The prominent geographer was one of the speakers at a seminar held by the ULS, where he referred to the importance of this type of activities, the work of universities in the face of risks and disasters and human responsibility for the development of cities respecting the natural space where they are located. 

The renowned geographer and Director of the Tsunami Research Laboratory of the Catholic University of Chile, Dr. Marcelo Lagos, visited the University of La Serena to present on risk zones and governance at the I International Seminar "Quality, Engineering and Sustainability: Challenges for the intermediate cities", an activity organized by the Faculty of Engineering, through the Architecture and Engineering departments at OO.CC., and the International Relations Office of the ULS.

In this context, the also head of the Department of Physical Geography, referred to the importance of holding this type of meeting, where you can debate and reflect on risk and disaster care, and make a parallel with the social context of nowadays. “I feel that (participating in this meeting) is a recognition of the work we have had for decades in understanding disaster risk, even more so at a time in Chile where a series of events are materializing over time, which today are "They have transformed into an explosion, like earthquakes, in the form of an analogy, since they are processes that in space-time reach a point where they simply explode."

Lagos added that “in this scenario, disaster risk is an issue that marks us as a society and this space for reflection that this seminar provides is an opportunity to move forward. But mainly, I stand out in making a mea culpa of how much we have contributed to building these risk scenarios that do not appear instantly, but rather we ourselves, with our actions, build risks and disasters.”

For the geographer of the Catholic University, it is important to have this type of activities, and although it is something critical, he considers that universities continue to be one of the spaces where debate and reflection on current problems should arise. “The truth is that the university is a space for critical reflection, it is a center that brings together people, thinking men and women, who reflect on societies and how to advance human development. However, it is easy in academia to fall into the intellectual comfort of doing more of the same, without looking critically, and sometimes when you look critically at the model, you are criticized. The point is that today there are quite a few interesting points where we have to count, since, given our reality, we live with them, and from spaces like these we can generate the tools to generate various types of changes."

Along with this, the academic referred to the role that universities should take in the face of this problem. “The academy should look these issues squarely in the face and I have no doubt that it has done so; However, a large part of the studies that quantify tsunami danger scenarios are done by third parties, which is why institutions must create the opportunity to delve deeper into issues that directly affect a significant percentage of society.”

Finally, Lagos made a small reflection regarding developing work linked to the care and respect for nature. "The clear signal that nature has given us is that we cannot contain it and that we must learn to live healthily with it, this learning is happening and in this new decade we must take the opportunity to reflect on this, since we have certainly been a country that has been permanently subjected to natural phenomena that should allow us to advance in this learning; However, the hegemonic paradigm of this quantitative view of risk continues to predominate.”

The activity took place on January 09 and 10 in the conference room of the Technology Center of the Faculty of Engineering (CETECFI) and had a large audience.

Written by Tomás Rodríguez, DirCom