LATTS researchers: Valérie November (project director), Alice Azémar (project manager)
Alexandre Geffroy: website updates and data analysis
Other LATTS researchers involved: Stève Bernardin, Kostas Chatzis, Geneviève Zembri
Funding: French National Research Agency (ANR), via the I-SITE FUTURE special grant
Duration: 4 years (2018-2022)
Academic partners outside LATTS: around 100 researchers, mainly from Gustave Eiffel University, but also from other institutions (Telecom Paris, Paris-Dauphine University, Mines d'Albi, etc.)
UrbaRiskLab (URL) is a project that aims to create a multidisciplinary center on the theme of risk/crisis in urban environments. It was founded on the observation that all crises (whether natural, climatic, chemical, pathogenic, economic, cyber, societal, etc.), whether planned or unplanned, exceptional or chronic, slow or fast-moving, generate significant scientific, technical, organizational, and political uncertainties. They raise crucial questions in terms of preparedness, monitoring and detection, modeling tools, anticipating cascading effects, emergency response, decision support, and post-crisis management. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to the dynamics of risks and crises in urban environments is a scientific challenge that must be addressed in order to provide strategic, political, technical, economic, and social responses to these problems and make cities safe and resilient. URL was designed as a research center offering innovative, multi-risk, multi-scale thinking and solutions that represent a technological breakthrough. From the outset, the project was designed to be scalable and experimental.
The process of creating the multidisciplinary center required several steps: on the one hand, a bottom-up approach to analyzing the expertise available within the consortium. URL brings together around 100 researchers from more than 30 different disciplines who, together, offer expertise and scientific coverage of all categories of risks affecting urban areas. Thus, without listing them exhaustively, natural and environmental risks, climatic and meteorological risks, risks related to infrastructure and technical networks, health risks, risks related to social inequalities, risks related to major events and crowd movements, and road safety issues are an integral part of the research carried out within the consortium. The project draws on expertise in the hard sciences (applied mathematics, statistics, geosciences, analytical chemistry), engineering sciences (mechanics, biomechanics, civil engineering), environmental sciences (hydrology, hydraulics, metrology, new sensors, (eco)toxicology) and social sciences (sociology, geography, urban planning, economics, management sciences, architecture, psychology).
While mapping the skills available within the consortium, URL has developed a methodological framework to encourage the creation of interdisciplinary projects. As an experiment, "MiniLabs" were set up to function as "research incubators" within the project. They are run by pairs of researchers from the SPI and SHS. Their titles cover a wide variety of risks and disciplines and provide food for thought across the board. There are currently four of them:
- The "Data Analysis and Processing" MiniLab focuses on the two overarching issues of data optimization and reliability. It also reflects on how to measure the uncertainty generated by unreliable data.
- The "Sensors and Uses" MiniLab focuses on innovative sensor technologies, automated data processing, and new societal uses.
- The "Visualizations" MiniLab focuses on the extraction and exploitation of information (textual and image), the representation of complex data, and the design and co-creation of interfaces with end users.
- The "Information Circulation in Adverse Conditions" MiniLab focuses on the need for and quality of data for target users, problems with interpreting and transferring information in crisis situations, and even the societal impact of degraded information (fake news, etc.).