Natural Hazards : Management of Risk and Resilience

Specialization / Direction

The course is also offered to exchange programme students.

After the successful completion of the course the students will know: (1) The basic components and concepts in natural disaster risk. (2) The key components and methods of analysis and management of risks. (3) The main elements and methods of vulnerability analysis of the built environment. (4) The conceptual framework and dimensions of built environment’s resilience. (5) The key methodological approaches in resilience management of the built environment. They will also be able to: (6) Apply the key components and methods for the vulnerability analysis of structures subjected to floods, earthquakes and landslides. (7) Apply the key components for risk analysis in practice and understand the risk management framework for floods, earthquakes and landslides using appropriate methods. (8) Identify the parameters in designing resilient built systems and apply at high level respective design methods.

1. INTRODUCTION TO NATURAL HAZARDS AND MANAGEMENT OF THEIR CONSEQUENCES 1.1 Types of natural hazards. Geological and hydro-meteorological hazards: floods, earthquakes, landslides, drought, storms etc. 1.2 Vulnerability to natural hazards. Potential damages. Direct and indirect losses. 1.3 Consequences of natural hazards to the built and anthropogenic environment, the population and activities. Environmental degradation. Loss of life. Social and economic disruption. 2. RISK MANAGEMENT 2.1 Definitions and terminology. Hazard. Exposure. Vulnerability. Risk. Resilience. 2.2 Risk analysis: evaluation of hazard, estimation of the vulnerability and risk of the built environment. 2.3 Risk assessment and management. Risk evaluation and reduction (pre-event, co-event and post-event). 2.4 Concepts of the risk and resilience based design of structures. 3. RESILIENCE MANAGEMENT 3.1 Terminology and conceptual frameworks. Levels of analysis: From Components to Systems of Systems and from pre- to post-catastrophic stages. 3.2 Analysis and Design methods: Analytical/Mathematical modeling – Indicators-based approach – Visualization-based approach 3.3 Holistic approach of built environment’s resilience: Integration of resilience with smart infrastructure – Nature-based solutions – Societal resilience. 4. CASE STUDIES 4.1 Floods. Overview of past catastrophic events in Greece and worldwide. Evaluation of flood hazard. Vulnerability analysis. Risk assessment and management. 4.2 Earthquakes. Overview of earthquake losses and examples from past events in Greece and worldwide. Evaluation of seismic risk. Seismic hazard assessment . Vulnerability assessment models for buildings, lifelines and critical infrastructures. Risk assessment and management. Mitigation policies in local, regional and national scale. 4.3 Landslides. Overview of losses due to landslides and examples from past events in Greece and worldwide. Vulnerability assessment models for buildings and infrastructures. Risk management and policies for risk mitigation and resilience improvement.

Natural Hazards, Built Environment, Hazard, Vulnerability, Risk, Resilience, Floods, Earthquakes, Landslides

25-08-2025