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ES5001/7001 (2022): Natural Hazards and Society (3AU)

Course Description:
This course examines the natural and human dimensions of hazards such as
earthquakes, eruptions, tsunamis, tropical storms, floods, landslides, and soil
erosion. Course work focuses on the causes and key features of major natural
hazards -- such as earthquakes, volcanos, climate change and sea-level rise.
Moreover, students will be exposed to the assessment of risks posed to society
and science and information based sustainable adaptation.

Learning Outcomes
After completing this course you should be able to:
• Describe many natural hazards and explain why, when and where they occur.
• Describe the effects of natural hazards on human lives and communities.
• Demonstrate a basic comprehension of how humans have adapted to and
mitigated these hazards and the consequences of those actions.

Content
In this course we will examine a wide range of natural hazards, including earthquakes,
tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, tropical storms, floods, landslides, climate change, and
sea-level change. We will examine their causes as well as their spatial and temporal
distribution. In some cases, the impact of human activities to natural process is also
introduced and discussed. After the class, you will learn about the assessment of
hazards posed to society and possibilities for sustainable adaption.

Assessment
Assessed with in-class quizzes, participation and essay:

Quizzes and participation (35% + 15%):

A 15 to 20 minutes quiz during most 3-hour-long class sessions will test your
understanding of the previous week’s lectures and of the video lecture (if available) for
the current week. This will be 35% of your total grade. Your percentage of correct
answers will be recorded as your score for that quiz. The first quiz that will be counted
in assessment will be in week 3, since not all will have registered for the class until
then. The quiz in week 2 is a test.

Participation is determined by the number of clicker questions that you answer

throughout the class period, not including the quiz. The number of questions you
answer relative to the total number will be used for assessment. This will be worth 15%
of your grade. Your grade for participation depends solely on showing up and
participating (not on having the correct answer); the only way to lose these points is to
not be there.

If you have difficulty to use your smart phone or laptop for clicker and quiz, you will be
allowed to complete the clicker questions and quiz question on paper, sitting in the
front row if we are allowed to have physical classes. However, your score for that quiz
will be reduced by 10%.

Final exam (50%):

100 multiple-choice questions (closed book).

Course honor policy:

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Any work that you submit must be your own. Your classmates and professors are
relying on you to make this a fair, fun, and educational experience. The policy applies
quizzes, and clicker participation. Evidence of cheating will lead to the removal of all
points that could have been achieved during the session or exam in which you cheated.

Lectures:
Class time will occur in three 45 to 50-minute sessions each Wednesday from 9:30am
to 12:20pm in LT19. The first and third sessions in class consist primarily of lecture,
with supporting short demos where appropriate. Quiz is arranged at the beginning of
the second session. This session is also typically more interactive with a clicker quiz
and more extensive demos and sometimes with additional lectures. Please ensure you
can use Wooclap properly on your smart phone or laptop.

Textbook and resources:

We require no textbook reading for the class. However, the supplementary reading
may help clarify some of the concepts that we cover in lecture and class.

We suggest that you read “Natural Hazards and Disasters”, by Hyndman and
Hyndman, 5th edition. Six copies on reserve on the 3 rd floor of the Lee Wee Nam
Library.

Many of the lectures will have supplementary information available in the form of video
lectures recorded on the same subject in previous years. These will be available on
NTULearn.

The class is taught by:

Asst. Prof. Shengji WEI (shjwei@ntu.edu.sg), N2-01a-08

Teaching assistants:
Yu Shidong, Win Shwe Sin Oo, and Alina Bill-Weilandt

Please use the ES5001 course email address for all matters pertaining to the course:
ES8001@ntu.edu.sg. TAs will answer questions from this email, professor will step in
when necessary. We will have a TEAM session for you to ask questions so that all
students will be able to see the answers from TAs and professors.

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Course Syllabus

Week 1 (August 10) Setting the stage

Lecture 1 Some practical matters regarding this course
Lecture 2-3 Natural hazards, the overview of the class

Week 2 (August 17) Plate Tectonics and Earthquakes

Video lecture 1 Earthquake landscapes
Lecture 5 The plate-tectonic and hazards
Tutorial session 1 Quiz
Lecture 6 Earthquakes and their causes

Week 3 (August 24) Earthquakes and tsunamis

Video lecture 2 Earthquake forecasting and adaptation
Lecture 8 Earthquake hazard
Tutorial session 2 Quiz
Lecture 9 Tsunamis-1

Week 4 (August 31) Volcano’s and volcanic hazards

Video lecture 3 Volcanic landscapes
Lecture 11 Tsunamis-2
Tutorial session 3 Quiz
Lecture 12 Volcanic architecture and magmas

Week 5 (September 7) Volcano’s and volcanic hazards

Lecture 13 Volcanic hazards I
Tutorial session 4 Quiz
Lecture 14 Volcanic hazards II

Week 6 (September 14) Mass Wasting/Landslides Hazards

Lecture 15 Mass Wasting
Tutorial session 4 Quiz
Lecture 16 Landslides Hazards

Week 7 (September 21) River Hazards

Lecture 17 River systems and floodplain hazards
Tutorial session 5 Quiz
Lecture 18 Fluvial floods

Week 8 (September 28) Recess Week - no class

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Week 9 (October 5) Deltas & Urban Floods

Lecture 19 Delta hazards, flooding and urbanization - I
Tutorial session 6 Quiz
Lecture 20 Flooding and urbanization - II

Week 10 (October 12) Cyclones and storms

Lecture 21 Cyclones
Tutorial session 6 Quiz and feedback session
Lecture 22 Cloud formation, storms, tornadoes, and lightning

Week 11 (October 19) Climate Change-I

Lecture 23 Climate System Climate System
Tutorial session 7 Quiz
Lecture 24 Climate change over the past million years

Week 12 (October 26) Climate Change-II

Lecture 25 Climate change over the past thousand years and the
Anthropocene and future climate change
Tutorial session 8 Quiz
Lecture 26 Wildfire and haze

Week 13 (November 2) Other Human-induced Natural Hazards and

Modern Monitoring
Lecture 27 Induced seismicity and Tohoku-Oki Earthquake
Tutorial session 10 Quiz
Lecture 28 Space Weather, Asteroid and Comet Impacts

Week 14 (November 9) Review session

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