Nikolay Bobylev
Marie Curie Research Fellow
University of Birmingham UK

Biography
Dr. Bobylev has graduated with distinction from and defended a PhD at the St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg, Russia. Over the years of research career Dr. Bobylev has been working at the Hamburg University of Technology, United Nations University, University of Tokyo, Ruhr University Bochum, Technical University of Lisbon, University of East Anglia, and Technical University of Berlin. Dr. Bobylev has received several prestigious research awards, major of them are fellowships of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and Marie Curie of the European Community. Dr. Bobylev has been contributing to numerous events under NATO Science program, World Bank Urban Research Symposium, and United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Dr. Bobylev is affiliated with the School of Geography and the Environment, St.Petersburg State University, and School of Innovation Science, Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University as an Associate Professor; and with St. Petersburg Research Centre for Ecological Safety of the Russian Academy of Sciences as a Lead Scientist.

Abstract
Addressing urban disaster risks via a combination of responsible land use and critical infrastructure management

Global environmental change brings higher magnitude and probability of occurrence of extreme weather events, which is often aggravated by already challenging environmental conditions in urban areas. For instance, urban heat island effect and impermeable land cover aggravate impacts of high temperatures and heavy rain falls accordingly. The increasing risk of natural disasters in urban areas has been traditionally managed by strengthening resiliency of critical infrastructure. Critical infrastructure provides services upon which city life depends, and interruption of these services would course significant disruption in urban functioning. Urban physical infrastructure contains many critical facilities, which have been designed to withstand certain extreme environmental conditions. While still relying on critical infrastructure, there is a need to address deeper problems of urban resilience and sustainability, and land use is one of the central issues here. Magnitude of global environmental change does not allow addressing disasters solely by increasing capacity of critical infrastructure, changes in land use and citizens’ lifestyles are necessary for a successful adaptation. The presentation focuses on joint consideration of infrastructure and land use strategies to address natural disasters risks. Examples related to flood management are given.