Institution: American University of Armenia (2016)
# of semesters: 1
# of students: 49
Level: undergraduate
Explores the history, fundamentals, principles, theories, and approaches of disaster management. Students study natural and manmade disasters and the planning and management tools available for preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. Topical investigations include: an overview of disaster management, the range of physical and human impacts, the role of decision-makers and the general public, and structural and non-structural techniques in this quantitative science course. Armenia specific cases and scenarios are also considered and discussed. Three hours of instructor-led class time per week.
This course introduces the basic principles of disaster management. The course highlights the large variety of disasters (e.g., earthquake, nuclear meltdown, landslide, industrial accidents) and the range of physical, economic, and social impacts of disasters of all scales and severity may inflict on communities around the world. With an understanding of the range of disaster types and impacts, the course investigates the management techniques and processes available for preparedness, response, recovery, mitigation, and resiliency.
The focus of this course is a semester-long disaster scenario student project. Each student chooses a country of their choice and a disaster scenario that is applicable to the given country. For each element of disaster management (i.e., disaster preparedness, recovery, logistics, coordination), the student develops a component of their country disaster strategy. By the end of the semester each student develops a report that investigates the entire disaster process from pre- to post-disaster management steps and skills.
This quantitative science course enables students to develop an overview of disaster management through lectures, discussion, video presentations, guest lectures, simulation games, and more. Each session may include a mixture of lecture, short videos, student presentations, in-class activities, and class discussion. In order to promote dialogue and discussion as a class, active participation is required (engaging in discussion, answering questions, working with peers, and completing assignments on time). Students must therefore come to lecture each day having read the required reading(s) and reviewed previous material so that everyone is prepared and able to thoughtfully contribute to each of our sessions. This will allow students to develop an understanding of the key perspectives we will study in this course.
Course learning goals:
Students will emerge from the semester with the ability to: