THE STATUS OF DISASTER EDUCATION IN THE UNIVERSITIES OF SRI LANKA. Rekha Nianthi Department of Geograohy University of Peradeniya Sri Lanka

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1 THE STATUS OF DISASTER EDUCATION IN THE UNIVERSITIES OF SRI LANKA Rekha Nianthi Department of Geograohy University of Peradeniya Sri Lanka

2 Disaster management related national/public education and awareness programs can be identified as follows 1. School education 2. University education 3. Training 4. Public awareness

3 Disaster Risk Management in University Education Initiative was taken to integrate NDM (Natural Disaster Management) in the Masters and Degree courses in Town Planning in the University of Moratuwa Integration in the Masters and Degree courses in Architecture and building economics of the Faculty of Architecture in the Moratuwa University Some integration courses of DMC in the Geography Departments in the University of Ruhuna and University of Sri Jayawardanapura Disscutions are going on to start the DM Post Graduate and Diploma in Colombo Unversity

4 The M.Sc Degree programe on Disaster Management conduct at the Postgraduate Institute of Science (PGIS), University of Peradeniya with the collaboration of many institutions and Universities in Australia, Thailand, and the Netherlands and USA Staff of the Department of Geology,Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Peradeniya also supported to this Master Degree program in Disaster Management

5 This M.Sc program has a duration of 18 months (12 months for course work and 6 months for research components) is started in September 2005 at Peradeniya University This program is principally intended for engineers, scientists, middle level government officials such as divisional secretaries, social service officers, police and military personnel who have experiences in managing disasters such (as floods, landslides, droughts, and tsunami)

6 A group of 30 students, currently following the M.Sc. / M.Sc Eng. Programmes in Disaster Management at the Postgraduate Institute of Science (PGIS) and Faculty of Engineering at University of Peradeniya is now in Italy following a part of their Masters Degree Programme. This is arranged under an MOU between Peradeniya University and a network of Italian Universities. The 3 month long academic programme will be conducted at the Polytechnic University of Marche at Ancona, Italy from 8th February to 12th May 2007 covering 192 hours of lectures, seminars and field visits on different aspects of disaster management.

7 HEDMTC: Health Emergency Disaster Management Training Centre: 2005: at the Medical Faculty of the University of Peradeniya and started some training programes for health sector Some DM related undergraduate courses are offering in the Faculty o Engineering, University of Peradeniya and Moratuwa PGIA (Post Graduate Institute of Agriculture) University of Peradeniya also offer some DM related courese: They conducts workshops for the school students too

8 Workshop on Landslides and their Prevention in Sri Lanka Students at the workshop on landslide prevention:january 24, 2007

9 Department of Geography University of Peradeniya MA/M.Phill. : Optional Course of Climate Change and Human Response is started since 2006 at the Department of Geography Proposal for the Disaster Management course is prepared for final year undergraduate students as a optional course in the Department of Geography, 2008, University of Peradeniya (already aproved by the Faculty board) and will forward to the ADPC (Academic Development Program Committee) in the University

10 Center for the environmental studies: Department of Geography: University of Peradeniya Center for the Environmental studies also offer some Diploma/Certificate course/training courses bsically besed on EIA course:include most of the Disaster management parts. Conducting EIA training programs, GIS and Remote sensing mapping There are lots of projects related to DM has been conducting in this Centre Future we will be able to introduce our ISDR DM two trainng moduels to this center

11 Disaster Management and GIS : Main site : The GIS research group at University of Colombo School of Computing is a small group working on the challenges of applying the current and emerging GIS technologies in the development of the local civil and administrative infrastructure Application of GIS in disaster management situations: GIS as an enabling technology in governance and citizen information access. They are in the process of constructing several publicly available services with geo-spatial information on Sri Lanka

12 Online map of Sri Lanka These include: Online route planner for the city of Colombo WMS (Web Map Server) service and WFS (Web Feature Server) service offering Sri Lankan spatial data Funding by a grant from the National Science Foundation, USA, through University of Maryland.

13 Colombo, 1 August :UNDP- A multi organization task force has been set up to put together an action plan for community based disaster management programmes. The Task Force is expected to further develop guidelines, training manual and action plan forfuture; share the action plan with all concerned and finalize it; and to develop mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation. Members of this task force include Sri Lanka Red Cross, Practical Action, Green Movement, Oxfam, Disaster Management Center, University of Sri Jayawardenapura, University of Moratuwa and the University of Ruhuna and UNDP.

14 National Disaser Management Plan : Sri Lanka Incorporating disaster management in to Universitites: Suggestions for future activities by Disaster Management Center : Review current activities related to DM in all universities Attention to integrate in all relevant courses as compulsory and optional Modules in all Universsities Such Integration will result in Students undertaking projcts, assingments and thesis DRM related themes

15 Further Recomandations: Encourage Degree, Masters and PhD students to select Disaster Risk Management related themes for dissertaions and carry out research in and publish research papers Promote conducting seminars and workshops for disseminating findings of such research among all professionals and disaster risk management stakeholders Outcomes of such studies which are of high quality may be published for wider use

16 Some major streams to be considered for compulsory modules in all Universities are : Science and Technology:Civil egineering, Engineering Geology, Geology, Environmental Engineering/ Science, Medicine, Biological Science, Physical Science, Agriculture Social Science: Geography and others, Aesthetic studies,sociology,languages, Health and Physical Education etc. Activities beyond 5 years in Universities educational curricula (Graduate and post Graduate): Road Map proposal

17 Thank You!

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