University of Tasmania, Australia

Dr Roshan Bhandari

Research Assistant - Post Doctorate Researcher: Emergency Management Co-ordination

Contact Details

Publications

• Bhandari, R. B., Yamori, K., and Okada, N. (2010): “Interpreting Urban Ritual Event in Terms of Improving the Capacity to Cope with Disaster Risk: A Case Study of Kathmandu”, Journal of Japan Society for Natural Disaster Science (JNDS), Vol.32, No. 1, 2010, pp. 31-42.
• Bhandari, R. B., Knottnerus, J. D., and Okada, N. (2010): “Urban Ritual Events and Coping with Disaster Risk: A Case Study of Lalitpur, Nepal”, Journal of Applied Social Science, an Official Publication of the Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology, Paradigm Publishers, USA.(Accepted for publication).
• Bhandari, R. B., Okada, N., Yokomatsu, M., and Ikeo, H. (2010): “Analyzing Urban Rituals with Reference to Development of Social Capital for Disaster Resilience: A Case Study of Kishiwada, Japan”, Peer reviewed article in IEEE, International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Istanbul, Turkey, ISSN:1062-922X,pp.3477-3482.
  http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=5642437&tag=1
• Bhandari, R. B., Okada, N., Yokomatsu, M., and Ikeo, H. (2010): “Analysis of Social Impacts of Rituals in terms of Building Disaster Resilience: Case Studies of Nepal and Japan”, 1st Annual Conference of the International Society for Integrated Disaster Risk Management - IDRiM 2010, IIASA, Vienna, Austria, Sept. 1-4. (paper presented)
• Bhandari, R. B. and Okada, N. (2009).: “Interpreting Urban Ritual Event as a Means to Improve the Capacity to Cope with Disaster Risk: A Case Study of Urban Communities in Kathmandu”, Proceedings of The Young Scientists Session, The 9th IIASA-DPRI Conference on Integrated Disaster Risk Management, Kyoto, Japan, pp.7-13.
• Bhandari, R. B. and Okada, N. (2009): “Interpreting Urban Ritual Event as a Means of Activating the Process of Risk Communication: A Case Study of Kathmandu, Nepal”, Proceedings of The Annual Conference of the Institute of Social Safety Science Japan, (No. 24), pp. 71-74.
• Bhandari, R. B., Okada, N., Yokomatsu M. and Ikeo H.(2009): “Building a Disaster Resilient Community through Ritual based Social Capital; A Brief Analysis of Findings from the Case Study of Kishiwada”, Annuals of Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan, 2010. (in press)
• Bhandari, R. B. and Okada, N.(2009): “Formulating Time Tested Knowledge for Sustainable Disaster Risk Reduction; A Case Study of Kathmandu”, Annuals of Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan, No. 52 B, pp. 145-152.
• Bhandari, R. B. and Okada, N.(2008): “Urban Diagnosis as a Method to Assess Vulnerability of Communities in the Context of Spatial Planning and Management; Kathmandu Valley”, Annuals of Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan, No. 51 B, pp. 147-154.

Career summary

My doctoral research, completed in 2010 from Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University, Japan, focused on the importance of socio-cultural dynamics in disaster risk reduction. After completing my PhD, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher in DPRI. While at DPRI, I worked with local communities in collaborative research projects related to disaster risk management. This inculcated a sense of working with the community and I learnt that a theory will find its life only in practice.

Since 2012 I am working with the Australasian Bushfire Co-operative Research Centre (Bushfire CRC), as a Post-Doctoral Researcher: Emergency Management Coordination. The BCRC project titled “Organising for Effective Incident Management” examines emergency management strategies at state and regional levels.

Affiliations and appointments

• Member, IDRiM (Integrated disaster risk management) society, DPRI ,Kyoto, Japan – IIASA (International Institute of Applied System Analysis, Austria) forum
• Post-Doctoral appointment:  Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan (2010- 2011)
• Consultant for Seeds Asia, Japan in a project entitled “Mobile Knowledge Resource Centre (MKRC)” for disaster risk reduction (2011)
  

Research interests

Through my PhD, I have achieved a very good knowledge of disaster risk management, particularly focusing on a disaster cycle of mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery efforts. Additionally, I got involved in disaster preparedness and risk communication activities during my field study in PhD. During this time, I worked in collaboration with disaster professionals, community leaders and general public. I gained a lot of understanding on preparatory behaviours, emergency responses and coordination of community members in disaster response and rescue activities.

I am interested to expand my learning in order to research and understand more effective strategies in disaster risk reduction. I wish to add to my knowledge base the lesser developed content areas of coping capacity development, integration of local and scientific knowledge, emergency management and coordination, implementation science and development of sustainable practices to reduce disaster risk.