Geography 106-01 -- GEOGRAPHIES OF DISASTER

Instructor: Dr. Christine M. Rodrigue

E-Mail:

lapaloma@ecst.csuchico.edu

Course listserver:

geog106- 01@wombat.ecst.csuchico.edu

Telephone:

898-4953 or -5285

Office:

Butte Hall 539

Hours:

3-6 p.m. T, 10-12 a.m. W

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Prerequisites: GEOG 001 or completion of a course satisfying the Area B General Education requirement.

Provides a broad global overview of catastrophes resulting resulting from natural or technological hazards. Despite technological improvements in mitigation, warning, and emergency response, disasters continue to maim and kill, and property losses to disaster mount at increasing rates. This course emphasizes the spatial and temporal distribution of hazards; roles played by technology and social structure in creating or exacerbating risky situations; the human impact of disaster; perception of, behavior in, and human attachment to risky environments; management of disaster response and recovery; and policy options for mitigating and preparing for disaster. This is proposed as an approved GE course in the Catastrope and Humanity Upper Division Thematic and as an approved non-Western course.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

1. to analyze the spatial distributions of various natural and technological hazards and the nature and society dialectic that creates them
   
2. to develop a basic understanding of the physical dynamics creating various hazards, their underlying probability distributions, and the relationships between magnitude and frequency of events
   
3. to explore the ways that technological mitigations can both reduce and exacerbate hazards in different circumstances
   
4. to analyze the economic and political contexts and impacts of hazards and the social construction of differential vulnerability to hazards
   
5. to examine perception of and behaviors in risky situations and the human attachment to risky places
   
6. to outline different policy options for mitigating and preparing for disaster and managing emergency situations
   
7. to cultivate skills in research, analysis, and writing
   
8. to become familiar with a variety of geographic and scientific tools and methods, such as maps, spatial data, and the Internet
   
9. to appreciate the interdisciplinary nature of hazards studies and the value of different approaches to them (e.g., natural science, social science, arts and humanities, engineering, and policy)

COURSE MATERIALS:

Texts:

Blaikie, Cannon, Davis, and Wisner (1994),

At Risk: Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerability, and Disasters.

Monmonier (1997),

Cartographies of Danger.

Other materials

will be on reserve in the Department Office (Butte 507), e-mailed to you, or put on the class web page

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GRADING:

Grading will be on the basis of a midterm, a final, a book report, a research report on a particular hazard, and participation. Each of these is worth twenty percent of your total grade.

The midterm and the final comprise a mix of objective questions (e.g., true-false, multiple choice, and matching) and essay questions. As a General Education course, you are expected to submit essays and reports totalling at least 2,500 words. Writing mechanics will be assessed (e.g., organization, spelling, grammar and syntax, punctuation and capitalization, and avoiding sexist usage) and count for about a third of the grade points on each of the written assignments.

Participation covers attendance, contribution to discussions in class and on the class listserver, and doing various Internet exercises.

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COURSE OUTLINE:

A.   Introduction (Blaikie et al., Ch. 1; Monmonier Ch. 1)
     1.   The scope of global disaster 
          a.   distribution of deaths
          b.   distribution and trends in property losses
     2.   Determinants of risk to disastrous events
     3.   Differentiation of risk from vulnerability to disaster

B.   The geography of major types of catastrophe (Blaikie et al., Ch. 4-8; 
     reserve readings from Alexander; Monmonier, Ch. 2-6)
     1.   Floods
     2.   Severe coastal storms
     3.   Severe weather
     4.   Drought and desertification
     5.   Earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides
     6.   Biological hazards
     7.   Technological hazards
     8.   Impact risk of Near Earth Objects
     9.   Interhazard interactions:  cascade effects

C.   Environmental perception and disaster (reserve readings from Palm, 
     Smith, White, and Tuan)
     1.   Correlates with perceived risk
     2.   Correlates of mitigation   
     3.   Meaning of place and human attachment to hazardous places
     4.   Media role 

D.   The social geography of disaster vulnerability (Blaikie et al., Ch. 2-
     3; reserve readings from Rodrigue and Rovai)
     1.   Who is at risk?
     2.   Vulnerability in the recovery, restoration and reconstruction 
          phases of a disaster
     3.   Variations in vulnerability among socioeconomic groups in 
          developed economies and in Third World economies

E.   How communities respond to disaster (Blaikie et al., Ch. 9; Monmonier 
     Ch. 8; reserve readings from Rubin) 
     1.   Warning systems
     2.   Damage and the built environment
     3.   Emergency action
     4.   The economic geographic impacts of disaster
     5.   Social process and disaster

F.   Opportunities for disaster reduction (Blaikie et al., Ch. 10)
     1.   Incident command for emergency managers
     2.   Planning 
     3.   Economic development
     4.   Educating the media
        

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