I Semester
ANNO/YEAR:
2024-2025
DOCENTI/PROFESSORS:
- Scira Menoni
The course is aimed at raising contemporary architects’ awareness regarding their important role in disaster risk reduction (DRR) which is related to the design of individual buildings and to urban plans and projects. Students will be provided with basic concepts in risk analysis including hazard, exposure, vulnerability and resilience. Once key concepts are understood and mastered, students will be guided towards a more interdisciplinary approach, that implies integrated design and planning.
Students are expected to get a comprehensive understanding of how urban and land use plans as well as design of individual buildings and of the built environment need to integrate the issues of disaster risk reduction.
It is expected that attendants will get an overview and possibly master the following topics that will be addressed during the course:
* Basic theoretical and applied aspects of Disaster Risk Reduction;
* Methods and components of risk assessment – hazard, exposure and vulnerability – including their representations;
* Case studies from past events including in Italy;
* Methods and tools for the enhancement of the coping capacity and resilience of urban and non-urban built environments
* Structural and non-structural mitigation measures with a strong emphasis on structural measures addressing the vulnerability of the built environment and non-structural measures involving urban and land use planning;
* Economic concepts implied in DRR in urban areas and related to the built environment: from damage accounting to cost benefit analysis to support decision-making for risk mitigation measures;
* Specificities of risk assessment and risk mitigation in areas rich in cultural heritage sites and in historic centers.
The course aims at make students acquire competencies and skills about the following:
* Knowledge and understanding: the students will acquire knowledge of theories regarding disaster risk related to natural disasters in the built environment and in urban areas. Moreover, the course will provide tools and knowledge in order to develop critical understanding of case studies including some events in Italy that constituted the milestone for improving risk assessment methodologies and risk management.
* Applying knowledge and understanding: students will develop capabilities to deal with disaster risk reduction and planning through the deep study and discussion of examples proposed, so as to apply concepts and tools. Post-disaster damage assessment will be analyzed in depth in order to make students understand what are the impacts of disasters in the built environment and in urban areas, this concerning not only physical damage but also effects on society and economy.
* Making judgments: students will acquire knowledge and tools needed to carry out a comprehensive risk assessment in an urban context or in a given neighborhood, based on the understanding of concepts and on the use of analytical and evaluation tools.
* Communication skills: students will acquire the correct language in the field of DRR, becoming able to master some complex concepts such as resilience in appropriate ways. Students will be requested to discuss in deep one or more examples explaining the methodology, the input data and the obtained results.
