School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering

Assessment Brief
Module Code: 20CVC010
Module Name: Disaster Risk Reduction for the Built Environment
Case study report that highlights the roles of construction
Assessment Title: professionals in Disaster Risk Reduction
Assessment Type: Report Other:

Date Due: 22nd March 2021 Date Returned: 7th May 2021
(Sem 2, week 7) (Sem 2, week 9)
Method of Virtual only Feedback delivery: Feedback Proforma
Submission
Weighting: 40% Other:
Individual or Group: Individual
Word Length 3,000 Other:
Total number of hours expected to be spent on assignment: 24

Assessment aims:
To increase your understanding of, and ability to critically assess, the potential roles of different
construction professionals in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) activities worldwide.

Task Description:
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) has been campaigning for cities
across the world to reduce risks and become resilient to disasters. The UNISDR’s "Making Cities
Resilient" addresses issues of local governance and urban risk while also drawing upon previous
UNISDR Campaigns such as those on safer schools and hospitals. As part of this work the UNISDR
is encouraging a wide range of stakeholders, and particularly construction professionals (i.e. civil and
structural engineers, urban planners and architects) to proactively integrate DRR into their everyday
practice. You are required to individually prepare a concise and clearly structured case study report
that will address the questions posed below about the roles, actual or potential, of a wide range of
construction professionals in DRR activities in your case study country. At the end of the lecture in
Week 2, each student will be allocated a case study country location from a pre-determined list of
countries; the countries will be allocated by picking a number out of a hat. The country that you are
allocated will provide the focus for your individual case study reports.

Assessment Criteria:

Your report will be marked for content (facts), interpretation and analysis, presentation, structure and
referencing. Your report should cite references within the text, and a full list of references cited within
the text should be provided at the end of the report (the introduction, contents page and list of
references are not included in your word count/page limitations). As a minimum, your case study
should include all the following sections:
1. Provide a clear contents page and brief introduction to your case study report.
2. Give a brief but informative overview of your case study country, including important details
about, for instance, geography (with maps), climate, urbanisation, demographics, economics etc.

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 School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
Assessment Brief
3. Describe what the key natural hazards and human induced threats are in your case study
country and provide some indication of whether these hazards/threats are historical or newly
emerging.
4. Provide two appropriate examples (one structural and one non-structural) of Disaster Risk
Reduction (DRR) related activities that have been, or are being, undertaken in your case study
location.
5. Critically examine the extent to which ‘construction professionals’ can positively contribute to
the DRR activities discussed above (in #4).
6. Explain what key frameworks/policies are in place locally or globally that could be utilised to
encourage civil engineers to proactively contribute to these activities; please highlight who the key
stakeholders are in these frameworks/policies. Provide a brief summary of the key messages
from your report at the end of this section/report.
Marks available for the case study report will be allocated (as shown below) based on the sections
shown above:
Section 1 3%
Section 2 10%
Section 3 12%
Section 4 20%
Section 5 30%
Section 6 15%
Presentation 5%
Referencing 5%

Submission Details:
Your individual assignment should be submitted as a hard copy through the CASPA system on the
morning of Monday 22nd March 2021. The total case study, including the title page and table of
contents should be no more than 3,000 words in length (the introduction, contents page and list of
references are not included in the word count restrictions). Supporting information (such as
photographs, maps, diagrams, plans and posters) may be included in appendices, which should be
no more than an additional 3 pages in length. Referencing should follow the Harvard style. The list of
references should state the date when web-based documents were accessed.

Additional Information:
1. Wide, in-depth reading (over and above your lecture notes) is required to satisfactorily address
the content of your report.
2. I will be available for any coursework-related queries after lectures in weeks, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.
Responses to general questions received by email will be posted on the CVC010 LEARN
discussion forum.
3. Contact: Dr Lee Bosher L.Bosher@Lboro.ac.uk; Room HH009 WEDC building.