IHRR Contributes to International Geohazards, Climate Change and Resilience Summer School in Aosta, Italy

Fausto Guzzetti, Professor of Hazard and Risk at Durham University’s Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience, will give a lecture in Aosta, Italy, as part of the 5th Summer School of the International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment (IAEG).

The Summer School, titled 'An integrated approach to geohazards, climate change, and resilience', is taking place in Aosta from 29 June to 7 July 2026. It brings together students and specialists to examine geohazards in a changing climate and to discuss approaches that can strengthen resilience.

Professor Guzzetti’s lecture will focus on the challenge of anticipating landslides and other natural hazards. Drawing on several decades of scientific and operational experience in Italy and internationally, he will discuss what it means to predict hazardous events, and why prediction is useful only when it can support decisions.

He will examine how scientists try to anticipate where landslides may occur, when they may happen, how large they may be, and what consequences they may produce. The lecture will also consider the limitations of current approaches, including uncertainty, incomplete data, changing environmental conditions, and the difficulty of translating scientific information into action.

A central theme will be that predictions must be useful to different audiences, including scientists, decision-makers, emergency managers, and citizens. The lecture will therefore move beyond technical forecasting methods to reflect on how knowledge of natural hazards can be communicated and used to reduce risk.

Photo credit: Photograph of the University of Aosta taken by Fausto Guzzetti. The new iconic building of the University of Aosta, Italy