MSc Environmental Hazards and Risks Management

MSc in Environmental Hazards and Risks Management

The Mediterranean environment combines high population densities, rapid land cover change, and extreme climatic events in an IPCC global climate change hotspot. The region is subject to devastating floods and forest fires in addition to a wide range of ecological hazards. Proximity to the Alps and sea contributes to further expose the population to geohazards, such as mass movements, earthquakes and coastal flooding/tsunamis. Few areas in the world concentrate as many environmental hazards and risks as in southeast France, so it is an ideal context to learn about risk management.

In the Nice Côte d’Azur area, a multitude of field sites can be investigated to discover monitoring and mitigation strategies that are applicable throughout the world. In addition, there is a wide range of digital data available: high resolution aerial and satellite imagery, Digital Elevation Models, raster and vector GIS databases describing land cover, building units, vegetation, stream networks… The context is therefore also propitious to modeling hazards and risks both spatially and temporally using GIS and remote sensing.

Globally, rapid urban expansion is exposing more people to a range of ecological and natural hazards and risks. Earthquakes, flooding, and other extreme events are affecting more people every year. Terrestrial and ecological habitats are under pressure from pollution and invasive species, and extreme events threaten natural and urban environments throughout the world. Land cover changes, particularly urban growth, can reinforce the negative impacts of climate change and contribute to transform natural and human environments at unprecedented rates.

Adapted strategies can mitigate some of the impacts of global change. Urban and suburban planning integrate civil engineering and nature-based solutions and appropriate zoning, and the rapid treatment of high resolution spatial data combined with risk modeling can improve warning systems and save lives. Beyond these strategies, free and open access services have been developed by Europe to support operational actors in risk management (International Charter Space & Major disasters, Copernicus program…) and these will be explored in the MSc.