# Advancing Environmental Hazard Resilience through
Transdisciplinary Education

Dennis Fox, Lucie Porcherie, Manon Le Gourrierec, Frédéric Grognard,
Marie-Yasmine Dechraoui Bottein

► To cite this version:

Dennis Fox, Lucie Porcherie, Manon Le Gourrierec, Frédéric Grognard, Marie-Yasmine Dechraoui Bottein. Advancing Environmental Hazard Resilience through Transdisciplinary Education. Les Cahiers Espace, Environnement, Risques et Résilience, 2025, 3. hal-05354427

HAL Id: hal-05354427

https://hal.science/hal-05354427v1

Submitted on 7 Nov 2025

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Advancing Environmental Hazard Resilience through Transdisciplinary
Education

Dennis Fox<fnref n="1" />, Lucie Porcherie<fnref n="2" />, Manon Le Gourrierec<fnref n="2" />, Frédéric Grognard<fnref n="3" />, Marie-Yasmine Dechraoui Bottein<fnref n="4" />

Reçu le 17 octobre 2025, publié en novembre 2025

Environmental hazards and disaster events now appear regularly in global news, occurring in all regions of the world. Disasters are estimated to have caused nearly 100,000 deaths<fnref n="1" /> and around 500 billion US dollars in economic losses<fnref n="2" /> in 2023 alone. These figures do not account for the millions of people injured, displaced, or otherwise affected.

Beyond their human impact, these extreme events are placing additional pressure on already severely degraded ecosystems, leading to further habitat destruction, species loss, and reduced ecological resilience. The wildfires that devastated Australia in 2019–2020, for example, are thought to have killed over three billion animals<fnref n="3" />. This occurred in a context where ecosystems were already destabilized by invasive species. Similarly, the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss is expected to further increase the frequency and intensity of environmental hazards. Land use, including agricultural expansion, urbanization, deforestation, is a major driver of this crisis that is often overlooked. It took tens of thousands of years for the human population to reach one billion people around 1800, and only two more centuries to reach over eight billion today<fnref n="4" />. This demographic surge has led to major land transformations, and in just sixty years, roughly one-third of the Earth’s surface has been significantly altered<fnref n="5" />. More than 2.5 billion additional people are expected to live in urban areas by 2050⁶. As land-use pressures intensify, resilient land-use planning is becoming increasingly essential.

Environmental hazards are thus inherently complex, driven by multiple interacting factors and resulting in wide-ranging impacts on socio-environmental systems. As such, effective disaster risk management requires integrated, multidisciplinary, and evidence-based approaches. The IPCC's Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (2012) introduced a comprehensive risk framework that defines disaster risk as the outcome of the interaction between three key components: hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. Understanding and addressing each of these dimensions is essential

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<footnote n="1">¹ Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, ESPACE, France</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Université Côte d'Azur, IDEX, France</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Centre INRIA of Université côte d'Azur, France</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, ECOSEAS, France</footnote>

<footnote n="1">¹ https://ourworldindata.org/natural-disasters</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² https://www.statista.com/statistics/612561/natural-disaster-losses-cost-worldwide-by-type-of-loss/</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ https://wwf.org.au/news/2020/3-billion-animals-impacted-by-australia-bushfire-crisis/</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-by-year/</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22702-2</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, 2019. World Urbanization Prospects The 2018 Revision.</footnote>
for developing effective strategies to reduce risks and enhance resilience in the face of increasingly frequent and intense extreme events.

Within this framework, education, and particularly higher education, is essential. Effectively managing environmental hazards and disaster risks requires comprehensive, transdisciplinary training that integrates scientific knowledge, technical expertise, and systems thinking. Universities can play a critical role in training future professionals in environmental risk management, as well as researchers capable of developing innovative models to better understand, predict, and reduce risks.

One recent initiative is the Master of Science in Environmental Hazards and Risks Management, developed by the Academy of Space, Environment, Risks and Resilience at Université Côte d'Azur (Nice, France), within the framework of IdEx (Initiative of Excellence). The degree is designed to prepare students to understand and manage a wide range of environmental risks in the context of rapid global change.

The program adopts a deliberately broad scope. It covers natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, wildfires, harmful algal blooms, landslides, and also land-use related processes. These are taught alongside cross-cutting topics such as climate change and crisis management, as well as early warning systems, in order to provide a more integrated understanding of the challenges for multi-hazard risk management. Teaching is organized around intensive modules: after an initial semester for general orientation, each hazard is studied in focused four-to-five-week blocks. Project-based learning and group work are central to the pedagogical approach.

In addition to real-world field examples, the use of digital tools is also a key element. Students are trained in GIS, remote sensing, and programming (in Python and R). With the growing availability of spatial and environmental data, the challenge is increasingly how to manage and interpret large datasets. For instance, the National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information's BD-TOPO database digitizes information on more than 50 million buildings in France. Climate datasets recently made public by Météo France include over two million hourly data points for a single department over a ten-year period. Due to sustained public investment, France now has one of the most advanced geospatial data infrastructures in the world.

The MSc RISKS program began its seventh academic year in September 2025. Entirely taught in English, it has welcomed students from thirty different countries from all continents. This international environment adds a valuable dimension to the learning experience, particularly for students discovering France for the first time. The location in the PACA-SUD region of southeastern France is also relevant: the area presents a unique concentration of environmental risks in a relatively small territory, providing opportunities for field-based teaching and research.

Graduates of the program move into careers in environmental consulting, risk analysis, GIS and remote sensing, working for private firms, local governments, and NGOs. Others continue with doctoral research, sometimes within the university's own research units. Such professionals are likely to play an increasingly important role in anticipating, analyzing, and responding to complex risk processes in both human and ecological systems.

By equipping the next generation with the tools and knowledge to reduce exposure and vulnerability and implement evidence-based decision-making at all levels, University Côte d'Azur is supporting the development of more resilient and sustainable socio-ecological systems.

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Master of Science

ENVIRONMENTAL
HAZARDS AND RISKS
MANAGEMENT

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