Summary

This intensive module is aimed at introducing the topics of disaster risks and urban resilience with emphasis on the use of innovative digital technologies to gather and analyse urban data for improving disaster resilience. It approaches, theoretically and practically, the main issues involved in disaster resilience and the way in which social media, mobile technologies and the web 2.0 are related to our collective experience of disasters and crisis events. By means of a practical project and fieldwork conducted in the city of Coventry, students will learn how to collect urban data using open-source mobile data collection software (OpenDataKit), process and analyse this data with Geographic Information Systems (QGIS) and produce interactive digital maps to visualise urban aspects related to disaster resilience.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

*Preliminary Meeting (in the beginning of the term before the intensive week)
Introduction to the course and distribution of topics for the student-led seminar presentations (1 hour seminar). During this meeting students will also be divided into groups and such groups will be final for the duration of the module.

The module will be delivered as in three distinct but interrelated blocks, following the outline described below.

• Block 1 - Student-led presentations: Student-groups of two formulated during the preliminary meeting will be asked to prepare a very short five-minute presentation on a pre-selected topic related to the module. Questions and references will be provided to the students well in advance in order to prepare the presentations. Presentations will take place during the first part of the first three days of module delivery and will be followed by an expert presentation on a similar topic and wide collective discussions. Three to four presentations per day will take place. Students will be assessed as a group and NOT individually for this presentation and will receive collective feedback and ONE mark per group. This presentation accounts for 5% of the final mark.
• Block 2 - Practical Labs: This block will consist of practical labs provided by the teaching staff and aimed at teaching mapping and spatial data analysis skills using dedicated software (e.g. QGIS, JOSM, OpenStreetMap). Tutorials and PDFs will be available in Moodle, and for students but live presentations and collective work on the tools will also take place in the class. A workshop about mobile data collection and preparation for the fieldwork will also take place and will be followed by group work to design forms for mobile data collection and to print paper maps to be used in the field.
• Block 3 - Group Projects: Students will be divided into groups of 3-5 individuals during the preliminary meeting and develop a project idea related to the theoretical topics explored in Block 1, utilising tools and techniques introduced in Block 2. Each group will be asked to develop an initial project proposal prior to the field work (oral or written). Group proposals will be discussed and agreed with the teaching staff prior to the field work. Final presentations will take place during the last day of module delivery and will also provide the basis for the Individual project report.

• Supporting Live Sessions: Throughout the whole period of delivery of the three blocks above, regular live sessions on potential difficulties phased by the students on the newly introduced software will be delivered by the teaching staff.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of basic concepts on interdisciplinary disaster risk and resilience scholarship
• Appreciate the importance of disaster risk reduction, risk management , urban resilience and new urban agendas for sustainable development.
• Understand how urban data for disaster resilience is traditionally collected and identify the emerging urban data sources based on crowdsourced geographic information
• Critically appreciate the potential of participatory digital technologies and crowdsourced geographic information to support disaster risk management efforts.
• Reflect on how new technologies are related to changes in the collective experience of disasters and crisis events and comprehend their potential and limitations.
• Evaluate the role of urban data in strategies for disaster risk reduction and urban resilience.
• Use Geographic Information System software (QGIS, JOSM) to analyse the urban data collected and produce interactive digital maps that visualise urban resilience-related issues.
• Use open-source geotechnologies (OpenDataKit, KoboToolbox, FieldPapers) to perform mobile urban data collection on the field.
• Work in interdisciplinary teams to analyse an urban challenge related to disaster resilience and design strategies for using open source geo-technologies to collect, process and analyse urban data.

When:

Week 6

Commencing 21/11/2022

Where:

R2.41 (Ramphal)

Dr Vangelis Pitidis

Evangelos.Pitidis@warwick.ac.uk

"Filling the gaps of our urban knowledge: can crowd mapping and citizen participation tackle the challenges of urban resilience?"

- Dr João Porto de Albuquerque

Quick links:

• Summary
• Module Aims
• Outline syllabus
• Learning outcomes

Available on:

• MSc Humanitarian Engineering
• MSc Humanitarian Engineering - Sustainability
• MSc Humanitarian Engineering - Management