Course Description and Objectives:

This course explores the relationship between nature, society, and technology as we discuss what makes people and places vulnerable to environmental hazards. Methods used to assess and reduce vulnerability will provide the focus of this course. We will primarily be concerned with three types of vulnerability: individual, social, and biophysical. Natural and social sciences inform the fields of hazards and vulnerability research and this course will necessarily integrate approaches to explore the threats as well as attempts to protect people and places.

Through examining the impacts of and responses to specific events the course will meet four objectives:

1. Introduce and define the concepts of vulnerability
2. Examine the causes and consequences of vulnerability
3. Explore actions taken by individuals and society on spatial scales ranging from local to global to reduce vulnerability
4. Conduct a vulnerability assessment