LEARN TO PREDICT AND MONITOR MULTI-HAZARD RISK AND HELP COMMUNITIES INCREASE THEIR DISASTER RESILIENCE
Earthquakes and extreme weather events are triggers for disasters in many parts of the world. The effects of climate change and ongoing urbanisation are increasingly impacting our daily lives. Our exposure and vulnerability to landslides, (flash)flooding, volcanic eruptions, and other hazards are continuously changing. Do you want to take up the challenge of analysing why - and when - natural hazards happen and turn into disasters? Are you eager to use remote sensing and geospatial information technologies to predict how disaster risk may change in the context of climate, land use, or urbanisation? Then the specialisation Natural Hazards and Disaster Risk Reduction is what you are looking for.
What is natural hazards and disaster risk reduction
In this specialisation you will learn methods and strategies to analyse hydro-meteorological (floods, landslides, and erosion) and volcanic and seismic (earthquakes) hazard processes in geospatial context. The use of statistical and process-based models will help you answer questions such as: How do landslides develop? What conditions trigger the development of extreme weather events? Where can a flooding take place? You will also focus on geospatial approaches to conducting quantitative and qualitative risk analyses and providing this information to various stakeholders. This way, they can come up with risk reduction alternatives and analyse post-disaster solutions to increase communities' resilience to natural hazards. For instance, how can governments make communities less vulnerable to the effects of floods or develop neighbourhoods in such a way that they are less susceptible to landslides?
Thanks to the state-of-the-art geoscience labs, visualisation and usability labs, and satellite and sensor databases available at ITC, you will gain hands-on experience and work on real-life problems and solutions. You might analyse the root causes of extreme rainfalls in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany that have had serious repercussions for the communities in the affected areas and whether this can occur again in the future. Also, think of investigating the aftermath of a typhoon in the Philippines and predicting if it will hit the southern or northern part of the country next time, so you can provide this information to an organisation such as the Red Cross to prepare humanitarian aid better.
What will you learn
As a graduate of the Master's in Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation with a specialisation in Natural Hazards and Disaster Risk Reduction, you have acquired specific scientific knowledge, skills, and values that will help you in your future career.
KNOWLEDGE
After completing this Master’s specialisation, you:
- have a solid knowledge of Earth science and engineering concepts that support the understanding and prediction of natural hazard processes;
- have a comprehensive understanding of geospatial data analysis and use modelling methods to evaluate how natural hazards and disaster risk may change in the context of global changes (climate change, land use, urbanisation);
- have a fundamental understanding of the different disaster risk management components from an Earth science and geospatial information perspective.
SKILLS
After successfully finishing this Master’s specialisation, you:
- can extract relevant information about hazards and risks by integrating multisource datasets, including remote sensing and field-based observations;
- can combine different digital techniques and tools to acquire and process geospatial data, so you can identify, assess, and monitor hazardous processes and the disaster risk scenarios they can cause;
- can contribute with your expertise to specialist teams that work on natural hazard assessment, disaster risk reduction, and post-disaster recovery.
VALUES
After completing this Master’s specialisation, you:
- can maintain an attitude of independent and critical thinking in applying geo-information technology and when acquiring new scientific knowledge;
- have developed an interest in responding to changing demands and opportunities with creative solutions to make society more resilient;
- recognise your role as a geospatial hazard and risk information expert in multi-disciplinary environments and can contribute to disaster risk reduction solutions and related global challenges.
Other master's and specialisations
Is this specialisation not exactly what you are looking for? Maybe our specialisations in Urban Planning and Management and Natural Resources Management suit you better. You can also find out more about related Master’s at the University of Twente: