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Mitigation Curriculum Development

This effort was initially aimed at summarizing the state-of-the-art of mitigation planning curricula and developing a work plan for developing an introductory mitigation course for inclusion in graduate-level planning programs. Meeting with FEMA personnel in late February, it was determined that the first phase of the effort should focus more on determining how those graduate schools with mitigation planning courses developed and integrated them into their curricula and why those schools without such courses do not have them. The goal will be to provide FEMA with recommendations concerning strategies that could be implemented to stimulate the integration of hazard mitigation courses into graduate planning programs across the nation.

Under the chairmanship of Ann-Margaret Esnard of Cornell University, a committee of academic experts has been appointed to oversee this effort. The committee members are: Timothy Beatley of the University of Virginia; Robert Deyle of Florida State University, David Godschalk of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Robert Olshansky of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. During the summer, a list of the nation’s accredited planning graduate schools was compiled and a series of questions drafted. In late August, the faculty member responsible for the graduate planning program at 89 universities was contacted via e-mail and asked to respond to a series of questions (either via e-mail or as posted on the MMC website). Essentially, a respondent’s response to one question – whether or not the respondent’s planning program includes courses or modules that treat natural hazard mitigation – dictates which set of additional questions are posed.

To date, information has been provided by the following universities: Appalachian State University, Columbia University, Cornell University, East Carolina University, Florida State University, California Polytechnic State University, the George Washington University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Iowa State University, Jackson State University, Kansas State University, Ohio State University, Portland State University, State University of New York, Texas A&M University, University of Akron, University of Arizona, University of California, University of Cincinnati, University of Colorado, University of Hawaii, University of Illinois, University of Iowa, University of Kansas, University of Louisville, University of Maryland, University of Nebraska, University of North Carolina, University of Oregon, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Wisconsin. A summary of the information obtained was sent to the committee to determine whether additional information needs to be assembled before summarizing the trends indicated and formulating strategies for stimulating increased attention to hazard mitigation in graduate planning curricula. The group has drawn several preliminary conclusions and a final report on this phase of the effort will be delivered to FEMA in autumn 2002.