联合国将灾害定义为对社会和社区功能的破坏，涉及许多损失和破坏性影响，以致受影响的社区和地区无法使用自己的资源来应对。在过去十年中，全球为减少灾害影响所做的努力未能跟上人们和资产日益增加的自然灾害和其他灾害风险，这正在产生新的风险，并且与灾害相关的损失稳步上升。为了扭转这一趋势，联合国成员国于2015年批准了《仙台减少灾害风险框架》。《仙台框架》呼吁采取更广泛，更以人为本的预防方法来减少灾害风险，其中包括社区，政府和私营部门，民间社会。各组织，学术界和研究机构共同努力，建立抵御能力并制定减少灾害风险的协作做
The United Nations defines a disaster as a disruption of social and community function, involving so many losses and destructive impacts that affected communities and regions are unable to cope using their own resources. Global efforts to reduce the impacts of disasters over the last decade have failed to keep up with growing exposure of people and assets to natural and other hazards, which is generating new risks and a steady rise in disaster-related losses. To reverse this trend, UN member nations ratified the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2015. The Sendai Framework calls for a broader, more people-centred, preventative approach to disaster risk reduction, in which communities, government and private sectors, civil society organisations, academia, and research institutions work together to build resilience and develop collaborative disaster risk reduction practices. This Professional Master's degree provides an introduction to this rapidly evolving interdisciplinary field.