Building Bridges on Rising Waters: Climate Change and International Disaster Management

Summary

The accelerating changes in the global climate are linked to a rise in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events and natural disasters, such as floods, droughts, and even earthquakes. These challenges transcend national borders, necessitating a re-evaluation of disaster risk management strategies. Considering this topic’s current relevance, this project seeks to establish a joint blended learning master seminar on disaster risk (reduction) management for students from different scientific disciplines (e.g. political science, geography, law, engineering, economics,…). By following an inverted classroom approach, the project offers a distinctive teaching format, combining lectures and presentations by experts and practitioners available online (asynchronous teaching) with regular online discussions and working sessions (synchronous teaching). Thereby, the project promotes not only an interdisciplinary learning approach but also fosters exchange and cooperation among participating international students and lecturers.

This project is made possible through seed funding from the EUPeace Fund, an initial incentive launched to cultivate and develop interest across EUPeace communities in our network; by providing a first format for collaboration, the Fund equips participating researchers, educators, students and administrators with a practical tool for experimentation and active participation, employing a bottom-up approach that generates concrete information on the interests and needs of our communities and informs future collaborative initiatives.

EUPeace Fund

Project Team

Justus Liebig University (JLU) | Germany
Cooperating departments: Center for International Development and Environmental Research (ZEU), Political Science, Sociology

Prof. Dr. Helmut Breitmeier (L2, L8) (main project coordinator)
Katrin Strobehn (L2, L8) (administrative project coordinator)
Prof. Dr. Sandra Schwindenhammer (L2, L8)

Philipps University Marburg (UMR) | Germany
Cooperating departments: Geography; Economics

Prof. Dr. Sören Becker (local project coordinator)
Prof. Dr. Teresa Dickler (L4)
Dr. Claudia Schwirplies (L7)
Prof. Dr. Björn Vollan (L7)
Prof. Dr. Peter Chifflard

University of Limoges (UNILIM) | France
Cooperating departments: Law and Economics; Water Engineering and Environment

Prof. Dr. Laetitia Lepetit (local project coordinator) (L6)
Alphonse Noah, PhD, Associate Professor (L1)
Dr. Ruth Tacneng, Associate Professor (L6)
Dr. Séverine Nadaud, Associate Professor
Prof. Dr. Laurent Billonnet
Dr. Virginie Pallier, Associate Professor

University of Calabria (UNICAL) | Italy
Cooperating departments: Environmental Engineering Department

Paolo Zimmaro, PhD, Associate Professor (local project coordinator) (L5)
Dr. Luca Furnari (L3)

Project Results

As a project result, an asynchronous lecture series was developed, comprising eight lectures by eleven lecturers from Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU), Philipps University Marburg (UMR), University of Limoges (UNILIM), and University of Calabria (UNICAL). The lecture combines insights from geography, economics, environmental engineering, political science and sociology. It is hosted by the Center for International Development and Environmental Research (ZEU). From October 2025 to March 2026, the lecture was offered for the first time at JLU Giessen. Students from the EUPeace network and JLU partner universities were able to register via the Virtual International Programme (VIP), the Virtual European Exchange Programme (VEEP) and the EUPeace European Track Certification Programme. In the winter term, 33 students from ten countries, namely Ghana, Turkey, France, Italy, Poland, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Peru, Greece and Germany, participated in the lecture. Three live events were offered to promote exchange among the students and address their questions. For each lecture, students have to answer at least three self-testing questions or play a simulation game to pass the unit. For the current summer term (April to September 2026), 59 students from Italy, Greece, Australia, Turkey, Poland, Brazil, China, Austria, Switzerland, France, Kosovo, Japan and Germany registered for the lecture. The charts below provide an overview of this semester’s scheduled lectures and their practical implementation on the “ILIAS” e-learning platform: