LEARNING OUTCOMES

The aim of the course is to introduce the student to the concept of risk management with and provide basic tools to draw risk maps starting from any hazard map. The topics include: -the analysis of risk management cycle and of the official terminology associated to it - the basic concepts and the phases of risk assessment, differences between risk and disasters, classification of risks. - Elements of country risk profiles: sources of data and applications to real cases - Elements of mapping risk scenarios and Basic methods and sources of information for the Estimation of Exposure and Vulnerability at different spatial scales. - general methodologies for the calculation of standard parameters in the risk assessment procedures (eg. PML and AAL) and examples of applications - practical examples of real time risk management and disaster risk reduction At the end of the course the student is expected to be able to: - describe conceptually the phases of the risk management cycle, understanding the differences among them - interpret and understand the information provided by any risk map - know and describe the most common methodologies for exposure and vulnerability assessment - know and describe common examples of real time risk management and disaster risk reduction policies - draw a risk map starting from a categorized hazard map at block and municipality scale.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to provide students with the theoretical knowledge and the methodological basis for the mapping and integrated assessment of natural hazard risks to support all the phases of the risk management cycle.

The student must be able to understand how to perform a single and multi-risk assessment with a probabilistic approach, including the assessment and the mapping of exposure and vulnerability. She/he should also be able to understand the different approaches to perform a risk assessment at different spatial scales (local-national-regional). For this reason, practical exercises will be carried out with the aid of GIS and other dedicated software, which will allow students to simulate real world applications. Furthermore, an overview of the potential of Earth Observation technologies for risk assessment will be provided, with special reference to the Copernicus Services of the European Commission.

A further part will be dedicated to risk management in emergency situations, with an outline of Early Warning Systems and the creation of event scenarios.

At the end of the course the students will be able to face the problem of the assessment and management of natural risks at various spatial scales, to support the different phases of the emergency management.

TEACHING METHODS

- lessons

- practical exercises

- seminars of experts in specific topics

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

1. Risk definition and disaster paradigms: introduction to the basic concepts, evolution of the disaster paradigms, classification of risks, phases of risk assessment, creation and analysis of a country risk profile.
2. Exposure characterization: assessment and mapping of exposed elements at different scales.
3. Vulnerability characterization: assessment and mapping of vulnerability at different scales, physical vulnerability assessment and development of damage curves, introduction to social vulnerability.
4. Risk Assessment and Risk Metrics: methodological approaches to probabilistic risk assessment, introduction to the main risk metrics, overview of some of the available risk assessment tools and platforms, the support of Earth Observation technologies.
5. Disaster Risk and Emergency Management: the risk management cycle, real-time and deferred-time concepts, early warning systems, construction of event scenarios starting from forecasts or pre-selected magnitude events.
6. Disaster Risk Reduction Strategies: planning for disaster risk reduction, structural and non-structural measures.
7. Basic elements of multi-hazard risk assessment.