Three recent global agreements have been established to facilitate the implementation of global-level responsibilities to deal with disaster risk reduction (DRR), human development, and climate change adaptation (CCA) respectively. While these agreements have a common goal of reducing social, economic, and environmental vulnerability, they have been developed by largely independent communities of practice. This has limited cross-fertilization despite the inherent multidimensional nature of global challenges and the considerable thematic overlap. We argue that developing a transdisciplinary strategy that effectively integrates disciplines, approaches, and knowledge systems will lead to greater and more sustainable impacts, together with a more efficient use of financial resources. Hybrid approaches should be encouraged during planning of future development efforts so that risk reduction is conducted simultaneously with CCA. Transdisciplinary processes are central to generating contextsensitive knowledge to support decisions on CCA and DRR options that minimize trade-offs and maximize synergies and complementarities required to guide sustainable development trajectories. Finally, building codes together with climate and risk-smart research, education, and awareness raising, are identified as priority entry points to materialize the blending of DRR and CCA approaches and effectively reduce risk while mitigating and adapting to climate change.

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The focus of the Hazus earthquake model has been largely U.S. centric due to a lack of standardized building-infrastructure data formats applicable elsewhere. In a combined effort between FEMA Region VIII and the Universidad de Los Andes, Venezuela, the present study uses the Hazus 2.1 software to simulate earthquake loss estimations for Venezuela. Population totals and demographic distributions were developed using Oak Ridge National Labs Landscan 2008 population data and the census 2011 for Venezuela. The accuracy of the model was further enhanced for Mérida State, located in western Venezuela, by collecting, incorporating, and developing region and specific inventories including soil maps, liquefaction and landslide susceptibility studies, demographic data, and building inventory information. We used USGS ShakeMaps scenarios for two potential earthquake events with peak ground accelerations proposed within Performance Based Seismic Engineering of Buildings, VISION 2000 recommendations. The region has not witnessed an earthquake with a magnitude greater than M 7 in the last 120 years. Given the historical record of seismicity and the seismotectonics in the region, it becomes increasingly important to understand the potential implications from moderate to large earthquakes in Mérida State, Venezuela.