Drought Disaster Risks

In this course, Dr. Anne van Loon and Dr. Marthe Wens will introduce you to the topic of Drought Disaster Risks. First, the concepts of drought hazard will be addressed, and how it can change over time and due to human activities. Next, drought exposure and drought vulnerability will be explored and how these can assessed. Finally, we will look at how we can prevent, mitigate and prepare for drought impacts through integrated drought management and individual and community drought adaptation.

Focus in the course will be on the interconnections between the water cycle and society, and how this socio-hydrological system is influenced by and influences drivers of drought disaster risks. The context and terminology are conformed international conventions such as the Sendai framework, and content is supported by state-of-the art peer-reviewed science. After each lesson, there will be some quiz questions to evaluate the content of that lesson.

STUDENT REQUIREMENTS

No specific skills and knowledge is required. Though some general understanding of hydrology, disasters and climate change will help to put things in proper perspective.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After completion of this course, participants will be able to..

• Discuss the concept of drought, and how this differs from other hydro-meteorological hazards such as flooding
• Give the concept of drought disaster risk, and explain which factors determine it
• Explain and find datasets and methods used to represent drought exposure, drought vulnerability, and drought impacts;
• Integrate data and information on hazard, exposure and vulnerability to analyze drought risk
• Know the state of the art challenges related to drought risk assessments
• Define concepts relating to local scale drought risk assessment and reduction
• Explain factors related to drought risk
• Give examples of drought risk reduction measures and strategies
• Explain the feedbacks between human activities / responses and drought hazards

ABOUT INSTRUCTOR

Dr. Anne van Loon is an associate professor in the field of water and climate risks at the Institute for Environmental Studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her research focuses drought and interacting hydrological extremes in the Anthropocene, focusing on drought propagation & compound events, (cascading) impacts, risk management & adaptation, and human-water feedbacks.

Dr. Marthe Wens is a postdoctoral researcher in the field of water and climate risks at the Institute for Environmental Studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her research focuses drought adaptation and human behaviour and their socio-hydrological feedbacks, on quantitatively estimating drought impacts and drought risk for multiple systems, and on co-creating drought risk management.

Certification

This course is a part of the certificate program named ‘WE are Water Eduction (Myanmar)’. Learn more about the program here.