Modelling, prevention and mitigation of natural hazard-triggered technological (Natech) accidents

This inter-disciplinary course will address the complex dynamics of natural disaster effects on industrial facilities and other infrastructures. Representative examples can be found in the explosions at a chemical plant following Hurricane Harvey in Texas (2017) or the Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident following the 2011 tsunami. The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme hydrometeorological events due to climate change, along with the excessive urbanisation and the progressive expansion of critical facilities for our production and energy distribution systems call for ad-hoc management of the risk from Natech events (i.e., NAtural hazard-triggered TECHnological accidents). For this reason, the course offers an overview on modelling such scenarios and what are the measures to prevent and mitigate their effects. The main themes of this course include safety, risk management, climate change and energy distribution.

Knowledge: The students will get a thorough insight on the research developments in the field of Natech risk management. The students will also be able to recognize the state-of-the-art research activities in the field, and identify relevant research opportunities around their own topics.

Skills: The students shall be able to utilize models, methods and tools introduced and shared in this course into their own research.

General compevelop and impact an industry and their surrounding environment, as well as identify and propose suitatence: The students shall be able to understand the mechanisms of how Natech events can deble measures to minimise accident risk for the exposed technological systems. The students will have the opportunity also to learn how to write a draft for a scientific paper to an international conference or journal and structure a research presentation.

The course will be conducted as a series of 1-day seminars. The first seminar lecture will be given primarily by the course coordinator and invited lecturers, while the other seminars will include topics presented by the participants.

If there are less than 3 registered students, the course coordinator will decide whether the course will take place.