The Importance of Compiling an Urban Design Disaster Management Curriculum

Located in a seismic zone, Iran has been faced with a number of catastrophic earthquakes and floods, resulting in destruction and many fatalities. Considering the increasing number of post-graduate courses in the country, the importance of conducting comparative disaster related studies is essential. This paper reviews the curricula of disaster management courses in various universities, including online, certificate, diploma, bachelor, master and Ph.D. levels. The main focus is to leverage current programs in order to develop similar courses within Iranian universities. Research methodology is based on web data and information collection. More than 360 disaster management courses have been reviewed from five continents including North America (165), Europe (113), Asia (52), Africa (20) and Australia and Pacific Occasions (10). A comparative study of the curricula for these courses was also undertaken, as regards both their frequency and thematic matter. The results show that despite the diversity of approaches to disaster management in higher education, human settlement crisis management is a relatively new subject in schools of architecture and urban designs. Furthermore, while post-disaster reconstruction is usually taught as part of courses on disaster management, the current master post-disaster reconstruction course that delivered at the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University is probably unique in terms of its focus.