MSc International Disaster Management and Humanitarian Response - September Intake

This subject encourages students to think critically about key considerations in planning, promoting, and understanding the implications of disaster preparation and risk reduction approaches. The overall aim of the module is for students to be able to develop their own disaster preparation strategies for effective disaster risk reduction informed by policy guidance and learnings from international case studies.

Upon completion of the subject, students will be able to:

• Establish critical insight in disaster preparation as well as to understand its different contextual aspects, impacts and consequences.
• Demonstrate awareness of the International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction
• Analyse potential effects of disasters and identify lessons for future development of strategies and methods to mitigate these effects
• Develop a disaster risk reduction plan for a selected setting
• Evaluate disaster preparedness approaches and strategies
• Demonstrate an understanding of the ethical, cultural and legal considerations in disaster preparedness

Upon completion of the subject, students will be able to:

• Establish critical insight in disaster preparation as well as to understand its different contextual aspects, impacts and consequences.
• Demonstrate awareness of the International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction
• Analyse potential effects of disasters and identify lessons for future development of strategies and methods to mitigate these effects
• Develop a disaster risk reduction plan for a selected setting
• Evaluate disaster preparedness approaches and strategies
• Demonstrate an understanding of the ethical, cultural and legal considerations in disaster preparedness

Indicative syllabus

Week 1: What is disaster preparedness and disaster management cycle? Policy shifts toward disaster risk reduction (DRR)

Week 2: Understanding vulnerability and resilience in a DRR context: Critical perspectives

Week 3: Designing disaster preparedness under uncertainties: Contingency planning

Week 4: Contemporary practices in disaster preparedness (early warning systems)

Week 5: Risk communication and public engagements

Week 6: Opportunities, challenges and barriers to disaster preparedness

Week 7: Comparative and global case studies

Week 8: Revision, assignments review and closure

Online lectures and tutorial activities provide students with current information on disaster preparedness and awareness of disaster risks, and stimulate them towards further reading. Lectures are offered with multimedia presentations to widen perspectives and to stimulate thinking. A range of audio-visual aids, such as films, videos, and slides, is used to facilitate and stimulate the interaction between teaching and learning, and in particular to increase the understanding of specific topics. Online lectures are arranged by shorter key topic areas, allowing students to study at their own pace and maximise learning.

Online discussion forums provide a platform for students to work together to achieve the learning outcomes through reflection, knowledge exchange and experience-sharing among peers. Students are expected to contribute to the discussion forums by responding to questions, providing new information, describing relevant experience or sharing opinions about the topic, and discussing the topic with the support of literature. Students are encouraged to challenge each other in a constructive way, so as to promote intellectual stimulation.

Alexander, D. E. (2013). Resilience and disaster risk reduction: an etymological journey. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Discussion, 1 1257-1284.

Allen, K. M. (2006).  Community-based disaster preparedness and climate adaptation: local capacity-building in the Philippines. Disasters 30 (1): 81-101.

Choularton, R. (2007). Contingency planning and humanitarian action: A review of practice, ODI, London. Available at http://odihpn.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/networkpaper059.pdf.

Haworth, B., Whittaker, J. & Bruce, E. (2016). Assessing the application and value of participatory mapping for community bushfire preparation. Applied Geography, 76: 115-127.

IFRC (2009). World Disaster Report: Focus on early warning, early action. Geneva. Available at http://www.ifrc.org/Global/WDR2009-full.pdf.

Paton, D. (2003). Disaster preparedness: A social-cognitive perspective. Disaster Prevention and Management, 12: 210-216.

Perry, R W. and Lindell, M.K. (2003) Preparedness for Emergency Response: Guidelines for the Emergency Planning Process. Disasters, 27(4): 336–350.

UNISDR (2015). Post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction. Retrieved from http://www.unisdr.org/we/coordinate/hfa-post2015

Please note that these units are intensive 8-week short courses, predominately independent-study, with no face-to-face learning