Complex natural disasters and the role of the university

This repository item contains a single issue of Issues in Brief, a series of policy briefs that began publishing in 2008 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.What is the potential and future role of the university in disaster mitigation and humanitarian emergencies? The complexity and imminence of disasters and humanitarian emergencies demand multidisciplinary and innovative approaches, as has been seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the Haitian earthquake. In this brief, Enrique Silva suggests that universities need to harness the wealth of knowledge and interest within and across their institutions to think critically about and work creatively on “natural” disasters, and cites examples of how this effort has begun at Boston University and elsewhere