Course syllabus

Critical Issues in Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation
Kritiska frågor i katastrofriskhantering och klimatanpassning

VRSN55, 7.5 credits, A (Second Cycle)

Valid for: 2024/25
Faculty: Faculty of Engineering LTH
Decided by: PLED BI/RH
Date of Decision: 2024-04-04
Effective: 2024-05-08

General Information

Depth of study relative to the degree requirements: Second cycle, in-depth level of the course cannot be classified
Mandatory for: MKAT2
Language of instruction: The course will be given in English

Aim

The course aims to provide students with understanding of contemporary critical issues that affect disaster risk management and climate change adaptation, as well as skills and approaches to independently consider and communicate them. The course builds on previous knowledge and abilities from one or several subject areas that the students have developed through previous courses on advanced level.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding
For a passing grade the student must

Competences and skills
For a passing grade the student must

Judgement and approach
For a passing grade the student must

Contents

The course is structured in modules focusing on different central groupings of critical issues that affect disaster risk management and climate adaptation, now and for the future. For instance, the nexus of conflict, disaster, and global change; inequality, intersectionality, and power; colonial legacies, resistance to facts, and polarization; and displacement, protection, and the erosion of international law. Students use a smorgasbord of lectures, literature and online mini-lectures and films—and the course demands that they actively and independently seek additional material—to inform their own work, their peer review of other students’ work, and preparations for student-led seminars where particularly important issues are addressed, facilitated by teachers.

Examination details

Grading scale: TH - (U, 3, 4, 5) - (Fail, Three, Four, Five)
Assessment: Written individual paper, approved portfolio of module assignments, and participation in compulsory seminars.

The examiner, in consultation with Disability Support Services, may deviate from the regular form of examination in order to provide a permanently disabled student with a form of examination equivalent to that of a student without a disability.

Modules
Code: 0121. Name: Portfolio.
Credits: 4.0. Grading scale: UG - (U, G). Assessment: Approved portfolio.
Code: 0221. Name: Seminars.
Credits: 1.0. Grading scale: UG - (U, G). Assessment: Approved active participation in obligatory seminars.
Code: 0321. Name: Course Paper.
Credits: 2.5. Grading scale: TH - (U, 3, 4, 5). Assessment: Approved written course paper.

Admission

Admission requirements:

Assumed prior knowledge: VRSN01 Societal Resilience, VRSN05 Foundations for Risk Assessment and Management, VRSN15 Climate Smart Risk Reducation, VRSN50 Risk Perception, Communication and Human Behavior
The number of participants is limited to: No

Reading list

Contact

Course administrator: Linnéa Ekman, linnea.ekman@ebd.lth.se
Course coordinator: Mo Hamza, mo.hamza@risk.lth.se

Further information

This course aims to facilitate to develop understanding of contemporary critical issues that affect disaster risk management (DRM) and climate change adaptation (CCA)—e.g. the nexus of conflict, disaster, and global change; inequality, intersectionality, and power; colonial legacies, resistance to facts, and polarization; and displacement, protection, and the erosion of international law—as well as skills and approaches to independently consider and communicate them. The course ends with an individual course paper that allows the student to engage in and elaborate on whatever critical issues she/he consider interesting and important in relation to DRM and/or CCA.