📅 18 August 2025
Online
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and International Science Council (ISC) Hazard Information Profiles update 2025 provide a science-based standardised definitions of the hazards that are relevant to the Sendai Framework, Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Sustainable Development Goals, and insights to guide risk reduction and build a more resilient world.
The HIPs serve as a trusted source of scientifically grounded, standardized hazard information used by governments, agencies, researchers and educators worldwide. They support risk assessment, disaster preparedness, loss tracking and multi-sectoral planning. Above all, they are a practical resource – valued because they are usable, useful and used.
In 2023, UNDRR and the ISC launched a revision of the HIPs, involving experts from organizations including United Nations agencies, scientific disciplinary unions, academia, the private sector and the humanitarian sector. In the end, 330 authors and reviewers from across more than 150 organizations participated. The result is a revised list of 281 hazards grouped into eight hazard types:
- Hydrological and Meteorological
- Extraterrestrial
- Geological
- Environmental
- Chemical
- Biological
- Technological
- Societal
The updated definitions and classification of the UNDRR-ISC Hazard Information Profiles (HIPs) offer a comprehensive global resource describing 281 hazards – from floods to wildfires, to chemical spills. diseases and cyber threats. Each profile offers a standardised definition and key information to support consistent use across policy, science and practice.
The updated 2025 edition includes enhanced descriptions of multi-hazard interactions where hazards combine, trigger or amplify one another. The aim is that they will be in a machine-actionable format for integration into digital systems and risk tools.
Now in 2025, in a world where risks are increasingly complex ad interconnected, understanding hazards is essential. Hazards rarely happen alone – they cascade, overlap and compound – impacting lives, systems and economies.
The HIPs bring clarity and structure to the way hazards are defined, helping government, agencies and communities to make smarter, science informed decisions.
Expected outcomes of this event:
This high-level virtual event will set the ambition on the need for better information on hazards across sectors to support more integrated approach to risk reduction and the value chain from data and information through to action that rest on the need to create a shared understanding of hazards as a key component of risk to support collaborative action. Speakers will address the following:
- How international agencies and organisations, along with governments and policymakers, can step up their commitments to using the UNDRR-ISC Hazard Information Profiles to advance early warning systems, improving the interfacing of different tools and platforms to improve risk analytics and their applications, allocating resources for research and development, and creating supportive regulatory frameworks that encourage innovation.
- Strategies to engage stakeholders, such as technology developers, private sector partners, academic institutions, and scientific bodies to drive technological advancements and ensure the effective implementation of UNDRR/ISC Hazard Information Profiles 2025 update
- The role of non-technological innovation as a complementary approach to frontier technology in enhancing community resilience and preparedness by using the UNDRR-ISC Hazard Information Profiles 2025 update.
Speakers:
- Mr. Kamal Kishore, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)
- Sir Peter Gluckman, President (ISC)
- Experts from UNEP, WMO, WHO, IFRC, and more.
