Environmental Hazards and Risk

Course details
Our MA in Environmental Hazards and Risk takes a detailed look at a range of environmental hazards bringing devastation to many parts of the world, analysing the impact on society and studying how risks linked to events such as flooding, landslides, heatwaves and earthquakes, are managed.
Teaching physical and social science approaches, the course examines how society, as individuals, organisations and governments, makes decisions about defining and mitigating against environmental risk in order to address vulnerability and build resilience.
Teaching physical and social science approaches, the course examines how society, as individuals, organisations and governments, makes decisions about defining and mitigating against environmental risk in order to address vulnerability and build resilience.

Why Durham University?
The Department of Geography is a global academic centre for the study of physical and human geography. Our high-quality research and our industry connections combine to create a learning experience underpinned by the theory and practice to take on the challenges we face as a result of natural events and human activity.
We provide a leading-edge environment in which to study, giving a learning experience that is tailored to suit particular interests. We offer MA and MSc degrees in Climate, Risk and Society and in Environmental Hazards and Risk, and an interdisciplinary MA degree in Risk, Security and Politics.
Our academic staff are experts in their field with research activity in the Department divided into seven clusters comprising Politics-State-Space, Economy and Culture, Urban Worlds, Geographies of Life as well as Sea Level, Ice and Climate, Catchments and Rivers, and Hazards and Surface Change.
Thanks to our close links with the renowned Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience (IHRR) whose home is at the University, you will learn about current thinking and practice in environmental hazards from world-renowned experts in the field. The IHRR organises annual seminars bringing cutting-edge research and practice directly to our students.

Facilities
Facilities are state-of-the-art after a £1.7 million investment and our laboratories are equipped with an extensive suite of analytical and geotechnical instruments which are overseen and supported by a team of dedicated technical staff.
Also available to postgraduates are a dedicated computer lab, world class library and research facilities, one of the few dedicated cartographic units in the region and field and labwork support.

Career Opportunities
Studying in a department with a global reputation for the quality of research, our postgraduates are well placed to continue research at a higher level or progress into a rewarding professional career.
Taught courses are designed to develop the transferable skills that are highly sought after by employers such as the ability to analyse and communicate complex data and make decisions, and our postgraduates are much valued in areas such as government, non-governmental organisations and the charity sector.
Other roles in which postgraduates make a real difference to people and communities include environmental consultancy, conservation, town planning, geopolitical risk analysis, market research, insurance, development work, health, public policy, social research, logistics, education, energy, utilities, tourism, banking, law, PR, IT.