Ancona, Italy, 13 October 2026
On the occasion of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) 2026, the Università Politecnica delle Marche (UNIVPM) will host a public event in Ancona under the theme “Resilience Starts at Home”, bringing together public institutions, research organizations, professional bodies, civil society, businesses and citizens to strengthen the connection between research, risk knowledge, and action in local territories.
The event, held at the Aula Magna, Polo Monte Dago, will focus on how safer buildings, prepared citizens, and resilient communities can help prevent risks from becoming disasters. The program brings together perspectives on disaster governance, resilient planning, reconstruction, multi-hazard approaches, flood risk, intelligent sensing and networks, artificial intelligence, and disaster risk management.
A key international contribution to the programme will be provided by Dr. Nidhi Nagabhatla of , who will join the event to present “Blind-Spot Analysis in Disaster-Risk Governance and Multilevel Governance as a Resilience Building Strategy.”
Dr. Nagabhatla’s contribution brings an international and systems-oriented perspective to the discussion, drawing attention to the importance of identifying blind spots in disaster-risk governance and strengthening coordination across multiple levels of governance. The focus on multilevel governance is particularly relevant to the event’s objective of connecting knowledge, institutions and communities and ensuring that disaster-risk reduction is embedded in territorial decision-making and resilience-building processes.
The intervention also reinforces the importance of looking beyond disaster response alone towards risk-informed governance, prevention, and anticipatory action. Identifying gaps between institutions, scales, knowledge systems, and implementation processes can help strengthen resilience strategies and improve the capacity of communities and territories to anticipate, absorb, and recover from disasters. She will also talk about the Bridge Reselcine System initiative in which she is closely involved: more details at The event reflects the broader international evolution of disaster-risk thinking—from managing disasters after they occur towards understanding and reducing underlying risks before they materialize. This perspective is also reflected in the program’s emphasis on resilient planning, reconstruction, multi-hazard risk, technological innovation, digital tools, artificial intelligence, and community preparedness.
The program includes contributions from researchers and practitioners in the EU region and other institutions, as well as representatives of civil protection, local government, professional associations, and volunteer organizations. This multi-stakeholder composition creates an important space for connecting research evidence with professional practice, institutional decision-making and community action.
The participation of UNU-CRIS through Dr. Nagabhatla highlights the relevance of comparative and cross-regional perspectives in understanding disaster-risk governance and positions governance analysis and multilevel coordination as important dimensions of resilience-building, complementing the event’s strong focus on infrastructure, technology, preparedness and territorial planning.
The International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction provides an opportunity to reaffirm that resilience is not created by infrastructure or technology alone. It depends equally on institutions, knowledge, coordination, preparedness, participation, and the capacity of communities and decision-makers to act on risk information.
Through this collective exchange between research, institutions, and society, this EU member state-led event will contribute to the broader objective of making disaster-risk reduction a shared responsibility and strengthening the foundations for safer, more prepared, and more resilient communities.
