knowledge to develop the tools necessary to deal with risks

• Work together to share information and expertise

• Communicating to the public effectively is vital

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. We apologise for any errors or omissions in the included attributions and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future versions of this slide set. We can be contacted through contact@go-science.gsi.gov.uk.

@uksciencechief

www.gov.uk/go-science