The Committee on Disaster Risk Management is chaired by Federico Ferrario and by Erika Prina Howald.
Federico has an MSc. in forest engineering and hydraulic engineering of the Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich and Lausanne.
Director and Chairman of the Board of the engineering firm EcoEng SA, Federico currently works as a project manager in the fields of natural hazards, hydrology and hydraulics, risk management, and environmental consulting.
He is also a firefighter officer at the local city fire brigade and a Swiss federal firefighting instructor with various specialisations.
He is an active member of the CDRM since June 2022 and speaker of the webinar “Disaster Risk Reduction in Switzerland – Strategy and Management” given on 25 April 2025.
Federico is currently vice-president of the SIA.
Erika Prina Howald
Erika Prina Howald has been Professor of geotechnics and natural hazards at the INSIT Research Institute of the School of Engineering and Management Vaud, within the University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland (HES-SO) since 2007.
Her research topics mainly concern risk management and mitigation of natural hazards, with particular attention to hazard zoning, vulnerability of structures and infrastructure, and finally protection measures for a safe and sustainable interaction between human activities and environment.
In addition, her laboratory work focuses on the influence of climate change on the geomechanical parameters of permafrost and the deformation of rock glaciers.
Contact Federico Ferrario and Erika Prina Howald at disaster-risk-management @ wfeo . org (without the spaces)