MSc International Disaster Management / Course details

This course will enable students to understand current multi-disciplinary theory concerning disaster management. This will include analysis of various theoretical frameworks used to understand disaster phenomena. A wide range of case studies and cross-disaster analyses will be used to discuss management of these events. Practical risk-based management tools common in disaster planning will then be taught along with their application to risk assessments and policy analysis.

• Develop understanding of core issues concerning disaster management both in high- and low-income contexts
• Opportunity to conduct substantive disaster analysis
• Analyse assumptions that underpin the legal, policy and institutional frameworks for disaster management
• Evaluate possibilities and limitations of approaches to disaster risk reduction at different scales
• Suggest strategies for dealing with disasters

• The course is predominantly delivered through face-to-face interactive lectures. These lectures are spaces for instructor-led teaching, but students are also expected to participate in discussion and activities as directed
• Independent reading
• Engagement with professional sector – e.g. visit to emergency services; simulation exercise (these activities subject to change and will be confirmed on an annual basis)

• Understand the various interpretations of disasters
• Understand the legal, policy and institutional frameworks which set the context for disaster prevention, preparedness, response and recovery
• Identify key theories and research that underpin disaster management cycle
• Understand the value and importance of risk assessments in disaster risk reduction

• Analyse current trends and debates in disaster theory
• Assess disaster prevention, preparedness, response and recovery within the context of vulnerability and resilience
• Evaluate the effectiveness of global and local disaster policy frameworks and mechanisms in disaster risk reduction and suggest possible solutions
• Articulate and defend their own positions on the value and importance of prevention, preparedness, response and recovery in disaster risk reduction

• Demonstrate analytic skills through in-class discussion
• Present material in a clear coherent manner, with appropriate level of literacy, in various forms
• Use sufficient and relevant research 4. Acknowledge sources using an appropriate referencing system
• Demonstrate continued development of academic skills, such as the ability to summarise and evaluate arguments and apply the theory to challenges and dilemmas posed by disaster management 
• Interpret data and discuss implications for action

• Lead effective communication to promote the achievement of the best possible outcomes for disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery
• Demonstrate, or give an account of the value and importance of risk-based approaches to disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery
• Take responsibility for enabling their own learning and professional development and show leadership in developing others.

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Cretney, R. 2014. Resilience for whom? Emerging critical geographies of socio-ecological resilience. Geography Compass 8 (9): 627–40.

Eshghi, H. and R. Larson. 2008. "Disasters: Lessons from the past 105 years." Disaster Prevention and Management. 17(1):62-82.

Frandsen, M., Paton, D., and Sakariassen, K. (2011). Fostering community bushfire preparedness through engagement and empowerment. The Australian Journal of Emergency Management, 26(2), 23–30.

Harris, M., Shaw, D., Scully, J., Smith, C. M., and Hieke, G. (2017). The Involvement/Exclusion Paradox of Spontaneous Volunteering: New Lessons and Theory From Winter Flood Episodes in England. Non-profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 46(2), 352-371.

Haworth, B. (2018). Implications of volunteered geographic information for disaster management and GIScience: A more complex world of volunteered geography. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 108(1): 226-240.

Laska, S., and Morrow, B. H. (2006). Social vulnerabilities and Hurricane Katrina: an unnatural disaster in New Orleans. Marine technology society journal, 40(4), 16-26.

Perry, R. W. (2006). “What Is a Disaster?” Pp. 1-15 in Handbook of Disaster Research, Havidán Rodríquez, Enrico L. Quarantelli, and Russell R. Dynes (eds.). New York: Springer. Available at https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-0-387-32353-4_1.

Twigg, J. (2015) Disaster Risk Reduction: Good Practice Review 9, ODI: London. Available at http://www.alnap.org/resource/21363.aspx.

UNISDR. (2015). Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. Geneva: UNISDR. [online]. Available at http://www.preventionweb.net/files/43291_sendaiframeworkfordrren.pdf.