Distance course in
Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment
| Certification | Location | Start | Duration | ECTS | Tuition fee | Registration deadline | NFP registration deadline | Register |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Certificate | Distance | 17 May 2010 | 6 weeks | 5 | EUR 1000 / 500 | 26 Apr 2010 | 01 Nov 2009 | Register |
Worldwide we are faced with a rapidly growing impact of disasters, due to increased vulnerability and climatic extremes. There is an urgent need to include the concepts of disaster risk management into planning, sustainable development and environmental impact assessment. One of the important requirements to carry out an effective disaster risk management is capacity building and training of disaster management experts and professionals, such as planners, engineers, architects, geographers, environmental specialists, university teachers etc. The Hyogo framework of action 2005-2015 of the UN-ISDR indicates risk assessment and education as two of the key areas for the development of action in the coming years. Disaster risk management requires the assessment of risk, which is a multi-disciplinary endeavour. The course teaches you how to carry out risk assessment for different types of hazards, and how the risk information can be used in disaster risk reduction.
This course is given as part of the United Nations University – ITC School on Disaster Geo-Information Management (UNU-ITC DGIM).
For whom is the course relevant?
This course is designed for all those who have to carry out risk assessment and need knowledge and skills on the procedures to do that using a GIS. These include professionals working in NGOs and governmental organisations related with disaster risk management, but also professionals, planners, engineers, architects, geographers, environmental specialists, university teachers. Some basic background in Geographic Information Systems is desirable, although not strictly requi red, as the course follows a step-by-step approach which allows participants to rapidly acquire the basic skills in handling GIS software. If you lack the basic GIS skills it might be better to follow the course in a classroom environment, where more direct support on the software can be given. Courses on multi-hazard risk assessment (course finder, course domain: Disaster Management) are offered annually in the Netherlands, Mexico, Bolivia, and Thailand.
What is the course about?
This distance education course deals with the procedures to collect, analyse and evaluate spatial information for risk assessment from natural and human-induced hazards (such as flooding, earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, cyclones, forest fires, land degradation, and technological hazards). Risk is defined as the expected losses as a result of potentially damaging phenomena within a given time period, and within a given area.
The course focuses on practical exercises for the procedures involved in multi-hazard risk assessment, supplemented with theory and exercises using Internet and Excel. The exercises are centred around a comprehensive case study on the use of Geographic Information Systems, and Remote Sensing for the assessment of hazard, vulnerability and risk in a typical urban area representative of situations in many developing countries, called RiskCity. The course contains a number of choice options for evaluating particular types of hazards and their associated risk, depending on your interest and background. The course is made for the Open Source GIS software ILWIS (Integrated Land and Water Information Systems).
What is the course content?
The course is composed of a number of sessions. Each session has a PowerPoint presentation and document introducing the topic of the session. Each session has also exercises and assignments including maps or materials to be handed in. The course is based on a study load of 1 module of 3 weeks (5 ECTS), which in distance form, is offered during a period of 6 weeks. Below is a summary of the sessions and detailed content.
| Session | Theory | Exercise |
|---|---|---|
| 00: Getting started | Set up Blackboard account, install ILWIS software, getting to know the tutors and fellow students | |
| 01: Introduction to risk assessment |
Introduction to disaster risk management and risk assessment | Generation of a hazard profile using disaster databases; Introduction to ILWIS, and introduction to the RiskCity dataset. Learn the various hazard problems by evaluating high resolution images |
| 02: Obtaining spatial data for risk assessment |
Presentation of data requirements for the various types of hazards. Sources of spatial data | Defining spatial data requirements for risk assessment; Internet search for information on risk assessment; acquiring free and low cost data; generating three dimensional image data using Google Earth; stereo image interpretation |
| 03: Hazard Assessment | Hazard types; Main concepts of hazard assessment; Frequency magnitude – relationships | Frequency assessment; Selection of hazard assessment example (flooding, landslides, earthquakes, technological hazards, volcanic hazards etc) |
| 04: Elements at risk assessment | Types of elements at risk; classification of buildings, infrastructure, lifelines, critical facilities; population information; collection of elements at risk information | Generating an elements at risk database from scratch; Generating an elements at risk database using available data (building footprint map, census data and LiDAR) |
| 05: Vulnerability assessment | Types of vulnerability; social vulnerability; physical vulnerability; methods for vulnerability assessment; participatory GIS; Spatial Multi Criteria Evaluation | Defining vulnerability curves; Spatial Multi-criteria evaluation for vulnerability assessment |
| 06: Risk assessment |
Loss estimation models; HAZUS; qualitative risk assessment; QRA; basics of flood risk, seismic risk, landslide and technological risk assessment | Creating risk curves; Selection of risk assessment method: flooding, earthquakes, landslides, technological. |
| 07: Risk management | Risk evaluation; risk governance; risk communication; cost benefit analysis; Using risk information for emergency planning; spatial planning, and Environmental Impact Assessment | Multi-hazard risk assessment for buildings; assessing economic losses; Cost benefit analysis |
|
08: Final project and examination |
Discussion: Final project: Examination: |
What will be achieved?
The course will guide the participants through the entire process of risk assessment, on the basis of a case study of a city exposed to multiple hazards, in a developing country (RiskCity).
At the end of this course you will be able to:
- understand the concepts of hazard assessment, elements at risk mapping, vulnerability assessment, and risk assessment
- formulate the spatial data requirements for risk assessment
- generate an elements at risk data base using GIS
- formulate the requirements of hazard data and methods
- apply various methods for vulnerability assessment
- generate risk maps using qualitative and quantitative methods
- have insight in how a risk assessment could be carried out in your own situation.
Learning from a distance, how is it like?
The general approach of the course is task based learning which blends theory and practice. The study load is 20 to 24 hours per week. All materials including (most of) the software will be provided online in ITC's digital learning environment Blackboard. For convenient offline study most materials will be sent on a CD-Rom. We will use email for individual communication and a discussion board in Blackboard for group communication.
Admission requirements
Academic level and background
Applicants for the Distance programme should have a Bachelor degree or equivalent from a recognised university in a discipline related to the course, preferably combined with working experience in a relevant field.
As all courses are given in English, proficiency in the English language is a prerequisite. Participants in Distance programme are exempted from an English language test. However, ITC expects their proficiency in the English language to meet the minimum requirements mentioned below.
English language tests: minimum requirements| TOEFL Paper-based Test (PBT) | 550 |
| TOEFL Internet-based Test | 79-80 |
| British Council / IELTS | 6.0 |
| Cambridge | CPE/CAE |
Applicants for the Distance education programme must have elementary computer experience, and internet, e-mail and bulletin board skills.
GIS and remote sensingDistance courses require knowledge of, and skills in, working with GIS and/or digital image processing of remotely sensed data.
Hardware and software requirements
Since the computer is used for both the practical exercises and the communication via the internet you are expected to have a computer capable of running ILWIS (standard PC or laptop is OK) and an internet connection. The course is made for the Open Source GIS software ILWIS (Integrated Land and Water Information Systems. The Open Source software is free and will be supplied on a DVD, together with the data sets and training materials. You will also work with Blackboard (educational software) and with Microsoft Office (Word and Excel).
What more there is to know?
This distance course is based on a module of one of ITC's degree courses. Successful completion will lead to exemption for that module in the degree course.
The course is developed by a group of people. Coordination is by Dr. C.J. (Cees) van Westen, Director United Nations University-ITC School for Disaster Geo-information Management (UNU-ITC DGIM).