• CRSCAD 501 Social Vulnerability to Disasters  
• CRSCAD 502 Climate Change, Food, and Water Resources 
• CRSCAD 503 Topics in Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters 
• CRSCAD 521 Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Sustainable Post-Disaster Reconstruction 
• CRSCAD 523 Climate Change: Strategies for Mitigation and Adaptation 
• CRSCAD 543 Political Economy of International Migration 
• CRSCAD 596 Independent Study in Global Post Disasters 

• PRFTRN 102 Reconstruction after the Cameras Have Gone: Principles and Best Practices 
• PRFTRN 103 Climate Change, Food, and Water Resources 
• PRFTRN 104 Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Sustainable Post-Disaster Reconstruction 
• PRFTRN 106 Social Vulnerability Approach to Disasters 
• PRFTRN 114 Independent Study in Global Post Disaster and Management 
• PROJMGT 002 Practical Project Management 
• PRFTRN 093 Performance Management in Government and Non-Profits 

AFTER THE CAMERAS LEAVE

From rubble to rebuilding:   

A year in Joplin, Missouri, USA 

The tornado that hit Joplin, Mo., a year ago took 161 lives, injured hundreds more and destroyed thousands of homes and buildings. It also fractured the landscape of the city, and opened the door to a massive rebuilding and recovery operation.  

A year later, much of the debris has been cleared and damaged homes wiped from their foundations. Some have been rebuilt, some never will be. Groundbreakings are being planned to rebuild schools. Around the community, the devastation from a year ago has been replaced with plans to rebuild, renovate and recover. (Huffington Post) 

Read more

 MEXICO: Yearly Floods the New Reality for Rural Women

Year after year, women in rural areas of the southeastern Mexican state of Tabasco have to get ready for floods that threaten their homes, crops and livestock.   

"We have adapted. Now we build our houses on stilts," Celia Hernández, who works for an indigenous tourism project in Centla, 857 km south of Mexico City, told IPS.  

"Every year in June," she said, "the women start putting things away and preparing the older people and children," in case there is flooding and everyone has to evacuate their homes and take refuge on higher ground nearby.

Centla, a municipality with a population of 102,110, lies either side of the Grijalva river in Tabasco, a state of 2.2 million people.

In the rainy season between June and October, the water level rises and affects urban and rural areas, including Centla, which is located in a swampy region and is home to 25 rural communities and 53 "ejidos" (collectively owned farmlands), as well as the coastal town of Frontera, the municipal capital.

(Inter Press Service)

How To Make Cities   

More Resilient

With over half the world's population now living in urban areas, making cities safer is a long-term challenge that can be achieved. Cities are engines of national growth and dynamic in their governance systems and capacities. Throughout history, disaster events have disrupted urban life. An extreme and changing climate, earthquakes, and emergencies triggered by man-made hazards are increasingly putting pressure on people and threatening the prosperity of cities. 

This Handbook for Local Government Leaders provides mayors, governors, councilors and others with a generic framework for risk reduction and points to good practices and tools that are already being applied in different cities for that purpose. It responds to the following key questions: WHY building disaster resilience is beneficial; WHAT kind of strategies and actions are required; and HOW to go about the task. Because cities, towns and municipalities differ in size, social, economic and cultural profiles and exposure to risk, each one will approach the tasks differently.  

(From the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction)