The course on Disaster Risk Management of Cultural Heritage will be held on 8-22 September 2012 on Kyoto, Kobe, Tohoku (Japan). The theme of it is ‘From Recovery to Risk Reduction for Sustainability of Historic Areas’.

Historic areas with settlements and their surrounding landscape are irreplaceable and highly complex cultural resources that have evolved over time and contain various heritage components.

However these historic areas are becoming increasingly fragile due to unprecedented transformation processes that have posted grave risks to their heritage values and have increased their vulnerability to natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides and floods.

Post disaster recovery of cultural heritage is an extremely difficult and long process that involves not only repair and restoration but also revival and recreation of tangible and intangible heritage that is closely connected to people’s lives. However at the same time, it is also an opportunity to reduce risks of future disasters by putting in place mitigation measures at policy, planning and technological levels through an integrated approach aimed at comprehensive risk management and sustainable development of historic areas. Moreover these should effectively engage various stakeholders at the city, national, regional as well as international levels for protecting cultural heritage in historic areas during such catastrophic situations in the future. This would be the best way for protecting cultural heritage for present and future generations.