Natural Disasters and Societal Safety

Opening Address

Professor Kirsti Strøm Bull, President, Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters.

It is a pleasure to welcome you to this symposium on “Natural Disasters and Societal

Safety”. The recent disastrous earthquake in Nepal brings a sad reminder of the

significance and actuality of natural disasters.

The symposium is organised jointly by the Norwegian Academy of Science

and Letters (DNVA), the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences (NTVA)

and the Research Council of Norway (RCN). The symposium is an arena where

academia and research meet with Norway's key decision-makers. The contributions

to the symposium reflect the views from sectors concerned with public safety. Our

joint symposium arena welcomes diverging and even conflicting opinions.

This is the fifth symposium organised jointly by our academies and the

Research Council of Norway, and the third where His Majesty honours us with his

presence. We feel privileged that His Majesty King Harald chooses to join our event.

We wish to thank His Majesty for his keen interest in our Academies and Norwegian

research.

We have experienced dramatic days in the last year: Scary fires in Lærdal and

Flatanger in January 2014; extreme weather with flooding in Western Norway,

especially in Odda and Flåm in October; avalanches and rockslides blocking our

transportation corridors and threatening our homes; polar low atmospheric pressure

affecting the Norwegian coast, and the surprising Skjeggestad bridge pillar collapse

on E 18 due to a landslide, interrupting all traffic. Fortunately, no lives were lost.

The population of Norway has always experienced natural disasters. The

extreme flood Stor-ofsen, or “Large Floating”, hit large parts of inland southern

Norway in July 1789 and triggered a large number of landslides. The flood is still

present in the memories of the families in Gudbrandsdalen and Østerdalen. History

was repeated in 1995, with new floods in the same valleys. The 1995 flood was called

Lille-ofsen or “Small Floating”. Avalanches, rockfalls and rockslides threaten many

of our communities. And, not least, rough weather has taken many lives at sea.

How to be prepared and ensure that we are safe from natural threats is not a

new topic, but it still proves to be a challenge. Improved weather forecasting has

meant a lot. Earlier events have also contributed to develop local assistance and

insurance schemes. Preparedness today is mainly based on earlier experience. But

nature, and climate change, pose new challenges. The 100-year events seem to occur

more often today than before. In the media just last week (Brennpunkt, NRK-TV), it

was said: “Nature needs room to dissipate its energy”. It may be that nature needs

more room than we had first envisaged. The planning of land use in Norway needs