Climate Hazards and Disaster Mitigation

By Prof. Priyank J. Sharma | IIT Indore

Learners enrolled: 3606 | Exam registration: 165

ABOUT THE COURSE:

This course provides an overview of climate hazards: precipitation-related hazards like floods and droughts, and temperature-related hazards like heat waves and cold waves. The course focuses on advanced statistical techniques for modelling risks due to individual extremes like flood, drought, heat waves, cold waves and their compound effects using Copula. The course also discusses the regional impacts of these hazards through conceptual knowledge and real-world case studies to devise disaster mitigation strategies to counter them. As climate hazards intensify and become more frequent, it is crucial for researchers, professionals, and students alike to comprehend not just science but also the practical strategies of mitigation and response. This course offers a balanced mix of theory, hands-on learning, and real-world case studies across a range of climate hazards.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Anyone with the level of P.G. and Ph.D. can take this course.

INDUSTRY SUPPORT:

NDMA (National Disaster Management Authority)

SDMAs (State Disaster Management Authorities)

NIDM (National Institute of Disaster Management)

CWC (Central Water Commission)

Summary

Course Status :	Upcoming
Course Type :	Elective
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	12 weeks
Category :	Civil Engineering Earth Sciences Energy, Climate and Sustainability Environment
Credit Points :	3
Level :	Postgraduate
Start Date :	19 Jan 2026
End Date :	10 Apr 2026
Enrollment Ends :	02 Feb 2026
Exam Registration Ends :	13 Feb 2026
Exam Date :	24 Apr 2026 IST
NCrF Level	4.5 — 8.0

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

Module 1: Introduction to Climate Hazards & Vulnerability

Week-1
Lecture-1: Introduction to climate hazards and disasters

Lecture-2: Climate change and vulnerability of India

Lecture-3: Hazard versus disaster and Risk versus vulnerability

Lecture-4: Summary: Climate hazards, disasters and vulnerability

Lecture-5: Learning Exercise: Mapping climate vulnerability profile

Week-2
Lecture-6: Hydroclimatic measurements and data

Lecture-7: Extreme rainfall and temperature indices

Lecture-8: Geospatial data analysis for disaster mitigation

Lecture-9: Summary: Hydroclimatic and geospatial data processing

Lecture-10: Hands-on: Downloading and processing gridded rainfall and temperature data

Module 2: Modelling Flood Hazards

Week-3
Lecture-11: Floods: Types, characteristics, causes and drivers

Lecture-12: Deriving flood characteristics & frequency analysis

Lecture-13: Trend analysis of flood characteristics

Lecture-14: Summary: Statistical techniques for flood assessment

Lecture-15: Hands-on: Flood frequency and trend analysis

Week-4
Lecture-16: Flood frequency analysis: Distribution fitting

Lecture-17: Compound and concurrent floods

Lecture-18: Bivariate flood frequency analysis using copula

Lecture-19: Summary: Univariate and bivariate flood frequency analysis

Lecture-20: Hands-on: Flood frequency analysis - Univariate and Bivariate

Week-5
Lecture-21: Urban flood modelling

Lecture-22: Flood hazard and risk mapping

Lecture-23: Flood mitigation and nature-based solutions

Lecture-24: Summary: Flood risk assessment and mitigation

Lecture-25: Hands-on: Urban flood risk assessment

Module 3: Drought Estimation & Mitigation

Week-6
Lecture-26: Droughts: Types, characteristics, causes and drivers

Lecture-27: Estimation of drought indices

Lecture-28: Assessment of drought characteristics

Lecture-29: Summary: Drought estimation and assessment

Lecture-30: Hands-on: Assessment of drought characteristics

Week-7
Lecture-31: Drought severity and frequency analysis

Lecture-32: Drought propagation and transition

Lecture-33: Drought mitigation and nature-based solutions

Lecture-34: Summary: Drought severity and mitigation

Lecture-35: Hands-on: Drought propagation and transition

Module 4: Heat Waves, Cold Waves and Compound Extremes

Week-8
Lecture-36: Heat waves: Causes and drivers

Lecture-37: Estimation of heat stress

Lecture-38: Urban heat island

Lecture-39: Summary: Heat waves and heat stress

Lecture-40: Hands-on: Assessment of heat wave and stress

Week-9
Lecture-41: Cold waves: Causes and drivers

Lecture-42: Compound climate extremes

Lecture-43: Heat and cold wave mitigation approaches

Lecture-44: Summary: Compound climate extremes

Lecture-45: Hands-on: Assessment of compound climate extremes

Module 5: Disaster Mitigation Framework & Approaches

Week-10
Lecture-46: Science meets policy and disaster mitigation

Lecture-47: Disaster risk reduction and economics of disasters

Lecture-48: Emergency and humanitarian response in disasters

Lecture-49: Summary: Disaster management and risk reduction

Lecture-50: Learning Exercise: Formulating a heat action plan

Week-11
Lecture-51: Study of disaster management frameworks

Lecture-52: The Disaster Management Act 2005 (India): Overview

Lecture-53: The Disaster Management Act 2005 (India): Key Aspects

Lecture-54: The Disaster Management Act 2005 (India): Way forward

Lecture-55: Learning Exercise: Formulating a flood emergency action plan

Module 6: Emerging Areas & Future Directions

Week-12
Lecture-56: Role of big data in climate hazards and disaster modelling

Lecture-57: Role of climate change in modulating future occurrences of climate hazards

Lecture-58: Accounting non-stationarity in modelling climate hazards

Lecture-59: Course Summary: Climate hazards and risk assessment

Lecture-60: Course Summary: Disaster mitigation and management

Books and references

Quevauviller, P. (Eds.).: Hydrometeorologicalhazards - Interfacing science and policy. John Wiley and Sons: Sussex: 2014: ISBN 978-1-118-62957-4.
Manish Kumar Goyal, Anil Kumar Gupta, Akhilesh Gupta,Hydro-Meteorological Extremes and Disasters,Springer,October 2022, Pages 1-300,- ISBN: 978-981-19-0725-8
Simonović, S. P.: Floods in a changing climate - Risk management: Cambridge University Press: New York: 2012: ISBN 9781139088404.
Şen, Z.: Applied drought modeling, prediction, and mitigation: Elsevier: Netherlands: 2012: ISBN 978- 0-12-802176-7.
NIDM: Mapping climatic and biological disasters in India: National Institute of Disaster Management: New Delhi: 2021: ISBN: 978-81-955009-1-8.

Instructor bio

Prof. Priyank J. Sharma

IIT Indore

Dr. Priyank J. Sharma is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Indore since November 2021. Previously, he served as an Assistant Professor at the Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh. He was a Postdoctoral Scholar at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, USA. He completed his Ph.D. and M. Tech. in Water Resources Engineering from Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT) Surat. He also worked as an Assistant Manager at Essar Projects (India) Limited for two years. He co-authored the 6th Edition of the book ‘Engineering Hydrology’ by K. Subramanya, published by McGraw Hill, and worked as the Editor of two book volumes titled ‘Hydrology and Hydrologic Modelling’ and ‘Climate Change Impact on Water Resources’, published by Springer. In addition, he has authored eighty-five research publications till date, including twenty-seven articles in peer-reviewed journals of repute and eleven book chapters. He has received several awards and accolades for his academic and research performance, the prominent being ‘Prof. U. C. Kothyari Best PhD Thesis Award 2020’ and ‘G. M. Nawathe Best Paper Award 2018’ from the Indian Society for Hydraulics, ‘INSPIRE Fellowship’ by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, and ‘Institute Gold Medal’ during M. Tech. program at SVNIT Surat. His research interests are statistical hydroclimatology, climate extremes, climate change, hydroinformatics, and streamflow modelling.

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.

The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).

Date and Time of Exams: April 24, 2026 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.

Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.

The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.

Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 8 assignments out of the total 12 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

Please note that assignments encompass all types (including quizzes, programming tasks, and essay submissions) available in the specific week.

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT Indore. It will be e-verifiable at nptel.ac.in/noc.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- NPTEL team

SWAYAM Helpline / Support