3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

This course provides an in-depth discussion of the simulation of disaster risk on socio-technical systems (from countries to cities). The course covers the algorithmic structure of catastrophe models; modeling of the intensity fields of hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods; methods to develop building and infrastructure vulnerability functions, structure of exposure layers, and estimation of post-disaster injuries and casualties. The students learn to produce basic stochastic catalogs from where risk metrics are calculated. Finally, the risk-reduction policy formulation process is presented using as input the catastrophe model-generated information. The course has a strong real-life application side analyzing World Bank risk reduction projects. Students will gain introductory experience in the use of GIS, Matlab, and R. This course is co-listed with EN.560.658.