Master of Disaster Risk and Resilience

The United Nations defines a disaster as a disruption of social and community function, involving so many losses and destructive impacts that affected communities and regions are unable to cope using their own resources. Global efforts to reduce the impacts of disasters over the last decade have failed to keep up with growing exposure of people and assets to natural and other hazards, which is generating new risks and a steady rise in disaster-related losses. To reverse this trend, UN member nations ratified the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2015. The Sendai Framework calls for a broader, more people-centred, preventative approach to disaster risk reduction, in which communities, government and private sectors, civil society organisations, academia, and research institutions work together to build resilience and develop collaborative disaster risk reduction practices. This Professional Master’s degree provides an introduction to this rapidly evolving interdisciplinary field. Study a Master of Disaster Risk and Resilience at UC The Waitaha Canterbury Laboratory Aotearoa New Zealand is located on the Pacific ‘rim of fire,’ and has one of the most dynamic environments in the world. Floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, and tsunami threaten a rapidly-growing, high income economy, driving collaboration between policy, practice research, and local communities, and increasing demand for disaster risk reduction. This makes Aotearoa New Zealand an outstanding laboratory for the study of multi-hazard disaster risk and resilience. Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha University of Canterbury is situated in the centre of New Zealand’s South Island, Te Tai Poutini, where the 2010-2011 Canterbury Earthquakes and the 2016 Kaikōura-Hurunui Earthquakes have had extensive and complex impacts in the central and north-east of the island. This has created considerable scope for highly integrated, cutting-edge disaster risk and resilience research. The Professional Master's programme is taught by a multi-disciplinary team drawn from the Disaster Risk and Resilience Group in UC's Te Kura Aronukurangi School of Earth and Environment and from Te Pu Ao GNS Science. This partnership increases the breadth of teaching expertise, student research projects, and industry practice connections. The programme has won awards for its innovative content and delivery modes, including from the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM).