Risk reduction through land use planning online course

The recent 2011 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction fully recognized the opportunities of mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into land use planning and urban planning. Through land use planning, disaster risk factors can be modified to decrease vulnerability, increase resilience and mitigate potential damages and losses. With its wide array of regulatory and non-regulatory methods, as well as structural and non-structural approaches, land use planning is an effective tool in disaster risk management.

The Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning course was developed by the World Bank Institute in collaboration with the Earthquakes and Megacities Initiative. It aims to demonstrate the benefits of incorporating disaster risk reduction objectives in land use planning, presents the process involved in integrating disaster mitigation with local land use management, and illustrates the advantages of this integrated approach using specific examples.

This course offers professionals and practitioners an opportunity to explore the link between land use planning and disaster risk reduction through a series of learning tools: presentations, readings, case studies and exercises, tests, an end of course project, and interactions with peers and faculty.