The Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology (CEDIM), located at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) and the Geoforschungszentrum (GFZ) in Potsdam, is an interdisciplinary research center dedicated to fundamental and applied research in the field of disaster management. A basic goal of the Center is to advance the science of natural and man-made hazards assessment and develop disaster management solutions for the early detection and reduction of risk.
Established in December 2002, CEDIM is funded by the Geoforschungszentrum (GFZ) in Potsdam and the University of Karlsruhe (TH). More than 50 scientists from 20 different institutes are engaged with CEDIM in series of research projects. The first common project ‘Risk Map Germany’ focuses on the assessment of risk potential from different natural and man-made hazards in Germany. The monetary risk of winter storms, flood and earthquakes are calculated and the results from the comparative analysis are used to highlight areas in Germany most prone to disaster, focusing on regions where multiple hazards generate multiple risks.
In 2004, two more projects were established by the Helmholz Association: ‘Megacities’ and ‘Young Research Group Flood’. The Megacities project is an interdisciplinary project to analyse the consequences of earthquakes in rapidly growing metropolitan areas; as a case study the city of Istanbul was selected. The Young Research Group for Floods was established to promote junior research scientists and aims to develop information system and modelling tools for flood risk quantification and visualization. A web-based flood risk atlas is a main goal of the project.
