T267 Intersections of Sustainability and Geosciences (Posters)

Wednesday, 12 October 2022
2:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Exhibit Hall F

AN UNDERGRADUATE CERTIFICATE IN NATURAL-HAZARDS PREPAREDNESS AND MITIGATION

Paper number: T267-10
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Authors

Abstract

Natural hazards pose risks to people, economics, institutions, and infrastructure. These risks are rendered more extreme, more complex, and more challenging to manage due to the effects of global climate change. Recent extreme events in the US and around the world, including massive wildfires, severe storms, floods, and droughts, reveal a need for a more robust system of preparation for and mitigation of natural hazards: implemented at the state and national level and reproducible elsewhere. This is a challenge for geoscientists, environmental scientists, engineers, GIS specialists, and social scientists, as hazards originate and occur in the interfaces between natural and social systems. Research results indicate that better-educated societies with savvy decision-makers are best equipped to prepare for, mitigate, and recover from natural disasters. We have collaborated with hazards-related employers and colleagues at the community-college and university level; and conducted mixed-methods surveys of employment and market trends in hazards-related fields in order to characterize knowledge, skills, and dispositions required of graduates who will enter the natural-hazards workforce.

The proposed Certificate in Natural Hazards Preparedness and Mitigation is based on this work and designed to be accessible and professionally valuable to hazards-minded students majoring in geosciences and other natural sciences, social sciences, engineering, planning, information science, sustainability, and other fields. Courses will train students in the science of natural hazards, systems and spatial thinking, and in collaborative and communications skills, overlaying broadly applicable natural-hazards expertise on the disciplinary expertise students concurrently accrue in their majors. Knowledge and skills from the program respond to expectations that potential employers have for new employees. By design the curriculum includes both lower division and upper-division courses, so that students in Arizona community colleges can begin earning course credit toward the Certificate even before they transfer to the university.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 54, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2022AM-383323

© Copyright 2022 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.