6th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2016 Integrative Risk Management - Towards Resilient Cities. 28 August - 01 September 2016 in Davos, Switzerland

1. Key design
components of
an international
field course on
hazards and
disaster risk
reduction
Dr. Brent Doberstein,
University of Waterloo,
CANADA
bdoberst@uwaterloo.ca

2. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Overview
 Why field courses on hazards & DRR?
 Why Indonesia?
 Available field course models & pedagogy
 The field course “as delivered”:
 key elements
 Student feedback
 Conclusions

3. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Why field courses?

4. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Why field courses?
Academics: clear embodiment of
“experiential learning”
 ‘Deep learning’
 Links emotions, feelings and values to learning
 Increases enjoyment of the subject/discipline, which in
turnenhances student engagement
 Skills: International experience, cross-cultural skills
 Contextualizes (and challenges) theoretical knowledge
 Field learning allows for (safe) failure, so students takes risks in
their learning
 Discussion, Q & A with locals
 Experimentation (e.g. research methods)
 Attempts at explanation of field phenomena
Sources: Hope 2009, Herrick 2010, Houser et. al. 2011, Glass 2013,

5. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Why Indonesia?
 James (2008) refers to Indonesia as “a
supermarket of disasters”
 Unusually high number of hazards + extreme
vulnerability + moderate DRR capacity
 Tsunami
 Floods
 Earthquakes
 Volcanos (130 active)
 Technological/industrial hazards
 Affordable for students!

6. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Available field course models &
pedagogy
 “Cook’s Tour” model: a rapid, extensive, but ‘shallow’
field course
 Modified “Cook’s Tour” model: extensive tour+deep
engagement with one or more sites through personal
research
 “Paired” model: students are paired with local students,
jointly working on a research problem
 “Comparative model”: 2 hazard/disaster sites explored
in depth & compared (time split between both)
 Community-service model: students work on a real-
world hazard/disaster problem in one location, applying
their Geography/Planning etc skills
Wide/shallow
Narrow/deep

7. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Modified “Cook’s Tour” model
 Broad understanding + deep engagement with one
aspect
 7 hazard/disaster sites spread across Western, Central
and Eastern Java, Indonesia
 Total: 60hrs on the bus, about 1500kms driving in 3
weeks!
1.2010 Merapi
volcano
2.2006 Bantul
earthquake
3. 2006
Tsunami
4. 2007&
’12 Floods
5. 2006-present
Lusi mud volcano
6. Kawah Ijen
volcano
6. Bromo
volcano

8. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
The field course “as delivered”:
key elements
 Real-world hazard and disaster sites
 Local experts as resource people: researchers, NGO/aid
workers, disaster tourism staff
 Ethics approval: anonymity
 Local Geography graduate students as
interpreters/facilitators (1 male, 1 female)
 Assignments:
 In-field presentations (all)
 Daily journal (undergrads)
 Conference-ready research PPT (grads)
 Term paper or short documentary (all)
 Fund-raising (voluntary) for Indonesian NGO

9. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Hazard/disaster sites
Mt. Merapi 2010

10. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Pangandaran 2006

11. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
2006-present: Lusi
mud volcano (drilling
accident)

12. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Kawah Ijen volcano +
sulphur miners

13. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Mt. Bromo

14. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Student Presentations
 Strictly a “powerpoint-free” zone!
 Disasters & health
 Disaster tourism
 Volcano park management
 Preventing return after disaster resettlement
 Disasters & the mining sector
 Flood DRR
 Forestry and disasters
 Post-earthquake build back better
 Urban planning and the build back better concept
Disaster
Tourism
Volcano Park
Management
Mt. Semeru co-
operating…

15. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Why fund raising?
 Connecting academic/
theory/abstract  reality
 “Making a difference” (not just
more study/research)
 Understanding poverty/disasters
connections at a visceral level
Fundraising
 $>1250cdn raised
 =1 safe water system in
an Indonesian school + 4
weeks of afterschool DRR
programming for poor
children
 Many students gave up
one ‘luxury item’ for 4-6
weeks, …donated $
equivalent
One Student
Gave up weekly $15 bottle of
wine (“high quality” for
students!)=$60 donation
Now: claims this has ruined
her ability to enjoy $15
wines!

16. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Was it a success?
 Student Evaluations
 100% of students ranked course as 4 (“very good”)
or 5 (“excellent”)
 Student evaluations of course model ((0/poor-
10/best) scale
 “Modified Cook’s Tour”: Mean=8.2
 “Fewer sites Cook’s Tour”: Mean=7.0
 “Community service model” Mean=6.5
 “Paired model” Mean=6.0
 “Comparative model” Mean=6.2
 Other measures are more revealing…

17. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Student Journal Comments

18. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Student Journal Comments

19. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Student Journal Comments
“…it really is hard to understand the hardship of going through
a disaster when it’s being read out of a textbook. It’s
completely (an)other thing when you are witnessing how
people’s lives have changed because of the disaster”.

20. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Student Journal Comments
 “…Something I forgot to mention is that Bromo is an active
volcano, and we could see it smoking from the top of the
viewpoint….and very clearly now at the top of the crater. Not
only could you see it, but you could also hear it. Rumbling,
getting ready for something big, like the earth was angry. It
really puts your life in perspective, which… has been a major
theme of this trip.
Student Journal Comments

21. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Student Journal Comments

22. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Conclusions
 Field courses are a critical part of hazards &
disasters education
 Reinforces & challenges ‘book learning’
 Deepens learning
 Better disciplinary engagement
 Drives home personal reality of hazards &
disasters
 Definitely worth the time and effort to
organize!

23. Key design components of an international
field course on hazards and disaster risk
reduction
Questions?