Course syllabus

Interested in the Natural Disaster RISK modeling course? Here’s the summary tentative syllabus (updated annually).

• Framework
  • Effects of natural disasters around the world. Importance of NDRM.
  • Definitions of risk. The natural risk framework.
  • Anatomy of cat models. Characterization of severe events.
• Hazards.
  • Modeling hurricane hazard. Secondary hazards.
  • Modeling flood hazard
  • Modeling seismic Hazard: Modeling ground motion; PSHA.
• Exposure Modeling
  • Modeling the infrastructure inventory. Taxonomies of building types.
• Estimation of earthquake-caused fatalities.
• Vulnerability
  • Development of hurricane vulnerability functions
  • Fragility functions (seismic)
  • Damage functions (flood)
• Risk Metrics
  • Natural Risk Metrics: stochastic catalogs, key metrics to measure natural risk.
• Risk Management Strategies
  • Risk Management approaches in other contexts.
  • Acceptable Risk: reduction measures, cost-effectiveness

Samples from class

Wind speed profiles at flight level from Hurricane Erika (AL071997) near Leewards and Puerto Rico. Data processed from Vigh et al. (2020): FLIGHT+ Tropical Cyclone Data Project, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado.

Study of the effects of the Pocito earthquake (6.4M) and a future earthquake (7.5M) on the building inventory of San Juan, Argentina