BSc International Disaster Management and Humanitarian Response and Spanish / Course details

Year of entry: 2024

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Course unit details:
Understanding hazard risk

Course unit fact file
Unit code	HCRI20042
Credit rating	20
Unit level	Level 2
Teaching period(s)	Semester 2
Available as a free choice unit?	No

Overview

This module seeks to understand how planning and fieldwork can improve our understanding of the environment to create dynamic solutions and ultimately reduce disaster risk. Natural systems are not stable when viewed over timescales of centuries and millennia. Over the last two million years the earth surface has experienced fluctuations and dramatic environmental changes. For the last 5,000 years, however, human impact on the environment has become so influential that it becomes difficult to separate natural process and human activity as agents of environmental change. In the past 200 years the change because of human impact has exposed the population to a variety of environmental hazards.

This course will give students an understanding of past environmental change and seek to understand how global fluctuations in climate play a significant role in the development of our landscape, creating the conditions for disasters resulting from natural phenomena. It will also seek to introduce major geological and hydrometeorological hazards and show how an understanding of the physical environment can play a role in adaptive capacity and governance through planning and field surveying as tools integral to disaster management.

Aims

The course aims to:

Develop an understanding of mechanism of global environmental change
Develop an understanding of geological and hydrometeorological hazards within their environmental situation
Understand the role of environmental planning process to manage environmental change sustainably
Critically reflect on forms of hazard adaptation and mitigation and their relationship to managing disasters
Develop fieldwork skills applied to hazard assessment

Knowledge and understanding

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

Understand natural cycles in environmental systems / the implications of sudden changes
Developed understanding of geological and hydrometeorological hazards in locational contexts and the impact of environmental change
Spatial analysis as a mechanism for assessing hazard risk and vulnerability (applied to the UK)
Critical understanding of management techniques employed to increase sustainable interaction with environment and manage environmental hazards
Develop an understanding of field techniques to assess environmental hazards in the field, create hazard maps and understand the implications of management

Intellectual skills

Identify and evaluate patterns and trends in spatial data
Investigate dynamic phenomena through interrogation of spatial and temporal data
Consider the influence of the physical environment and understand the impact of change on the human environments
Critically analyse the links between geological and hydrometeorological hazards and understand causality in a multi-hazard environment
Apply understanding of environmental principles / hazards in planning to reduce risk and increase sustainability

Practical skills

Analysing environmental data (with simple statistics) / identifying trends / patterns
Hazard assessment using maps / field data / secondary sources / constructing hazard maps
Data collection in field environments
Research skills, including planning, prioritisation of tasks, identification and location of sources, critical evaluation of findings
Communicating analysis results in the form of map analysis
Participation in online and in-class discussions

Transferable skills and personal qualities

Data analysis and interpretation skills.
Experience in using GIS maps.
Data collection and interpretation
Critical thinking, research and project management skills
Skills to help them interpret current and future hazard situations
Assessing change (through applied management solutions to hazards)
Ethical awareness

Employability skills

Analytical skills: Data Analysis and report writing; GIS and spatial data analysis (ESRI ArcGIS Online)
Group/team working: Ability to work in a group and independently
Project management: Time management
Oral communication: Communication Skills
Problem solving: Problem Solving and decision making
Other: Use of relevant technology in field for data collection; Understand fieldwork safety considerations/risk assessment

Assessment methods

Assessment task	Formative or Summative	Weighting within unit (if summative)
In class assessment tasks / quizzes and participation in group decision making	Formative
Fieldwork assessment – understanding the environment. A situational assessment of a practical location with maps / fieldwork reports – commenting on field evidence to assess hazard impact.	Summative	60%
Decision making task - Using evidence from secondary data sources and existing literature – a critical review of environmental hazards and suggestions for disaster risk reduction (for a chosen geographical space). This will be an individual report and will include a mapping element.	Summative	40%

Feedback methods

Feedback method	Formative or Summative
Informal oral feedback during class/labs	Formative
Written feedback hazard decision making exercise returned to students according to SALC guidelines and time limits, using a bespoke rubric (adapted from the HCRI mark scheme – but applicable to learning outcome of project).	Summative
Fieldwork – (formative) verbal fieldwork and guidance given during the course on fieldwork weeks and during fieldwork assessment task. Summative feedback offered through a bespoke rubric adapted from HCRI mark scheme applicable to learning outcomes of assessment task).	Summative / formative
Additional one-to-one feedback (during the consultation hour or by making an appointment)	Formative

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Fieldwork	45
Seminars	33
Tutorials	10

Independent study hours
Independent study	112

Teaching staff

Staff member	Role
Martin Parham	Unit coordinator

Additional notes

Mandatory field-based activities with cost involved for students

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