Program Overview

Disaster Risk Reduction in Cities (DEVP0005)

Key Information

• Faculty: UCL Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment
• Teaching department: Development Planning Unit
• Credit value: 15
• Restrictions: In the event that the module is oversubscribed, DPU students will receive priority access to take this module.

Alternative Credit Options

There are no alternative credit options available for this module.

Description

Content: Although disasters are often presented as rare and unexpected tragedies, the reality is that they occur more frequently, affect more people, and cause higher economic damages than ever before. Starting from this data, the module explores disasters from different theoretical perspectives and will introduce you to disaster terminology, the different natural and anthropogenic hazards, and major trends in the exploration of disaster cycles, including those brought on by climate change. With a specific focus on built environment and urban areas, the module assesses patterns of vulnerability and how these are spatially and socially distributed. It also analyses the potential for effective vulnerability reduction and resilience building involving a variety of stakeholders at a range of scales. Throughout, there is a focus on the implications for vulnerable groups within societies, and their coping capacities.

The module provides a detailed examination and structured understanding of Disaster Studies and Disaster Risk Reduction, with a specific reference to urban areas. It also provides an opportunity to develop a common vocabulary and set of concepts with which to analyse, understand, and explain disasters, vulnerabilities, and risks, and conceptually-related analytical methods of risks and vulnerabilities.

Teaching Delivery: The module is taught in 9 weekly sessions with lectures and in-class exercises. There are readings to complete weekly before each session and short exercises using online materials to complete at home. Assessment is a 3000-word essay.

Indicative topics based on module content for 2025/25, subject to possible changes:

• What is disaster? Changing meanings of disasters and its implication for practice
• Understanding vulnerability
• Understanding drivers of hazard risks in urban environments
• From disaster management to disaster risk reduction: The Sendai Framework for Action
• Measuring disaster risks: data and metrics
• Community-driven disaster risk reduction
• The role of urban planning in addressing disaster risk
• Risk, relocation, and resettlement
• Financing for DRR in urban areas

Module Objectives:

• Explain major trends in disaster studies and their relation to urban areas in the Global South
• Explain the distribution of disaster vulnerability at different scales and between different social groups
• Discuss the role of built urban environment in the different phases of disaster
• Identify the implications of Disaster Risk Reduction in the cities of the Global South
• Analyse the role of international frameworks and international actors in shaping the agenda for Disaster Risk Reduction and their impact at local urban level
• Understand the roles for local organisations and urban authorities in facilitating effective Disaster Risk Reduction
• Assess the potential for local vulnerability reduction in cities of the Global South
• Discuss the potential of participatory methods in vulnerability analysis and Disaster Risk Reduction processes
• Explore the linkages between Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction, in a coherent framework that is locally driven and rooted in the particulars of each local economic, social, political, and ecological context

Recommended Readings:

• Wisner, B., Blaikie, P., et al. (2004) At Risk: Natural hazards, people's vulnerability and disasters. Routledge, London
• Johnson, C., Jain, G., and Lavell, A. (2021). Rethinking urban risk and resettlement in the global South. UCL Press, London
• Bradshaw, S and Fordham, M. (2015). Double Disaster: Disaster through a Gender Lens, Chapter 14. In Shroder, J.F et al., eds. Hazards, Risks, and Disasters in Society. Academic Press, Pages 233-251

Module Deliveries for 2026/27 Academic Year

• Intended teaching term: Term 1
• Postgraduate (FHEQ Level 7)

Teaching and Assessment

• Mode of study: In person
• Methods of assessment: 100% Coursework
• Mark scheme: Numeric Marks

Other Information

• Number of students on module in previous year: 47
• Module leader: Professor Cassidy Johnson

Last Updated

This module description was last updated on 10th March 2026.