NST2011 Socio-Ecological Systems and Disaster Resilience
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits
**NST2011/ECN2611: Socioecological Systems and Disaster Resilience will be co-taught by Prof. Winrich and Prof. Way as a single course.** **These are two separate courses and students are held responsible to register for the course that they would like to receive credit for.**
Natural disasters can affect us wherever we go. Disasters might be localized or far-reaching, and may come from severe weather, seismic events, biological catastrophe, or outer space. Natural disasters may seem random, but their impact on people and their communities is not. While natural systems spark an event, like an earthquake, the “disaster” is often the result of economic, political and social systems. And in the case of climate change, the economic system itself may be the catalyst for ever-more-destructive natural forces such as hurricanes, floods and wildfires, potentially creating a negative feedback loop that leads toward more destructive events, both natural and man-made. This course looks at the rising number of natural disasters in the context of the economic systems that impact the environment and put communities in harms’ way. It investigates the connections between humans and the environment when they are impacted by anticipated and unanticipated natural events, and how they plan for the future. It explores resilience planning for more survivable, sustainable communities in the face of disasters. It specifically looks at the role of economic systems and how these systems can either worsen or mitigate the severity of natural disasters themselves.
Prerequisites: AHS1000 and RHT1000 and RHT1001 and NST1