Disasters and Ecosystems: Resilience in a Changing Climate

Disasters have multiple impacts e.g., losses of lives, devastating impacts on infrastructure, damage to ecosystems and undermining development. On top of this, climate change is expected to aggravate existing disaster risks in many regions of the world. There is a need for increased awareness amongst practitioners, policymakers and researchers on the latest advances in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA). The idea of this MOOC is to deepen awareness about the role of ecosystems in reducing many types of disaster and climate risks and in enhancing resilience for sustainable development in practice.

COURSE CONTENT

After completion of the course, you will:

• Understand the links between disasters, climate change adaptation and ecosystems through real life examples of Eco-DRR from around the globe and how Eco-DRR is practiced.
• Understand differences and similarities between Eco-DRR and EbA.
• Learn more about ecosystems and spatial tools for disaster risk reduction and risk assessments
• Learn about different tools for managing Eco-DRR e.g., community-based tools, ecological engineering, economic valuation as well as integrated approaches, such as integrated water resources management.
• Understand more about the concept of resilience, differences between passive and transformative resilience and how it can be put into practice.
• Gain practical knowledge about how to develop an Eco-DRR project.

The Expert track is for professionals and students who seek more in-depth learning and skills development in applying ecosystem-based tools for disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR) and adaptation (EbA). The Expert Track consists of 15 units of 60 minutes each with video- presentations and accompanying self-study booklets, quizzes and a peer reviewed final assessment. The Expert Track runs over four weeks, with four hours per week. There are no pre-requisites for joining this course, however you will be able to follow along more easily if you have already taken the “Leadership track” prior. The Expert track is thus instructor-paced, with greater instructor presence and feedback, while the Leadership-track is student-paced and open until March, 2018.