Prediction of and Resilience against Extreme Events

Natural disasters cause thousands of deaths annually, and in 2013 alone caused over $130 billion in damage worldwide. There is clear societal need to better understand and mitigate the risks posed to the US by natural hazards, consistent with the mandate of the National Science Foundation (NSF) “…to promote the progress of science [and] advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare....”

NSF and the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) have long supported basic research in scientific and engineering disciplines necessary to understand natural hazards and extreme events, including through the Interdisciplinary Research in Hazards and Disasters (Hazards SEES) program and multiple core programs in the GEO Directorate.  PREEVENTS is designed as a logical successor to Hazards SEES and is one element of the NSF-wide Risk and Resilience activity, which has the overarching goal of improving predictability and risk assessment, and increasing resilience, in order to reduce the impact of extreme events on our life, society, and economy.  PREEVENTS will provide an additional mechanism to support research and related activities that will improve our understanding of the fundamental processes underlying natural hazards and extreme events in the geosciences.

PREEVENTS is focused on natural hazards and extreme events, and not on technological or deliberately human-caused hazards.   The PREEVENTS portfolio will include the potential for disciplinary and multidisciplinary research at all scales, particularly aimed at areas ripe for significant near- or medium-term advances.

PREEVENTS seeks projects that will (1) enhance understanding of the fundamental processes underlying natural hazards and extreme events on various spatial and temporal scales, as well as the variability inherent in such hazards and events, and (2) improve our capability to model and forecast such hazards and events.  All projects requesting PREEVENTS support must be primarily focused on these two targets.  In addition, PREEVENTS projects will improve our understanding of the effects of natural hazards and extreme events and will enable development, with support by other programs and organizations, of new tools to enhance societal preparedness and resilience against such impacts.