By 2010 an estimated 50% of the population of developing countries will be living in cities and eight out of ten largest cities of the World will be in developing countries.  Over three quarters of those cities are exposed to at least one natural hazard.  Yet, cities are ill-prepared to effectively respond to such events, and the collective effort to reduce risk from disasters continues to be meager compared to the constant increase in risk caused by urbanization and aging infrastructure.
Safe Cities course provides an overview of disaster risk management sound practice for local government policymakers, urban managers, planners, and disaster management professionals. It discusses the inter-linkages of the social and physical parameters of vulnerability of cities with their local government development, organization, and management. It explains the impediments to disaster risk reduction in urban environments and then presents the key concepts of disaster risk management and the role and intervention of local institutions. It emphasizes that disaster risk reduction only takes place when it is inherently integrated within local government functions.
 
Thus, it proposes a model for implementing such integration that is based on the development of a city-wide disaster risk management master plan (DRMMP). It is based on an understanding of the risk parameters and incorporates action plans related to response and recovery, preparedness and awareness raising, mitigation and prevention, and institution building. The course discusses the structural and organizational arrangements for implementation, the resource and training needs, the strategies and challenges in implementation and discusses practical “do’s” and “don’ts” based on past experience, proposing an implementation framework. It establishes that disaster risk reduction stems from coherent policies that are based on a comprehensive understanding of risk, that promote preparedness and mitigation and incorporate the participation of the active agents of the community. Disaster risk management is a concern to the whole community and requires their involvement and contribution. The course provides case studies to illustrate different approaches to disaster risk reduction, the related organizational, institutional and financial parameters, and how these experiments have supported sustainable development goals in different cities.

Language
The language of the course is Turkish.
 
Course Format
The course consists of self-paced modules, discussion forums, exercises, readings, case studies, tests and learning via interaction with program faculty and peers. The course includes 6 audio sessions of expert lectures for 30–35 minutes each.
 
Course Expectations
Participants are expected to commit 8–10 hours per week in order to gain the most out of this course in addition to:

• Complete the required reading assignments
• Participate in all online activities. Participation involves posting a minimum of two messages per week that are substantive in nature. The message can be either a new topic or a reply to someone else's message.
• Participants are encouraged to post more often than twice a week in order to be involved more deeply into topics.
• Participate in videoconferencing and asynchronous chat sessions (if applicable)
• Complete assignments and end of course project
• Complete course evaluation at the end of the course
  

System Requirements of the Course

• Hardware: Pentium 166 or faster, 64Mb Memory, CD-ROM, Sound Card
• Software: Windows 95,98,ME,NT 4,2000 or XP Internet Explorer 4 or higher, Netscape 4 or higher Microsoft Office 2000 (Word, PowerPoint) Acrobat Reader 5  

This specialization course addresses particular concerns of urban managers and planners. It reviews processes, regulations – land use, infrastructure, construction, and building codes – enforcement issues and methods essential to reducing exposure to hazards and limiting the physical vulnerability of high density settlements.  

Course Overview

This specialization course provides an overview of disaster risk management sound practice for local government policymakers, urban managers, planners, and disaster management professionals. It discusses the inter-linkages of the social and physical parameters of vulnerability of cities with their local government development, organization, and management. It explains the impediments to disaster risk reduction in urban environments and then presents the key concepts of disaster risk management and the role and intervention of local institutions. It emphasizes that disaster risk reduction only takes place when it is inherently integrated within local government functions.
 
Thus, it proposes a model for implementing such integration that is based on the development of a city-wide disaster risk management master plan (DRMMP). It is founded on an understanding of the risk parameters and incorporates action plans related to response and recovery, preparedness and awareness raising, mitigation and prevention, and institution building. The course discusses the structural and organizational arrangements for implementation, the resource and training needs, the strategies and challenges in implementation and discusses practical “do’s” and “don’ts” based on past experience, proposing an implementation framework. It establishes that disaster risk reduction stems from coherent policies that are based on a comprehensive understanding of risk, that promote preparedness and mitigation and incorporate the participation of the active agents of the community. Disaster risk management is a concern to the whole community and requires their involvement and contribution. The course consists of two modules and an end of course exercise.

• Module 1: Global Perspective
  
• Module 2: Turkey’s Perspective
  
• End of Course Project
  
  To meet the course completion requirement the participants are required to submit an end-of course case study/project. The objective of the course project is to apply newly acquired knowledge to build a case study of a natural disaster risk management system in a selected city in the participants’ country. In the course project participants should provide a critical assessment of risks present in the city and the specific ways in which the current city disaster risk management system addresses or doesn’t address these risks. The project should be prepared with the data acquired throughout the course and data specific to that city.   
  

WBI is pleased to offer this training series as a result of partnerships with the Middle East Technical University, Istanbul Technical University, Bosphorus University and Gazi University.