UH Mānoa provides a logical location for an Asia Pacific disaster risk reduction research and institutional capacity-building program. The program responds to the compelling need to improve hazard and disaster mitigation and response in the face of increasingly frequent and severe disaster events. The Asia Pacific region suffers the greatest impact of disaster events worldwide, and Hawaiʻi shares many of these same vulnerabilities. By interacting with hazard and disaster researchers at UH Mānoa and Hawaiʻi’s existing dynamic community of disaster management organizations, students learn how to help build disaster resilient communities.
The Graduate Certificate Program in DMHA is housed in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and is open to all graduate students. Our interdisciplinary students come from the physical and natural sciences, engineering, geography, public administration, social work, political science, and other disciplines. Some are pursuing professional degrees in law, medicine, architecture, or public health. Our students tend to be highly motivated to apply their respective disciplinary backgrounds to the problems of reducing the impacts of disaster on people and communities.
Graduate students are required to take at least three of the DMHA core courses for a base of nine units. Additional six units are selected with advisement from courses related to hazards and disaster management and response. A one unit capstone completes the requirement. Many departments offer courses which can complement the core course sequence in a coherent, rigorous, and pedagogically valid way. Contact the program director or program coordinator for more information.
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