Taipei City Fire Department

The Taipei City Fire Department held an "All-Hazard Risk Analysis Framework Establishment and Its Application in Strengthening Urban Disaster Resilience" conference on October 23, 2023 from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM at the Taipei City Emergency Operation Center. The conference was attended by representatives from the National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction, the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, the French Association in Taiwan, the Central Police University's Disaster Prevention Institute, and the disaster prevention units of the eight counties and cities in northern Taiwan, as well as the Taipei City Government. The opening ceremony was presided over by Fire Department Director, Huai-Tsu Mo.

In recent years, climate change and extreme weather have not only expanded the scale of disasters, but also increased their frequency. In order to understand the risks posed by various disasters to Taipei City, the Fire Department commissioned National Taiwan University to establish an all-hazard risk analysis framework for Taipei City. The framework was established by analyzing the hazard levels of various disasters and social vulnerability indicators. Water disasters, earthquakes, landslides, and large-scale collapses were used as examples to conduct disaster risk analysis at the village scale in Taipei City and to draw risk distribution maps. Improvement suggestions were also made for areas with high risks in Taipei City. The results of the study were presented at the conference. The Fire Department hopes that the relevant units of the city government will use the results to plan and implement various disaster prevention policies to reduce the impact of disasters on the city and improve the city's disaster resilience.

In addition to presenting the results of the all-hazard risk analysis framework and disaster risk matrix in Taipei City, the conference also invited domestic and international experts and scholars, including Dr. Hsiang-Chieh Lee, group leader of the National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction, Dr. Chin-Hsun Yeh, group leader of the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, and Francois-Xavier Runner from the French Association in Taiwan, to give lectures and share new knowledge in disaster management. The topics of discussion including the use and future trends of social and economic indicators and disaster prevention data, the new generation of TELES earthquake damage assessment system, and the disaster risk response mechanism of French institutions in Taiwan. Prof. Bei-shan Lin, the director of the Disaster Prevention Institute, Central Police University, and Prof. Tzai-Hung Wen from the Department of Geography, National Taiwan University, also participated in the discussion and exchanged opinions.

At the opening ceremony of the conference, Director Huai-Tsu Mo said that he hoped that the conference would help the Fire Department better understand the international trends in disaster prevention and response, and that it would be a platform to promote exchanges between the central and local governments. The conference would also help to explore the direction of future disaster prevention and response work in Taiwan, and to achieve the goal of strengthening and improving the domestic disaster prevention and response system.