The Centre

The Centre for Community Disaster Research (CCDR) is a trans-disciplinary centre for research, education and outreach related to natural, social, technological and economic disasters. The Centre is mandated with promoting rigorous academic research that is led by community needs and involves university researchers, students, community groups, government stakeholders and end-users of research as meaningful partners. 

The Need

Following the catastrophic Southern Alberta flood of 2013, the CCDR grew out of widespread recognition that communities across Alberta, Canada, and the world will increasingly need to plan and prepare for extreme events. The Centre strives to generate academic research, sustained discussions, programming, and policy recommendations that will help to mitigate disaster risk, lessen vulnerability, and contribute to community resilience. Catastrophic events create new questions — the CCDR creates the answers.

Through our events and projects, the CCDR hopes to reduce community vulnerability to disasters, catastrophes, and crises, while promoting just and equitable recoveries when unfortunate events do occur. 

What We Do

The CCDR works to fund, support and promote research projects on disasters, disaster recovery and post-disaster resilience. We also support initiatives that teach about disasters and crises, including field schools, internships, honours thesis projects and service-learning projects. Finally, we are a hub for community debate about public policy, resilience initiatives, the needs of first responders, and best practices for communication during times of disaster. We host frequent seminars, brown-bags, guest speakers, symposia and panels that promote this crucial dialogue. You can check out the Centre's annual reports below for more information.