Implementation of the GRDR (Regional Disaster Risk Management) in Chile and First Application in Ecuador

As climate change is resulting in more intense and more frequent extreme events of natural hazards, there is a need to study the vulnerability of infrastructure assets considering their condition and the relevant natural and man-made hazards. The GRDR methodology (abbreviation of Gestión de Riesgo de Desastres Regionales; Management of Risk of Regional Disasters) addresses this combination through the development of tools that can be implemented at the regional level. To develop the methodology, case studies have been used to gather feedback from professionals, relevant local performance indicators have been added, and methods to weigh and combine the observations have been developed. At this moment, the methodology has been applied to over 30 case studies in Chile, which are summarized in this article. In addition, the extensibility of the methodology is studied through a case study of the Tambura Bridge in Ecuador. By working towards unifying approaches to consider the effects of a variety of threats to structures in combination with their current condition, methods can be developed that may be adopted more broadly in Latin America.