The Group

Improving the resilience of our societies in the face of volatile weather and climate change is an urgent priority today and will increase in importance in the decades to come. The climate of the past is by no means sufficient a basis for decisions going forward. Never before in history a society has known so much about the processes that shape its future and obtained such a wealth of forward-looking weather and climate information – yet pre-emptive (and precautionary) action is not taking place as widely as it could be.

While measures exist to adapt to an ever-changing environment, decision makers on all levels – from multinational organisations, governments, cities and companies down to the local community – need the facts to identify the most effective instruments and seek strategic advice on how to best apply them.

The Weather and Climate Risks (WCR) Group aims to research what sort of decision-environment improves the translation of existing knowledge (supply) into application (demand). This joint professorship between ETH and external page MeteoSwiss engages in stakeholder dialogue to co-design decision support tools in areas such as warnings, planning and strategy.

The WCR chair is part of the Institute for Environmental Decisions (IED). The aim of IED is to analyse individual and collective decisions in the context of natural resource utilisation and environmental problems. Furthermore, IED's members aspire to support private and political decision makers who are striving for sustainable decisions while facing a tremendous number of risks and uncertainties.