Course summary

This course provides an advanced understanding of environmental hazards and technical expertise in risk assessment with a focus on the methods needed to analyse past hazards and forecast future ones. Our society is facing unprecedented environmental hazards driven by climate change and the rapid expansion of the world population. Global and local disasters cause many fatalities and cost billions of pounds every year. Earth scientists with expertise in the specialist hazard field are able to mitigate the impact of natural hazards, such as floods, earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes and coastal erosion, and environmental hazards created by people, such as air and water pollution. On this course you will develop an advanced understanding of environmental hazards and technical expertise in risk assessment, including crucial skills in numerical and statistical modelling, remote sensing and data analysis. There will be plenty of opportunities to gain hands-on experience using state-of-the-art field and laboratory equipment and high-level, professional software. You will handle the latest modelling methods using remote sensing data from satellites such as CubeSat constellations and Sentinel, which are used to image the surface of the Earth. With the skills required to predict, track and mitigate disasters, you will be an attractive candidate for a range of employment and research opportunities within government, government agencies, environmental consultancies, flood risk, utility and insurance companies. Plus, you will become part of the global effort to make our society more resilient against natural disasters as outlined in the Sendai framework and endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly.