Safe cities online course in Turkish

Description 

The Safe Cities course provides an overview of disaster risk management sound practice for local government policymakers, urban managers, planners, and disaster management professionals. It discusses the inter-linkages of the social and physical parameters of vulnerability of cities with their local government development, organization, and management. It explains the impediments to disaster risk reduction in urban environments and then presents the key concepts of disaster risk management and the role and intervention of local institutions. It emphasizes that disaster risk reduction only takes place when it is inherently integrated within local government functions.

Thus, it proposes a model for implementing such integration that is based on the development of a city-wide disaster risk management master plan (DRMMP). It is based on an understanding of the risk parameters and incorporates action plans related to response and recovery, preparedness and awareness raising, mitigation and prevention, and institution building. The course discusses the structural and organizational arrangements for implementation, the resource and training needs, the strategies and challenges in implementation and discusses practical “do’s” and “don’ts” based on past experience, proposing an implementation framework. It establishes that disaster risk reduction stems from coherent policies that are based on a comprehensive understanding of risk, that promote preparedness and mitigation and incorporate the participation of the active agents of the community. Disaster risk management is a concern to the whole community and requires their involvement and contribution. The course provides case studies to illustrate different approaches to disaster risk reduction, the related organizational, institutional and financial parameters, and how these experiments have supported sustainable development goals in different cities.

Objective
 
This specialization course addresses particular concerns of urban managers and planners. It reviews processes, regulations – land use, infrastructure, construction, and building codes – enforcement issues and methods essential to reducing exposure to hazards and limiting the physical vulnerability of high density settlements.
The course consists of self-paced modules, discussion forums, exercises, readings, case studies, tests and learning via interaction with program faculty and peers. The course includes six (6) audio sessions of expert lectures for 30–35 minutes each.

Course Expectations

Participants are expected to commit 8–10 hours per week in order to gain the most out of this course in addition to: 
- Complete the required reading assignments;
- Participate in all online activities. Participation involves posting a minimum of two messages per week that are substantive in nature. The message can be either a new topic or a reply to someone else's message;
 - Participants are encouraged to post more often than twice a week in order to be involved more deeply into topics;
 - Participate in videoconferencing and asynchronous chat sessions (if applicable);
 - Complete assignments and end of course project;
 - Complete course evaluation at the end of the course.