Newton Fund (Invitation Only). Disaster Resilient Cities: Forecasting local level climate extremes and physical hazards for Kuala Lumpar

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Recent natural disasters in Malaysia, such as the wide-spread floods in 2014/15 and the flash flooding of Kuala Lumpur in 2007, have revealed that improvements are required in the prediction of damaging natural hazards and in the capacity to manage the associated risks and consequences. Appropriate to the theme of 'future cities', the focus of this project is the prediction and management of physical risks relevant to Kuala Lumpur, which is the Malaysian capital and the most populated city in Malaysia with around 8 million inhabitants. The particular hazards to be targeted in this project, which are common in Kuala Lumpur, are floods, landslides, sinkholes, strong winds, urban heat and air pollution.A consortium of 16 research and business partners from the UK and Malaysia has been assembled for this project. The basic strategy is to adapt and combine existing technologies to enhance hazard assessment and develop the ability to forecast, with main objective to develop a prototype multi-hazard information platform suitable for communicating risks to geophysical and atmospheric hazards. The primary beneficiaries will be risk managers and decision-makers in Malaysian local government and the insurance sector. The project objectives relate to the Malaysian Science to Action initiative, which has an aim of mobilising science for societal well-being. The University of Cambridge (UoC) is the lead UK and academic partner in the project and its main role is to lead the meteorological forecasting package. The British Geological Survey will co-lead the Geophysical hazards phase of the project working specifically on the geophysical hazard modelling (landslides and sinkholes) and co-develop a platform for managing and communicating multi-hazard forecasts in a changing climate for Greater Kuala Lumpur city region.Benefits of the project will include:Improved information regarding the risks of occurrence of geophysical and atmospheric hazards, enabling Malaysian local authorities to make better contingency plans to mitigate the effects of geophysical and atmospheric hazards, which will provide economic benefits and improve the quality of life for Malaysian citizens.Improved information about geophysical hazards will aid the further development of insurance services in Malaysia.The multi-hazard platform developed for Greater Kuala Lumpur city region will have relevance to cities elsewhere in Malaysia and in the wider south-east Asian region. Where the commercial development of such systems, could benefit both the commercial sector and future urban management.