Man vs. Nature: Coping with Disaster Using Space Technology
Autumn 2006-2007
Course description
Natural hazards, such as
earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, hurricanes, and fires, affect the lives of
thousands of people worldwide everyday. Over the past twenty years or so developments in spaceborne imaging
technology have made it possible to monitor and respond to such disasters much
more rapidly than in the past, saving lives and money. In addition, greater understanding of
the physical processes involved allows us to anticipate and plan for mitigation
of the consequences of the disasters. In this course we will explore these new tools, how they are applied to
natural disasters, and learn how the remotely-sensed data are manipulated and
analyzed.
The class will consist of
once-weekly seminar meetings, some time of which will be devoted to computer
manipulation of remote sensing data. You will be introduced to research papers on the topics, will duplicate
some of the data analysis procedures, and develop a report on studying a
selected disaster from space.
As this is a sophomore
seminar course, one of the purposes of the course is to introduce you to
research in the physical sciences through a small-class environment. We will conduct the class in a seminar
style, rather than a straight lecture/homework/tests approach. Thus part of the class will be devoted
to process rather than instruction, so that you will be able to experience more
closely what it is like to pursue advanced study in the sciences. You will be asked to read several
research papers and report on them in class. We will also have a few field exercises in which we will
participate in outdoor observation and measurement studies related to remote
sensing of the Earth's surface.
Although some of the topics
we will discuss are quite specialized, we will emphasize discussion of the
basic scientific issues. In
addition we will consider political and social consequences and costs of disaster
mitigation, and how scientific knowledge affects policy.
No specific prerequisites are required,
but you should be comfortable running pre-existing computer applications.
Textbook info
There is no formal textbook for the course, but you will be given reading material each week that will serve as basis for our discussions. Additional reading
assignments will consist of material available over the internet.
Prerequisites:
None. This course should be
approachable by non-science majors in addition to students in more technical
disciplines.
Fieldwork
We may have one or two field exercises where we compare remote sensing data to landmarks on campus. One exercise will consist of a GPS survey of campus.