Sekhar Lukose Kuriakose

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT SEKHAR LUKOSE KURIAKOSE

I am a practicing Disaster Manager. I serve as the Chief Resilience Officer of Kerala leading the Kerala State Climate Change Adaptation Mission, as Member Secretary of Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (a statutory position under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 of India) and Head of Kerala State Emergency Operations Centre (sdma.kerala.gov.in). I am academically associated with Centre for Disaster Faculty ITC, University of Twente, The Netherlands as a Visiting Scientist wherein I support in the education and research of aspiring disaster managers and fosters The Netherlands-Kerala knowledge exchange in Disaster Risk Reduction. I am a Member to the External Advisory Committee of the EU HORIZON EUROPE DRS02‐22•••01‐03 Research Project PARATUS (Promoting disaster preparedness and resilience by co‐developing stakeholder support tools for managing the systemic risk of compounding disasters) with 19 partners. My current focus is on decentralizing disaster risk management and resilience building with a climate change perspective in collaboration with Kerala Institute for Local Administration (KILA) and Dept. of Local Self Government, Government of Kerala. I led the development of the institutional mechanism of disaster management in Kerala State, the construction of a state-of-the-art headquarters building of KSDMA, the Kerala Warnings, Crisis and Hazards Management System (KaWaCHaM) and the establishment of the State and District Emergency Operations Centres. I have authored over 30 peer reviewed publications, disaster management plans at State, District and Local Government levels, several Standard Operating Procedures, programme manuals and forensic investigation reports of disasters. I have received the ITC Research Fund Scholarship for PhD Research, ITTO Fellowship for M.Sc studies and has two \'Good Service Entries\' awarded by the Government of Kerala. I was an International Visitor Leadership Programme fellow of the US State Department. Specialties: Climate Change Adaptation Planning Spatial risk informed planning Disaster Management Institution building End-to-End Early Warning System for last mile connectivity Risk Assessment Anticipation Actions Planning Decision Support Systems for Disaster Risk Reduction Landslide Hazard Assessment and Early Warning Systems Standard Operating Procedures for Disaster Risk Reduction Legal frameworks of disaster management